Ceramic DM - Spring 2005 (Late Bloomer) - We have a winner.

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi yangnome,

Spoiler blocked but free for all to read except obviously our judges.

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Excellent story! I really enjoyed it.
Your writing was excellent in capturing how the narrator thought.

I agree with you so much about that picture though! If you look at his face in it's entirety - his expression is absolute and utter awe but then when you focus upon his eyes, you can feel his sensing of fear. I don't know where BSF got that photo from but my goodness was it fantastic to base a story around.

Unlike you, I really struggled to join the pictures together. It took me pretty much the whole of "Day One" as I called it to come up with a basic storyline joining the images. By Day Two I'd only written 1600 words with five and a half sections still to write - and they were the big ones too.

What can I say but that the whole Ceramic DM thing has just blown me away. The experience was fantastic! I don't care if the judges rip my story apart, I'm so happy to have finished it in the time constraints because I'm a really slow writer - just ask those people following my Story Hour.

Anyway, best of luck.

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Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[BSF]

Sheesh, even Rangerwickett had seven minutes to spare. Not quite down to the wire, but pretty close.

 

[yangnome]

This comment should be safe for judges to read:

Wow, I am really glad that all three of us managed to get our stories in on time. When I saw that I was the first one with an hour left, I began to worry that one or both of you might not make it. A big part of the enjoyment of CDM for me is to see how each person looks at the pictures. We definately turned in three very different stories. I enjoyed both of your stories. I'll try to post some thoughts and comments sometime this evening.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi RangerWickett,

And I thought I was cutting it fine.

As before, free to all except our wonderful judges.

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What can I say. That was just absolutely brilliant. I've read a couple of your stories to see what the first round opposition was like and they were pretty damn good.
However this one was just brilliant. EXCELLENT ending!

Enjoy Round 2
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Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Herremann the Wise]

This comment should be safe for judges to read:

Wow, I am really glad that all three of us managed to get our stories in on time. When I saw that I was the first one with an hour left, I began to worry that one or both of you might not make it. A big part of the enjoyment of CDM for me is to see how each person looks at the pictures. We definately turned in three very different stories. I enjoyed both of your stories. I'll try to post some thoughts and comments sometime this evening.

Unfortunately this comment might not be so:

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I was a little worried myself but RangerWickett came through and how!
Isn't it interesting how those pictures could be used in such different ways.

I'm more a fantasy person myself more so than sci-fi so I was a little concerned leading up to the pictures being posted. I only have a single Story Hour and it's straight fantasy. My experience with sci-fi, not only writing but reading is incredibly limited which is not ideal for this competition. As such, I bent the images as best I could, trying to suck out all the strange little pieces of information in them.

Anyway, I was thinking of posting a diary after the round is judged; this being my first experience Ceramic DMing.

What I can say however is I can see now why Alsih2o was so forthright when it came to judging in the initial thread. Unless you have been under the pump, trying to figure out how to put four pictures together in under 72 hours, I'm not too sure you would be even close to having the right perspective. I mean that first day, I was wondering - how the hell am I going to do this? This is impossible!

To then go on the Ceramic DM ride and finish off a story, you can imagine the journey each writer takes as they finally produce their finished piece. Anyway, I'm rambling. i'm still on a high actually finishing my story so please excuse my enthusiasm at the moment.

If I get knocked out, I'll provide some judgments for the 2nd and 3rd rounds. I've got a silly scheme worked out that should at the least be amusing, if not overly informative.

Anyway, best of luck yangnome and RangerWickett, excellent entries from both of you.
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And finally to BardStephenFox,

Have you ever thought of running a Virgin Ceramic DM competition where all contestants are Enworlders who... you know... haven't done it before. It might make for an interesting competition - I know how much I have enjoyed participating in this for the first time.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[BSF]

And finally to BardStephenFox,

Have you ever thought of running a Virgin Ceramic DM competition where all contestants are Enworlders who... you know... haven't done it before. It might make for an interesting competition - I know how much I have enjoyed participating in this for the first time.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

That came up in the backchannel discussions before this competition started. I had considered it and Alsih2o had suggested it as a possibility. I just wonder if we would actually have 8 new people that would want to jump in. One of my reasons for running the sign-ups for so long was to try to encourage people to speak up if they are interested. Even if they couldn't make it in this contest, it would give us a chance to see how many people really are interested.

Each contest we seem to bring in a few new people. But it doesn't seem like we ever have a full 8 new people interested in writing. Maybe they stay lurking if it looks like the contest is full? I don't know.

In any event, I agree that the first contest is fun. They all are, but there seems to be a little more tension and excitement in your first time.

 

[alsih2o]

Wow, just in off the road and catching up. This is some great stuff to catch up to.

BSF is kicking tail and the stories are looking great. More!

 

[RangerWickett]

I hope Arwink wins round 4, because he's the only guy I know well enough to be able to trash talk. Of course, he probably won't be able to finish his story because he's moving again. (note: not a crack at BSF or alsih2o or anyone else moving).

[sblock]I wanted to read through all the stories posted here, but I had to go visit a few friends of mine who work in the supermarket that inspired this story. I worked at Publix in Atlanta for 4 months, and had an . . . interesting time. Anyway, I managed to only finish reading the first rounders. Need sleep.
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Peace.

 

[arwink]

I hope Arwink wins round 4, because he's the only guy I know well enough to be able to trash talk. Of course, he probably won't be able to finish his story because he's moving again. (note: not a crack at BSF or alsih2o or anyone else moving).

Marking, actually.

And once again, the general quality of ceramic DM entries pretty much creams about 70% of the submissions in the creative writing course.

 

[Berandor]

In any event, I agree that the first contest is fun. They all are, but there seems to be a little more tension and excitement in your first time.

For me, there was a little more sucking in my first time... err, quality-wise. But yeah, I remember it "fondly" (i.e. waking up screaming)

I just got up, will read now. Congrats, y'all, for making it in time.