Greetings all,
This thread is to announce the First 2006 ILP/Symposia Writing Competition which is being run over the next couple of weeks. I suggested the idea about a week ago and since you lot showed such an interest that I decided to bring it forward.
[b]The Rules of the First 2006 ILP/Symposia Writing Competition[/b]
Judges
There is an elite panel of three judges comprising LivingDeadGirl, Thirst4Metal and myself. All decisions will be taken democratically (majority verdict rules even if I happen to disagree) and the decisions, once announced, are final.
Length/Time
The competition is officially open today though some of you have had the slight advantage of having had a few days to work on your pieces already. It will run for 2 weeks, which by my watch makes the closing date March 6th. Winners will be contacted via PM shortly before the end of March (so that they can prepare an acceptance speech) and the winners will be announced on April 1st. No, I’m not kidding.
All pieces must be written in some or other prose style. We will hopefully be running a poetry competition shortly after announcing the winners of this competition so save your poetic works for that. The suggested length is 800-1500 words, it being at the panel’s discretion to accept longer or shorter pieces where necessary. This will only take place if the piece is written in such a way that necessitates a different length. Consider that any less than 800 words and it will be hard for the panel to make an assessment and any more than 1500 and you’re going to have to come up with a lot of good words.
Only one submission per person. If you are desperate to submit more than one entry then PM me and plead your case, I may reconsider but it is unlikely.
Submission of pieces
All pieces should be e-mailed to someoneisatthedoor@yahoo.co.uk
I prefer word attachments which I can distribute to the other members of the panel, which I will do - no need to send 3 copies. For technical reasons please do NOT submit your entry to Symposia. Your e-mail address will remain private but if anyone feels uncomfortable submitting in this way then please contact me via PM.
Once the competition is over and the winners have been announced all the best pieces will be published on Symposia, with the winning pieces being featured articles for a month. But I can handle the recreation of the pieces myself, please do NOT submit your entry to Symposia.
We cannot accept anonymous pieces as this will make assessment impossible. The panel will consider the pieces purely in terms of their worth as outlined below. Please make things clear by citing the name that you use to post here at ILP next to the title at the top of your entry.
Please do NOT show your piece to any other competitor before the end of the competition because we cannot arbitrate regarding allegations of plagiarism. Likewise do not publish the piece elsewhere as this may lead to entries being disqualified. Once the competition has ended (not when it has closed - we don’t want a free for all argument about whose is the best piece before we’ve announced the winners) feel free to show off and/or publish your piece as you would anything else that you’ve written.
Judgment
There are essentially five criteria on which the panel will be making their decision(s). Not each is evenly weighted, but each is crucial to the final rankings.
Imagination (content) - Put simply, how imaginative the content of your story seems to the panel. As I’ve stated, the suggested topic is Theme Parks but this isn’t a set topic i.e. no marks will be added/deducted for following/not following this suggestion.
Originality (style) - How original your style seems to the panel. This will be assessed (as much as it is possible to do so) separately from the previous criterion. If you write an essentially predictable and trite story using outlandish rhetoric then you’ll score lowly in the first and highly in the second. These two concerns are approximately equal in weighting regarding the final score.
Consistency
This applies to both content and style and is an assessment of the pieces overall quality. If you’ve come up with 4 exceptionally amusing or incisive phrases but have placed them all in the opening 200 words then you’ll score lowly here. If you’ve structured your piece well and spread out the best bits to make the whole thing more attractive then you’ll score highly here.
Felicity (beffiting an adult audience)
Again, put simply, this is how appropriate the piece is to an adult audience. We’re looking at 18+, though I don’t mean that explicit sex or violence or lots of swearing will impress the panel, more so this is a reminder to not patronise the audience, think of them as reasonably intelligent, informed people, be brave and bold in your writing without being heavy handed and you’ll score highly. Banging out cliched ideas and dull truisms in basic language will see you score lowly.
Spelling and Grammar
Self explanatory
Right, I think that this is everything that you need to know at this stage so I’ll wish you all the best of luck and point out that if you are sitting on the fence, worrying about whether or not to enter then please do enter, you won’t be criticised if your piece is rubbish, you just won’t be praised, and since only 3 people will know who has entered you won’t be publically shamed.
Please post any comments or questions that you have on this thread and I hope that you have fun writing…
