Welcome to Gaia! ::

All right, guys! We have results! Once again, I apologize for the long wait, and hope y'all haven't been too frustrated.... Here are the winners!

1st place: "From the Ashes" by Turathionen Ishtar
2nd place: "Paper" by Drydor
3rd place: "Pressure" by starlit_jewel

"From the Ashes" is also the recipient of the "Pingpong's Choice" award. I'm sending the winners their prizes now. Congratulations to everyone, and thanks for entering!


Previous updates:
All right, we are now closed for judging! Results should be posted in about a week (02/21) at the latest.

The deadline has been extended! biggrin Last chance to enter is the end of this week!

Amai Kusanagi has donated 500 gold! eek I am amazed at how nice people are!

Drydor has donated 50 gold! Thank you, Drydor! biggrin

The Writers Workshop and Contest Charity Foundation has approved pingpong867's application! The Writers Workshop deserves a big huge thank you for this!

Hi, everybody! I have to say, it's really nice to be back.... Anyway, on to business. Round 1 of the "Music of Your Writing" went very well, I think, and now we're ready for Round 2! Please note: entry is not restricted to those who participated in Round 1. Any entry is greatly welcome. All the information needed should be in this post and the two following, but feel free to ask about any questions you have.

Table of Contents
I. Entry & Rules
II. Prizes
III. Judging

I. Entry & Rules
Entries should be posted in this thread. The entry fee is 50 gold, the purpose of which is detailed below under "Prizes." Until I have received your entry fee, you will not be added to the list of competitors. This entry fee covers only round two of the contest. You do not have to have entered in the first round to be eligible for the second; however, only someone who has competed in all three rounds will be eligible for the grand prize.

The theme of the contest is music and writing; therefore, each of the three rounds will somehow relate to music. For the second round, the challenge is to choose one of the songs listed below, and write a short story incorporating that song. There are several ways you could do this; for example:

Write a story where one character hears the song on the radio or sings it to someone.

Write a story where quotes from the song are used as dialogue.

Write a story describing the events that lead up to a character writing the song.

Write a story that the song could be alluding to.

Or anything else you can think of that involves one of the song choices in one way or another. I've tried to pick songs that might be familiar and that have a lot of potential story surrounding them, but I realize that the restrictions of using a song someone else has chosen might make the writing trickier; therefore, I want you to have as much freedom in other areas as you can possibly think of. I want you to feel very comfortable with innovation for this.

The songs you can choose from are:
"Going Crazy" by Plus One
"Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who
"Missing" by Everything but the Girl
"No Rain" by Blind Melon
"Movies" by Alien Ant Farm
"Inside Out" by Eve 6
Format for submission should be as follows:

Title: My Story
Author: Me
Song Used: This Song by That Singer
{Story Body}

Story length should be between 1,000 and 4,000 words. This should provide sufficient time to develop your theme and characters, without being prohibitively long.

Grammar and spelling will be considered when your story is judged.

Only completely original writing is eligible. This means no plagarism (which should go without saying), but also, I'd prefer no fanfiction. Not everyone is familiar with whichever anime or TV show you might write for, and I want every entry to have a fair chance.

The deadline has been extended to February 12th. Results and judging for the first round should be posted, at the latest, one week after on February 19th.

If fewer than five people enter, the contest will be canceled and entry fees will be refunded.

Anyone who's interested in the history of the contest, or who would like to see it in operation, is welcome to browse through the Round 1 thread: "Music of Your Writing" Round 1 (closed)

III. Judging

pingpong867 and imperfectutopia, the judges from last round, will be helping to judge this round as well, so I'm not looking for any more volunteers. I will, however, repeat the "goals of judging" for the benefit of any entrants, because they also give a pretty solid idea of what we will be looking for in entries.

The goals of judging should be:

To consider each piece on the basis of both technical and artistic merits.
Things like spelling and grammar are equally as important as creativity. It does no good to have the world's most enthralling plot, if the story can't be read. Similarily, it does no good to have a perfectly constructed story that no one's interested in reading because it's just that boring.

To consider each piece on its own merits, as a quality representative of its own genre rather than of writing as a whole.
To consider each piece without judging it solely on personal bias.
It's kind of like a dog show. You can't compare poodles to schnauzers, and decide that you like poodles better. You have to take the poodle as a representative of all poodles, and figure out how close to the ideal it is.

To consider each piece in terms of how well it meets the contest rules.
To consider each story in terms of how well it fits the author's chosen song.
I think those are probably self-explanatory.

With that all said, I hope we all have fun!

I'm in!!!

All right! Thanks for coming back! biggrin

Odds are that I am in. Give me a little time, I have to think it up.....the song can relate to the story, without actually being in the story or quoted, correct?

That's exactly right. The story just has to involve the song in some way - how is completely up to you.

It's great to see a couple of new faces! Sit down, take a load off, have some hot chocolate.... Feel welcome! biggrin