Most writing contests give you a writing prompt or at least a couple of words to work your idea around, which is why I decided to host a slightly different contest.
A constrained writing contest
Instead of being given an idea or a writing prompt, you are allowed to choose the topic completely by yourself. But, varying from week to week, you will face different challenges that limit your writing.
You will be required to omit certain words, use a specific word in every second sentence, use a given sentence unchanged, write a story with a certain amount of words... or a combination of all.
Winners of constrained writing contest #30
The winners of this week’s Constrained Writing Contest are:
- 1st Place - @calluna the entry Memoirs of a bus stop
Judge’s notes: From what I've talked with elder people, you've nailed it completely. The dialogue was pristine, and just captured oh, so very well. I believe we can all relate to your story, no matter the age, so job well done! ^^
- 2nd Place - @rindaman1234 with the entry High call
Judge’s notes: You, too, managed to capture the dialogue perfectly. What I immedatiely felt with your story was how the dialogue came to life. I could tell how each person was feeling when they said (or didn't) say something which is hard to accomplish, but you did very well.Only thing I'd like to point out is that "..." doesn't count as dialogue. It's silence, and therefore not written down.
- 3rd Place - @tristancarax with the entry A conversation about women
Judge’s notes: Thought fiction (I hope), I believe we can all very well relate to a case of existential crysis when we feel like a failure and that nobody likes us. You've also pointed out in your story how important it is to self-reflect then, and I just straight up loved that. Good work!
Honorable Mention In Alphabetical Order:
@mlyrg with the entry A new beginning
@princemyshkin with the entry Rainbow Shards
@suzanrs with the entry Ghost therapy - pulling through
@tiempoyesp with the entry Of children
If I, by any chance, missed your entry, please do not hesitate to let me know, and I will do my best to redeem myself. I have missed an entry in the past, so I now pay extra attention, but ... It can happen still.
Sorry and thanks!
With that out of the way, onto constrained writing contest #31!
Rules:
This week I am the sole judge of the contest again, and here's what I've come up with for this week:
- Light and dark are reversed. Every light-emitting body (think sun, torch, lightbulb, ...) now emits darkness instead, and in the abscence of these light emitting bodies it is bright. In short, that means that when the sun is out, it's "night time", because you can't see because of the "sunshine" (because the sun now emits darkness). If there are no light emitting bodies anywhere nearby, it's light, but turning on a lightbulb makes the room dark(er).
- The story must be at least 250 words in length.
And as for the usual mumbo jumbo, here's the rest of the rules just about every contest has:
- Upvote this post
- Post a link to your entry in the comments below
- Include tag #constrainedwriting among your other tags
- Should you wish to help raise awareness of the contest, please consider resteeming this post (it is by no means compulsory)
Prizes
- 1st place: 45% of post's payout
- 2nd place: 27% of post's payout
- 3rd place 18 % of post's payout
- Judge takes 5 % for his/her efforts
- I will take 5 % for hosting, writing and editing the contest
*Note: In case I receive any donations for the contest, the payout percentages apply to the donation itself as well.
Judges
This week I am the sole judge of the Constrained Writing Contest, and am responsible for picking the winners on my own discretion. I promise to try my best and be as objective as possible.
What's that I hear? You wish to be a judge too? Well look no further!
To apply for a judge and make up your own rules, simply send @svashta a hearty hello on Discord (Svashta#5207).
*Disclaimer: I will only allow fellow writers as judges to keep the competition high quality.
Deadline
- Entries are accepted until this post's payout
- Your entry post must be newer than this post
Good luck!
Oh wow thank you so much!! I really struggled with the prompt but I am so glad I stuck at it and it paid off! I think just the exercise in doing it will encourage me to use more dialogue in my stories from now on, it doesn't seem so much of any unknown. I am loving the new prompt! I can't wait to get going on it! Thank you!
Yes! YES! YEEES!!! A thousand times yes! :D
That was very much my intention, because I needed to go through a couple such exercises myself before I trusted myself enough to include more dialogue in my stories...
So very happy to hear that! And that you will be participating again! :D
Here be my entry to this lovely contest.
Firstly, thank you very much for your donation. It is greatly appreciated!
Secondly, I'm very happy to have you participate! :D I'll give it a read soon! :D
Thank you very much for your entry!
You’re welcome for the donations and entry. And thanks for making contests like these so I can do something with a good challenge.
Very happy to hear you feel that way! :D
I can't believe I got one of the honorable mentions!!! I'm so excited, I can't thank you enough, I hope I do better in this one :)
I'd be very happy to see you join again! :D
Here's my entry:
https://steemit.com/constrainedwriting/@pyrowngs/constrained-writing-31-entry
Happy to see you enter again! :D
Will give it a read close to contest end-time ^^
Thank you very much for your entry!
I had a lot of fun with this prompt, here is my entry She Walked In Darkest Sunshine - thank you for another great round :)
Very happy to see you participate again! :D
I'll give it a read soon! :D
Thank you very much for your entry! :D
https://steemit.com/constrainedwriting/@tokiya/constrained-writing-contest-31-experimenting-the-true-light
Here is my entry n.n/
Heey! ^^ Very happy to see you join! :D
I'll read it soon! :D
Thank you very much for your entry!
https://steemit.com/constrainedwriting/@pelusa/we-forget-how-everything-was-before-constrained-writing-contest-31-short-story-of-sci-fi-fiction
Hello : ) this is my entry for the contest ^^/
Hey! :D Very happy to see you participate! :D
Thank you very much for your entry! Will give it a read soon! ^^
You just planted 0.22 tree(s)!
Thanks to @theironfelix
We have planted already 4372.88 trees
out of 1,000,000
Let's save and restore Abongphen Highland Forest
in Cameroonian village Kedjom-Keku!
Plant trees with @treeplanter and get paid for it!
My Steem Power = 25643.71
Thanks a lot!
@martin.mikes coordinator of @kedjom-keku
Nope @svashta, most of this was not fiction. This is something I continually struggle with. I had the urge to write it out here. I'm glad I did. I've never written it out like this before, as a dialog between two people. It was a fun exercise.
Damn. I don't know what exactly to say to you.
It's not true, that you're worthless, or whatever such. It's not true you can't get what you want. What is true, however, is that life isn't always rainbows and unicorns. It isn't about being easy, either. And when you need to reflect on yourself what you're doing wrong, it sucks ass. But when you do... I promise you it gets better.
You just need to be honest with yourself. 100%. No illusions. No lies. No "There's nothing I can do".
It takes real grit to get things done. It sure as hell does.
But there's fun in that too. The road to success is half the fun, if not all the fun. ;D
I wish you all the best, and please know that if you whenever wish to have a talk, I'm available.
TY!! I am very pleased with myself as how the story ended up, again I am so ashamed about all my grammatic mistakes but I think i have improved a lot comparing how it was months ago. This week constrained is cool and original, definitely I will do everything in my power to do an entry for this one.
No need to be ashamed. All that matters is that you've improved. Nothing else is of importance. As long as you strive to give your best and progress - you're on the right way. :D
Awesome! :D Very happy to hear you like the idea, and that you will be participating! :D
You just planted 0.22 tree(s)!
Thanks to @theironfelix
We have planted already 4366.05 trees
out of 1,000,000
Let's save and restore Abongphen Highland Forest
in Cameroonian village Kedjom-Keku!
Plant trees with @treeplanter and get paid for it!
My Steem Power = 25643.69
Thanks a lot!
@martin.mikes coordinator of @kedjom-keku