quote:"But the stories must be strong and realistic, with believable people (who needn't be human) doing believable things–no matter how fantastic the background might be." – Analog SF submission guidelines
Yes, my friends, the title of this challenge is a pun (I couldn't help myself).
The task is to write a story where the POV character is not a human being. Be it holy angel or hot alien, house pet or house plant--as long as the character is not Homo sapiens consider the challenge criterion met. That being said, the less humanoid your character, the better you may fare in the judging. Hopefully this will prove to be a delightful departure rather than a *brutal undertaking*.
Details:
This will be an anonymous challenge with rules very much like those of the contest snapper facilitated this fall. All entries are to be sent to me at: laura.lee.ford@hotmail.ca.
Deadline for entries: 31 January 2011
One entry per author.
Word count: 1- 2500 words.
I will assign each story a number and post the first 13's in the ENTRIES thread as soon as a few enties come in. Please do not post anything in the ENTRIES thread until judging is complete.
Judging:
Round 1: First 13's - Each author is to pick their 1st and 2nd favourite opening and send their votes to me - 2 points to each 1st place vote, 1 point to each second place vote - No critiques required for this round - Deadline for this vote: 7 February 2011
Round 2: Full story - After Round 1 judging is complete I will email full stories out to entrants - Read and provide a brief critique for each story. Choose your 1st, 2nd and 3rd favourite. Send critiques and votes to me. - When judging please take not-human-ness of the POV character into account - 5 points to each 1st place vote, 4 points for 2nd place vote, 3 points for 3rd. - Deadline for this vote: 28 February 2011, but the sooner the better!
If there are a large number of entries I will split Round 2 voting into groups to keep the reading/critiquing load manageable. If that happens there will be a final vote between the top stories in each group.
As usual any entrant who doesn't vote and critique will be disqualified.
To maintain anonymity please do not post your story in F&F. This will also disqualify you.
Any questions? Feel free to post them in this thread.
[This message has been edited by Ethereon (edited December 21, 2010).]
posted
No one has taken this challenge but I just recalled I have a inhuman story. It's about an angel. Rather short and I have revised it twice...maybe thrice. I keep forgetting about it though.
A nice Christmas story I wrote three months or so ago.
posted
Just caught this challenge. A question or two...
Must the POV be consistently non-human? Can there be more than one POV? Can the plot be centered around the non-human part of the story with a perspective or two done from a person?
Is there a definition on 'human'? Such as the MC was human once and is now partially or totally something else?
A lot of time to think of something for this challenge....
posted
I guess I could use a marker for what is considered 'human' as well, (snapper). Also, is this open to SF and Fantasy? I am definitely interested is joining this group.
IP: Logged |
posted
@Snapper: If you can work more than one POV into the story and some of them are human, no problem. I haven't included a definition of what constitutes "human" vs "non-human" because that is very tricky to define! In fact, exploring that question is the meat of many existing and potential stories.
If your character was once a human and has since become a ghost, vampire, AI, or whatever else you can think of, I believe such a story would work for this challenge. However, I imagine the more substantial the differences (mental and emotional, not just physical) between our POV characters and humans, the more we might push ourselves by the exercise.
@PB&Jenny: Awesome. Glad to have you aboard!
@DRaney: Glad to hear you're interested in entering. There are no genre restrictions. Speculate it up!
[This message has been edited by Ethereon (edited December 28, 2010).]
posted
So I should be sending you the first 13 of my story to you, right, Etherion? I'll get that out to you right away. Posts: 195 | Registered: Jan 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yes LD, please send me your whole story, and I will post the first 13. Smiley did send me his first 13(ish), but assures me the rest is on its way shortly Posts: 291 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oops, guess I got that wrong. Yup, I'll be sending you the whole thing this weekend. Busy with my visiting in-laws for the next three days. Fun! Posts: 195 | Registered: Jan 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
Got your email Ute. Ah yes, you raise a good point snapper. Whether Utahute will enjoy anonymity depends entirely on whether there are any other last minute entries. We'll see what tomorrow brings I suppose. Posts: 291 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Not to worry. This is just a friendly competition. After all you only promised $4000 for the winning the entry. The really value is the priceless feedback from this exersize.
[This message has been edited by snapper (edited January 31, 2011).]
posted
Good 13's! I am amazed at the endless variety of story ideas that come out of this group. Looking forward to the full read phase! Peace.
IP: Logged |
posted
I agree, they were all very strong openings. So not to dwell on them, I chose the first two that hit me. If I really did a full analysis I would be still mulling over which ones to pick.
[This message has been edited by snapper (edited February 03, 2011).]
posted
As I hinted at before I have the same sentiment as snapper. Except there were one or two that were easy to reject for One. But than Two was almost as hard to choose.
A Three or Four place would have made it slightly easier.
posted
I liked them all, was able to narrow it down to 5, then the one getting DQ'd got me down to four. From there is was just a matter of personal appeal as to what the story portended. But it looks like a good group to read anyway.
Posts: 459 | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
If the stories are as good as the first 13s I probably won't be able to put them down until I'm done.
Posts: 459 | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Round one voting is complete! Many stories received votes, but Entry 9 has the lead with 5 points. Nice job
On to round two: a document containing all 8 stories should be in your respective inboxes. Please let me know if you didn't receive it, if you have trouble openning it, or if there's any problem with your story.
Send your critiques and votes for your 3 favourites to me via email, and I will start posting the comments when I have received a number of them.
the other day when an old story of mine came to mind (that happens at times) and I realized I had another story about a pair of Inhumans, a bit more exciting and provocative than the one I sent in, but I believe it's too long anyway.
The one I didn't send in was inspired by an ad I saw while standing in a grocery line. It was a phrase used by a certain company for a few months.
[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited February 09, 2011).]
posted
Hey LD, I'm glad the challenge has gotten you thinking of lots of "inhuman" storylines.
Since this is ideally an anonymous contest, could you send comments on stories to me rather than posting them? That way it won't be quite as easy to guess who wrote what.
posted
Hi Josephine. When the challenge is finished I will reveal who wrote what with the results. Then you could contact the authors of the stories you're intrigued by and ask about having a read. Perhaps they would be interested in getting a critique from you on their second draft, or in doing an exchange.
Posts: 291 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, I wouldn't mind personally either, snapper, but I wouldn't want to send out an author's work without their permission, that's all. If other people let me know they don't mind, then I can send the story package to Josephine.
Posts: 291 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
quote: Yeah, I wouldn't mind personally either, snapper, but I wouldn't want to send out an author's work without their permission, that's all. If other people let me know they don't mind, then I can send the story package to Josephine.
Not sure if you mean this way or E-mail but I wouldn't mind her reading it and critting.
posted
I can't imagine why anyone would have a problem. Hatrack is a writers workshop. We seek feedback for our unpublished stuff so it can be published. Unless JK is a thief I see no harm at all. This is your contest though. I can understand your hesitation but I think you are worrying about nothing. I am reasonably confident, based on who regularly participates in these competitions, that all teh authors would love for JK to have a look.
[This message has been edited by snapper (edited February 12, 2011).]
Printer-friendly view of this topic
