Writing About Animals/Nature Contest (results posted!)

alleycat

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[FONT=&quot]Since we now have Anne's permission to proceed, I believe it's time to get the contest started. Based on the comments made in an earlier thread, I've made a few changes to the rules of the contest.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Rules*[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1. The contest will run for three weeks, from February 25 to March 15, closing at 6:00 pm PST.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]2. Each entry must have a strong nature or animal theme. It can be either fiction or nonfiction, in any genre, as long as the story is suitable to be posted in the Share Your Work forum and read by all members of AW.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]3. The maximum word count is 2000 words.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]4. You can enter as many stories as you like; however, be kind and don't try to "choke" the contest. Remember that we have to get people to read all the entries and vote. You retain all rights to your entries.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]5. The contest will be blind entry. That is, the name of the writers of the entries will not be revealed until the end of the contest. Derek (dpaterso) has kindly offered to post the entries. Using this address to send him your entry: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/private.php?do=newpm&u=19 [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Include the words Animal Story Contest and the title of your story in the message title. He will then post the entries in the appropriate section of Share Your Work.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6. Most of us are aware that there can be formatting problem when posting something here on AW. Derek is aware of this and can do some very minor tinkering if needed. It would help if you went ahead and used single line spacing with double line spacing between paragraphs rather than indents. If you need to, you can make a copy of your story, and make these changes before sending it to Derek.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]7. aka eraser has kindly offered to help moderate the contest. I hope no problems come up, but if they do and it's something we can't solve amongst ourselves, aka will be the final judge of the rules (even if he has to create a new one on the spot).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]8. Derek will post the rules for voting when he posts the entry thread in SYW.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]9. Have fun. If you feel like it, please put a notice in your signature to alert others of the contest with a link back to this thread.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]*I've tried to cover everything, but I could easily have missed something. If something needs to be clarified, please let me know. If needed, I will defer to aka eraser.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Prizes:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Grand prize: A $25 Amazon gift certificate (or $25 USD if you can accept payment by PayPal e-mail), and the choice of either a book by Anne (awatkins) or aka eraser.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Second prize: A $10 Amazon gift certificate (or $10 USD if you can accept payment by PayPal e-mail), and the book by Anne or aka eraser not chosen by the grand prize winner.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Third prize: A $10 Amazon gift certificate (or $10 USD if you can accept payment by PayPal e-mail).[/FONT]

---

I'm including these comments from Derek from a post below so that no one will miss them:

. . . contestants should submit their entries to me via Private Message, so I'm expecting to find text in the body of the PM, not as a file attachment. (I don't think you can attach files to a PM!)

Note that if you're copy/pasting from a word processor, you may lose formatting (e.g. italics or underlines) which you'll have to re-apply manually in the PM editor window.

You may also want to insert spaces between paragraphs to break up big chunks of text and give readers an easier read. Your choice.

Always preview your PM before sending to make sure things look just the way you expect!
 
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rhymegirl

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Sounds like a fun contest.

One question. Do we PM our entries to Derek? I clicked the link in AC's post and it gets you nowhere. When you click it, it says something like: You are not logged in or you do not have access to view this page.

Huh?
 

alleycat

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Sounds like a fun contest.

One question. Do we PM our entries to Derek? I clicked the link in AC's post and it gets you nowhere. When you click it, it says something like: You are not logged in or you do not have access to view this page.

Huh?
Just log in again on that page and it will take you directly to sending a PM to Derek.
 

TheIT

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2. Each entry must have a strong nature or animal theme. It can be either fiction or nonfiction, in any genre, as long as the story is suitable to be posted in the Share Your Work forum and read by all members of AW.

Any genre including fantasy/SF? Real species of animals, or can they be imaginary?
 
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alleycat

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Any genre including fantasy/SF? Real species of animals, or can they be imaginary?
Interesting question.

I would say, yes, even imaginary animals as long as the animal(s) are truly central to the story (say, a girl and her pet unicorn). A story about a young warrior going to kill a dragon in a cave and the dragon only shows up in the last scene would be a bit of a stretch, I think. I imagined that we might have a story or two with talking animals, so it's not that much of a stretch to include imaginary animals.

I didn't really think about this however. If anyone objects, I guess we'd have to get a ruling from the powers above.
 

dpaterso

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Ya, you've got to be signed in to send PMs to other members.

I've received some entries already, so get writing!

-Derek
Send me a PM!
 

alleycat

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A new member asked this morning if poems were all right to enter. I hadn't thought about that either.

I probably should have specified whether poems were allowed or not. For this contest, I think it would be okay to enter poems as well. If we have another contest sometime in the future, we might think of either not allowing poems, or having two categories.

Thoughts anyone?
 

DaddyCat

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A new member asked this morning if poems were all right to enter. I hadn't thought about that either.

I probably should have specified whether poems were allowed or not. For this contest, I think it would be okay to enter poems as well. If we have another contest sometime in the future, we might think of either not allowing poems, or having two categories.

Thoughts anyone?

I see no problem with including poetry, mythical animals, etc. The more genres, the merrier.
 

Vampirate

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I always thought it was creative to have poems in stories, as long as it goes along...or to have stories in the form of a poem :D
 

anne_marie

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So just to clarify, do we post the entry as the body of the message or do we make it as an attachment?

Thanks

Anne Marie
 

alleycat

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So just to clarify, do we post the entry as the body of the message or do we make it as an attachment?

Thanks

Anne Marie
Just include it in the body of a message.

There are different ways to do this (for example, copying from a rtf file). Let me get Derek to answer your question more fully; he might have a preference for one way of sending him the stories over another.
 

dpaterso

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Indeed, contestants should submit their entries to me via Private Message, so I'm expecting to find text in the body of the PM, not as a file attachment. (I don't think you can attach files to a PM!)

Note that if you're copy/pasting from a word processor, you may lose formatting (e.g. italics or underlines) which you'll have to re-apply manually in the PM editor window.

You may also want to insert spaces between paragraphs to break up big chunks of text and give readers an easier read. Your choice.

Always preview your PM before sending to make sure things look just the way you expect!

-Derek
 
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Ken

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...a trick to preserving formatting when copying and pasting into a post, and probably into a PM too is to go to advanced and switch to Editing mode. Did this the last few times in SYW and worked like a charm, even preserving the different font colors I'd used in Word.
 

alleycat

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Just a reminder . . .

There's just one more week to go. So, if you're planning on entering a story . . . GET TO WRITING!

;-)
 

Ken

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...got me a question, I do.
I PMed a story to Derek a week back.
Since then I've revised it, pretty extensively.
Can I make a nuisance of myself and enter this revision in its place?
(Posting the question here since someone else may be in a similar situation.)
Thanks.
 

alleycat

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...got me a question, I do.
I PMed a story to Derek a week back.
Since then I've revised it, pretty extensively.
Can I make a nuisance of myself and enter this revision in its place?
(Posting the question here since someone else may be in a similar situation.)
Thanks.
Yes. As long as none of us abuse this, I don't think it would be a problem to send Derek a revised story.

You might want to send Derek a separate PM with something is the subject line like: Please Delete Story Sent 3/1/09, Revised Story to Follow. That would help him, I think.
 

A. Hamilton

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how many entries so far?
who's writing for this?
me, I've roughly outlined, which just means I'm still a maybe.
 

Ken

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get crackin' P.H.Delarran :whip: :)

Thanks Alleycat. I'll do that with the separate PM, beforehand.