Spring Ceramic DM™: WINNER POSTED!
Macbeth
First Post
Well, I'm about to start into finals, so I'm going to be quite busy. Ideally, you could post the pictures Monday or Tuesday, since I finish finals on Tuesday. Posting Monday would give me time to think me story through, then I can sit down and actually write on Wednesday. Looking at my post-finals schedule, Monday night, Tuesday or Wednesday would be best for me. I'm not sure if that will work, sinec the judgements might take a while, but those are best for me.
Currently I'm pretty flexible next week. I would prefer having the deadline be no later than Saturday morning, as my weekend is sort of full.
I know that I will have at least two dinner plans next week and my hubbie is getting ansty for a date, but I can work around those (I think).
Ugh... I'm not yet recovered from this round. How long is "a while"?
Zhaneel
I know that I will have at least two dinner plans next week and my hubbie is getting ansty for a date, but I can work around those (I think).
Ugh... I'm not yet recovered from this round. How long is "a while"?
Zhaneel
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
We'll plan to post them Wednesday morning (West Coast time), then. That means the stories will be due Saturday morning West coast time; let me know if that's a problem for anyone. The final round will be six pictures, and the word limit rises with the extra photo by 1000 words (just to leave you enough rope.) 
I'll take this opportunity to say what a delight judging this contest has been for me. Thanks for letting a new judge take the helm, and thanks for letting me use Sialia's art as I did so. Oddly enough, taking this critical look at your stories is probably going to improve my own writing as well. I used to do what BSF does and not read the other stories, mainly because I was afraid of absorbing too much from them. Now that approach seems alien to me, and when I compete in the summer round I'll probably read everyone's story that I possibly can. It's all fodder for the imagination, I think.
Notes on photos for this last round: "heat" is a public fountain in Barcelona during last summer's heat wave, and "rapture" is a tent going up at the Burning Man festival three years ago. I saw that photo and fell in love with it; I wish I had a higher resolution copy.
I'll take this opportunity to say what a delight judging this contest has been for me. Thanks for letting a new judge take the helm, and thanks for letting me use Sialia's art as I did so. Oddly enough, taking this critical look at your stories is probably going to improve my own writing as well. I used to do what BSF does and not read the other stories, mainly because I was afraid of absorbing too much from them. Now that approach seems alien to me, and when I compete in the summer round I'll probably read everyone's story that I possibly can. It's all fodder for the imagination, I think.
Notes on photos for this last round: "heat" is a public fountain in Barcelona during last summer's heat wave, and "rapture" is a tent going up at the Burning Man festival three years ago. I saw that photo and fell in love with it; I wish I had a higher resolution copy.
I agree that reading & critiquing other people's stories improves your own writing.
In fact, there are several workshops based around this idea. I encouage anyone reading/writing in this thread to consider Critters Workshop. It is an online SF/F/H based workshop. You are required to critique other people's stories and can submit your own for critique. In order to be in the "good standing" that you should be in to critique stories, you need to maintain a 75% ratio of stories critiqued to weeks of memebership [3 critiques a month]. You can learn a lot from reading other people's critiques of the same work. And since all feedback has to be 100 words or longer, you can expect more Arwink style critiques.
Zhaneel
In fact, there are several workshops based around this idea. I encouage anyone reading/writing in this thread to consider Critters Workshop. It is an online SF/F/H based workshop. You are required to critique other people's stories and can submit your own for critique. In order to be in the "good standing" that you should be in to critique stories, you need to maintain a 75% ratio of stories critiqued to weeks of memebership [3 critiques a month]. You can learn a lot from reading other people's critiques of the same work. And since all feedback has to be 100 words or longer, you can expect more Arwink style critiques.
Zhaneel
BSF
Explorer
Piratecat said:
Hmm, that doesn't sound quite the way I intended it to. I like reading everyone else's stories. But, I also found myself thinking "OK, somebody already wrote a story that shares some of these characteristics this round. If I write like that, then I will look imitative." Yeah, that's kinda silly, I know. But, it seemed to work better for me this round since I wasn't arbitrarily limiting myself based on stupid self-perceptions.
But now, I am reading through all the stories, (I didn't make the menu for nothing after all) and I am even trying to comment on them in the other feedback thread.
BSF
Explorer
Zhaneel said:
Wow! Thanks for the link Zhaneel. I need to be sure Eeralai sees that. She is much more involved with writing than I am. Which is cool, since she is my wife, and it is sad, since I bought my first computer to become a writer. I'm trying to get back toward that writer bit instead of being a Network and System Administrator for the rest of my life.
