Congratulations to RedhandedJill, Winner of the AoKH Writing Competition 2015!

Previous Writing Competitions:

CarolKarine: 2013
Leif Ericson: 2012
sly_guy: 2010
Scud: 2008



Now that the mistletoe has made its way into the bin, the Christmas tree has gone back into the attic, and all the New Year's Champagne has been consumed, what is left to fill the empty hours?

Of course, we all have terribly busy lives of work, friendship, and study, yet sometimes we wish for a way to procrastinate from it, as I am now. And so, as the snow that clads our locales melts away, my thoughts wander to a faraway land, of wizards and elves, where I can tell a story of companionship, adventure, and peril.

I imagine many of you have stories of your own. This Competition is an opportunity to share them with the community.

Whether you prefer prose or poetry, realism or fantasy, modern or historical, dramatic or humorous, we accept them all. So, this is the perfect opportunity for all of you budding storytellers to flex your writing muscles and exercise your creative side, for a Custom Title will be awarded for first place! Additional prizes include three mystery strategy games!

Rules:

What's a competition without rules? Despite your groaning, feast your eyes over these rules below, because you don't want to write a 175 page novel and realise it won't be accepted.

Your entry must not exceed 10,000 words – if you get up to 10001, you can probably find a sentence to rephrase. No preference will be given for entries of any length: they will be judged for their consistent merit.

Your entry must be written in the English language.

Your entry must be a work of fiction; novellas, short stories, prose, poetry or screenplays. Any fictional entry will be accepted. However, articles, essays and so forth will not be accepted.

Your entry must be sent in before March 15^th, which means any time during or before March 14^th. Please send your entries to Popeychops@heavengames.com

Once you have sent your entry, you will have no chance to edit it further – it is considered final. Make sure you’re happy with it before you send it in.

Your entry must be entirely your own work – no team entries, no cooperation between two writers, etc. It is permitted to use real or existing characters or events, but your own work must be the full scope of your entry.

Your entry must be submitted in one of the following digital formats: [.doc, .docx, .txt, .pdf]
Alternatively, you may send it as the body of an email to Popeychops@heavengames.com.

The content of your entry must obey the CoC.

The Judges' interpretation of the rules is final.

Judging:

The competition has three judges who will award a maximum of 50 points to each story; up to 25 for Technical Proficiency, and up to 25 for Literary Content. The entries will be judged by myself, Lief Ericson, and Mr Wednesday. The winning entry will be the one with the highest combined score from all three judges. In the event of a tie, the award will be shared between the winning entries.

"Technical Proficiency" is the assessment of your ability to write in the English language. The main areas that will be judged will be how well your entry is structured, the literary technique displayed, the use of language for effect, characterisation, thematic development and others. You will be marked down for spelling and grammatical errors (unless of course it is used as colloquialism during dialogue), so be sure to check your entries thoroughly for any errors.

"Literary Content" will be the content of the entry itself, and to be blunt - did the judges like it? Was your entry satisfying, was the plot developed, or was the dialogue wooden with the characters lifeless? It may be good writing a well thought out and technical piece of prose, but if it isn't interesting to the judges you are shooting yourself in the foot.

If you ask the judges nicely, they may write an extended critique of your work! Now that you know what to do and what to expect, it's time to let the creative juices flow! Good luck and have fun writing!

Entrants:

		Popey		Matt		Leif
Author	Entry	Technical Proficiency	Literary Content	Technical Proficiency	Literary Content	Technical Proficiency	Literary Content	TOTAL
RedHandedJill	The Call of My Dark World	22	25	19	24	17	19	126
Lord Basse	The Castle on Amerun Hill	19	18	21	22	19	17	116
The Gingerdead Man	The End of Clocks	18	17	24	20	19	18	116
CarolKarine	Signal to the Noise	21	23	18	18	15	19	114
Moff	Untitled	20	16	19	19	22	12	108
Lildbehr	The Shapeshifter's Son	12	10	7	6	16	19	70
Vinyl	Untitled	10	5	13	3	17	14	62

Dropped out:

Jan dc
Mithril Knight
Seonid
Erskine Ravel
Arnas
Mash
Dementor561
Gunkanchud
ax_man1
AsyDRabbit
Little Fighter 2

[This message has been edited by Popeychops (edited 03-27-2015 @ 01:51 PM).]