Very well done to all the winners! I'd like to echo what everyone has said about the standard being so high. Great contest and not a bad entry among the thirty.
Here are the stories that got my vote -- though, as I mentioned before -- any of my top eleven could've taken one of the top spots and I reckon that would be the same for most people who voted, meaning that if you got low votes, you probably only just missed out of being in the top three in someones list.
1st - Open Any Door
I thought this was the best piece purely for kids. Good, enjoyable stuff and the ending was both an excellent way to engage kids and make the story live on. It was also a clever way of exploiting the limited word count.
2nd - The Door
Every cut I made I wanted to get rid of this bloody story! But every cut I made, there it was in the next round staring up at me like a coquettish Rubik's Cube. For each round of cuts I marked the stories out of ten and this was the only one that I kept marking lower and then higher, then changing my mind, and changing my mind again.
Basically, it got stuck in my head and I figured, after the last read through and a few days thinking, it had to get a vote from me. I think this was because -- although there were other pieces I enjoyed more from a purely entertaining perspective -- this one just wouldn't leave the old Hoskinsian noggin.
And that is some feat for a story when you know what my best and worst traits are.
3rd - Contest Entry
Loved this one. It was funny and sad and made you think, I thought.
However, I almost didn't vote for it because, as Orion pointed out, the key seemed absent. But then I decided that the command to think before he spoke was both a skeleton key and an
anti-skeleton key.
On the one hand, the command opens up new doors to logic and decision making (though the character doesn't get the hang of it to comedic -- and tragic (in his new awareness) -- effect). Whilst on the other, the skeleton key of thought closes down so many other avenues such as free-play and unconscious creation.
I thought it really packed a punch for such a short piece.
But the "golly-gee-willikers" dialogue rang a little false—was it supposed to be a period piece?[/FONT]
Nope, not a period piece.
I employed the GGW language for three reasons.
1:
I wanted Charlie to have an air of unreality about him. His mother's just died and he's retreated into a fantasy world and created a skeleton (symbol of his dead mother in more acceptable unconscious form) for a friend/replacement.
Because of this retreat, I thought it apt that he would take on the traits of a 1950's kids character as if he has mentally tried to climb into the safe world of a 1950's television show to avoid the reality of his mother's untimely demise. The language aimed to reflect this -- had I had more word's and time I would of made a contemporary setting more explicit and added something about his favourite TV show being
Leave it to Beaver or something of that ilk so the contrast was more obvious.
2:
I used the GGW language in an attempt to lull the audience into a false sense of security and make the seriousness of his mother's death as impactful as possible. I hoped there would be a large shift in emotion in the last third of the piece, and figured the safe, nostalgic GGW language would be a good counterpoint to switch from to achieve it.
3:
Because kids books are often read to kids by adults, I felt that a kids book has a dual audience, and because of that I wanted to talk to the adult reader as much as a child. My use of GGW was an attempt to lull the adult reader into a false sense of security (rather like for the kid reader/listener so the emotional shift is greater). But, for the adult, I wanted the theme of the piece to be not just about the dangers of closing one's eyes to grief, but the dangers of taking comfort in nostalgia.
I attempt to do this by using the GGW language as I think this style is associated with a safe, tame, bland, un-dangerous world in which there are no nasty surprises. Then, when the adult reader fully realizes that the protagonist is a very disturbed little boy they are hopefully prompted to question what sort of nostalgic comforts they themselves hide in due to the association of the GGW with safety.
Then I further add to the question of nostalgia as dangerous by throwing the curve ball of the mother's memories box (memorabilia box - nostalgia box). The box helps the protagonist back into the real world, but is he, and are we, going to start to drift into another Nostalgia?
As the protagonist says:
'I
miss her ... I
missed her so much.'
One of the questions I hoped the use of GGW language would prompt when viewed in relation to the emotional shift and the mother's memory box: how much should one really look back?
Having said all that, I know I probably didn't pull it off due to my lack of skill; and time and word count limits, but I hope that give an answers to your question.
On a final note -- just wanted to say a big thanks again to Smishinator, everyone who helped out behind the scenes and all the prize donators (not forgetting STS an her lovely offer of the necklace).
Good job one and all!
congrats to all the winners!
thanks to smishy for organizing the contest and overflowing with awesomeness at all times!
s sure!