500 Word Challenge (for EVERYONE!)

I agree that it will be a lot more fun if the entries do not have names attached to them (but I intend to post mine on my DA page when it's all over, so yeah, eventually I think we can all take credit regardless of who wins). Without names, it encourages everybody to read with fresh eyes. I have to admit, if I see a story by a name I recognize, it could influence me, and it shouldn't be a popularity contest. It's more about the ideas and the stories themselves.

All it will take is someone who is not going to vote or write who is willing to anonymize them and simply assign numbers. Keep a list of which number matches which author and there ya go, right?

What was the original idea? Well, no worries, we've got about a month, I'm sure we can figure something out. Maybe we can ask Expansion Stories to help out or something.

Nobody will be denied credit or denied their individualism. I think the idea is just to keep it anonymous during the voting, so content is king. After the votes are cast, everybody can take credit for what is rightfully theirs.

Yep, that's the plan gHassy :) Before, it's unknown, but after, the list of who wrote what will be revealed.

Wouldn't that make things difficult for people who already have deviantart accounts? I mean, there's a one account per email address limit, right?

Strutta.com looks like it could work, but we would have to add a lot of countries to make sure everybody is represented. By default it's Canada and US so other countries have to be added by hand -- I suppose anyone not represented by that should simply speak up to make sure they are on the list, and it's pretty well solved. But you can set it up so the judging works however you want it to work, and they host the contest site. And it's free. Take a look and see if that is an option.

I've been doing it as a straight word count. MS Word has a "Word Count" button, and it just tallies em up. The downside is that it DOES count things seperated by "..." as one word, for instance, "What...what's going on?" would be 3 words, and not 4, but that's a minor quibble.

I think the word count should be pure word count, no averages. It's only 500 words, so it's not that hard to do a manual count if you have to.

Inflate123, I checked out that site, seems pretty good, looks like it would work pretty well for the contest :) Now we just need someone to set it up.

Yea, it split my head the first time the notion was introduced as well. But as Inflate123 points out, it's a rather common thing, particularly for writers involved print media periodicals and such. Always odd to peek in at the exotic aspects of the mundane chores some people have, ne?

This is precsicely what I was talking about and suggesting. Thank you, Inflate123, for doing the requisite legwork to back up my wild claims. :D

I agree about the title, and would also submit that the byline be exempt from the total. ...Unless they're being entered anynomously, in which case my new suggestion is moot. (Can't remember, don't feel like re-reading.)

I really wish that I had an idea for an fitting story that wasn't novella-length in size to suit this little endeavor. Perhaps I'll have to pry something out of the ol' brainpan and scrub it free of excess verbage...

True, but the word count is important I think. It forces people to be creative with their stories and figure out how to make every word really count.

Well, it's not that complicated, most word proccessors have a "Word Count" button or something like that. And I think that that word limit encourages new writers. If I recall, the Expansion Chat Group on DA had a number of writing contests, and the one with the most submissions was the poetry contest which had a 200 word limit.

The answer to this is probably obvious but does the title count against the 500-word limit?

Have you already received entries? Where do I send mine?

lol thanks, just wanted to make sure.

Carn's original post suggests lots of awards based on lots of criteria, again, as a way to call out excellent contributions. This is not a winner-take-all competition where everybody but one person gets ignored; it's more like a dog show. Yeah, we might wind up with one Best Story, but we're also going to have a lot of "best of breed" prizes.

gHassy, think less about the awards and more about the process of writing. I really believe that was Carnatic's goal, to stimulate contributions. And I think it's working, so I'm not in favor of calling off the contest plans that brought us this far.

But with two weeks until the deadline, I would like to see them solidified. :)

I just don't see a plan in place at the moment; who to turn the story into, where it will be posted, will it be anonymous, will i have credit? All those are nagging questions for me.

Actually, I was just making a smartass joke. I liked the original idea of different awards. However, I do not think that awards should be invented just so that every story gets an award. Keep them topical, but don't bend over backwards to make them all-inclusive.

Seconded. Carnatic, what's the process? I reread your original poast, but if we post them publicly per those instructions, it won't be a blind contest.

We could email them all to you and have you create a thread with them all in it, I suppose. Or that site I linked to might work. Your contest, your call.

gHassy, same answer as before regarding credit: you will get credit after the community has voted. You can then post it wherever you want under your nickname, your real name, whatever you like. It's your story; nobody's going to take that away from you. But for the voting, it's more fun and more fair to keep the authors anonymous. All Carnatic has to do is assign numbers to the entries and remove the names during judging. It's pretty simple and not permanent.

Okay...not sure where Carnatic's gone, hopefully he's not taken ill or something horrible like that. But since he set up the instructions, I've taken the liberty of getting things started, since the submission start date is officially here.

If Carnatic reappears with a better plan, scrap this one and follow his! :) But in the meantime, this will at least get stories posted and discussion going...

http://prosethatblows500.strutta.com

To enter, you must create a new Strutta account. Do NOT use your community nickname for this account name -- use a new, unrelated alias, because your account name will be visible by everyone who reads the stories. And rather than sit there all day thinking of a new alias, I suggest you just use something related to your story title to keep it simple.

Make sure your story has a title. We will refer to the stories by title during the judging and discussion phase. After the judging is completed, you can own up to your alias and claim your story. You will then be encouraged to repost your story to the forum, website, or online archive of your choice with your full name and contact info (and/or adding a note about any awards it has won if you so choose!).

Remember, check your word count at
http://wordcounttool.com
just so we're all using the same measuring stick.

I tried to access the wordcount tool website but it seems my computer cannot connect to the database.

Can a microsoft word count be a suitable substitute?

I apologize if this has been addressed already, but just how rigid is the word-limit for these stories? That is to say, how far over the 500 word limit can a person go before they receive the 'Stamp of Excess' on their work? Is it precisely 500 words, any amount beyond which is unacceptable, or is there a little flexibility? My story is finished, but I'm still working on slimming it down (this month was insanely busy for me, so my entry was a bit last-minute). I'm just wondering how tight I need to make it so I that I know much re-structuring I need to do.

I suspected as much, but I just wanted to make sure. I'm used to writing academic essays where the word limit has a certain degree of unspoken flexibility (approximately 'X' number of words), allowing you to go a little bit over or under without drawing any heat.

I'm at about 612 words right now, since I just fired off the basic story first, then set to whittling back the word-count. I think I can slice away another fifty or so words without seriously disrupting the flow, though after that things are going to get tricky.