THE INAUGURAL PROSE THAT BLOWS 500
I propose a challenge to all writers and would-be-writers.
Write an inflation story of 500 words or less and submit it to this site.
I hope that this will encourage many who have never written a story before to take part as surely anyone can bash out 500 words, if you hit a rhythm you can do it in a few minutes and I suggest the deadline as the end of June, which gives you a good 3 months to work on it.
1) The story must involve some form of expansion. The hows, whys and wherefores are entirely up to you it just has to go along with the whole reason why we're on this site in the first place.
2) The story must have a start, a middle and an end... in other words, it must be a story... no 'exerpts'
3) 500 words limit. You don't have to use them all, but go over at your peril. Your story won't be disqualified, it'll just have a big sign on it saying you are a tool and went over the limit even though you had a wordcount and 3 months to make it right.
There is no rule on explicit material. You are free to be as explicit as you like (unless Luther objects to me posting links to explicit material in which case there will be a rule.)
There is a limit of one story per author. If I allow people to submit as many as they like then I can easily see a few indivuduals making the vast majority of submissions... and we don't want that. Also does anyone really want to judge over a hundred stories?
Please do not post stories in this thread, quite apart from how confusing it would be if people had to sift through pages and pages of discussion looking for stories and how long the thread would get; Luther has a story archive which he moderates for a reason and I wouldn't want to encourage people to circumvent his authority by posting stories elsewhere.
If you submit your story to the story archive on this site it would be useful if you could prefix the title with '500 WORDS - '.
Luther has to moderate every story submitted to this site himself in his spare time, so there is usually a considerable delay between an author submitting a story and it appearing in the archive. Any story which is not available somewhere on the internet by deadline day will not be put forward for voting, so don't expect a story submitted to this site to be available in time for voting. In order to ensure your story can be read and voted for, and protect Luther's sanity, you should submit it to a third party site as well. Deviant Art, Rapidshare, Writing.com... anywhere's OK as long as it can be linked to.
Submission will take place during the last week of June... the 24th to the 30th.
Stories made available on the internet before the Wednesday the 24th of June will not be eligible
Stories not available on the internet after Tuesday the 30th of June will not be eligible
The reason why there is an earliest date for submission is that we want all stories so be submitted in a short space of time, so that they can all be considered equally and early birds don't get an advantage.
In order to submit a story, you must make me aware of it's existence and location. The best way to do this is to PM me on this site. I can't take responsibility for hunting down messages sent to me via obscure means (e.g. I have an account on FIR but rarely check so might not notice that someone has posted a submission in a forum on that site).
As soon as I can after the deadline I will post a thread on this site containing links to all the submitted stories. I haven't decided how long judging will take
Judging will take place democratically on this site (if this is logistically possible), and there will not be an award for overall winner... instead there will be a number of awards giving everyone a fighting chance of winning something.
Some awards will be automatic (shortest story is an obvious one) and there will be no voting for that award.
Some awards will be via nomination only, e.g. best metaphor. So I don't have to trawl through all the stories and pick out every single metaphor. After an as yet undecided nomination period, voting will begin.
For the majority of categories all stories will be automatically nominated.
Here are some awards I have thought up, feel free to add other ideas if you like.
- Shortest story (that still meets rule 2)
- Most original method of expansion
- Best metaphor or similie for expansion
- Worst use of deus ex machina
- Character you'd like to f**k
- Best introduction
- Best conclusion
- Sexiest story
- Most deviant setting
- The 'were you on drugs?' award
- Story that most makes you think 'that could actually happen'
- Largest expansion in volume per word
- Most expandees
- Most epic plot crammed into the limited space
- Story that most reads like a cheap porno
- Stephen King award for most disturbing story
- Most blissful expansion
- Best use of tension
- Best sound effects
- Most believable expandee reaction
- Story that best makes you feel as though you are there
- Most gratuitous 'crowbarring-in' of Al Gore
- Mills and Boon award for most cringeworthy erotic writing
- PJ and Duncan award for 'moral of the story'
- Most florid writing style
Hate to nitpick Dragon, but there were 13 submissions, and you only listed 12.
Otherwise though, that looks like a pretty decent ballot. It might be worthwhile putting a note in there that people aren't allowed to vote for their own stories. I doubt anyone here is that sneaky, but it never hurts to be clear. XD
Ballot looks fine to me, although I would also write for the character awards that the voter should include the story they came from. That'll make it easier for the person compiling the votes.
I would hope that the voting would be not just the people who took part!
Problem is, you have to register just to read the stories. A lot of people probably won't.
And on a side note, kudos again to carnatic, Dan, and the rest who contributed to this. It was a lot of fun and a great idea, and I think has revived interest in the author side of the community.
Double, I don't think you do, I just logged out, and i was able to click on "Entries" and read em perfectly fine. Maybe it was just me though...And crap! I missed one, damn it. Must of been between when I was scrolling. The entry list is
One Night Stan
Trapped
Room 12
Click
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff
Pet Balloon
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words
Inpractical Magic
Compromised
Surfer’s Cove
Drink Me
The Meadow Encounter
The Biggest Breath
I also submitted a story. I doubt it will win much against the quaility you guys have put up, but you never know...
It might be worthwhile putting a note in there that people aren't allowed to vote for their own stories. I doubt anyone here is that sneaky, but it never hurts to be clear. XD
Well if I don't vote for my own story, then who will?
PS: When can we commence the voting? I'm eager to see who wrote what, as I'm sure everyone else is.
Well, true, but we'll just have to trust people. That's also part of the reason to get a lot of people involved with the voting, so we can get less error through self-votes.
Has anyone else tried to logout and try to read the stories? That is a rather important detail that we'd need to work out...
I was able to read the stories without being logged in. You just click on Entries and then can sort by Random or Recent in the drop-down to the left, over the story list. Recent will put them in reverse-chronological order (Click was the first to be submitted).
I would hope simple decency would keep people from voting for themselves, but yeah, let's make it explicit -- don't do it! :)
Will someone who did not enter volunteer to set up and run a gmail entry mailbox and tally the votes? Because everything else seems to be in place. (Except we don't know that 13th author...)
One thing I'd be curious to know is when the deadline for voting is. That is - when do the polls close, so to speak? I've been kind of pressed for time this week, so I want to make sure I know how much time I have to read through all the stories and send in my votes.
...we don't know that 13th author...
Gads, that sounds ominous... "The Thirteenth Author." It would make a good title for a horror anthology or something similar.
One thing I'd be curious to know is when the deadline for voting is. That is - when do the polls close, so to speak? I've been kind of pressed for time this week, so I want to make sure I know how much time I have to read through all the stories and send in my votes.
I would think a week should be sufficient, and that way we can post about it elsewhere too. But it'd be a week starting whenever we have an email to send it to.
Alternatively...we could create 10 topics here with polls for each of the categories. It would clutter up this forum a bit, but it would also stop people from having to sign up for ANOTHER website just to vote. (I went back to try to edit the Strutta site, which does support voting, but it's really not cooperating with me trying to add it after the fact -- plus everybody would have to sign up there to vote, which isn't nearly as easy as just sending an email with text in it.)
You can't see the results of a forum poll until you have voted, right? (Or can you?)
That could work Inflate123, we could ask LVKane to just delete them when we're done. It would be a bit cluttering, and you'd have to sign up for the site...I think the e-mail would be the best way myself...or a DA account, and note it to them.
My thought is that most if not all people who would like to vote in the contest are already registered here. That's a leap of faith, but there are over 3500 names registered here, and if we get 50 votes I'll be surprised, you know? So maybe the forum is best, then we all spread the link to this forum.
Luther, how easy/hard would it be to set up a quick another subforum on the same level as General or Writers Den, so we could send people from out in the wild directly to that section for the polls?
BTW, I found it hilarious that as soon as our contest was over, wordcounttool.com went back online. Coincidence? Or did someone not want pervs using their service?
Unfortunately, using this site's forum polls won't work. Polls are limited to twelve options, so we have just enough story options to overflow it.
Sheesh, people! Do you have to be so prolific?
However, there is a possible alternate solution. There are a number of sites that will let you set up online polls. After some exhaustive research (i.e., going to the first link Google came up with) I found PollDaddy.com. It has the nifty option of bundling a bunch of polls into a survey. I think it would work for our purposes.
So we could post a message in the forum that has links to each of the stories as well as a link to the voting form. Set the survey to expire in a week. People can follow the results online.
Alright, I'll try to make up the survey :) Gimme a bit! :-D
You Googled better than I did. :) I poked around for a while but must not have hit the right search terms. Thanks for the find and thanks for hittin' it Dragon!
Ok, got it! Now, as always, pleeeease review it, and just make sure it's all good to go. I've looked it over, and I'm 99% sure that all 13 stories are listed and all 10 catagories.
http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/52560DBCD4F82A10/
If it's ok, then go forth and post it! Be sure to put a link to the stories - http://prosethatblows500.strutta.com/
Let the judging begin. I say...the 10th it ends? It'll be loose. Whenever, i don't have a time shut-off for it.
Looks good. I'll whip up an announcement for the front page. I'd suggest putting in a hard deadline, though so that voting automatically closes on July 10th.
Awesome. I'll spread the word on AiryTales and my DA page. Every little bit helps.
I'm saving my critiques until after the voting is done, but I did wind up with notes on every story. So constructive feedback is pending!
Oh, and if it hasn't been said...one vote per person!
This might be a bit late but in regards to the Strutta website, I was able to look at the stories without logging in.
I know it's just a community contest, but so many people put so much thought into this that I've been counting the days during voting. I'm really eager to see what happens.
"The suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last." -- Willy Wonka (well, okay, Oscar Wilde)
"The suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last." -- Willy Wonka (well, okay, Oscar Wilde)
Er... you mean Gene Wilder?
I think we're all pretty eager to see what happens. I can't say with certainty, but I think this is one of the first times we've had a contest of this sort in... um... ever. Given the encouraging turnout, one can only hope that it will help spark future contests of a similar nature.
Who knows? We might even be able to make it an annual thing (monthly might be a bit much for some people's schedules).
Inflate123 wrote:
"The suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last." -- Willy Wonka (well, okay, Oscar Wilde)Er... you mean Gene Wilder?
No, I mean Oscar Wilde. :)
No, I mean Oscar Wilde. :)
Huh. Learn something new every day.
Looking forward to seeing the results... today, right? Maybe monthly contests would be too much, but bi-monthly could work. I've got a few ideas for future contests...
Whoops, just saw that voting doesn't end until tomorrow, so I guess it'll be Saturday before we find out the results.
Damn you, calendar! Hurry up! *shakes fist*
I was going to end voteing at midnight, but I suppose it would make more sense to have to tomorrow.
Hey guys, sorry I missed the contest, but I was away for a few months. Are you going to have another one after a while?
I hope so. I think this was a rousing success, with lots of participants and some great stories.
Only one and a half hours left!
So when can we claim our stories, post them on our DA pages, etc.? Since voting is over, I'm inclined to do it now, but I don't know whether to wait until after the results are announced.
BTW, I can do one of two things, I can post the total results, total results with number of votes, just top three, or just winner in each. What do you think?
Not yet, just wait another half hour. And any opinions on how to post the results?
Oops. Home boy can't add, apparently. I'll hold off.
I like the idea of top 3 in each category, with or without the number of votes.
EDIT - On second thought, I think the full results with # of votes would be best.
I'm temped to post all the data, just so everyone knows, but that may be mean for the people who didn't do that well, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, you know? Hmm...tricky...
I thought about that, but think about it this way. Would it suck more to see your story near/at the bottom of the results, or not see your story listed at all (top 3 only)? I think the latter might be worse, because it's almost like you didn't even make a submission.
Just my opinion.
By the way, for future contests, I had an idea... what if each contest is judged (in part or whole) by the previous contest's winner? Keep the submissions anonymous. Might be a nice reward for winning, other than vanity/bragging rights. Maybe the community and the previous winner could both vote, and the results from each would be weighted a certain amount to determine an overall winner. So if we wanted to emphasize the community vote, we could only weight the winner's vote at 40%; or if we wanted to give the winner priority, make his vote count for 60%.
Just kinda thinking out loud here... any thoughts?
Ok, I'll post all the results. Only 20 more minutes!
And I dunno...maybe a separate category, the "Winner's Choice" award or something...that could be fun :)
Ok, result time! First, the summary. Winner in Each catagory...
Most believable expandee reaction
Trapped
Best use of tension
The Biggest Breath
Stephen King award for most disturbing story
Drink Me
The Meadow Encounter
Most epic plot crammed into the limited space
Compromised
Character you'd like to fuck
Room 12
Best Method of Expansion
Click
The Biggest Breath
Sexiest Story
Room 12
Best Expansion Description
The Biggest Breath
Best Character
The Biggest Breath
And finaly, the best story....
The Biggest Breath
And now for the total Data!
Q.1 Best Story
The Biggest Breath 9 (25%)
Click 7 (19.4%)
Room 12 6 (16.7%)
Trapped 4 (11.1%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 3 (8.3%)
Compromised 3 (8.3%)
Pet Balloon 2 (5.6%)
Inpractical Magic 2 (5.6%)
One Night Stan 0 (0%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 0 (0%)
Surfer’s Cove 0 (0%)
Drink Me 0 (0%)
The Meadow Encounter 0 (0%)
Q.2 Best Character
The Biggest Breath 9 (27.3%)
Inpractical Magic 8 (24.2%)
Room 12 4 (12.1%)
Trapped 2 (6.1%)
Pet Balloon 2 (6.1%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 2 (6.1%)
One Night Stan 1 (3%)
Click 1 (3%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 1 (3%)
Compromised 1 (3%)
Surfer’s Cove 1 (3%)
Drink Me 1 (3%)
The Meadow Encounter 0 (0%)
Q.3 Best Expansion Description
The Biggest Breath 11 (32.4%)
Click 7 (20.6%)
Room 12 4 (11.8%)
Pet Balloon 2 (5.9%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 2 (5.9%)
Inpractical Magic 2 (5.9%)
Surfer’s Cove 2 (5.9%)
The Meadow Encounter 2 (5.9%)
Compromised 1 (2.9%)
Drink Me 1 (2.9%)
One Night Stan 0 (0%)
Trapped 0 (0%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 0 (0%)
Q.4 Sexiest Story
Room 12 17 (48.6%)
The Biggest Breath 6 (17.1%)
Click 3 (8.6%)
Pet Balloon 3 (8.6%)
One Night Stan 2 (5.7%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 2 (5.7%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 1 (2.9%)
Inpractical Magic 1 (2.9%)
Trapped 0 (0%)
Compromised 0 (0%)
Surfer’s Cove 0 (0%)
Drink Me 0 (0%)
The Meadow Encounter 0 (0%)
Q.5 Best Method of Expansion
Click 6 (17.1%)
The Biggest Breath 6 (17.1%)
Surfer’s Cove 5 (14.3%)
Room 12 4 (11.4%)
The Meadow Encounter 4 (11.4%)
Trapped 3 (8.6%)
Pet Balloon 3 (8.6%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 2 (5.7%)
Inpractical Magic 1 (2.9%)
Drink Me 1 (2.9%)
One Night Stan 0 (0%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 0 (0%)
Compromised 0 (0%)
Q.6 Character you'd like to fuck
Room 12 12 (36.4%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 5 (15.2%)
The Biggest Breath 5 (15.2%)
Inpractical Magic 3 (9.1%)
Click 2 (6.1%)
Pet Balloon 2 (6.1%)
The Meadow Encounter 2 (6.1%)
One Night Stan 1 (3%)
Surfer’s Cove 1 (3%)
Trapped 0 (0%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 0 (0%)
Compromised 0 (0%)
Drink Me 0 (0%)
Q.7 Most epic plot crammed into the limited space
Compromised 11 (31.4%)
Trapped 5 (14.3%)
Click 5 (14.3%)
Pet Balloon 4 (11.4%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 3 (8.6%)
The Biggest Breath 3 (8.6%)
Room 12 2 (5.7%)
Surfer’s Cove 1 (2.9%)
The Meadow Encounter 1 (2.9%)
One Night Stan 0 (0%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 0 (0%)
Inpractical Magic 0 (0%)
Drink Me 0 (0%)
Q.8 Stephen King award for most disturbing story
Drink Me 11 (33.3%)
The Meadow Encounter 11 (33.3%)
Trapped 4 (12.1%)
Pet Balloon 3 (9.1%)
Compromised 2 (6.1%)
One Night Stan 1 (3%)
The Biggest Breath 1 (3%)
Room 12 0 (0%)
Click 0 (0%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 0 (0%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 0 (0%)
Inpractical Magic 0 (0%)
Surfer’s Cove 0 (0%)
Q.9 Best use of tension
The Biggest Breath 13 (39.4%)
Trapped 4 (12.1%)
Room 12 4 (12.1%)
Compromised 3 (9.1%)
One Night Stan 2 (6.1%)
Pet Balloon 2 (6.1%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 2 (6.1%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 1 (3%)
Surfer’s Cove 1 (3%)
Drink Me 1 (3%)
Click 0 (0%)
Inpractical Magic 0 (0%)
The Meadow Encounter 0 (0%)
Q.10 Most believable expandee reaction
Trapped 6 (18.2%)
Surfer’s Cove 4 (12.1%)
One Night Stan 3 (9.1%)
Room 12 3 (9.1%)
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff 3 (9.1%)
The Biggest Breath 3 (9.1%)
Inpractical Magic 3 (9.1%)
Click 2 (6.1%)
Pet Balloon 2 (6.1%)
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words 2 (6.1%)
Drink Me 2 (6.1%)
Compromised 0 (0%)
The Meadow Encounter 0 (0%)
And now, I tell my story, and my guesses for the writers.
I think Inflate123 wrote Room 12, and Man with the Magic Mind wrote "Rachel the accidental Creampuff" but other than that, i've no idea.
I wrote "Click"
"Compromised" is mine. And if "Drink Me" isn't InvizKing's then I am quitting everything forever.
I wrote Drink Me, and my intention was to win the Stephen King award. A tie for first is good enough for me. Congratulations to everyone!
I suspected that either 'Drink Me' or 'The Meadow Encounter' was InvizKing's. I'd bet good money that 'Room 12' was Inflate123's, and I have a creeping suspicion that 'One Night Stan' might be Alec Deluxe's, though I could very well be wrong.
As for me - 'The Biggest Breath' was mine. I really didn't expect to get so many votes, let alone the one for Best Story.
It's a bit of a shock, to say the least.^^;
By the way, for future contests, I had an idea... what if each contest is judged (in part or whole) by the previous contest's winner? Keep the submissions anonymous. Might be a nice reward for winning, other than vanity/bragging rights. Maybe the community and the previous winner could both vote, and the results from each would be weighted a certain amount to determine an overall winner. So if we wanted to emphasize the community vote, we could only weight the winner's vote at 40%; or if we wanted to give the winner priority, make his vote count for 60%.Just kinda thinking out loud here... any thoughts?
To keep it fair to one guy, one vote, maybe we could just have an award "The Story that the previous winner liked the best." Kinda a vanity award, but a fun one non-the-less.
I think the appearance of a clever redhead was my giveaway. You're all right, I wrote "Room 12." I'm honored to have won the Sexiest and Fuckable categories. :) FWIW, I wrote a different story first, didn't like it, and started over from a different angle, and that was "Room 12."
I thought LVKane wrote Compromised. I honestly couldn't guess the rest, and I even guessed that one wrong. :)
Gratz Kurg! You really stretched the moment in your story, and that was interesting.
Now that the votes are all in, I'm gonna post my detailed story feedback in another thread. It's really sort of a writer's workshop thing so it might not be of interest to people who don't write on a regular basis.
Mine was "Trapped".
I thought "Most Disturbing" was the only category I had a shot at. Winning "Most Believable Expandee Reaction" is a pleasant surprise.
This contest made me realize that I'm not at all good at spotting most writers' styles. However, "Room 12" was pretty obviously Inflate123's. Yes, the sultry, voluptuous redhead was a dead giveaway.
Wow, I got second place for best character. (Inpractical Magic).
I thought LVKane wrote Compromised.
Well hell, if that isn't a compliment of the highest order, I don't know what is. Thanks!
And by the way, your story was excellent. I honestly don't remember who I voted for for best story, since I had narrowed it down to 3 or 4.
Sounds good, I could make up the Gmail account, but would it be better to have a 3rd party do it?
And here's a possible layout for the ballot...
The Entries –
One Night Stan
Trapped
Room 12
Click
Rachel the Accidental Creampuff
Pet Balloon
Cindy learns a life lesson in less than 500 words
Inpractical Magic
Compromised
Surfer’s Cove
Drink Me
The Meadow Encounter
-------------------------------------------------
Now, after reading the stories, write your choice for each of the following catagories
The Catagories
- Best Story
- Best Character
- Best Expansion Description
- Sexiest Story
- Best Method of Expansion
- Character you'd like to f*ck
- Most epic plot crammed into the limited space
- Stephen King award for most disturbing story
- Best use of tension
- Most believable expandee reaction
After you’ve done that, e-mail this form to (E-mail to be added later). Thank you for your time, and I hope you’ve enjoyed The Prose that Blows!
How's that look for a ballot?
No, I would not want to live in a world without dragons, as I would not want to live in a world without magic, for that is a world without mystery, and that is a world without faith.