Short Story Contest! [DISCUSSION THREAD]

So, I'm thinking about the next contest.

And one highly tempting idea suggested itself to me: that the topic should be "First Chapters", and that entrants should be charged with creating from scratch the first few hundred or few thousand words of a pretend novel which they are not required to actually write. They would be allowed to include a very brief summary of how the full book would go, for the purposes of pointing out details or echoes in the intro that would be relevant later.

Now, this is quite a cool idea, but there are two problems: firstly, it slightly defeats the point of a 'short story', which is constructing a whole world in a quick flash. Secondly, there would be no practical way to stop people from voting on the basis of "WOW THE FULL NOVEL WOULD BE SO AWESOME" rather than voting, as they should, on the basis of how effective an intro this material would be to a bigger story, and how well it stands on its own.

Thoughts?
 
To be honest I prefer that idea to the previous one. People sometimes focus too much on their subtext and deeper meaning and not enough on the actual story, prose and character in my opinion. The Chapter One idea would probably encourage actual storytelling more than a lot of other themes would, despite leaving said story incomplete.
 
Sounds like a very interesting topic. I'd be happy to give it a go.
 
I must start this. I actually have a plan for a first chapter but I haven't put pen to paper yet.
 
Can we extend the deadline until the end of November? I'm handing in all my work in a week or two. Until then, I find it hard to justify spending time on this. I have no such trouble when it comes to playing computer games, but that's different.
 
Don't see why not. I'm pretty busy myself. AND BY THE LOOKS OF THINGS SO IS EVERYONE ELSE EH EH
 
I entered in, don't know if it qualifies but w/e. Hope ya'llz is amused. At the very least Sham is so mission accomplished (actually don't really care for a custom title :p).
 
Yeah I'm pretty busy with uni at the moment. I should have time though for the end of November.
 
I'm busy and quite possibly I will be till the 18th or so of December. I'll see what I can get done in the mean time. An extension till the end of the month would be appreciated.
 
So has the competition been delayed? I sure hope so because I haven't started yet.
 
Looks like I won't be entering--I just don't have any time whatsoever. Uni is a bitch.
 
I feel bad for pushing so hard for this.

Hopefully I'll have finished off my work by Wednesday, in which case I'll be able to write something.
 
Thanks to the flood gods closing my university for a week I've had time to start writing. I've got 880 words done (according to Open Office) and I think I'm about 3/4 finished so it won't be a one horse race after all! Although I do hope Mr Dodds doesn't disapoint and graces us with an entry.
 
I will disappoint you unless I extend the deadline just for me. Which I might do, HA HA HA.
 
I really wouldn't mind if you did. Your stories are always a pleasure to read and hell, I probably wouldn't have an entry in the works right now had my college not been ruined by the rain so it's not like I could begrudge you for not making the deadline (again).
 
My story's up. At least there's actually more than one entry now. I hope other people can tear themselves away from work to participate. Maybe you should send out an eleventh hour PM Mr Dodds?
 
I've extended the deadline by two weeks, to the 11th December. To be honest I have no problem with this dragging on for ages if we get some good entries. I'll send out some PMs when I have a moment today.
 
Hopefully Corp. Sheepo's post in the site discussion section will attract some attention (Although that section is probably read as much as this one).
 
I'll try and enter this, but I'm not sure how exciting it'll be. I'll try adding some action elements into it.
 
ríomhaire said:
Hopefully Corp. Sheepo's post in the site discussion section will attract some attention (Although that section is probably read as much as this one).
Click to expand...

Yeah, I regret not putting it in the lounge.

...

I think that putting in the rest of the story after the first chapter for this contest is kind of a dumb idea. There's a god chance of it ruining what's written before it and being taken too seriously, when it's only about the short story's merit. That's just what I think, otherwise it's a fine topic and I have a few ideas I might run with.
 
If you don't want to summarise the story, don't! I know that I won't. I left the option available because people might put in really clever allusions or foreshadowing and then nobody would know!
 
Ah, well, there's no reason to get angry with me just 'cause I don't read your fancy shmancy posts all the way through.

:(
 
I'd like to know what the official new deadline is. I could probably finish mine this week.
 
Yeah no it's cool, I'm probably going to leave it open until the 25th or something. Merry Christmas!
 
Okay, all you ladies saying you wouldn't have time until the christmas holidays, well, they've probably started by now. I'll be submitting my own entry in the next few days and hopefully others will be too. If anyone thinks they can get one in but needs a couple more days after the 25th I don't think we're in any rush, so post here, pm me, or email me.
 
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