Updated/edited my rough draft, it's over 2,000 words now. That's twice what I thought it was going to be when I set out to write it, and it's probably going to be a bit longer. The updated rough draft is in my blog, if anyone wants to read and comment.

At 6/3/09 12:21 AM, Luxury-Yacht wrote:

At 6/3/09 12:13 AM, Gagsy wrote:

At 6/2/09 06:34 PM, Twilight wrote:

Kids can be on islands too you know >;(

Ever read "The Cay"? Just a black man and a little boy on an island.

I hated that book. Had to read in 8th grade. Terrible crap.

At 6/4/09 11:47 AM, camobch0 wrote:

At 6/3/09 12:21 AM, Luxury-Yacht wrote:

At 6/3/09 12:13 AM, Gagsy wrote:

At 6/2/09 06:34 PM, Twilight wrote:

Kids can be on islands too you know >;(

Ever read "The Cay"? Just a black man and a little boy on an island.

I hated that book. Had to read in 8th grade. Terrible crap.

I didn't mind it too much. Most middle school reading was so bad, it made The Cay look good.

Lord of the Flies, however, has got to be my favorite Island-based book ever, and I read it in 9th grade. In fact, my story is similar to that book in a few aspects.

This seems like a subject that's right up my alley. I've already got a clever enough idea so there's about a sixty five percent chance that I'll start, finish, and submit a story.

I'm actually writing something. :O

Also, Zerok, I'm still in to record a story that wins. I haven't done much with the other ones yet because I've been loaded down with school work. I am still in, though.

Hey, I'm new at the writing contests here. If my piece is longer than the character limit on the Post Reply box, (say, 2034 words) do I post it as two Posts?
I thought that's what happens, but I wanted to make sure.

I hope my entry isn't going against the rules.

Can anyone tell me if it is?

:(

At 6/4/09 11:22 PM, DoctorJaevel wrote: Hey, I'm new at the writing contests here. If my piece is longer than the character limit on the Post Reply box, (say, 2034 words) do I post it as two Posts?
I thought that's what happens, but I wanted to make sure.

Yeah, just make sure your entry is paragraphed appropriately, using double spacing preferably. Then you can simply divide your entry into two parts, or however many parts are needed, and post them after each other. It will still count as one entry for you.

Nevermind, I give up. It kinda sucks.

At 6/5/09 10:59 AM, luigipwnsmario wrote: Nevermind, I give up. It kinda sucks.

bahah i predicted whatever you'd make would be terrible.

Well, whatever it is, continue it. There's always people to help you...

QUESTION:

I know plagiarizing is obviously a no-no, that's not what I'm asking about here. What I'm wondering is if submissions will get passed over for using a writing STYLE used in other books. I.E. the interviewer/interviewee style in World War Z...

At 6/5/09 02:48 PM, RuaryVash wrote: QUESTION:

I know plagiarizing is obviously a no-no, that's not what I'm asking about here. What I'm wondering is if submissions will get passed over for using a writing STYLE used in other books. I.E. the interviewer/interviewee style in World War Z...

Using another writer's style or form to influence your own submission is fine by me, and I wouldn't have thought there would be any major qualms with that. Whether it's effective is something else, but as far as I know, it shouldn't have any problem with the rules. I remember someone in the last contest was asking if it was okay to write an entry that took influence from Catcher In The Rye to make its main character, and that was fine.

If Zerok or another one of the judges has something different to say, they can correct me, but I figure right now that it's absolutely okay. In fact, had you not pointed it out, I would've just looked through the entry and just noted that that's the style you decided to use!

Does it have to be about ESCAPING an island? 'Cause I wanna do one about an island, I just don't want to get into the escape.

Decided to enter in this one as well, I have an interesting idea for this one, about 2000 words in so far then I realized...

My story is about an island and a majority does take place on an island, but it doesnt START on the island. Does it have to?

Thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately I have a new problem, I am at 4700 words. Time to cut some things out :(

Working on my story which is going to fall mostly under the comedy banner. I'm probably going to run down the deadline ironing this out as I steadfastly believe that good humor is much more challenging to write than drama. In drama there's room to be a little off with your delivery and still tell a decent story. When you're writing comedic fiction it's all or nothing, you either hit a bullseye or you fail. Plus, it's not like writing a joke on the BBS where your reader is already in a relaxed conversation mode, you have to generate that willing to laugh mentality in your reader. Even with the novels that I've found the funniest it usually takes me few chapters to become familiar with the characters and writing style to the point where I'm actually laughing. So my personal challenge with this contest is to be genuinely funny within a very limited amount of space.

Ok, for any who are interested, I have my uncut version/Rough Draft of what I am calling "Honeymoon" for now on my user page if you wish to read it and comment on it. Any suggestions or compliments are highly appreciated!

Well, I managed to do a rough copy of Clouds In The Sky (which I finished shortly after a ban was handed out to me (fuck you)) which I'm now currently trying to either decide to either edit that and make it seem better (even though I mostly dislike Clouds In The Sky) or to work on a new story and use that (which I have day-dreamed a few ideas so far).

At 6/6/09 08:15 PM, Fyndir wrote: I just wanted to bump this to lessen the number of "aww, I would have taken part but I didn't know about it" posts after the contest ends.

They're inevitable.

Ok, I have a clear idea for what I'm gonna do for the contest, but then the more I thought about it, the more I added on to the story, so now it looks like it'll have sequels and things. I'm only submitting the first part since it's the one that takes place on the island. But yeah, anyway, I posted the prologue on my page, if anyone wants to read it. It's not the actual story, I'm still working on that.

My crappy submission is up there; what'd ya guys think?

Oh shit, just saw I said "waste" instead of "waist" >.<

Restarted, yay!

This is my story so far. Any comment would be appreciated.

I was going to submit my finished product over the weekend, but 2 things stopped me.

1) I went to a party Thursday night and woke up with the worst hangover I've ever experienced. I was aching until 5 P.M., and I threw up at noon from the headache. I still felt shitty for a couple days afterwards.

2) My sister bought Silent Hill 3, and she pretty much needs me in the room when she's playing it, otherwise she's too scared to do so. I don't mind though, since it's a pretty sweet game, and I decided to start a file of my own, but unfortunately, it's eating up a good chunk of my time.

I'll finish my story eventually, since there's plenty of time until the end of the month. I'd also appreciate some more feedback in my blog, if anyone is bored enough to do so.

Wow, I just noticed my specific characters for the names of the Hawaiian islands messed up and appeared all like "%20BB" lol. That sucks..

At 6/6/09 08:20 PM, gamerpeepinpa wrote: Ok, I have a clear idea for what I'm gonna do for the contest, but then the more I thought about it, the more I added on to the story, so now it looks like it'll have sequels and things. I'm only submitting the first part since it's the one that takes place on the island. But yeah, anyway, I posted the prologue on my page, if anyone wants to read it. It's not the actual story, I'm still working on that.

Just keep in mind, you still want to have a definite beginning, middle and end for the contest. Someone in last month's contest did what you are going to do but was marked down because the story didnt have a conclusion, because it was multiple parts. Just an FYI.

At 6/8/09 05:44 PM, CaptAcid wrote: Just keep in mind, you still want to have a definite beginning, middle and end for the contest. Someone in last month's contest did what you are going to do but was marked down because the story didnt have a conclusion, because it was multiple parts. Just an FYI.

Yeah, I'm probably gonna edit it a bit just for this contest so that it can stand on its own.

Is it me, or should the submissions thread be opened later on in the contest? I've already seen a couple of submissions and according to my superiority complex, they weren't very good. I mean, it's only been eight days into the competition, at least spend some time editing. Add some substance, put some thought into it. I know this competition is meant to be fun, but if you finished your submission over the course of an hour or so, chances are you're only creating more work for the judges to later discard. In a competition, the purpose is to win. If you submit something with blatant knowledge that you know you're not going to win, then you're wasting everyones time. I hate to do this but a good example is the submission that is one block of text. It's not very long so in the long run it won't really cause too much headache, but imagine a block of text 4 posts long.

Anyways, rant aside I think it'd be more encouraging for editing and proof-reading if people couldn't just submit their stuff straight away. I'll probably be completely done by day 16, but I'm not posting it until at least the end of the third week. This buffer will give me enough time to re-read and edit and still leave time to possibly get some community feedback.