Mysteriously mysterious mysteries.
--Update--
Sorry it is taking so long for me to finish up the judging. Real life chaos and blahdeeblahdeeblah. I should be able to get everything completed by Sunday night at the latest, so stay tuned for the winners.
Just wanted to let everyone know that you are not simply floating in the cosmos forgotten. Again, apologies for the delay.
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**Note to contestants--If you have your story listed in the "murder" or "horror" category, it cannot be viewed by anyone under 15. At least one of our judges is under 15 and cannot view those writes. So please edit your writes to remove the horror or murder category listing unless it is truly something that you feel no one under 15 should view.
You are the author so you decide what that means.
We will not limit you to the Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes mode of mystery. Feel free to think Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen King or even Austin Powers or whatever else you consider a mysteriousity of mystery.
Your story can be fiction or non-fiction. It can be realistic or of the fantasy realm. You can write Sci-fi or earth bound. You can solve your mystery for us or you can allow the readers imagination to draw its own conclusions. It can be a classic "who done it" or it can be a romantic comedy off the wall mystery.
All categories accepted provided your write is steeped in mystery of some sort. There can be a mystery in any category from drama to comedy to horror to any others you can imagine. If it is a mystery to you, it is fair game.
Mystery can be found everywhere so show us what you can do and intrigue us with your stories.
If you would prefer to be a judge rather than a contestant apply here by June 16th:
http://storywrite.com/group/info/SW+Presents+Judging+Panel
*helpful hint: your story will be better received if it is a good stand alone story. Even if it happens to be a prologue or chapter of a longer work you have penned, it should be a complete story unto itself even without the benefit of the rest of the book :)
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The Rules--Set in Stone
1. Only 1 entry per author.
2. Categorize properly especially if your write is of an "adult" nature. If in doubt, ask us.
3. No bashing of any culture, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
4. No photos or graphics. No blinky backgrounds. Stick with light backgrounds like white, beige, or pastel colors and dark font so that most people can read them without going blind.
5. STORIES ONLY.
6. Minimum word count 500 maximum 5000. No more, no less. *See suggestion number 8 below.
7. Abide by all site policies.
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The Suggestions--Written in Sand, But Still Important
1. Use spell check.
2. Use paragraph breaks.
3. Limit phonetic spelling to dialogue or to express dialect and only use acronyms and sticky caps if they actually have something to do with your story.
4. Proof read your work.
5. If you enter a prewrite make sure it is your best work, edited and it is indeed a mystery of some sort. Edit your author's notes, background, etc to be in compliance with the rules if need be. If you are not sure the judges will “get” your mystery, give a SHORT explanation in your author’s notes.
6. Check back often for suggestions from the judges in case you missed a rule.
7. Read your fellow contestants, they will probably return the favor.
8. The word count of all entries will be determined by the word counter here on the site. Be sure you check to see how many words the site shows your write to be regardless of what your word processor told you. The site counter and various word processing counters do not always jive so use the site counter to avoid DQ situations.
In most cases, this means that your word processor will show a higher word count than the site counter does by about 100-150 words. In order to ensure that your write meets the 500 minimum get a count of 650 in your word processor, then double check it after posting to make sure you got the word count right.
To keep the contest fair and consistent, we will be judging word count by the site counter only.
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Prizes are as follows
1st place--Gold Trophy, 100 points and a 3 month gold membership
2nd place--Silver Trophy, 100 points and a 3 month silver membership
3rd place--Bronze Trophy and 500 points.
1 Honorable mention will be awarded.
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There will be a panel of judges. I will be listing them here so check back soon for the edit. I wanted to get the contest up and running so that everyone could get to work writing
We will judge based on
1. Originality.
2. Entertainment value.
3. Clarity of story.
4. Polish, IE minimal typos, good paragraph breaks, etc. Obviously, if your story looks like a rough draft, it won't get as high of a mark from the judges.
5. Adherence to contest rules.
Best of luck to all of you and happy writing *roll*
The contest will close on July 5th.
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on July 16, 2007
- Rewards: Gold: 100, Silver: 100, Bronze: 500, Honorable mention: 1 people
- Final notes: A big thank you to all the contestants. You provided us with many hours of good reading and labored judging We enjoyed reading all your writes.
Congratulations to the winners.
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of StoryWrite Presents
Contest Winners
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A boy and a girl find a rotting human body at the bottom of a well....by Delfishie 1100 words, 23 comments, on May 13 3:20 AM 2007. In Crime, Short story, Supernatural
Gold trophy winner
• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
-“There are two kinds of people in this world, the ones who ate the paste in grade school, and the ones who didn’t.”-
You wake up every moby Crozon 2300 words, 24 comments, on Jul 15 7:56 PM 2004. In 200-1500 lines, Dark, Fiction, Horror
Silver trophy winner
• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] - Error: Unable to find finalist item 79683, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
- Error: Unable to find finalist item 91455, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
Entries [15]
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by X-SaNiTy-AsSaSsiN-x 2900 words, 7 comments, on Jun 13 11:52 AM 2007. In Fiction, Murder, Mystery, Young adult• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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• Commented on by judge.
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Choking on the torrent of words trying to escape my throat, I croaked, “How?” / “He was bad for you,” she said, as if it was perfectly undeby travis34dietC 1600 words, 26 comments, on Jun 2 9:04 PM 2007• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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A man beckoned Amethyst in a fog and, as always in dreams, she went to him, her eyes fixed as if hypnotized. The brume flowed in different directions, like haphazard currents in an ocean. Her passage disrupted them even fur• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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LEDA AND HER DEMON LOVER1 / By Robert Davidson2 / Mirrors are living lies, Leda Angelopolos thought. They reflect only the• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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A Simple Story / / “Life is a miracle in itself” / / A perfect life is only some one could hope for in today’s world people have it in thby Mohd 1900 words, 9 comments, on May 15 5:59 PM 2007. In Depression, Inspirational, Life, Love, Romance, Short story, Spiritua• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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A small desert sparrow, known to the natives as Sahil, soared high above the desert of Ehat'tal. Rolling white dunes shimmered with the heaby Herding Cats 200 words, 17 comments, on Jun 13 2:58 PM 2007. In Fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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A brief moment in the life of a man who can not concentrate on anything.by Xineph 1100 words, 27 comments, on Mar 27 2:19 PM 2007. In Death, Fiction, First person, Life, Other, Pain, Short story• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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The morning sun rose in the Far East, illuminating the bedroom floor. Dianne and Marcus lay in their bed, cuddled close with one another. /• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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As a single parent, raising 2 boys, I thought we should have a sturdy shelter dog in our family, so I snook over to the ASPCA after work one evening, "just to look". What was waiting for me there would change our lives for thby Fearlessfox 600 words, 6 comments, on Jun 30 5:49 AM 2007. In Crime, Dogs, Family, Humor, Mystery, Pets• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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So this morning, I woke up. / I know, how very exciting. But you see, that’s only the beginning, because I had to stretch and yawn too afte• Commented on by judge.
Add a comment
Comments
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crap... just realized my story is too long. You can DQ it or whatever if ya want
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Ok. I will remove it for now, but see if you can edit to get the word count and reenter. You might want to do it in a new story posting and just post a portion of the entire story. In a story this long it is sometimes possible to find a dividing line.
At any rate, hope to see ya back with an entry
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Oooh. I'm excited. I think I really want to try something with this one. Great idea.. and 3 months gold does not sound bad at all. = )
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and why on earth wud u want a gold membership??? u like already have it!!!
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LoL, probably because the prize is a membership that is paid for by the site rather than the individual.
Hope you are going to "go for the gold" as well
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oh...
wha!!! but i'm in the judge panelyy thingy!! i didn't noe i cud post a story!!1 <3 -
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LoL, you can't if you are a judge, but there will be more contests similar to this one with the same type prizes so maybe you will enter the next one
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no prob!!! i like the judgy panelly thingy!! its fun!!
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I have a good story but a character is racist in it. Its the characters opinion not mine but I just wanted to know. I can edit it if needed before entering it.Mail me about it please.
-Marshall -
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I am posting the answer to your question here so that others with the same concern can view it as well.
It is hard to tell without actually reading the story. Of course, I don't want to read it before it is enterred since it is an anonymous contest and that would be unfair to other contestants. So you will have to use your best judgement as far as edits.
But to clarify the rules in question--3. No bashing... and 7. Abide by site policies
First, if it is not a violation of site policy, it is probably ok. It is not against site policy to write about certain realistic issues, but rather writes that would promote intolerance of other cultures.
If your write does not violate site policies, then give it a go. -
Also, here is a link to the policies referred to so you can better judge the situation.
http://storywrite.com/home/guide/rules
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so i'm being dq'd because my story doesn't agree with your beliefs? it's not bashing anything at all, or preferring anything. but oh well, better luck for me next time.
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I have no clue what you are talking about.
I am the only person who removes any writes from the contest. The only way you can be DQ'd is by actually breaking a contest rule or a site policy. The only people other than myself who have permission to remove writes from this contest would be moderator staff in the event of site policy violations.
Hope that helps clear things up a bit.
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oh, thanks! one of the judges said it was unacceptable; I thought that meant it was disqualified. Well. Thanks! and ignore my attitude on the comment before; as you can imagine, I was kinda mad.
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oh god!! will u ppl please remove the words horror and murder from ur categorization!!!!
i can't get acces to them!!!
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hee
This is why, before I turned 18, I would always always lie whenever a website asked for my age. Because otherwise I got blocked out of stuff.
...Is it possible for you to edit your user information to appear over 18? If not, you could always create a new username just for this contest that doesn't prohibit you from seeing stuff.
But wow. You can't even view HORROR? That's just horrible. Horror is the greatest subject ever!
Hope you get it fixed! -
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Not a good idea to change age here if you are underage. It is a violation of site policy and if caught by the moderators can result in banning.
Here the age cut off is 15. I wasn't aware that horror and murder were included in the categories that couldnt be viewed by those under 15. Sigh, I will see if I can add a note to the contest to get people to catagorize differently unless there are things not legal for underage eyes
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oh no...im not gonna change my age....
well....i just hope ppl do.....there are till date only two such stories i cant get access to....
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I just thought I should point out that I changed my username a little while ago. I'm no longer known as Heartbroken Reject, so if you could change it to "Key-van" in the judgess, it'd be much appreciated! Thanks
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congratulations on the winners!
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