43 replies to this topic

[furrykef]

I was gonna post my story on fanfiction.net today, and then I found out they have a 2-day waiting period before your account is eligible to actually post anything. Meaning my Christmas story must be posted after Christmas. Brilliant.

(When are you gonna post 'em, anyway, Chief? )

[chief]

After christmas when I have a spare minute

[Gojira007]

For those who are interested in reading my entry, it's now available at fanfiction.net and deviantart.com

'Twas the Night Before Christmas (Fanfiction.net)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas (deviantART)

[The Man]

Congrats on the winner. I'll try to read it later.

Did it really happen? Some people sent it only to John? I also sent it to Chief in case the other judges missed it.

But all is well ends well. Great holiday spirit for people doing this.

[furrykef]

I've posted mine at DeviantART.

EDIT: And fanfiction.net, finally *grumblegrumble*

[Gojira007]

Heh...I almost went for that very idea myself, furrykef. Fun li'l story you made of it.

[furrykef]

Nice story. (You did misspell "Snively" as "Snivley", though... ^^; ) Was the "I SAID GOOD DAY!" a Willy Wonka reference?

By the way, if I may offer just a bit of critique: you use adverbs frequently in your text. Adverbs can weaken your writing, because they're not as vivid or specific as using a better verb or adjective. For example, the beginning of my story once had the sentence, "Tails slowly walked away." I think this sentence improved when I revised it to, "Tails shuffled away."

Other times they add little and can simply be removed. (For instance, I could have left out "simply" in the preceding sentence. But I don't observe my "no adverbs" rule when making forum posts. ) I could have said "Tails slowly shuffled away," but I didn't because shuffling usually implies slowness (as it clearly did in the context). Or I could have said "Tails walked away, dragging his feet," etc.

(I don't know how other writers feel about it, but I decided not to apply the rule so much for dialogue. For instance, I don't mind having a character say "I really don't think that's a good idea", because people really talk that way -- the "really" adds little, but it sounds more natural to me. But, of course, depending on context, something like "That's a horrible idea" may have more impact.)

What's funny is that you don't really notice the adverb thing until somebody points it out to you. And then once you start thinking in those terms, adverbs just leap at you like little monsters. It's kind of like learning about anatomy problems when drawing. First you don't notice them, but as you learn, they just leap out at you more and more...

All this isn't to say that adverbs aren't bad -- I still used a couple (outside dialogue, even) in my story -- but I would say that you should use them only when they really are the best choice.

A couple of other minor points that I noticed: you should use two hyphens to form a dash--like this--and/or put spaces around them - like this - to set them off better. Otherwise they look like hyphens and are visually confusing.

Also, the correct spelling of the expression is "bated breath". Common mistake. ^^;


You're free to tear my story to pieces in return. One of my friends pointed out that I used "Tails" too often when "he" would have worked fine...

- Kef

[Gojira007]

Nice story. (You did misspell "Snively" as "Snivley", though... ^^

Really? I've always thought that WAS how you spelled Snivley. o_O Huh.

Was the "I SAID GOOD DAY!" a Willy Wonka reference?

As a matter of fact, yes.

[furrykef]

Ack. I see that when smileys are turned on, the forum really screws up how ^^; looks when you follow it with a ), heh... >.>

[The Man]

Here's my contest story.

http://www.fanfictio...acker_for_Acorn

[PSI Hedgehog]

I submitted my story on deviantart already. For those who are wanting to know what I submitted for the contest, click on the link. While I was typing it up, it was eight pages long. You have been warned.

[John Roberts]

Thanks to each of you for entering. Good to see we managed to inspire some pretty darn good stories there!

Seeing as no one could be bothered to send me a bribe... you are all deemed as losers! Fortunately for you guys the vote was 2-1 against me no awarding anyone a prize (bastards), so congrats to our Sea3on writer Gojira for winning what was totally not a rigged a contest.

PSI: You were supposed to send it in to all three judges however. But I take the responsibility for it in not making a better note of it and my absent here in the contest thread to stay away any confusion. On the up side yours was the only submission that got lost in my inbox; the not-so up side being yours was the only one that got lost. Truly sorry you missed out mate.

[furrykef]

PSI: You were supposed to send it in to all three judges however.

Well, what the instructions said was:

However, please do not post your entries here. Those little buggers you may email (or PM) to either of us three Judges.

"Either of us three" makes no grammatical sense, but I took it to mean "any of us three", which certainly doesn't imply "all three". Nowhere else does it indicate where the entries should be sent.

[Massagraf]

Here's my story: http://massagraf.dev...stmas-148288772

[PSI Hedgehog]

It seems there were a few problems with the information involving the contest. The deadline did say the day, but not the time. Next, as Kef pointed out, it did not say "all three." You might want to try preparing the information in a word processing program and reading it few times to make sure everything is correct and can't be mistaken easily. (I tend to have problems with typos myself, but doing that does help.)

I wonder if there is a chance I could enter the same story next time. I might include an additional segment revealing what they would have gotten for Christmas if Dr. Robotnik had not done anything to cement him on the naughty list with no hope of ever getting off of it.

[chief]

Well 1, time isn't important as we are all quite different time zones. As long as it is in that day when the last time zone clicks over thats about all that matters there.


As for the judge thing, yeah, that was a fuck up and our fault.

[The Man]

I was guilty for waiting til the last second too. But if I couldn't PM Chief and John I would've posted it in the damn thread. At least we'd break the record for longest posts by CTM that way.

[Morgan]

I was guilty for waiting til the last second too. But if I couldn't PM Chief and John I would've posted it in the damn thread. At least we'd break the record for longest posts by CTM that way.

Oh I know someone who writes up a lot of stuff. Mostly encyclopedias of bullshit though.

[John Roberts]

The Dom Chronicles!

[Morgan]

The Dom Chronicles!

Glad there's no more of his clutter to endure as he's fucked off.