Despair--a writing contest [Closed / Judging Results Posted]

[Phrensiedom]

Final Placing

31 total contestants
3 mil to distribute.


Top Tier: 2 mil / 8 = 250000 gold each
⚫ Masten December – Alaska
⚫ craziiloop -- What I Never Thought I Would Miss
⚫ Eruden Ki -- Responsibilities
⚫ Seretti -- Spring Grace
⚫ Saoire -- Creating distance is hard
⚫ Navean -- Pillars That Crumble
⚫ starsmaycollide -- Where the Children Go
⚫ xx______mistarr f u z z -- Saturday Nights Live

Second Tier: 975000 / 15 = 65000 gold each
⚫ sparrowhawke -- A note
⚫ Ignus_Vulpis -- Shattered
⚫ brokentithe -- Skeleton's Treasure
⚫ Madoneko -- The Gift
⚫ LoperDoper -- She Was Dead When I Found her
⚫ The Solarised Night -- Gender Bender
⚫ ZarcherPhoenix -- Untitled
⚫ oh darling dear -- Goodbye, for now
⚫ Vatilla -- Goodbye
⚫ Hi My Name Is Kat -- The Letter
⚫ mythological irony – Red
⚫ Haunting Heaven – The Autumn Wind is Blowing
⚫ UhhhDavidx3 – Thank You
⚫ Meerodi – Your Brother is Alive
⚫ skyblue1492 – It Doesn't Deserve a Name

Third Tier: 25000 / 8 = 3125 gold each
⚫ Avitas -- Counting Down
⚫ Edgecrusher Asakuun -- The world is cruel to those with nothing left
⚫ Muddly -- Kim Red
⚫ MangaFan292 -- My Name Is Kathleen. But Call Me Ken.
⚫ IAmTheQueenOfHearts -- Unanswered
⚫ Missing Souled Angel -- Captured
⚫ Olivia100_47 -- Forever?
⚫ GarGo0or -- The Deadly Music of the Drops

Please be patient with me getting the trade requests out. It will take some time. If you don't get anything by January 31st, send me a PM. :]

Additionally, you may contest this placing, if you wish. Send me a PM, if you think you should be bumped up a tier. It's not likely to happen, but if you think I am unfair, then you have the right to fight your side.

And, I will send a short critique to everyone in the third tier. The only writings that fell there are those that desperately need repair (excluding the first two where the writers were simply being greedy by submitting something that's already won in another contest / rewriting the ending to a previous story).

[Phrensiedom]

Guidelines



This contest is all about sadness and despair. If you don't think you can manage that, well, try anyway! Anyone can write something hideously depressing, but only those with talent can make it real enough to impact the reader.

I want you to impact me.
Make me feel legitimately sorry for your characters.
Make me feel like a selfish first-world b***h.
Make me feel like I'm going to cry.

No seriously, if you make me physically cry, I will hand you 100k gold, no questions asked.

So, yep, any questions on that aspect of it, feel free to PM me or quote me in the thread!


As for length, I am a lover of flash fiction. It is easily my favorite prose length, if it's done correctly. That being said, a short story or anything less than 20,000 words is all right with me. I like reading lengthy writing, but it has to be well-formatted and largely grammatically-correct. Which brings me to my next point.

I will not read walls of text. They hurt my eyes, and it takes way too much effort to keep my place. If you send me a wall of text, I will write back asking you to re-format in basic paragraph or indented format. Sorry, but this is not something all that hard to do.

When it comes to grammar, I understand a mistake here and there, but if said poor grammar makes your writing unreadable, I will ask you to clean it up or withdraw your entry. I have to be able to read it in order to judge its level of sadness. If you find this unreasonable, PM me, and we can talk about it. :]

Deadline: Saturday, January 28, 2012 +/- a few days, depending on number of entries.


✔ Intro emotion_c8
✔Guidelines emotion_awesome
✘Rules emotion_donotwant
✘Prizes! emotion_dowant
✘List of Contestants emotion_bigheart
✘Extra Points emotion_omnomnom

[Phrensiedom]

Rules



‧ Be nice
‧ Don't start drama. (I know it can be fun, but we're all friends here. No need to rile up the entire thread)
‧ Respect each other and any writing involved
‧ Plagiarism will be laughed at and then disqualified (if anyone lurking about sees plagiarism, please point it out to me. I only know so much writing)
‧ Please either PM me your writing or link to it in the thread. I don't really want any page-stretching writing. (It makes my poor netbook's head hurt)
‧ I would prefer your writing being something you wrote specifically for this contest, but if you've written something in the past that you would like recognized here, by all means, submit it!
‧ One entry per person, please!
‧ No limits, in terms of content. That being said, if it breaks Gaia's ToS, it must be completely posted offsite. But, don't be afraid to be mature; I can handle it.


✔ Intro emotion_c8
✔Guidelines emotion_awesome
✔Rules emotion_donotwant
✘Prizes! emotion_dowant
✘List of Contestants emotion_bigheart
✘Extra Points emotion_omnomnom

[Phrensiedom]

Prizes!



First: 1.5 million gold
Second: 500k gold
Third: 100k gold

Others: Anything after that will be randomly given to those whose writing I believe deserves it. :]

Note: I will be judging on the sadness level of the story and how it is presented. Grammar comes into play a little bit, and keep in mind that I adore deep and beautiful characters, and such will be rewarded.


✔ Intro emotion_c8
✔Guidelines emotion_awesome
✔Rules emotion_donotwant
✔Prizes! emotion_dowant
✘List of Contestants emotion_bigheart
✘Extra Points emotion_omnomnom

[Phrensiedom]

List of Contestants



emotion_bigheart Avitas -- Counting Down
emotion_bigheart Edgecrusher Asakuun -- The world is cruel to those with nothing left (PM)
emotion_bigheart sparrowhawke -- A note
emotion_bigheart Ignus_Vulpis -- Shattered (PM)
emotion_bigheart xx______mistarr f u z z -- Saturday Nights Live (email)
emotion_bigheart brokentithe -- Skeleton's Treasure (PM)
emotion_bigheart Madoneko -- The Gift (PM)
emotion_bigheart Muddly -- Kim Red (PM)
emotion_bigheart Navean -- Pillars That Crumble (email)
emotion_bigheart starsmaycollide -- Where the Children Go (PM)
emotion_bigheart LoperDoper -- She Was Dead When I Found her
emotion_bigheart MangaFan292 -- My Name Is Kathleen. But Call Me Ken. (PM)
emotion_bigheart The Solarised Night -- Gender Bender (PM)
emotion_bigheart ZarcherPhoenix -- Untitled Password: gaia
emotion_bigheart oh darling dear -- Goodbye, for now
emotion_bigheart Vatilla -- Goodbye (PM)
emotion_bigheart Saoire -- Creating distance is hard
emotion_bigheart Hi My Name Is Kat -- The Letter (PM)
emotion_bigheart IAmTheQueenOfHearts -- Unanswered (PM)
emotion_bigheart Missing Souled Angel -- Captured (PM)
emotion_bigheart Eruden Ki -- Responsibilities (PM)
emotion_bigheart Seretti -- Spring Grace (PM)
emotion_bigheart Olivia100_47 -- Forever? (email)
emotion_bigheart Eternal Complex -- Devoid Minds (PM)
emotion_bigheart craziiloop -- What I Never Thought I Would Miss
emotion_bigheart GarGo0or -- The Deadly Music of the Drops
emotion_bigheart mythological irony -- Red
emotion_bigheart Masten December -- Alaska
emotion_bigheart Haunting Heaven -- The Autumn Wind is Blowing
emotion_bigheart UhhhDavidx3 -- Thank You (PM)
emotion_bigheart meerodi -- Your Brother is Alive
emotion_bigheart skyblue1492 -- It Doesn't Deserve a Name (PM)



✔ Intro emotion_c8
✔Guidelines emotion_awesome
✔Rules emotion_donotwant
✔Prizes! emotion_dowant
✔List of Contestants emotion_bigheart
✘Extra Points emotion_omnomnom

[Phrensiedom]

Extra Points



Comedy: I love to laugh, and if you can manage to slip some humor into your writing as well as the sadness, extra points! That being said, stories written entirely around humor will not be accepted.
Characters: As stated before, I enjoy reading about deep, realistic characters. If I find your characters to be intensely real and vivid, extra points!
Angelspit: I love the lyrics of nearly all Angelspit songs. If you do as well, and you are greatly influenced by their music/can point to where your writing was influenced by their cynicism, extra points! Plus, I will love you until I die.

Electro-industrial: I need someone to chat with about electro-industrial music. If you listen to this genre as well, I very well may fall in love with you, and it can't hurt to have the OP of a contest love you.


✔ Intro emotion_c8
✔Guidelines emotion_awesome
✔Rules emotion_donotwant
✔Prizes! emotion_dowant
✔List of Contestants emotion_bigheart
✔Extra Points emotion_omnomnom

[Phrensiedom]

Open/Accepting!



Stay and chat!

I'm on Gaia a fair amount, and I have more respect for those who stay in a contest thread and chat with the OP than those who just enter and run.

c:

[Phrensiedom]

Hooray for boredom and waiting to leave for work?

emotion_8c

[Phrensiedom]

Am I the only one listening to "Catatonic" ~ Angelspit over and over again?

Yes?

Sad. ; -;

[Phrensiedom]

What I wouldn't give for a nap right now...FFFFFFFFFFF

[Phrensiedom]

Just added a deadline...because I forgot about it.

xD

[x-Angelic_Dreams-x]

I would like to join heart

[Phrensiedom]

hairbun503

I would like to join heart

Hooray!

I look forward to reading your writing in the future. :]

[x-Angelic_Dreams-x]

I am kinda new to writing anything sad. I am a fairly new writer and everyone tells me i am good but I want to try new things for my writing.

[Phrensiedom]

hairbun503

Hey, it's always a good idea to work on new areas of writing for yourself.

I know that I personally excel in writing sad, depressing things, but I am horrible about humor. It's something I really need to work on, and it's what I've been trying hard to master lately.

And hey, feel free to ask me any questions you may have. Sad is what I know. :]