THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL KIDLIT WRITING CONTEST!

Smish · Aug 1, 2011

It is with great pleasure that I announce

THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL KIDLIT WRITING CONTEST!

What It’s About

Entries must include the sentence: "The lunch lady hates me."
Entries must be titled.
Entries must be 600 words or less (not including the title).
Entries must be written for kids! But all genres are welcome.

People vote for their top three favorites. First-place votes get three points; second-place votes get two points; third-place votes get one point.

The entry with the most points wins.

The Grand Prize

A generous anonymous donor has provided a $25.00 gift certificate, which has been matched by AW, for a prize of $50.00.
The howl-icious timp67 (author Timothy Power) has donated an autographed copy of his MG novel, The Boy Who Howled.
The fabulous poetinahat has donated a copy of Absolute Poetry, a collection of poems from the talented poets of AW.
The great KTC (author Keven Craig) has donated a copy of his YA novel, Summer on Fire.

Prize for Second Place

The ever-amazing alleycat has donated a $25.00 Amazon gift certificate.

Prize for Third Place

$15.00 Amazon gift certificate, donated by me.

A big thank you to all the fabulous donors! :e2flowers

Rules

Entrants must be members of AW in good standing since at least July 15, 2011. Limit ONE entry per member.
Entries will be posted exactly as entered – except that they will all be posted in the same font. No graphic images will be permitted. Please make sure your spelling and formatting are exactly as you want them before you submit your entry. I will not proofread or edit the entries.
All AW members in good standing since at least July 15, 2011, are eligible to vote.

Entrants must vote to be eligible to win.

How to Enter
Using the board's private message function, send me your entry by August 20, 2011 at 11:59 PM US EASTERN (Know your time zones)
I will post the entries, all at once, and open the voting.

Do NOT post entries in this thread. They will be deleted and disqualified (all entries must remain anonymous to ensure fair voting).

How to Vote
Once the entries are posted, you may send me your vote – one vote per current AW member in good standing, also using the private message function.

In the subject line of your private message, type VOTE: CONTEST

In the body of the message, include up to three votes in order, from first to third. List both the entry number and the title. For example:

3. Bust Your Capulet
7. You've got Rhythm
8. Happy Feet

YES, entrants may vote for themselves.

Voting will close at 11:59PM US Eastern on August 31, 2011. Any votes received after that time won't count.

I will then post complete results with vote totals for every entry, and announce the winner on September 1, 2011.

If you win, I'll need a mailing address of course. The prizes will be mailed directly or via an online distributor.

HAVE FUN AND GOOD LUCK!

(If this post looks somewhat familiar, it's because much of it was copied from an announcement created by poetinahat for a recent poetry contest.

)

Kitty Pryde · Aug 1, 2011

Awesome! Question: should it be a completed story, or is an brilliant beginning of a tale also okay to enter?

Smish · Aug 1, 2011

That's fine, Kitty.

jtrylch13 · Aug 1, 2011

I'm so excited. I won't be able to sleep tonight because I'll be thinking up ideas.

Butterbean · Aug 1, 2011

This sounds like fun Smish!!! :hooray:

Great idea!!!

I better start thinking now.

I can't wait to read and write.

Smish · Aug 1, 2011

The prizes have been updated! A huge thank you to the wonderful donors!

Kitty Pryde · Aug 1, 2011

ohhhhhh it sounds great!

*thinks really hard about lunch ladies*

swachski · Aug 2, 2011

Wow, this website is so awesome.

Thank you donors, for your generosity, and thanks Smish, for getting everyone all fired up!

:TheWave:

Smish · Aug 2, 2011

MOD NOTE

Members do NOT need to have 50 posts or more to enter this contest.

Mclesh · Aug 2, 2011

Smish said:
Members do NOT need to have 50 posts or more to enter this contest.

Thank you for this, Smish! I've been working on this today -- completely blowing off important things I should have been doing. So much fun!

Smish · Aug 2, 2011

sissybaby · Aug 3, 2011

I had a dream last night and finally have an idea for the prompt! Yay! I can't wait to get started now that I have a direction.

Thanks, folks, for offering such awesome prizes. What an added incentive.

sissybaby · Aug 3, 2011

Okay, I'm back.

Smish - are you SURE you want only 600 words?

This is going to be mission impossible for me, I'm afraid. (keep thinking, keep thinking)

Smish · Aug 3, 2011

Yep, 600 words is the limit. I was going to make it 500 words, but decided to give you guys an extra 100.

(I will confess I was thinking of one particular member's 100,000-word picture book when I decided to add 100 words. :ROFL:

)

Flur · Aug 3, 2011

Great idea.

swachski · Aug 3, 2011

Sissy, I think that's the reason we have dreams, they're great writing material, aren't they?

I wrote something today that ended at 675 words, so I had to go back and edit. (Thanks for the extra 100 words, Smish!) It's actually much better now, but I'm still going to let it sit for a couple days before I submit it.

100,000-word PB? Where did they fit the pictures?!!

moth · Aug 4, 2011

I haven't written fiction in ages...but I may have something for this. I'm even excited about it! I haven't felt this fiction-thrill in a while, and it's nice.

Thanks for running this, and thanks to all the generous donors for such amazing prizes!

romancewriter · Aug 5, 2011

My question is does the sentence about the lunch lady have to be worded exactly? Like can you say. . . And how can things get much worse when your own aunt, who also happens to be the lunch lady, hates you.
That's not one of my sentences but just wondering.

Smish · Aug 5, 2011

romancewriter said:
My question is does the sentence about the lunch lady have to be worded exactly? Like can you say. . . And how can things get much worse when your own aunt, who also happens to be the lunch lady, hates you.
That's not one of my sentences but just wondering.

I think minor differences in punctuation can be forgiven, if you wanted an exclamation point, or a question mark, or a semi-colon, or whatever. If you want to add a word, that would be okay, as well. For example, "But the lunch lady hates me."

Your suggested sentence is too different, I think. The challenge is to include the sentence, "The lunch lady hates me." So, that sentence should be recognizable in your prompt.

romancewriter · Aug 6, 2011

Good to know. Thanks!

Gemnyc · Aug 6, 2011

Sorry to ask another question about the prompt Smish, but I'm 700 words into my story (yes, the rest of the time until the deadline will be editing

), and I wanted to check that the prompt can be used during MC's internal thoughts and not just in dialogue. I wasn't sure whether your use of quotes was to quote the prompt or to state that it should be used in dialogue - if that makes sense. I'm pretty sure I'm over thinking this

Smish · Aug 6, 2011

The sentence does not have to be in dialogue.

Good luck with the edits, Gemny!

Gemnyc · Aug 6, 2011

Thanks Smish. That's a relief as sorting that out was bound to add even more words!

SheilaJG · Aug 8, 2011

Smish said:
Yep, 600 words is the limit. I was going to make it 500 words, but decided to give you guys an extra 100.

(I will confess I was thinking of one particular member's 100,000-word picture book when I decided to add 100 words. )

Ah, yes. My cute little picture book about a boy who didn't want to be a wizard that turned into a three-part epic fantasy. Good times.

Thanks for the extra 100. Although, for me, that's kind of like feeding a shark a tadpole (can you tell I've got sharks on my brain). It's not enough. Ah, well. I'll take it as a challenge.

Thank you so much for doing this Smish!

alleycat · Aug 8, 2011

No matter what the word count limit, it's never enough (for me, at least). I was working on a story yesterday; it started out as 985 words, then I cut it down little by little. Now it's sitting at 670 words. It's tough to makes cuts to a story, but in the end it's oftentimes a tighter and better story for doing so. You eliminate lines that a reader probably wouldn't care that much about anyway.

One thing to keep in mind, we have to get people to read the stories and vote. If each of the stories were 2000 words it would be harder to get people to read all of them.

THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL KIDLIT WRITING CONTEST!

Reads more than she writes.

i luv you giant bear statue

Reads more than she writes.

Has semi-colon; will use it!

This boy just ain't right

Reads more than she writes.

i luv you giant bear statue

checking the 'reset' box

Reads more than she writes.

It's too hot

Reads more than she writes.

Reads more than she writes.

checking the 'reset' box

my own two hands

Reads more than she writes.

reading 24/7

Reads more than she writes.

reading 24/7

Still around