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You know, I was a disappointed in the turnout. The other judges felt the same. And then Negative has the audacity to write a story in one day and call out the fact that the work was fast and low. 

But you know what? Negative's story is still an effort, and not bad at all, particularly if it was truly written in a day. And the other three? Well, fuck me, there was some nice, meaty writing there. From Kiel's presentation and slow, but tense plot building, to Tan's epic character development and interrelations, to Feanor's inspired descriptions, we definitely enjoyed the read.

Judging creative writing is always difficult. How does one do it? Varies, evidently. I tend to just go with my gut, while others may methodically look at technical skill vs. grammar vs. development vs. presentation vs. dialogue vs. etc. I'm not saying that sort of discussion happened here, exactly, but rather that writing is so personal and subjective that it is difficult to quantify. 

It was close. Very, very close.

The original rules of the contest state that we must receive:

"5 excellent entries. If we do not receive at least five strong efforts, there will simply be no contest. We can't very well go giving out Featured Storygame and user Trophies unless enough people try."

The original prizes, if we received 5 entries, were:

 #1: Featured StoryGame, + 100 Points, + Choice of Judge Trophy (Alexp has also said he may contribute something special, so we will have to wait and see!)

#2: 50 Points + Choice of Judge Trophy

#3: 25 points

#4: Honorable mention(s)?

 We did not meet the five entry minimum, but because of the quality of the entries, we have decided that we will honor the rewards, short of the featured StoryGame.

THE WINNERS ARE (It was close, but we had to choose): 

#1 Kiel_Farren and The Other World

Strong back story with journal, great writing. Awesome presentation. Incisive political commentary on freedom and oppression. Love that the guy's name is "Mors" (death) from the journal. "This path you're on now, will that really be the sum of your existence? Sleep. Eat. Work. Sleep. Eat. Work. Of course, perhaps you'll find a loving mate, begin a family, produce a couple of unfortunate children to continue the cycle of laboring for your mistress, then continue to work like a dog until you die and they have to bury you. Your fists clench in frustration. It's unfair and you know it, but what can you do about it? You're just a kid." -(Ed. Bahahahahaah. While the presentation was spectacular, make no mistake - we cannot be fooled with elaborate binders and presentations as is your sophomore English teacher - this story was engaging and poignant. It was slow to build, but pulled up throaty and indomitable by the middle and wrapped everything up tidy and clean.)

Kiel, you may choose a judge's trophy, and you will receive 100 dollars, in CYOA points, which you can never exchange for any real money, ever. Instead, you can have EXP points.* (1 dollar = 1 exp) . Congratulations, and thanks for entering!

#2 Tanstaafl and Undead Persona

Well, now. This story was complex and spectacular. Truly epic. The story telling was solid, and the author masterfully blended romance, action, intrigue, and existentialism into an engaging story. Nicely done. Some of the arcs were a bit confusing in my opinion, but you did a nice job of building tension and then allowing the reader to break it in his/her own way. I foresee great things from you in the future. 

Tanstaafl, you may choose a judge's trophy, and you will receive 50 dollars, in CYOA points, which you can never exchange for any real money, ever. Instead, you can have EXP points.* (1 dollar = 1 exp) . Congratulations, and thanks for entering!

#3 FeanorOnForge and Apocalypse Yesterday

Nice story and a great effort. Was engaging, and there were some interesting choices revolving around ethics, pride, and greed which rang true. The combat was well written and I didn't feel like "bad" choices would just end the story.

FeanorOnForge, you will receive 25 dollars, in CYOA points, which you can never exchange for any real money, ever. Instead, you can have EXP points.* (1 dollar = 1 exp) . Congratulations, and thanks for entering!

--

Props to Negative for, I hope, trying to fill out the 5 necessary entries and push the contest into legitimacy, but mentioning that you wrote the story in a day nearly sent me into a McDonald's AK frenzy, and the other judges were gnashing their teeth and beating their breasts. While your story was actually fairly decent, considering, your prize is not getting blown up in a car or banned for your audacity. Take your obvious talent and apply yourself.

Thanks to all who entered and all who didn't. I guess the point of these events is to engage you, the readers and writers, and to strengthen the community.

We truly value all of you guys, and can't wait to see more in the future.

After all, what's the point if we can't create and enjoy art?

P.S. Just PM a judge for his trophy. Congrats!

Congrats everybody!

I feel so ashamed of the fact that I couldn't finish my story. I have absolutely no excuse bar pure laziness. Congratulations to the winners, good work you guys. Props for being less lazy than me. 

I'm honored. (I'm also delighted that you quoted that part of the first chapter, as it arguably was my favorite. Didn't know if anyone would pay any attention to the commentary in the story and some of the parallels I wanted to draw, so I'm happy to see it mentioned. And there is actually a very plot relevant reason for his name. :) )

I know this didn't go as planned, but I hope experience this doesn't discourage you three from making more contests in the near future because I had fun, learned a lot, and got to read three new, good stories as a result. If it helps, I would've never been inspired to create The Other World without your contest, Madglee. While I can't actually speak for them, I've little doubt the others could say the same. Also, thank you Sethaniel and Fleshnblood_78 for your participation as judges, you three are awesome.

As for @Tanstaafl, @FeanorOnForge, and @Negative, congrats on finishing your submissions. You guys did great and I really look forward to seeing more stories from you all. Thanks for giving me something good and worthwhile to read. :D (<_<' That has been a rare event lately and I truly am glad you guys participated.)  

Congrats to Kiel, Tans, and Feanor for completing their storygames and being great enough that even the fact that the contest failed by lack of entries submitted that the judges saw fit to reward you guys. Congrats to Negative for trying to move the contest to legimacy. I'll probably read them all this weekend. :)

I know I'm a terrible pearson for not finishing my own storygame. I really wish I would have.I promised to and I failed on that promise.

Kiel, Tans, Fear, congrats on your efforts. You stepped up to a plate very few were able to. Take that as a win within itself. I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of writing from you 3. As Mad said, just let the Mod of your choice know you want their trophy. 

Nate

Thanks, man. :D

... It sounds like an Eldritch Abomination of epic proportions and I would read the hell out of it.

On a serious note, I say we all convince Madglee to finish that Mommy sequel.

Seconded. It must be done.
 

I move to vote on the issue.

Yes, it must.

Thanks guys. Been so busy with real life. Just started an outpatient practice in addition to the various nursing homes I go to, and am working like 70+ hrs a week at this point. Tirrrrrrred.

o.0 Geez ... remember to take care of yourself, first, man. You're not going to be able to help your patients if you drop dead from exhaustion first.

I'm drinking NutriBullets and getting to the gym 5x weekly so I'm good. I think. So far. Blarg.

I told you never to speak of such things. Your death is now assured.

I couldn't agree more with the judges' decision, though I would have been hard pressed to rank them in order of which was 'best'; they were all really well written. I found each of the stories to be engrossing and hope to contribute something half as decent one day.

Congratulations, everyone! You deserve every penny.

Good job Kiel. Is this one even longer than your other featured story or slightly shorter? I feel like both of them are really, really epic in length.  

Shorter. GOLAD is about twice the size of this thing ... but TOW will get an upgrade soon, so it'll get bigger. Not as big as my first game--probably--but still, close.

Congrats to the writers!

Grats all!

It went the way I expected, I still haven't had time to finish and leave feedback for the other stories but I will soon, both are awesome so far though :)

I knew it! I knew Kiel was going to win! *happy dances* Great job!

Congratulations Tanstaafl, Feanor, Negative and especially Kiel for writing four fantastic stories in a challenging genre :D Hopefully they'll be more competitions like this on this site :D

Congratulations Tanstaafl, Feanor, Negative and the #1 Kiel for gettin in their places. And thanks to Negative, the competition went on! 

Great stories guys!

Wow.  Just found this after a week.  I'm happy for you guys who competed.

But I hate myself now.  

No, because the contest didn't get enough entries.

I ... actually don't know for sure if this counts as 'winning a site contest.' Hadn't even thought about it, to be perfectly honest. Um. Playa is probably right, but James could be right, and maybe they're both wrong, I dunno. I do know a way to find out.

@Madglee
@Sethaniel

Sorry, Kiel, I don't know how to award that trophy.  It might be something only alex or March can give.

That was the other possibility I considered, heh. Thanks for explaining.

No, because we didn't meet the 5 entries, there was no official contest. The mod trophies and points were all we could award.

Aaaand that's what I figured the answer was. Thank you.

Just cause-- when/what's the next contest? XD

Frankly, I was fairly disappointed with the amount of entries, and looking back on triple-J's attempt and subsequent failure to elicit entries, I don't have a strong inclination to start another one.

I know that sucks, considering the few, quality writers who stepped forward, like yourself.

I still believe it'd be a good idea to host an annual writing competition like over at IS, just because it gives us something to look forward to each year.

I might even step up and start a storygame if there was a new contest. Maybe not, but you never know...

:( I had a feeling that would be the result of people not following through on their commitments, but I hoped not.

And even that (assuming you're talking about the spring thing) only had 3 CYS-users who actually finished their storygames.

Holy crap, they got ten entries that time. Also gave a lot of rewards, so I definitely see the correlation haha.

I didn't even plan on joining that contest, March convinced me to do so and told me to shave off a few of pages for Necromancer so it was under 100 and submit it, so I did. (I just combined some of the lore info together and didn't actually get rid of any content)

JJJ got pretty pissed about it, though oddly it wasn't really at me so much as it was at March. He said Necromancer was a previously written story and should be against the rules. Sort of like writing something for NAMORAMO (Or whatever it is) before November.

Personally I said I didn't care and I'd just withdraw the story but I just wished someone had told me before I went back and made all the alterations to the story in the first place since I figured if March was the one who told me it was fine then it must be okay.

I remember JJJ, March and probably FleshnBlood getting into it and ultimately March just said he probably should've laid down better ground rules for the contest, but what was done was done.

In conclusion I won, and they never had another proper contest here again.

And it's all my fault. Lol.

The way I remembered it, the contest didn't even exist until you wrote necromancer. March read it, loved it, and told the rest of the site that he was making a contest, necromancer was the first entry, and the rest of us had a month to write and submit our own entries.

Lol really? No, that can't be right. He surely had to have plans for a contest before I posted that story on here.

If what you're saying is true, that makes it sound like it was basically godmode and there was no way anyone was actually going to win against my story.

As I recall, that's why people were annoyed/upset.  

I could just be remembering incorrectly. XD 

ok found the thread, can't link it From my phone. 

My own thoughts are that an annual competition with a deadline in the same month every year and a broad theme (fantasy, horror, modern etc) and the story requirements (100+ sections etc) announced 3-6 months before the deadline with clearly stated rewards for the top places regardless of number of entries (so people who work really hard on their stories aren't punished because other people didn't) might be a good thing...

March specifically says that stories had to be created during the contest period.  "no pulling up an old story."

At approximately the same time, he invited end & dep to "port" their stories from IS over to CYS. Apparently with the intent of entering them in this contest.  And acted confused when the site members said that seemed unfair.

The rules were that any story published during the contest month was automatically considered to be a contest entry. No having to submit intent, or specifically state it was a contest entry.

Oh well, I guess March stepped into that one then.

"The rules were that any story published during the contest month was automatically considered to be a contest entry. No having to submit intent, or specifically state it was a contest entry."

Uh, inappropriate timing here, but ... that actually sounds like a really interesting idea for a contest.

Yeah, it was a cool idea. Got a number of participants, too. 

March told everyone that the rules were "unclear" as to whether "created during the contest period" allowed for sorties previously published on another site.

@endmaster Anyway, my point was, I don't remember it as being we were annoyed because you were from another site- it was that necromancer probably  took more than a month to write, and it didn't seem fair to make us compete against an already-finished story,

Like, if I said "New contest, Kiels entry is The Other World, he has all month to edit & improve his story, everyone else has one month to start from scratch & submit something better."

it felt like March just really wanted you to stay at cys, and you did, so I guess he was right after all ^_^

I hear what a few of you are saying, but I doubt the genre had much to do with the dearth of entries. I suspect we just have a lot of readers and forum-goers, for the most part, rather than choose-your-story writers, at the current time. Next time we have a contest, we'll possibly leave it open to anything one wants to write, and see if we get more entries.

As far as "the rewards aren't good enough," well, that's a position that is useless to argue. The original prize was going to be $100 and a surprise gift (which was a Kindle). However, none of the admins had much interest in bribing members to write, and I realized that I didn't either. We're all here to write and read and interact, after all, and that should be its own reward.

If it's not, feel free to submit your stories to a publisher and see if you can get a retainer or up-front payment. Or, better yet, publish on Amazon and sell your stories for 99 cents a pop. You could make a lot of money that way. You might even get a free PS4 and become l33t.

"As far as 'the rewards aren't good enough,' well, that's a position that is useless to argue. The original prize was going to be $100 and a surprise gift (which was a Kindle). However, none of the admins had much interest in bribing members to write, and I realized that I didn't either. We're all here to write and read and interact, after all, and that should be its own reward."

I hate to be this blunt, considering I wasn't able to complete my entry, but I have to disagree with you. When better incentives were offered, the competition had more favorable results. That is the way contests work. A contest is a situation where one party offers to another party a greater incentive in exchange for an increase in productivity or the fulfillment of a certain objective. You can't offer us what we normally get for writing on the site.

I am kind of inclined to agree with madglee here, if you love writing you shouldn't need rewards to do it because you'll be doing it anyway. Financial rewards are a bit much on a site like this where you're not going to get a book deal every time you submit a good story, I see this site as for somewhere to publish story games and see if they are liked or not and what people think can be improved. The competition theme could have been broader and the reward could have been higher (personally I'd prefer 300 points for first place as well as a trophy and featuring).

Taking the kindel route will mean eventually people will expect financial rewards for anything they've worked hard on and think is great and throw tantrums if their dream story that they have slaved over doesn't win competitions, in the real world you're going to be rejected A LOT by publishers and writing is surprisingly hard work.

Haha my last post sounded really harsh :D I'm just thinking aloud to myself really but I reckon financially rewarding people is a dangerous road to take on this site as it can lead to a lot of resentment and false expectations because people outside this site (like publishers) might not hold the same opinions of what is good and bad. I guess competitions should just be fairly friendly affairs where people work on a piece of writing and submit it for review like Kiel's writing exercises on a larger scale. I didn't get involved in the last competition because apocalyptic stories are beyond my writing experience at the moment but hopefully they'll be another competition in the future I can try for :)

I didn't think it sounded very harsh at all. If anything you're pretty much a beacon of positivity around here. Even your avatar suits you.

I pretty much agree with you and Mad on this, but I think there is a desire to have the contests of old because from what I understand CYS was really generous with the prizes for past contests and it's human nature to want to be rewarded with something tangible.

And all of that is cool if you can keep that going, but that gets expensive in the long term and the ones who were doing most of the judging and giving away the prizes in the past aren't around anymore. So the contest prizes of old aren't really a viable incentive in the foreseeable future unless someone decides to be a rich generous benefactor.

So that leaves trophies, points, and possible featuring as rewards which to be honest is still a lot more recognition than what you get over at IS which despite being "undead" still manages to eek out a yearly contest with about as many entries that were submitted for this year's contest over here.

Surely with as many people as there are here this place COULD do better. I mean there were what like 30 people who said they'd join? I knew that wasn't going to happen, I figured at best you might get 10, but I am a little surprised that there weren't enough for the 5 entry minimum.

While contests probably should have a slightly more focused topic, I think going broader is probably the way to go here. I probably wouldn't have a 100 page minimum though, I'd have more like a 20 page minimum. Someone who churns out a 20 page story isn't likely to win over someone who churns out something with more, but it at least keeps the minimums low enough that you'll probably at least get enough people to put out something. Besides, someone still might put out something of quality within less pages since longer doesn't always mean better.

"like Kiel's writing exercises on a larger scale."

... >_>' Not a good example, Will.

But notice how many participants you get.

Or, for another example, look how many stories Morgan's 90 minute challenge produced.

I meant lately.

... Look at the current week, Seth. It's the fourth day. I have one finished entry. One.

it ran longer than a lot of forums games.

Yeah ... I guess so. Maybe I helped at least a couple people improve. If that's the case, and they get the confidence to write an actual, good story as a result, then I've accomplished enough.

One of the key differences between those and a contest is the length. A writing entry or a ninety minute challenge doesn't require nearly as much time, planning, and effort as it does to create a story that has even a decent chance to win a contest. Simply put, they're much less intimidating of a task.

I'm not blaming anyone. I have no doubt that if I made the prize $500 and a PS4, there would be a lot of entries. Can't dispute that fact, and that's why there is no point in arguing with that position, and it becomes a ridiculous argument the more one inflates the prizes. 

I concede that perhaps the genre restriction messed things up. Next time, as I previously said, we may leave it up to the writer to choose. I also concede that I probably should have kept the $100 as a first place prize. 

Considering we all got to read four pretty damn nice stories for free, no one lost. Hopefully some were inspired, and we will see more participation next time.

Seems like you, Killa_Robot, are a vocal minority in this case. Next contest, why don't you chip in $50 and we'll really up the ante?

That's because you're the vocal minority. I've seen your work, and am uncertain that your words carry any weight. 

Well ... here's my two cents, if anyone wants it:

"We're all here to write and read and interact, after all, and that should be its own reward."

Absolutely, Madglee, I agree completely--sort of. =| Reading, writing, and interacting with other people are their own reward or I wouldn't be here at all. I joined this site because I love CYOAs and because I wanted to see what I could create here after I was inspired by the work of the more talented veterans here.

On the other hand, pouring hours of work into something that you did not originally plan to create is daunting, especially for new writers. A contest is an excuse to be bold, to push yourself to rise above your usual efforts and try your hardest. Rivalries between writers can produce some brilliant results. Seeing other people work towards a goal can inspire others.

I would've continued working on my game series regardless, but my entry exists because of the contest. I was inspired both by the theme and by my desire to put out something that deserved the prize you were offering. I pushed myself harder than I normally would've and ... apparently it worked.

Without the time crunch and the incentive, I've seen myself slowing down--and that's not necessarily a bad thing, taking your time, but I'm a perfectionist and I have a stressful life, so I'll drag my heels a lot without extra motivation. I'll still -do- it, because I enjoy it on its own merit, but I take much longer and I can get writer's block more easily without that voice in the back of my head telling me I have to keep going or I'll lose. In another example, Undead Persona was Tanstaafl's first ever game. I know I can't actually speak for him, but it seems to me that you kick-started his drive to write and the results were excellent, imho.

"It's a contest. Contests have prizes. It's perfectly reasonable to expect a contest to go above and beyond what you would normally get when publishing a story, and it's more motivating when that is the case."

Well, yes. People are people and this is our nature. We like positive reinforcement and we like it even more when it involves something we can put to practical use. Rewards are effective. Mind you, the trophy and bragging rights were enough for me, but I put value into them.

"A contest is a situation where one party offers to another party a greater incentive in exchange for an increase in productivity or the fulfillment of a certain objective. You can't offer us what we normally get for writing on the site."

I kind of agree with this and kind of don't. The point amount was more than we're able to get from just creating or rating a story, or participating in most point awarding activities and member trophies are very difficult to obtain most of the time. Featured spots are also limited and would've been a nice prize had things actually worked out. Point is, I think you offered good prizes.

That said, there are people who already -have- y'alls trophies or don't have the same kind of drive to collect them. There are also people who have a very large amount of points and may not feel the need to get more. I ... can't imagine anyone turning down a featured spot for any reason, (unless that person is already dominating several spots *cough*EndMaster*cough*)  but what do I know?

This is gonna sound strange, I think but: I'd actually give less time than we did for this contest if I ran one in future.

I think having such a long time to write encouraged a lot of people to: procrastinate past the point where it was feasible they'd be done;  plan a story that was epic in scale but that they couldn't get done; submit intent meaning to get back to it but forgetting about it; get discouraged by the amount of story other people (Kiel, tan) were clearly producing and lose interest/hope.

Speaking just for myself, I kinda/sorta agree with you.

I initially thought I could do really well and spent too much time on character and world building.  I thought I could just hammer out the pages, but then life happened and I missed the first deadline.  Well, the extension reinvigorated me but I saw what others had already produced (I made the mistake of reading what was already written) and that was discouraging, but I didn't give up.  I started writing and writing...then deleting page after monotonous page until I was back in the same boat I had started.

I don't like to make excuses, but this would certainly fit in my case.

All I can say is that, if I had less time, I wouldn't have submitted my game ... but that's me. *shrug* Maybe you're right.

I liked your rant, too.  It's just that I wasn't as driven as you were during the contest.  With all the encouragement you've given, maybe next time.  :)

Hehe. Well, thanks. Looking forward to it, if we ever have another one of these.

I agree completely.

About limiting the time? *making notes in case I ever host a writing contest, which I'd totally like to do some day* ... Hm.

Check out my thread in the writing workshop if you feel like it. If enough people join, you're welcome to help judge if you don't feel like participating.

I am most definitely willing to help judge. Sounds like fun. :)

I'd participate with an entry, but T.O.W. and the writing exercises have taken up too much of my time lately. (Plus, I'm ... wondering if I really did help to intimidate people that entered the contest. =|)

I'd like to think when enough members get their own trophies we'd be able to have less demanding, but more inviting contests that would happen on a regular basis. Still don't know if Seth's idea would make certain that people will get something in, but it's a sound theory. I think.

And with that, you've just stated the entire reason I've been chasing down admin and mod trophies. I want my own trophy because I want to be able to offer people something when I host. :P I am not a rich person, but I am determined...!

Maybe a new rule should be:

If you want to enter a contest, it costs $100. If you win, you win the pot. So, you could possibly win $100 x the number of entries, but you could also lose $100.

That's what we will do.

What do you do if you're too poor to bet $100? :) Can you offer good to an equivalent value like a toaster?

Well, maybe we'll make it $20 to enter, or something. Still, that could be interesting.

I don't think I would enter any competition where I had to pay to enter, it sounds too much like vanity publishing. I'm a bit old fashioned but I think money should only flow one way, from a reader to the author via a publisher or agent, if you've already done the work of writing a story why should you basically pay for people to read it? I think I'll stick to the idea that offering a cash prize of any kind on a site like this is an idea that could lead to a lot of resentment among the losers and also create a demand where over time some people would want a bigger and bigger prize for each competition...

Hahah, I agree, but wake up and smell the capitalism.

Thank you, sir. It started out as the ravings of a sarcastic and cynical post-40 fool, but became something magical.

EDIT: I wonder if that counts as gambling and encouraging minors to gamble. One would need parents' permission to enter if under 18.

If you want to avoid any possible legal issues, this is what you do:

Call the amount of money put in an 'entry fee' and that way, it's not soliciting money from minors, it's 'providing a service at a reasonable cost,' and the 'service' is 'the ability to participate in an otherwise exclusive community activity and win a trophy for your artistic creations.' The collective entry fees are gathered up and called a 'prize' which could be given to one winner or you could divvy it up between first and second (and maybe third) place. Easy.

The fact that there are legal issues to be avoided irritates the crap out of me.

*shrug* It's the world we live in.

Legality and ethics are entirely different. Never trust any old, bearded white men who created laws.

You're a smart guy. Good work.

Thanks.

If the contestants were to put up some or all of the points, they'd probably be more motivated.

Ah yeah, good work. We could bet points or something. I mean, toggle and rock paper scissors is gambling, so I guess it's all fine.

Terrible, terrible idea. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars.

Ha, you love the idea. I pass go. You pass go. We all pass go. I am Groot. WE ARE GROOT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph_l7Pp_1mk