*reads over thread and slaps self* :facepalm:

Thought I'd said at the beginning that I would be delighted to judge. Of course I forgot to actually type it.

Anyway, I would be interested in judging, whether it be this time or in the future.

My story clocks in at 3,200 words. Acceptable?

You'll have to wait and find out the day we judge the entries. But tell us, do you think it's kosher?

I was just wondering how long does it usually take yall to write a story. because I realize I'm going really slow debateing myself over every detail and so far have only 500 words. and only maybe a fifth of the way done. been three days I've been working on it.

If it's a story about pork it isn't.

Shades, you changed your Avvy! Confound me further, why don't you?!


It took me all of today, but I was pondering the outline of the story for about three days before I spent all of the daylight hours writing it.

Usually, I'm slower. Still working on Manic Dementia.

Good writing takes more than a day to write. I'm sure there are a select few who could pull it off, but it's still not very wise. Of course, it all depends on how long your story is... duh, Reds...

I got my idea!!!

It may have to wait until the second contest though. The first part will be in the contest, then I will do the rest on the forum. I will do it when I have time to do it.

You know...after a while, we should have a contest to where the judges are writing, and the contestants vote or something.

The judges have to have some fun now, don't they?

Yeah, I know. Sadly, I'm a sporadic writer like that, and spend most of the planning time not writing, just thinking. So all those days of writing you guys do equates to boatloads of in-restaurant contemplation and drive-home inner debating, before getting to the actual writing, for me. It's how I roll.

Just in honor of Daggerfall being released. I'll change it back when Modern Warfare 2 comes out.

I am waiting for Left 4 Dead 2.

Well, I haven't even started. Regardless, I'll wait until a few more entries come in before I do anything with yours Frank. I would have posted it, but you just told everyone... Anyway, if everyone that is interested gets their stories in before the month is up, once we finish the judges voting, we can start the popular vote early. Since the contests are consecutive, I see no reason why it would bother anyone to wait for the next one anyway, unless they wanted to participate in the first Feyfolken of many.


EDIT: If the judges want in, they can send their stories to me and I won't tell anyone. They wouldn't be allowed to win though, and if they did then no one but the judges is to know. So there could be whole stories none of you get to see :ninja:

I usually mull the concept over for a long time and set up a few scenes based on the character's personality. Once I know what I want the characters to do here and there, I find a plot to work them into without it being something expected. I also keep a file on my desktop for concepts or quotes that would be appropriate for the story I'm working on, so I've got some backup to incorporate if the situation calls for it. Once the ducks are in a row it doesn't take a really long time. I do get busy with other things though.

True true.

On the subject of how I go about making a story, I have a very rather haphazard process. It begins with a random idea, be it inspired by something in real life or in lore, which I promptly go into MS Word and start writing bullet points for each and every detail, each idea inspiring me to make more. Usually, I'll re-visit these notes three or four times before I start writing, changing them every time. Then, I form the notes into a cohesive storyline, taking each event in sequence and, depending on the size of the story, each character's reaction and logically following events. These are just main points though, I embellish with smaller details thought up randomly either as I write or some other time.

Then, once I have the story planned out to the end with all my events, reactions, and sometimes thoughts lined up, I write the intro. I try several different intros, then pick the best and run with that.

Here is one of my note pages I have visited twice, not much done, but a decent idea:


I haven't gotten far, but I have been focusing on other stories. I have about a dozen and a half of these in different states of completion, from a story I already did the intro to this, which is probably my second least developed idea.

These are the current notes for Fallen Champion, there are more but I stopped here so as not to spoil the story. There are lots of events missing that I'll probably go back and fix later tonight. Got to brainstorm:

I never plan what I write I tend just to get an awesome idea for a scene, write up a thousand words or so where I'm really into the plot and it comes out great. Then I plot around the scene and, after numerous redrafts and changes to make the plot work, it comes out nowhere near as good as the original scene

Just wondering would you like it if I was to advertise the contest over several websites to help get contestants and make more people aware of the contest?

Sure, go ahead. Link them to the forum or this thread, the more the merrier. There are already people I don't know there (like Quirk)

My creative process is apparently... unique. I make no notes outside of mental, make no outlines outside of within my mind, and decide all my characters actions by trying to go into THEIR mindset as best I can.

Usually, I either come up with a completely random idea (the idea to write the short fanfic Three came to me while I was at work, thinking about... I think it was how seven always seemed to be a meaningful number, or something. ADHD moment, I admit) or take inspiration from other media (many of my drawings and such have bits and pieces which some would point at and go "this looks sorta like" because it is sorta like, but tweaked.) or from life period.

I somehow divine a plot over time, in my mind, and then work out the scenes themselves, in my mind, based on how the characters would react and behave, and form the environment of the scenes in my mind as I make the scenes, and play out the story like a movie in my mind.

And then... I transfer the mental imagery of the story to words IN MY MIND. And then finally the inspiration strikes to transfer the mental manuscript to type.

Apparently, I'm quite mental.

Now I think about it... this might be why I tend to be highly descriptive, as I write to strive to make my reader see the same movie within their mind... This method is also why I rarely, if ever, edit my work after writing it, unless it is failing my original intention and I find a way to describe it better.

Sorry Frank, don't think I caught that. You come up with your story ideas in your what?

I find that when I write, what little planning I do takes place mentally. I usually come up with a general outline of where I want the story or chapter to go, and then start writing. Most of the other details, what the characters say, how they get from Point A to Point B, end up being developed as I write them down. Somehow, I find that making it up as I go along helps it flow more naturally...at least, in my mind, anyway. I usually like to have certain ideas for things I want to happen in each chapter, and I tend to explore various possibilities before I actually write anything down.

And of course, editing always helps, just to make sure things are flowing correctly.

I do that too Dark Nova
I have a general idea of what I want to happen and then as I start writing I find that I don't have as much control over the characters and my infgers just type what they say or what they do as though they are alive themselves and I'm just the messenger in the middle writing it all down. Sometimes my story gets completely changed this wasy because I am constantly inventing and changing as I write, but it usually ends up way better than I planned in the first place.

Although I do have to agree with FC4 that I just cannot proof read my work, I hate reading something I've just written it makes me cringe, but if I go back several months later and read it, It seems as if someone else wrote it and I'm like... WOW this is so interesting
Maybe it's because the characters become real to me I'm not sure.

Yeah, I do look at it a lot in my head, but I always write it down so I don't forget. I don't describe everything in my planning, I let the details flow into the story by themselves. But I always want to know what the next step is and what the overall goal is. It also helps me forshadow. And when I do edit, it's usually because someone just told me about a mistake in my writing. If no one says anything, I assume it's fine the way it is :shrug:

I just thought about it, how are non-judges to go about in commenting? I mean, if all the people (save for the judges; IIRC they can't enter, right?) in the Feyfolken forums are entering and they all comment on the stories save for on their own, won't it become a bit too obvious? Sorry if this ahs been answered already, but I was just wondering.

I guess we could post the story then lock the thread. Then unlock the thread after the judging is done.

We could do something clever like getting the person in question to post the judge's findings about their story so that they don't stand out from the other people posting comments :ninja:

Once the competition is resolved you can then edit the thread title to include the name of the writer so you can find out who it was. Over elaborate solutions FTW!

i was thinking that the story is first posted in judging and judged, and then a clean copy is posted in the story forum when judging is complete. besides, i doubt that everyone will comment on every story.