79 réponses à ce sujet

[ThePhoenixKing]

Ah, I didn't get nothing. Oh, well. Big congratulations to all of the winners, and I for one would be really interested in seeing their entries! Next time, Bioware, next time!

(Seriously, though, that was a lot of fun and a great challenge. Definitely going to do something for the next one!)

Modifié par ThePhoenixKing, 02 février 2012 - 12:53 .

[CuriousArtemis]

Ghanima9 wrote...

A link to the story, which I have posted in my puny blog. All are welcome to read, comment, tear to bits. I promise to return the favor

pseudonine.blogspot.com/2012/02/horses-and-smell-of-snow.html

Guys, read this one.  It was amazing.

[wangxiuming]

motomotogirl wrote...

Ghanima9 wrote...

A link to the story, which I have posted in my puny blog. All are welcome to read, comment, tear to bits. I promise to return the favor

pseudonine.blogspot.com/2012/02/horses-and-smell-of-snow.html

Guys, read this one.  It was amazing.

Agreed! Congrats Ghanima9!

[Tryynity]

Congrats to everyone! It was an awesome amount of fun. I hope the do another.

[Ghanima9]

wangxiuming wrote...

motomotogirl wrote...

Ghanima9 wrote...

A link to the story, which I have posted in my puny blog. All are welcome to read, comment, tear to bits. I promise to return the favor

pseudonine.blogspot.com/2012/02/horses-and-smell-of-snow.html

Guys, read this one.  It was amazing.

Agreed! Congrats Ghanima9!

Wow, thanks! 

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Some of the winners are on the list here for reading, but we need more!

[WhiteKnyght]

A bit disappointed that I didn't even make it into the top 20.

When professional writers read your stuff and apparently don't think anything good of it, it hurts your confidence.

I feel like Coriff when he was getting mocked by that drunk dude over his Speed Griffon idea.

[BrennaCeDria]

The Grey Nayr wrote...

A bit disappointed that I didn't even make it into the top 20.

When professional writers read your stuff and apparently don't think anything good of it, it hurts your confidence.

I feel like Coriff when he was getting mocked by that drunk dude over his Speed Griffon idea.

Unless you specifically got a message saying "you did this wrong" then I wouldn't take not getting top 20 as they "don't think anything good of it". A lot of it was probably based on mood, cause something like this is far from objective. Personally, I'm assuming the writer that got my story was pro-templar/anti-terrorist-mage, and that's why I didn't get pushed to the next level. Was mine perfect? Hell no. But I deliberately wrote it to be a bit polarizing, and that could CERTAINLY have turned off any reader.

[thats1evildude]

That was a superb story, Ghanima9.

Modifié par thats1evildude, 02 février 2012 - 03:31 .

[Cerelinde]

The Grey Nayr wrote...

A bit disappointed that I didn't even make it into the top 20.

When professional writers read your stuff and apparently don't think anything good of it, it hurts your confidence.

I feel like Coriff when he was getting mocked by that drunk dude over his Speed Griffon idea.

That's not what it means, though.  There's always some sort of cutoff line - being below that line doesn't mean 'you suck', only that there were other people/entries/etc on the other side of the line.  If there had been a full ranking of all 400+ entries, would entry #21 have been bad?  How about entry #50, or #100?  They had to choose a subset of stories from what they received, but that doesn't at all condemn the other 380+.  

[BrennaCeDria]

Cerelinde wrote...

The Grey Nayr wrote...

A bit disappointed that I didn't even make it into the top 20.

When professional writers read your stuff and apparently don't think anything good of it, it hurts your confidence.

I feel like Coriff when he was getting mocked by that drunk dude over his Speed Griffon idea.

That's not what it means, though.  There's always some sort of cutoff line - being below that line doesn't mean 'you suck', only that there were other people/entries/etc on the other side of the line.  If there had been a full ranking of all 400+ entries, would entry #21 have been bad?  How about entry #50, or #100?  They had to choose a subset of stories from what they received, but that doesn't at all condemn the other 380+.  

So much this! <3

[thats1evildude]

The Grey Nayr wrote...

A bit disappointed that I didn't even make it into the top 20.

When professional writers read your stuff and apparently don't think anything good of it, it hurts your confidence.

It may simply be that your writing style didn't match the judges' preferences. (I say "judges" because, even though DG had the final word on the winners, the other members of the Writers' Pit read over the submissions.) Even writers tend to like certain kinds of stories over others, though we're a little more appreciative of the craft that goes into styles different from our own.

Having read a number of the Top 20 entries, I'm starting to glean an idea of the judges' likes and dislikes. I'm not suggesting that adhering to a specific formula was the key to winning — everything I've read so far was excellent, particularly the top five stories — but some stuff was more likely to catch the judges' eye than others.   

I tend to write tawdry horror and adventure stories with lots of action scenes, even when I'm really trying not to. Even if my idea had been a little better — I realize now that it wasn't very good — I couldn't have won this contest on my best day. That's not an indictment of my skills or a condemnation of this competition; I simply recognize the judges wanted The Usual Suspects, and I submitted Pirates of the Carribean. Savvy?

Modifié par thats1evildude, 02 février 2012 - 05:03 .

[Ghanima9]

@thats1evildude: *humble bow of gratitude* Thank you, sir, for the compliment.

I agree completely that certain formulas for certain competitions tend to work best... Many years ago I had an English teacher who submitted a poem of mine to a national competition. I was twelve, and thought that the poem was the worst kind of generalized, sentimental blah - pretty much a greeting card. It won - to my massive shock - not because it was particularly brilliant, but because it most completely covered the principles of the competition. And because it appealed to elderly women.

... My point is that being recognized is nice, but outliers make change, make people think, and that's where the real talent lies. Incidentally, every story I've read so far has been amazing. I'm honored to be counted among you all.

[thats1evildude]

Ghanima9 wrote...

@thats1evildude: *humble bow of gratitude* Thank you, sir, for the compliment.

Well, you're quite deserving. It's a fantastic piece, truly.

[Sandtigress]

Ghanima9 wrote...

I agree completely that certain formulas for certain competitions tend to work best... Many years ago I had an English teacher who submitted a poem of mine to a national competition. I was twelve, and thought that the poem was the worst kind of generalized, sentimental blah - pretty much a greeting card. It won - to my massive shock - not because it was particularly brilliant, but because it most completely covered the principles of the competition. And because it appealed to elderly women.

Ha, seriously, the same thing happened to me.  I think I was a bit older than 12, but still, both my poems were what I (still) consider pretty meaningless drivel.  But it sounded nice and was apparently what people wanted and I won at both district and state levels (but I think they finally got shot down in national).  I won some money off of it and still think I write pretty crappy poetry.    Of course, all of that might just have been a lack of entries at both of those levels too!

I knew with my entry it was risky - I think it's either a love it or a hate it, and part of that might just depend on if people "get it" or not.  If you don't (and hey, even if you do), it might get an instant hate reaction.  But every so often, I get a "whoa, what??" which was exactly what I was hoping for.  I just lucked out that I got more of a "whoa" than a "bleh" from the devs this time around! ^-^

Modifié par Sandtigress, 02 février 2012 - 06:04 .

[Fortlowe]

I want to congratulate the winners. You worked hard on your entries and it paid off. Well done! That said. I am super duper bummed my entry didn't even place. It's like my little word baby got tossed of a cliff because it was too weak. Still, I hope there's another contest soon. This one was excellent motivation for me to start writing again.

[Zack_Nero]

rolson00 wrote...

Can't believe i missed this :-( where was it announced? damn! i think i have a great story with varric and hawk and an idea to save anders from the calling!

Feel the same way, still happy for all the winners and others to be able to show their work to BioWare.  On a side note, do we plan to see more of these kind of contest in the near future?

[wangxiuming]

Bioware has always periodically held different kinds of contests. I think they had one surrounding Mark of the assassin a few months ago, and I remember way back in the day they had a few Neverwinter Nights module contests.

I think it's a safe bet to see more contests in the future, though whether they will be fiction-writing ones is anyone's guess.

[PsychoBlonde]

 Good job, everyone!

I'm tempted to go back and edit mine, because while I was happy with what I accomplished in the time limitation, I wasn't ultimately that happy with the end product.  I really need to work more on writing shorter fiction--it's a LOT harder than writing long fiction, and requires much greater precision and focus.

[flexxdk]

dreamnegative wrote...

This Was Fun, I Really Hope They Have More Writing Contests IN The Future.

Don't worry about that.

I asked Jessica Marizan about this and she said that "they will do more writing contests in the future".

[TEWR]

Congrats guys!

I'm not disappointed that mine didn't end up there. It wasn't that good -- and in retrospect the epilogue contradicted the characterization of one of my main characters -- but I've said before that I entered purely for the fun and the learning experience, rather then for the prospect of goodies and 15 minutes of fame and fortune.

I wonder who read my story anyway, and what they personally thought of it? Was it good, but not finalist good? Was it as bad as I seem to believe it is, despite the good comments I've gotten from a few other forumites for it through PM messages?

Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 02 février 2012 - 09:01 .

[BrennaCeDria]

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

Congrats guys!

I'm not disappointed that mine didn't end up there. It wasn't that good -- and in retrospect the epilogue contradicted the characterization of one of my main characters -- but I've said before that I entered purely for the fun and the learning experience, rather then for the prospect of goodies and 15 minutes of fame and fortune.

I wonder who read my story anyway, and what they personally thought of it? Was it good, but not finalist good? Was it as bad as I seem to believe it is, despite the good comments I've gotten from a few other forumites for it through PM messages?

Did you post it in SoLD's thread? So long as you're cool with true con crit, I'll tell both good and bad for ya.

[biomar]

I was surprised at the stinging feeling that came when I saw I'm not on the list. But that's part and parcel of being a writer, I guess! A good experience anyway.

Congratulations to the winners, thanks to the judges for taking the time to read so many entries and thanks to David Gaider for writing his list of dos and don'ts; it was informative and helpful in letting me know how to improve!

Modifié par biomar, 02 février 2012 - 12:14 .

[wangxiuming]

BrennaCeDria wrote...

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

Congrats guys!

I'm
not disappointed that mine didn't end up there. It wasn't that good --
and in retrospect the epilogue contradicted the characterization of one
of my main characters -- but I've said before that I entered purely for
the fun and the learning experience, rather then for the prospect of
goodies and 15 minutes of fame and fortune.

I wonder who read my
story anyway, and what they personally thought of it? Was it good, but
not finalist good? Was it as bad as I seem to believe it is, despite the
good comments I've gotten from a few other forumites for it through
PM messages?

Did you post it in SoLD's thread? So long as you're cool with true con crit, I'll tell both good and bad for ya.

^ Me too!

Edit: Didn't post fast enough, so had to quote. =X

Modifié par wangxiuming, 02 février 2012 - 12:15 .

[Anaedian]

Congratz to all those who made it to the top!

Even though I didn't...I won't quit!!! Neverrrr!!