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Let's Get started in Creative Writing People!

Ladies and Gentlemen! We are going to have our short story competition again this year. It will start in July hopefully (fingers crossed). The rules are going to be the same as always. You can see them in the detail here:
/topic/show/...
There is a new exciting element that we are going to add this year. We are going to give our creative writers a theme that they are all going to follow in their story. The theme for this years' short story contest would be: Fantasy.
Word limit: 1500-2000

You can submit your stories until Saturday, July 30, 2016.
send your stories to my goodreads inbox. I will post the stories anonymously. Group members can read, comment and rate the stories till 14th August. Stories are to be rated on a scale from 1-10. 1 being lowest. Stories with highest scores will be selected for the final poll.

Authors are not allowed to identify their respective stories during the rating phase. Just to avoid any kind of favoritism or bias in the rating process. Members are also requested to be honest and respectful while rating/commenting/critiquing the stories.

Take special care of spelling and grammar. Proofread your stories before submission.

Legend has it that there is prize for the winner too ;)

Good luck.

If you have any queries regarding the contest, let us know. :)

I can write some pretty good prologues but my creativity has run out by the point i'm done.

Yayy :D
Looking forward to read some wonderful writings :)

I guess polls will be better in the first place...

Aakash we thought 8t would be better if we get to a unanimous decision through this.

Maira wrote: "Aakash we thought 8t would be better if we get to a unanimous decision through this."

yes that's right.

I'd prefer writing on Fantasy, since I am blank when it comes to Horror... How long is this short story supposed to be, exactly??

whoops sorry got it :)

If those two genres are the only choices... I'd like to write a horror fantasy short story.

I read a lot of books like that and they're all tagged:Fantasy,so yeah I guess,

sooo...Fantasy has more votes then horror. :p

Asad...you can create a horro story that has a fantasy theme? depends entirely on you.

Hi,
Thinking about participating. Since fantasy isn't my cup of tea, i'd try weaving story around horror...
So, Horror for me I guess

Yusra wrote: "Exciting times! Thanks for this Maira & mods :) If I had to choose between the two genres, then I'd choose fantasy. I am not really the biggest fan of either, but I guess there's no harm in trying ..."

I agree with Yusra. ^^

So when does this start?

Never read a single thing in either of those genres lmao

visit this poll and vote for the contest theme you prefer. :)

/poll/show/1...

you have two days. Theme with most votes will be selected and the contest will start on Monday. you'll have around two weeks to submit your stories.

Can it be a fantasy-horror story? Or horror-fantasy? :p

I just want to confirm this point, so that I don't end up writing a story that is both genres and it gets disqualified for that.

In a way, a lot of horror fiction is fantasy. Common horror tropes are things like, dead coming back, ghosts, black magic, evil demons/spirits etc etc. All those are fantasy elements as well. So there's a very blurry line between the two genres.

Of course, there's the kind of horror fiction which doesn't have any fantasy elements, like psychological horror, torture horror etc etc. The normal human mind contains all the elements for the most gruesome kinds of horrors that we can imagine.

Asad wrote: "Can it be a fantasy-horror story? Or horror-fantasy? :p

I just want to confirm this point, so that I don't end up writing a story that is both genres and it gets disqualified for that."

yes, you ca write fantasy-horror or horror-fantasy. :)
you won't be disqualified.

I mostly write Philosophical Literature. Seems like I'm out of tone here... Sadly.

Not at all Q.M. You can write a story in the genre of philosophical horror or philosophical fantasy, or a combination of the two. It would be very interesting to read a horror story that includes elements of philosophy.

Kafka, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, just about any writer really that can be labelled 'existentialist.' Kafka because his characters live in this surreal and menacing world that has a logic that is indifferent or antagonistic to him. The character is often crushed under the wheel of his circumstances. Schopenhauer tempers his morbid and bleak view of the world with humor, but it remains bleak nonetheless. Nietzsche because he can be quite hysterical describing things (the man looking for honest men during the day time with a lamp, the man lamenting the death of God). You get this feeling too reading some Eastern philosophies, Hinduism especially. It's the vast scale of cosmic time which is presented that just boggles the mind. Try Heinrich Zimmer's 'Myths and Symbols ...' for example as an intro. There's a story there about eternal recurrence (the boar rescuing the lady), about how small, tiny and insignificant human life is, etc. Kali Yuga, Kalpa, vast units of time kinda similar to that under which the ancient Mayans functioned are just mind-blowing the first time you encounter it described vividly. A pessimistic interpretation of Buddhism can also be labelled philosophical horror. Life is suffering, so control your emotions, but life remains a place of suffering nonetheless.
David Benatar's 'Better Never to Have Been ...' follows Schopenhauer's anti-natalist logic. It says and presents arguments that it is better never to have existed in this world. I had a hard time reading it because I felt the prose to be a bit dry.
A recent sci-fi/horror I liked that can be described as philosophical horror is John Scalzi's 'The God Engines.' It combines space opera, dark mythology/fantasy. The setting is vast, but the point of view and mood makes you feel claustrophobic. Very bleak ending.

As for philosophical fantasy, that could be more straightforward than horror. Something like 'a wrinkle in time' or 'flatland', or some other kind of story that explores philosophical concepts by placing characters in a place governed by philosophical principles.

My dear Asad sahib,

I'm delighted to read your kind comment. Not many people have that taste and hence your perseverance must be lauded. Given your taste, you know why I used the term perseverance.

I have indeed read some of the works you pointed out. I shall surely read others too in time. I'm perhaps not an existentialist but a pure idealist and a traditionalist at heart. But I can't hide the fact that I do tend to have existentialist inclinations as I have detected the emergence of such tendencies lately. Perhaps I've read too much of Iris Murdoch and I love her for the existential realist that she was.

Anyway, let me thank you for highlighting what you highlighted, as that gives me an idea and idea is what idealists always yearn for. You and I, sir, seem to have a lot in common. I had never tried out of the scope of philosophical literature but your words have given me another light. Why didn't I think of that before, I know not. I shall surely think about this and come up with something under philosophical fantasy or horror or a mix, as you kindly suggested.

I just have another dilemma. I can't leave a work unfinished as if I do, I can't put my heart in to another. I'm writing this paper these days and I shall finish it this week. Then I shall begin to write this short story that I now am absolutely intrigued about. But what is the last date for submission of the short story for this contest? Kindly give me a deadline. I procrastinate a lot and therefore require a deadline !

Last but not the least, if you are interested I would like to share my piece with you once finished. What is about? No need to tell a man of your taste. I will just tell you the title. It's called 'Beyond the Quagmire of Relative Reality, towards the state of the Ultimate Now.' I would so like you to read and provide feedback.

Thank you for the ordeal my message might've put you in.

Q. M. Sidd

Q.M Sahib, it was a pleasure to read your reply. I am sorry if I have mislead you, but in my previous comment, the portion that is in italics is not written by me! I searched for philosophical horror and came across that thread on reddit, which I have linked as the 'source'. However, I have read some of the works mentioned in that comment and that is why I knew that the genre of philosophical horror is a real thing.

'Beyond the Quagmire of Relative Reality, towards the state of the Ultimate Now.'

Wow, that is a highly intriguing title. I would like to read it after you have written it.

As for the deadline, I am not sure myself. All I can gather from the rules thread is that after the stories are posted, they will get judged after 3 days and the top 3 stories will be chosen as the winners. Maira, can you give us the details about the schedule of this contest?

All right, I get it.
I will surely share the link to that piece for you once done.

Ms Maira,
Could you be kind enough and guide please?

I'm looking forward to reading it.

Maira, or Faheem or Zenab? Can any of you guys guide us? This is my first time taking part in this contest, so I don't have any idea about what kind of time-line there is. At first I thought that since the contest was named by month, then it made sense that anyone could submit short stories to be displayed on the group at any time from the start till the end of the month.

But then I read the first post of the rules thread and found out that all the stories are submitted to Zenab (or Maira in this one?) till a certain date. Then those stories are posted anonymously and the judges rate them from 1 to 10.

By the way, just a suggestion... a very important suggestion,

The current frequency of the short story writing contest is very low. Once per year makes it certain that everyone will be lazy about the short story contest. The stories have to be 1500 to 2000 words long, so doing that once per year is no big deal.

I suggest the mods of this group increase the frequency of short story writing contests. Have a contest every month. Add categories to the contest, such as; 1500 - 2000 word stories, 2000 - 10,000 word stories, 10,000 and above word stories. And make it clear that in the last category, every entry will be a winner, to motivate anyone who wants to write such a long story.

The first 2 categories will be competitive, and people will be spurred on to write to get the recognition for writing a story according to the flexible requirements of the contest.

Then announce the winners for each category.

Also, who are the judges for this years short story contest?

Poll is over, Theme for this years' short story contest would be : Fantasy.
Word limit: 1500-2000

You can submit your stories till Saturday July 30, 2016.
send your stories to my goodreads inbox. I will post the stories anonymously. Group members can read, comment and rate the stories till 14th August. Stories are to rated on a scale from 1-10. 1 being lowest. Stories with highest scores will be selected for the final poll.

Authors are not allowed to identify their respective stories during the rating phase. Just to avoid any kind of favoritism or bias in the rating process. Members are also requested to be honest and respectful while rating/commenting/critiquing the stories.

Take special care of spelling and grammar. Proof read your stories before submission.

Legend has it that there is prize for the winner too ;)

Good luck.

If you have any queries regarding the contest, let us know. :)

@Q.M. & @Asad.

You can write about anything you like, just try to include certain aspects of the fantasy genre. There is no hard and fast rule that short story had to be fantasy of pure breed. This contest was started to promote creative writing. Purpose of fixing the theme was to add some fun. We won't be rejecting any story unless it is a polar opposite of fantasy.

@asad,
Thanks for the suggestion. We'd love add more competitions and add lots of other things to the group. However, there are certain limitation and problems which prevent us from doing them. If you want to discuss it in detail. Please get over to following thread:
Suggestions

Thank you Faheem sahib, I shall write one within the timeframe and submit to your good reads inbox.

Regards

@Faheem, thanks for the information :) Good luck to everyone taking part and have fun writing the story. I think that's more important than winning or losing.

Asad sahib, what you tend to think is THE reality. It's never what you become, but who you become... In almost all processes... That would matter in the end.

What do you mean Mr Q.M? I think I agree, that it's who we become that matters... but that's determined by what we do. Would you elaborate please?

Ready to read interesting stuff

This is very interesting. I wish i was a good writer tho. Can't wait to read new stories.

Asad I said so in the context of your comment on winning losing. If one participates for win lose then that is what one would become. A racer. If not then one would learn from the process and grow further. In both cases one is writing a story in a contest but with two entirely different results.

I work in an office and I follow achievement and success and fame. Vanity is my sin. I hence gain a vice. I become a prey to that. You work in the same office doing the same things but you honour your work and your service and not success and fame. You become humble and relax and content in your reality. That is a virtue.

We both did similar work but end up different beings. What we did was similar yet how we ended up was different. Hence we do not ultimately become what we do, we can have similar path but deviate at ends.

Therefore, it doesn't matter what we become (through our work or life) but who we become in the process...

FANTASY...bachay ki jan lo gay kaya...Maira you know I write crime fiction and science-fiction. Ab mai kaya karun I have zero idea's regarding fantasy. I wont do any good this time. :-(

That's other think I have never done any good even before. :-P

I have some questions. . .will you guys post the stories (anonymously, I know) here? Would we have to rate and comment on all the stories? Won't it reveal which story is ours as it will the one we left out (didn't rate/comment)? And I don't get the anonymity though. . .like, how is there no/less chance of our stories getting plagiarised if posted anonymously? Wouldn't it be more difficult to plagiarise if there's proof of a person already reserving the copyright for it?
Also, will the mods participate? :p aw,come on! It'll be fun!

Maria, you raise valid points. But as for copyright... I dunno if we can claim copyrights over the story we submit for this contest. But there's no danger of someone else claiming to write that story because the mods will know who wrote it and they'll announce who wrote which story after July 30 passes.

And I guess you can rate your own story without telling others that you wrote it. Although it will seem suspicious if you rate your own story 10/10 and rate all other stories below that :p

Asad wrote: "Maria, you raise valid points. But as for copyright... I dunno if we can claim copyrights over the story we submit for this contest. But there's no danger of someone else claiming to write that sto..."

Thanks. And I meant if we submit our stories without anonymity, we're automatically claiming copyright over it, right? It's understood that it's our original piece and we don't want it being stolen in any way.

Maria wrote: "Asad wrote: "Maria, you raise valid points. But as for copyright... I dunno if we can claim copyrights over the story we submit for this contest. But there's no danger of someone else claiming to w..."

I hope the Mods won't mind if I do a bit of their work. After all I am the admin if fb franchise of this group. :-P

Well @Maria the Mod will post it anonymously means that it will be posted by the Mods...as you will inbox them the story. You can read the comments and you can communicate with people who read and rated your story. And if you are worried that someone will copy - past your story and repost it than that is the Mods have set a deadline for it. I hope my answer helps. :-)

I actually meant we don't have to fear plagiarism, and I don't get how the mods posting our stories anonymously helps anyway because if there are any people going to plagiarise, they won't be so stupid as to post a stolen story in the same group. They might use it elsewhere. Anywhere they like on the Internet, you know?
And if we have to rate all the stories, would we have to rate ours, too? And will all the entries be posted by the mods on this thread? :)

LOL!!!!!! from where this stealing/plagiarism thing came???
only mods will post the stories anonymous(so that voting will be fair no one will vote for the story of their friend but for the story which sounds best) and the first person who sends the story to the mod will be the owner(so for that please do not share your story with others before sending it to the mod himself).
Copyright seriously??? You should know the procedure how to get copyright licence...
I guess all is clear now its so simple why to make this contest sound so difficult!

Aakash wrote: "LOL!!!!!! from where this stealing/plagiarism thing came???
only mods will post the stories anonymous(so that voting will be fair no one will vote for the story of their friend but for the story wh..."
Ok, I didn't know about people voting for their friend's story (I don't personally think that would really happen but) so that clears it up, I guess. Thanks :p And I know you have to go through a long procedure and all for the actual license, but you do get the copyright itself of your piece the moment it's written (I read an article about that actually).

@Maria dont worry the past competitions have been very fair. Before and inshallah it will be the same this year.
I was a runner up last year and it is amazing experience. I have learned and improved a lot since i started taking part in it.

Maria wrote: "Aakash wrote: "LOL!!!!!! from where this stealing/plagiarism thing came???
only mods will post the stories anonymous(so that voting will be fair no one will vote for the story of their friend but f..."

Yea i know about that non-official kinda copyright!

And i guess you are participating in writing so good luck! :)

Greetings everyone! I'm new here so just wanted to say hi. I'll try to submit a story too, since I found members here very encouraging (Yes, I stalked a few threads before joining :p) . But I'm not making any promises at this point.

Tribal wrote: "Greetings everyone! I'm new here so just wanted to say hi. I'll try to submit a story too, since I found members here very encouraging (Yes, I stalked a few threads before joining :p) . But I'm not..."

Good luck! :)

"Aakash wrote: Yea I know about that non-official kinda copyright!

And i guess you are participating in writing so good luck! :) "

Thanks! You participating too?

Maria wrote: "Tribal wrote: "Greetings everyone! I'm new here so just wanted to say hi. I'll try to submit a story too, since I found members here very encouraging (Yes, I stalked a few threads before joining :p..."

nay! I ain't.

Oh. Why not? You don't write? You should try. It will be fun, don't you think?

Maria wrote: "Oh. Why not? You don't write? You should try. It will be fun, don't you think?"

It could have been fun but i am not that good to write.