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April Showers Writing Contest
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Night Queen
Night Queen
Old Shoe

Apr-2-2012 22:31

April Showers Writing Contest

When: April 16-20
Prizes: For 1st and 2nd places.

Who: Everyone is invited. The more the merrier. The Unsubscribed may join and even win, but prizes will be withheld until you subscribe (before May 1, 2012). The Subscribed may join AND you may enlist to be a judge by April 7.

Categories:
1) Detective Biography writing.
2) Creative writing. This category will NOT be graded on spelling or grammar.
3) (Optional) Case Intro writing â€" only if I can get 2 more judges by April 7.

Needed: 2 Judges. Please note that you may be judge and still enter the contest. Just not within the category you enter.
Contestants may enter more than one category.

Judges so far include:
Night Queen
Cordelia Falco
Lady Jas
DaRu
Summer Daze

Stay tuned for the rules for each category. Everyone please sign up!


Replies

Night Queen
Night Queen
Old Shoe

Apr-3-2012 23:09

Great questions Dedektif.

It has nothing to do with any Sleuth Noir theme. Simply, pronouns are boring. It does not mean they are banned from this contest. It simply means you are encouraged to use a noun whenever possible. Also, the reader has to be made very clear as to who or what the pronoun refers to. Pronouns tend to be ambiguous and vague. Not a good recipe for winning a writing contest.

As for active versus passive voice, active is much more interesting to read. Engineers and lawyers like passive voice, but you would fall asleep reading anything they wrote. Like pronouns, passive voice is not banned from the contest. Just mazimize using active voice if you want to win.

Another thing about passive voice. Since there is a limit on the number of words you can submit, active voice also tends to reduce the number of words in a sentence. For example, compare the following sentences:

"Keeping track of time was lost by the detective."

"The detective lost track of time."

Another example:

"The bank tellers were carefully watched by the villain."

"The villain carefully watched the bank tellers."

I hope these two examples are illustrative enough. The active voice yields just that--action--and the active voice shortens sentences. You will be surprised how fast it is to eat up your alloted amount of words.

Cekuray
Cekuray
Well-Connected

Apr-4-2012 01:30

Great idea again NQ! I would like to enter this contest in the biography section of it. I am not subscribed now, but hope I will be till beginning of May.

Dedektif Cingot
Dedektif Cingot
Well-Connected

Apr-4-2012 14:47

@NQ: I can see how active voice can minimize the number of words in a sentence and help use the allotted space efficiently.

But efficiency is not the same as creativity, which you already know, and in those examples you have given, specifically in the second one, actually we see that the narrator emphasizes different parts of a sentence.

It's not because I have something in mind that's to be written in passive voice but because I find it needlessly restrictive to one's imagination. Sometimes people like to change their narration from x person's to y person's pov to introduce timeline and position yet as other perspectives/dimensions to the story, however ou may call it... doh anyway.
I know it's not banned, I just wanted to know, though. Thank you :)

Night Queen
Night Queen
Old Shoe

Apr-4-2012 16:56

Dedektif,

Nobody, especially me, is restricting anyone's imagination and creativity. If you believe that passive voice is your ticket to imaginative writing, then by all means use it. Just remember it is the judge's opinion that counts.

What I would suggest is that on your 1st draft, you simply write your ideas down as quickly as you can. Then read it, think about it, and rewrite it. Don't even think about spelling or grammar until the 3rd rewrite. About the 3rd time, look at things like spelling, grammar, pronouns, and passive voice usage, then just see if you can improve your work.

When you have read it at least twice, and cannot think of a way to improve your work, then it is ready. You, and only you, has to make that determination.

For more help with passive/active voice, I suggest you look at the Writing Center webpage for University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. They have a webpage discussing passive voice. This site will confirm that passive voice is NOT grammatically incorrect, but is often vague or confusing.

My contention is simply that you get more "bang for your buck" using active voice. And it is especially true when the number of words you can submit is very limited--like in this contest.

Dedektif Cingot
Dedektif Cingot
Well-Connected

Apr-4-2012 18:21

You are one hell of a monarch, you know that! The engineering, planning and scheming queen of Noir! The vicious feline with a pair of goddam canines!

The University of North Carolina?! Lol! Jack London was not a university graduate. Dostoevsky was an engineer dropout. And while universities teach thousands of students the contents of such courses, only few get to be the writers, because "they probably came to Pencey that way!" lol. And this is Noir =D

I think I am scared and I am just going to watch this unravel.


Dedektif Cingot
Dedektif Cingot
Well-Connected

Apr-4-2012 18:22

-no the there- (just another reason why I better watch this-

Dedektif Cingot
Dedektif Cingot
Well-Connected

Apr-5-2012 05:22

I was just kidding. I guess it was too much. You are a vampire queen and a judge, so listen to your food while it's still talking and alive(still kidding now):

I think you came up with a great idea, what I don't agree with the bit about North Carolina because on principle, I don't believe creative writing has any standards. Not to mention that that non-native speakers like me can learn a lot about grammar and the like from sites like this, so thank you :)

Ivy Spini
Ivy Spini
Well-Connected

Apr-5-2012 08:05

A question about case intros. Do contestants need to submit those in this thread or to Writer's Workshop? Also, is there a way to browse Sleuth intros (beside one's own)?

Night Queen
Night Queen
Old Shoe

Apr-5-2012 08:27

Dedektif,
You are sort of correct. "Creativity" has no bounds. "Creative Writing" does. If you want to be strictly creative in this contest, then just submit to the 2nd category called "Creative Writing". I have already explained that in this contest, grammar and spelling errors will not affect you in that category. An entry there is judged solely on their creativity. The only limitations are keeping it family friendly and the length. I couldn't change those things even if I wanted to.

Case Intros and Bios will be judged on grammar and spelling--but creativity will still carry more weight.

Ivy,
All entries in any category will be submitted on this thread. Nowhere else.

BUT!
Nothing will stop you from also submitting a case intro to the Writer's Workshop. I highly encourage that. I would only ask that you wait until the winners are announced. It would be nice to add a header saying something like, "Winning Entry - April 2012 Writing Contest" or something else appropriate.

Night Queen
Night Queen
Old Shoe

Apr-5-2012 08:51

ANNOUNCEMENT!!

We now have enough judges for all three categories. The Case Intro category is officially on.

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