YC 115 Pod and Planet Fiction contest results are in. Rhevas took the Grand Prize.
I placed second which is where I was last year. The difference is that this year they allowed teh same person to win multiple times. This was not a rule last year. I do not know where the change came in. It may be because there were fewer entries or maybe the judges wanted to judge the stories. Winning stories were disqualified last year if their writer won a higher award in another catagory or something like that.
I wrote four stories and all of them placed to my surprise. What I wrote is as different and varied a hand as can be. I wrote as inspiration hit and the responses to them are just as varied. I am as bad at figuring out what people like to read for creative writing as I am at blogging.
Boots to the Ground; Fire in the Sky was my favorite entry and I spent weeks on it for it to do the poorest. ECM Nightmare was written in fourty minutes while giggling. In general I am strongest with first person view point it seems.
I think that I tanked Boots by trying to crush it into 5k words. Its a much bigger idea and I was so excited about it that I wanted to display it here. I think I will unravel it and stretch its wings.
What I have learned is that the stories that come the easiest do the best. It is the same with the blog posts. I know that I am not a complex writer. I like telling stories with sensable, likeable characters. I may be simplistic in my writing because of it but I write what I like to curl up with and sink into. I like stories so that is what I try to write.
One of my reviews from last year was my need for editing. In was disappointed when I was told that editing was one of the tie breaking deals. I was overly optimistic that what I wrote would have more weight then what I did wrong with grammer and spelling. That is the overly hopeful dream of mine. That my dyslexia will not step in the way of things and everyone will understand what it is like not to see spelling mistakes or mangle words so badly it confuses Google.
That is a pipe dream. Instead of indulging and expecting such nonsense In went to people for editing. It is painfully humbling to do it. I try not to be prideful but laying my creavity down in that way hurts. I, thankfully have some amazing assets in the form of skilled people who understand my needs and are willing to give me what I do not have.
Wex was my editor. He spent hours and hours crawling through my words. Having done the editing thing for real he added a layer of polish I could not. That leaves my errors and gaps my errors as a writing.
In my desire to say thank you and express beyond words how much that effort means to me, I decided that I would give him some of my reward if I placed.
I'll be sending Wex some PLEX to say thank you. I do not think I'd have done as well as I did without his help.
Contests are stressful. This one is good for my writing. I still hate that contest feeling. I'll still enter next year and hopefully bring further improvements to the table.
I placed second which is where I was last year. The difference is that this year they allowed teh same person to win multiple times. This was not a rule last year. I do not know where the change came in. It may be because there were fewer entries or maybe the judges wanted to judge the stories. Winning stories were disqualified last year if their writer won a higher award in another catagory or something like that.
I wrote four stories and all of them placed to my surprise. What I wrote is as different and varied a hand as can be. I wrote as inspiration hit and the responses to them are just as varied. I am as bad at figuring out what people like to read for creative writing as I am at blogging.
Boots to the Ground; Fire in the Sky was my favorite entry and I spent weeks on it for it to do the poorest. ECM Nightmare was written in fourty minutes while giggling. In general I am strongest with first person view point it seems.
I think that I tanked Boots by trying to crush it into 5k words. Its a much bigger idea and I was so excited about it that I wanted to display it here. I think I will unravel it and stretch its wings.
What I have learned is that the stories that come the easiest do the best. It is the same with the blog posts. I know that I am not a complex writer. I like telling stories with sensable, likeable characters. I may be simplistic in my writing because of it but I write what I like to curl up with and sink into. I like stories so that is what I try to write.
One of my reviews from last year was my need for editing. In was disappointed when I was told that editing was one of the tie breaking deals. I was overly optimistic that what I wrote would have more weight then what I did wrong with grammer and spelling. That is the overly hopeful dream of mine. That my dyslexia will not step in the way of things and everyone will understand what it is like not to see spelling mistakes or mangle words so badly it confuses Google.
That is a pipe dream. Instead of indulging and expecting such nonsense In went to people for editing. It is painfully humbling to do it. I try not to be prideful but laying my creavity down in that way hurts. I, thankfully have some amazing assets in the form of skilled people who understand my needs and are willing to give me what I do not have.
Wex was my editor. He spent hours and hours crawling through my words. Having done the editing thing for real he added a layer of polish I could not. That leaves my errors and gaps my errors as a writing.
In my desire to say thank you and express beyond words how much that effort means to me, I decided that I would give him some of my reward if I placed.
I'll be sending Wex some PLEX to say thank you. I do not think I'd have done as well as I did without his help.
Contests are stressful. This one is good for my writing. I still hate that contest feeling. I'll still enter next year and hopefully bring further improvements to the table.
As I said privately, well-earned and well-done. To have placed a winning entry in every category is a great achievement, and you deserve tremendous credit. I was honored to be asked to help even a little bit.
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