Attention: Help the Short Story Comp...Give Us Suggestions!!!

[Kerrin]

Time is the problem for me at the moment Matt. That's no excuse for completely missing the voting thread last time out mind you. And they were a cracking collection of junior fiction. Gah!

Keep on with it mate. I'll make a bigger effort for my little part (fnarr) and I've got a couple of cool things for prizes if that might help.

Voting has been a problem from the start and maybe changing to a judging system might be more appropriate.

[briantm]

Or moving the stories offsite to something with a built in voting system.

You could still link to them on the board for new stories and voting calls but this would give you more control over the presentation.

[Jared Katooie]

You should make a rule that all writers have to vote. That way you're guaranteed to get some traffic on the voting thread.

If they don't vote, they don't get to enter next time.

[Van Dom]

Good point Jared.
I don't really like the 50 word limit idea to be honest. It would become the 2000ad Haiku competition..!! Which might be a cool theme as a one-off, but not as the norm. Maybe everybody who submits a story could put something in their signature when the voting thread goes up, saying "vote in the story comp" with a link to the thread. I know not everybody reads every single thread, and not everybody posts in every single thread, but if, 10-12 writers had that in their signature bar, there's a good chance everybody who visits the forum will see the "call to arms". Still no guarantee they will click on the thread and do it but.....breeds awareness at least.

[Dash Decent]

Lady F also mentioned somewhere there was a short story comp with a 6 word limit (!)   which was won by the entry "For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never worn"

Alan Moore wrote a six word story:
Machine. Unexpectedly, I'd invented a time

[locustsofdeath!]

Here's mine: Grud. These Drokkers don't read much.

[Withnail's liver]

As one of the recent intake of forumites I'd like a little more info on the short story competition.  Is it monthly?  When does the voting thread turn up? I gather that each winner chooses the next theme of writing for the next competition and I assume it has to be Dredd related or does it stretch to the whole of Twoth's output?  Is there then a new post with what and by when?

I may throw my hat into the next compo and would kinda like to know what I'll let myself in for.  Not written any short fiction for many a year and it'll be good to flex my underworked and underdeveloped literary creative brain muscle... 

[locustsofdeath!]

As one of the recent intake of forumites I'd like a little more info on the short story competition.  Is it monthly?  When does the voting thread turn up? I gather that each winner chooses the next theme of writing for the next competition and I assume it has to be Dredd related or does it stretch to the whole of Twoth's output?  Is there then a new post with what and by when?

1. 500 Words or less.
2. Twothy series subjects, but I may expand this to include FutureShocks, Time Twisters, Past Imperfect, Terror Tales, ect.
3. Monthly, followed by a voting period that last a week.
4. Winner does indeed choose the next topic.

However this may all change shortly. I'm reading the above suggestions and thinking on what will work for the future. I hope to have everything set up soon (and I need Dr. X to email me with a topic).

[Withnail's liver]

Cool! Thanks for the info.  I may have a crack at the next one...

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I reckon six words is too short; if it is to be a smaller number then I'd go for 100.

I'd also go for wider, broad brush, topics.

[maryanddavid]

I dont post often, but I do read every day, mostly before I hit the hay. The story comp always seem daunting, by the time I see it it has multiple replys, and several short stories.

How about a short story comp like pitchfest, 10-50 word sub, the narrowed down to 3 stories for 500-1000 word final? the winner appearing in some form of drawn up state by the winner of the art comp mayby?

David

PS with mayby a longer time period so there is 6 short story comps in the year and make it a prize worth winning and reading.

[Jim_Campbell]

I'll be honest -- the problem is time. The problem you have is that even if you have a 500, 250, 10 word limit, if you have a great theme, you'll get dozens of entries, and people won't have time to go through them.  At the end of the day, the beauty of the art comp is that you can scan through three pages of entries in under ten minutes. Short stories, not so much -- especially if you're asking the reader to compare them.

It's problematic because I approve unreservedly of the short story comp -- there are fantastically talented writers on this board, and they should be able to strut their stuff every bit as much as the artists, but I struggle to find time for the story comp -- I had to put time aside especially to read the entries even on the one occasion I entered.

I don't know what the answer is, TBH. I wonder if we mightn't have a monthly 1-page strip comp instead? I know that would require the writers to find artists, but it has the advantage of giving people a portfolio piece and there's no shortage of artists round 'ere. I'd be happy to limit the art comp to non-sequential themes if that would help...?

Cheers

Jim

[I, Cosh]

I'll be honest -- the problem is time. The problem you have is that even if you have a 500, 250, 10 word limit, if you have a great theme, you'll get dozens of entries, and people won't have time to go through them.  At the end of the day, the beauty of the art comp is that you can scan through three pages of entries in under ten minutes. Short stories, not so much -- especially if you're asking the reader to compare them.

This exactly. I always mean to look through, but I don't do it as they're coming in then the prospect of reading a dozen in one go is too daunting. Don't stop though as it's a nice counterpoint to the art comps.

Also, I still have a Zenith idea for the "Wages of Sin" one that I might get round to entering one of these days.

[SuperSurfer]

Feel bad about not participating but as with others, it's simply a case of not having time. The short story comp pages have seemed very daunting. I would manage to read the first few entries but then found I switched off as there is just no way I can get through all of them, absorb them and then be able to vote fairly.

Lately I am lucky if I get to turn on the computer at 11pm for an hour or two to go online and check out a few websites or catch up with freelance work. I even struggle to read 2000AD each week.

Pairing up for a one page comic strip would be fun but I don't think that could be a regular event. What about nicking The Enigmatic Dr. X's idea and having the illustrated short story competition. That would certainly involve more people. 

[Daveycandlish]

People seem to be daunted by the pages of posts... how about limiting the the thread to one or two posts a day? First come, first served. If you are too slow then you have to wait another day, and that way it may encourage folk to just drop in, say "yeah, liked that one" and then be on their way.
A good story will stick in the memory and that will be the one they'll vote for