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Thread: Is There a 2016 short story competition?

  1. #1
    Phil Captain Pike's Avatar
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    Is There a 2016 short story competition?

    Last I could figure out, it looks like there was a tie last year.

    Have I just failed to read what everyone else knows? My life is kind of like this, these days, Alzheimer's?

    it's like the time I showed up at a friends house for the poker game. No one was home, but there was a reassuring message scrawled on the door itself:

    "Where's the game? – Earl"

    I never figured out where the game was and I have no idea who Earl might have been. It was nice to know though, at least somebody else was wondering the same thing.

    Ничего нет лучше для исправления, как прежнее с раскаянием вспомнить.

  2. #2
    Have a nice day! Nikhar's Avatar
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    I have no clue either. No resolution for last year's tie either. Acually, I havent seen Scher online for some time. I hope she's ok.
    People laugh at me 'coz they think I'm a fool...I smile because I made someone laugh
    Nikhar Agrawal

  3. #3
    Phil Captain Pike's Avatar
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    thank you Nik

    Yeah, thanks for writing back. I thought this all must've been a dream, especially since, I met a man on this forum, and it's the only way I have to contact him.

    I imagine that logos probably has a life outside of this forum.

    Maybe if we just assume that everything will work as it always did…
    Last edited by Captain Pike; 04-20-2016 at 07:00 PM. Reason: I am definitely goofy

    Ничего нет лучше для исправления, как прежнее с раскаянием вспомнить.

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    It would be a shame for the comp to stop. 18 people cared enough to vote in the last final.
    I should think , split the prize three ways pat everyone on the back and kick start the 2016 competition by asking for submissions for June, would be the way forward ?

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    Were there too few submissions last time? Perhaps a certain threshhold of pledges from people willing to submit would encourage the administration. Maybe there were too many.
    Last edited by desiresjab; 05-19-2016 at 10:46 AM.

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    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    It looks like a lack of interest. The same thing has happened to the poetry contests.

    One can always post stories and poems on blogs and generate readership and community through blog "challenges". I do something like this with my WordPress blog. Every week I write a limerick for a limerick challenge that another blogger has started. I'm also thinking of participating in a flash fiction challenge and a photo challenge. They motivate me to write something with a deadline, usually one week. It keeps me focused.

    One of the things that Lit Net offers that these blogs don't is an opportunity to post comments about different topics as we are doing now. All of those topics could later transform into ideas for poems and stories so I think the time is well spent.

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    Quote Originally Posted by YesNo View Post
    It looks like a lack of interest. The same thing has happened to the poetry contests.

    One can always post stories and poems on blogs and generate readership and community through blog "challenges". I do something like this with my WordPress blog. Every week I write a limerick for a limerick challenge that another blogger has started. I'm also thinking of participating in a flash fiction challenge and a photo challenge. They motivate me to write something with a deadline, usually one week. It keeps me focused.

    One of the things that Lit Net offers that these blogs don't is an opportunity to post comments about different topics as we are doing now. All of those topics could later transform into ideas for poems and stories so I think the time is well spent.
    What do you mean lack of interest? Were there too few submissions? I believe we can fix that, if it is the case. The poetry contests are not contests anyway, because there is nothing to win. Three hundred bucks is a pretty sum, however.

    Actual poetry contests with a reasonable prize like $50 for poem of the month, would do well, I imagine. I think you would see people bringing their best stuff out of the closet instead of things they are working on. After a year and a $600 dollar expenditure, Litnet could make a reasonable decision on whether they could produce a first rate anthology of member poems. Perhaps none of us should get our hopes up, for it is bound to bring some powerhouses out of the woodwork, who suddenly become members. The more the merrier. It can only raise quality.

    What do you think? I am some promoter, ain't I?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bluehound View Post
    It would be a shame for the comp to stop. 18 people cared enough to vote in the last final.
    I should think , split the prize three ways pat everyone on the back and kick start the 2016 competition by asking for submissions for June, would be the way forward ?
    It takes a long time to get through a story, that is why only 18 people voted. Poems are different. Everybody can get through one, even if it bores them. You would have members signing up just so they could vote.

    Short stories were a wonderful idea, but they are too long for modern sensibilities to stick with. I believe poems could succeed, for the reasons stated above. It is not a bad idea to attract poets who think they might be good enough to win a legitimate contest for a few bucks and glean a positive reference from it. Some of these members can really write poetry. I have seen it. I believe there are more members who are published poets but do not participate in the contests because there is nothing in it for them. They are used to getting something. Give them the notoriety of a legitimate contest and a few bucks. A contest every month. A real one. A legitimate one. Build it they will come.
    Last edited by desiresjab; 05-19-2016 at 04:53 PM.

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    I am just floating ideas to get any response. So far the admin has not said anything I know of. There would be poems good enough for their anthology they have to turn down for first place. They should mention those.

    I don't know what format they might come up with. Maybe $50, your poem placed in a member poets Hall of Fame they create, and you retain the right to publish the poem elsewhere. What am I, a legal mind? I don't like the smell of decay.

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    Maybe they do not want people to bring stuff out of the cupboard. Was it a rule of the short story contest that you had to write the piece specifically for the competition?

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    If someone could squeeze a post in edgewise here. I am up. Anyone else?

  12. #12
    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by desiresjab View Post
    What do you mean lack of interest? Were there too few submissions? I believe we can fix that, if it is the case. The poetry contests are not contests anyway, because there is nothing to win. Three hundred bucks is a pretty sum, however.

    Actual poetry contests with a reasonable prize like $50 for poem of the month, would do well, I imagine. I think you would see people bringing their best stuff out of the closet instead of things they are working on. After a year and a $600 dollar expenditure, Litnet could make a reasonable decision on whether they could produce a first rate anthology of member poems. Perhaps none of us should get our hopes up, for it is bound to bring some powerhouses out of the woodwork, who suddenly become members. The more the merrier. It can only raise quality.

    What do you think? I am some promoter, ain't I?
    I agree that would be one way to popularize Litnet. I suppose that was the original intent of the short story competition which was far more active a few years ago. The idea of publishing a journal based on the winners as well as other contributions makes sense and sales might cover the cost of the prizes. The owners don't have to start from scratch. There still are people posting to these forums and that activity hopefully generates some ad revenue for the owners.

  13. #13
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by desiresjab View Post
    It takes a long time to get through a story, that is why only 18 people voted. Poems are different. Everybody can get through one, even if it bores them. You would have members signing up just so they could vote.

    Short stories were a wondeful idea, but they are too long for modern sensibilities to stick with. I believe poems could succeed, for the reasons stated above. It is not a bad idea to attract poets who think they might be good enough to win a legitimate contest for a few bucks and glean a positive reference from it. Some of these members can really write poetry. I have seen it. I believe there are more members who are published poets but do not participate in the contests because there is nothing in it for them. They are used to getting something. Give them the notoriety of a legitimate contest and a few bucks. A contest every month. A real one. A legitimate one. Build it they will come.
    I find it much more difficult to evaluate a poem than a short story. I think a good poem employs by definition a dense language, while a short story can be dense or not.
    But I agree. Not many people like to read short storys, And usually not so many members of a site are active.
    Last edited by Danik 2016; 05-19-2016 at 03:20 PM.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

  14. #14
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    The idea of a flash fiction contest does not appeal to me as much as a poetry contest. But they all appeal to me, including the short story contest.

    So anyway, was it one of the rules of honor that you compose the piece specifically for the contest?

  15. #15
    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    One of the requirements was that the story should not have been published previously on Litnet so the author could not be identified. Those who did not win were removed from the thread where the entries were posted. Only the winning story remained posted in the thread. In that sense it was published by Litnet.

    I assume, but do not know, that the rights to publish it elsewhere reverted to the winning author after the contest was over, but the first publication rights would have been owned by Litnet.

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