This contest is a little different from the usual. Instead of having a word limit and/or one to a few specified themes and options, I'm going to give you one general task: Write for nine minutes in a pure stream-of-consciousness uncensored unedited manner. Don't just freewrite, go all the way into automatic writing. Close your eyes if you can do that and type legibly at the same time. If you're able, meditate and type simultaneously. Let your fingers do *all* the work. Be as unaware of what you're writing as possible. Don't worry about plot, character, rhyme, even poetry versus story or nonsense versus sense -- just *write*.
But not just about anything, mind you. I want you to vent your Shadow.
For those unfamiliar, the Shadow is a Jungian archetype representing those aspects of your own personality which you reject, whether deliberately or unconsciously, or are simply unaware of. If you think of yourself as a nice, gentle person, for example, odds are that you're simply repressing your violent urges, rather than never having any. You might find yourself having occasional thoughts that seem to come from nowhere, thoughts you would "never have", ideas that disquiet, disturb, or even appall you on a conscious level.
It's time to stop turning your back on that part of yourself and reach inside it. If you can't bring yourself to embrace and merge with it, the healthiest thing to do is to purge it every now and again. That is what this contest is for.
Purge your Shadow. Close your eyes, reach deep inside to those parts of yourself which you normally don't allow yourself to pay attention to or acknowledge or express, and do exactly that. Give them the free reign they've been denied for so long -- on your keyboard.
Note that while I'm going to be more lenient about grammar, leaving room for the brain/mind to invent things, I'm still going to be checking spelling, punctuation, and so forth. I won't penalize *creative* spelling/punctuation, if it's intentional -- just let me know somehow in the Author's Notes for example, although I'm not sure if that'll come up much in this sort of contest.
There aren't many rules, but they're very important.
1.) You must not hesitate to write *anything* that comes to mind. You must censor *nothing*. If you're not comfortable with what comes out, to the point where you don't want anyone to see it, don't enter the contest. The whole idea is to dig this stuff up and bring it to light.
2.) After you've finished your auto-write, step back from it for a while (an hour to a day or so) then come back and proofread and polish it. This is especially important if your brain doesn't naturally express itself with capitalization, punctuation, and so forth. If it seems more appropriate or workable, you may arrange your write as free-verse poetry rather than prose.
3.) Due to the nature of the contest, prewrites aren't allowed. Right now I'm allowing only one entry per person, but people who are willing to go deeper into their Shadows may enter more than once, under the following conditions: You must spend consecutively more time writing for each new entry, and you have to get approval.
4.) Don't take this as a license to whine or be "emo" or mindlessly gory or whatnot. If primal hunger is truly what lurks inside, by all means, unleash it -- but don't throw a bunch of the usual stuff at me and call it self-exploration. The idea isn't to accumulate a bunch of dark ideas, it's to explore the unexplorable, to penetrate the hidden depths of your own psyche. Remember that the goal isn't "darkness" per se, but to unearth whatever you're hiding from yourself in the depths of your own heart and mind. If that happens to be something other than what people would normally expect, all to the better. If what you find disturbs you, that's great. I'll notice who seems to be really following the contest guidelines and who's just taking this as a quick opportunity for an easy "dark" trophy.
5.) Please don't look at other peope's entries until you've already done yours. I don't want psychological cross-contamination. If you're really confused about what you're supposed to do, comment on the contest or message me (intoothandclaw.)
6.) There is no word limit, but you must type for nine minutes *total*, not nine consecutive minutes necessarily. It's okay to pause occasionally, but be sure to pause your timer to compensate. These are best if done in one chunk, however. If you really find yourself drawing a blank, type that. You'll often find the act of typing something, anything, prompts new sprouts to lead you off elsewhere.
I do understand that what I'm asking isn't trivial. Therefore, I'll be bumping up the contest's end date several times. You have at least a month, maybe two or three, to contemplate your mission and prepare yourself for some introspective pearl-diving. It may be frightening to dive so deeply into yourself, but it's very much worth the time and effort. Individuation, total self-understanding, and inner balance/peace all begin with delving into the Shadow. Good luck, everybody...
But not just about anything, mind you. I want you to vent your Shadow.
For those unfamiliar, the Shadow is a Jungian archetype representing those aspects of your own personality which you reject, whether deliberately or unconsciously, or are simply unaware of. If you think of yourself as a nice, gentle person, for example, odds are that you're simply repressing your violent urges, rather than never having any. You might find yourself having occasional thoughts that seem to come from nowhere, thoughts you would "never have", ideas that disquiet, disturb, or even appall you on a conscious level.
It's time to stop turning your back on that part of yourself and reach inside it. If you can't bring yourself to embrace and merge with it, the healthiest thing to do is to purge it every now and again. That is what this contest is for.
Purge your Shadow. Close your eyes, reach deep inside to those parts of yourself which you normally don't allow yourself to pay attention to or acknowledge or express, and do exactly that. Give them the free reign they've been denied for so long -- on your keyboard.
Note that while I'm going to be more lenient about grammar, leaving room for the brain/mind to invent things, I'm still going to be checking spelling, punctuation, and so forth. I won't penalize *creative* spelling/punctuation, if it's intentional -- just let me know somehow in the Author's Notes for example, although I'm not sure if that'll come up much in this sort of contest.
There aren't many rules, but they're very important.
1.) You must not hesitate to write *anything* that comes to mind. You must censor *nothing*. If you're not comfortable with what comes out, to the point where you don't want anyone to see it, don't enter the contest. The whole idea is to dig this stuff up and bring it to light.
2.) After you've finished your auto-write, step back from it for a while (an hour to a day or so) then come back and proofread and polish it. This is especially important if your brain doesn't naturally express itself with capitalization, punctuation, and so forth. If it seems more appropriate or workable, you may arrange your write as free-verse poetry rather than prose.
3.) Due to the nature of the contest, prewrites aren't allowed. Right now I'm allowing only one entry per person, but people who are willing to go deeper into their Shadows may enter more than once, under the following conditions: You must spend consecutively more time writing for each new entry, and you have to get approval.
4.) Don't take this as a license to whine or be "emo" or mindlessly gory or whatnot. If primal hunger is truly what lurks inside, by all means, unleash it -- but don't throw a bunch of the usual stuff at me and call it self-exploration. The idea isn't to accumulate a bunch of dark ideas, it's to explore the unexplorable, to penetrate the hidden depths of your own psyche. Remember that the goal isn't "darkness" per se, but to unearth whatever you're hiding from yourself in the depths of your own heart and mind. If that happens to be something other than what people would normally expect, all to the better. If what you find disturbs you, that's great. I'll notice who seems to be really following the contest guidelines and who's just taking this as a quick opportunity for an easy "dark" trophy.
5.) Please don't look at other peope's entries until you've already done yours. I don't want psychological cross-contamination. If you're really confused about what you're supposed to do, comment on the contest or message me (intoothandclaw.)
6.) There is no word limit, but you must type for nine minutes *total*, not nine consecutive minutes necessarily. It's okay to pause occasionally, but be sure to pause your timer to compensate. These are best if done in one chunk, however. If you really find yourself drawing a blank, type that. You'll often find the act of typing something, anything, prompts new sprouts to lead you off elsewhere.
I do understand that what I'm asking isn't trivial. Therefore, I'll be bumping up the contest's end date several times. You have at least a month, maybe two or three, to contemplate your mission and prepare yourself for some introspective pearl-diving. It may be frightening to dive so deeply into yourself, but it's very much worth the time and effort. Individuation, total self-understanding, and inner balance/peace all begin with delving into the Shadow. Good luck, everybody...
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on September 12, 2008
- Rewards: Gold: 200, Silver: 50, Bronze: 25, Honorable mention: 2 people
- Final notes: First of all, let me apologize for not commenting on everyone's entries yet. I absolutely promise that I will as soon as I can. My computer recently died so I'm borrowing one in order to finish my contests, so I can't right now, but as soon as computer is repaired and the chaos in my life settles down again, I'll do every comment I owe.
I had some doubts about this contest when the idea first struck me. I wasn't sure I'd even be able to accurately communicate what I had in mind. I'd like to thank everyone who entered, even those who didn't win, because, while some of you were more successful than others at the assignment, I didn't notice a single entry that seemed half-assed or thoughtless. Some people have darker Shadows than others, and some went deeper into their darkness than others, but every entry feels like an honest, genuine effort, and I really appreciate that. It takes real strength to cut into one's psyche and peer into your own heart -- much less post what you find on the Internet for the perusal of strangers, uncensored and bare.
This was a very difficult contest to judge. Obviously, the usual fiction rubric doesn't apply. I did weight basics (spelling/grammar/et cetera) to a certain degree, as I always do, but less so than usual due to the unique nature of the contest. I tried to be as fair and impartial as possible, but in the end, I went with my instincts and gut feelings about which entries were deepest, most honest, and most significant to their author.
I did not value "darkness" so much as I did the apparent proportionate depth -- that is, if one person went deeply into themself, and another person with a darker Shadow didn't seem to go as far, the first person would be judged higher even though the second is "darker" and thus superficially "deeper". Granted, this is difficult to judge with absolute certainty, but I decided that since the whole contest is founded on exploring those deeper, more instinctual parts of the mind anyhow, it's appropriate to use that same part of my own mind to judge them!
In the end, the winners are those which were the most compelling and affecting, those which seemed to put the most into, or get the most out of, the exercise. I highly recommend reading all the entries, however; each one has interesting points to recommend it.
I'm extremely pleased with the results of this contest, so much so that I plan to run another one like it sometime, perhaps with longer time limit or based on a different archetype, or exploring a specific aspect of one's darkness... maybe a confessional-style thing? Anyway, thank you so much to everyone for making me glad I decided to do this! Looking forward to next time!
shakti
--Jack Red-in-Tooth-and-Claw
Contest Winners
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by TheFemmeFatale 400 words, 8 comments, on Aug 13 4:32 PM 2008. In Dark, First person, Other, Shadow
Gold trophy winner
• Commented on by judge. [remove] - Error: Unable to find finalist item 194180, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
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It's weird isn't it? How you can wear a mask, and fool the world, without even realising. And when you get home, the mask comes off and youby Rhubarb 300 words, 1 comment, on Aug 2 10:25 AM 2008. In , Dark, Depression, First person
Bronze trophy winner
• Viewed by judge. [remove] -
What is there to say in nine minutes? Nine minutes is clearly not enough time to dig up all of the dirt rotting on my inner core. But, nonetheless, I like the idea. I am tired right now, resisting sleep like a two-year old wh• Viewed by judge. [remove]
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In my mind I see blood and pain, painted with ludacrisy and something much darker. In days passed by, she tried to hide her hate of the sunrise, her purest passion of shadows flitting by. It is me who thrives on the inside itby Ghost of a Siren 300 words, 1 comment, on Aug 3 4:25 AM 2008. In Compulsive, Dark, Shadow writing, Weird
Honorable mention
• Viewed by judge. [remove]
Entries [12]
1 - 12 of 12
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I gripped tightly onto the dirty shovel. I held it up high and then quickly patted the uneven dirt. I glanced over my shoulder more than once and then quickly backed away from the area. I knew what I had just done but I felt• Viewed by judge.
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Nine minutes, huh? Where to begin? I always try to be the nice, supportive one. I have to compliment everyone and smile about everythingby moonwriter 400 words, 3 comments, on Aug 4 1:35 AM 2008• Viewed by judge.
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• Viewed by judge.
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I should have tougher skin by now, and not be this upset when people say the hateful things. Posting on you tube threads arguing with people over how their words only add hatred and don't help anybody should prepare me to beby Writing0Freedom 800 words, 1 comment, on Aug 15 11:16 PM 2008• Viewed by judge.
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Comments
1 - 9 of 9
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This could have potential. Hope it goes over well.
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When I have nine minutes to spare... I'll be heading back this way.
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Hmmmm. I must say, the concept is very very cool. I've never seen a comp like this before, so high-five for originality! If I get 9 minutes to spare, I'll be doing this.
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A Jungian contest...interesting. I will have to try this.
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Oh dear
I can feel comments like "Even Freud was only Jung once". I wish you well with this one, but out of curiosity, how will you know if contestants stick to the rules? just a thought. -
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I've run similar contests before on other websites. I'll grant that it's difficult to tell with 100% certainty, but I have good instincts. I can often tell when someone's holding back or has glossed over something. Something about how they phrase, their word choice. I won't be removing entries, but I'll definitely be following my instincts about it. The whole idea is to give your subconscious the reins, anyway -- might as well give it some influence over my judging.
After all, if Jung was right about the idea of a collective subconscious, I may not be able to consciously access whether or not they were tapping their subconscious, but *my* subconscious should! ;p
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This is soooo interesting. I am definately entering as soon as I get my head wrapped around it.
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O.O
I need to enter this.
-jj -
Great idea. I was actually going to enter, but after I read what I wrote...yeesh. Couldn't post it in public. But thanks - you helped me vent.
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