Escape Artists
The Arcade => Flash Contest III => Completed Contests => Flash Contest III - Escape Pod => Topic started by: eytanz on July 18, 2012, 03:30:08 PM
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This is the thread to post any general comments and queries about the contest, it's rules, or whatever. Please do not discuss individual entries here (once they become available), but anything else to do with the contest is fair game.
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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy, very excited that this will be happening again.
I was also very pleased to see that the word count limit is 750 instead of 500. It's difficult to fit a story in 500, but 750 is much more feasible for me.
Bring it on!!
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Err... is it permitted to ask about similar contests for PC and PP?
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Err... is it permitted to ask about similar contests for PC and PP?
Well, we (the mods) have definitely discussed contests for all three podcasts. But as I said in the preamble to the contest, we felt that last time, with three back-to-back contests, a lot of people were definitely tiring out and voting and discussion were tapering off towards the end. Therefore, we will be spacing out contests more this time. The specific schedule isn't set in stone yet - it will depend on several factors, including when the mods are available, avoiding the holiday season, and seeing how long the EP contest lasts (which will depend on the number of submissions). So, there will almost certainly be contests for the other EA podcasts, but you'll have to wait for an official announcement.
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Excellent, and you raise some good points there about contest fatigue. Thanks!
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I'm sure that it's entirely too early for this to be important, but one suggestion that came rather late in the last round was the suggestion that the moderators should try to ensure that a single author's two stories should not be put together in the first round of voting--to cut down on self-competition.
I'm sure that kind of detail will depend on the level of participation, but I'm guessing there will be at least a similar number of participants for this one as last time, maybe more. Once this was suggested last team, it seemed like moderators could do it without much more effort than they were already putting in.
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I thought that it was already in place for the first round last time, but maybe I'm misremembering things.
The exact way the contest will be organised will depend a lot on the number of entries, and also on how many of them are double-entries, so I'm not going to say anything concrete on this for a while, but to the extent possible, avoiding self-competition is something I will strive for.
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I thought that it was already in place for the first round last time, but maybe I'm misremembering things.
I think that was in place for the first round of the Escape Pod contest last time, but only because the suggestion had been brought up in either the Pseudopod or Podcastle contest that ran first. :)
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I thought that it was already in place for the first round last time, but maybe I'm misremembering things.
I think that was in place for the first round of the Escape Pod contest last time, but only because the suggestion had been brought up in either the Pseudopod or Podcastle contest that ran first. :)
I think it was also a method for splitting the stories in farther brackets so they didn't go head-to-head in round two if they both passed round one.
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Looks like it is time for me to be the South Uzbekistani Olympic team. No talent, but tries hard, is happy just to be involved, and gives the ones with real talent an easy win.
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Looks like it is time for me to be the South Uzbekistani Olympic team. No talent, but tries hard, is happy just to be involved, and gives the ones with real talent an easy win.
You might be surprised. Crowd-voting may very well not pick the same kinds of stories you'd expect an editor to pick.
I'll be looking forward to the Podcastle contest. One of my writing milestones is to get published in all three EA casts, but I don't think I'll ever get past Ann Leckie. I did reasonably well in the last PC contest, though, so my only chance might be to try to write a crowd-voted story. :D
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Well, butter my toast and spread the jam thick...I've been absent from the boards for a while (personal bugbears have been playing around in my mental crawlspace) and I come back to find Flash Contest III is coming up.
My SF fu is weak. Hopefully this time I can do better better with my stories.
::rubs extremely grimy paws with glee::
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I am looking forward to seeing what shows up this time around.
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::rubs extremely grimy paws with glee::
Welcome back! And the best of luck to you.
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Woop-woop! I missed out on this last time. I am in. Flash is my friend.
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::rubs extremely grimy paws with glee::
Welcome back! And the best of luck to you.
It's been difficult reclaiming my keyboard from my cat, but thanks. :)
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Point of clarification since I ALWAYS hit the wordlimit and have to trim...
Does the 750 words include the title or just the body text?
(Also wanted to check if I still have the account tag I got last time around...)
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The 750 words includes the title, but not the byline.
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I'm very excited about this!
But just a quick question: what exactly goes in the byline?
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I'm very excited about this!
But just a quick question: what exactly goes in the byline?
"By XXX"
Since the entries will be judged anonymously, they won't actually contain bylines until after they are no longer in contention (but it's no problem if people put them in their submission emails)
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OK.
And just to clarify:
There will be an entity of human-like intelligence reading the submissions emails, right?
Because you made it sound like it's all a bunch of carefully written automated scripts. And even the most carefully written scripts have bugs in them.
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OK.
And just to clarify:
There will be an entity of human-like intelligence reading the submissions emails, right?
Because you made it sound like it's all a bunch of carefully written automated scripts. And even the most carefully written scripts have bugs in them.
I'll be reading all the submission emails; the only script I'm using is a gmail filter that makes sure that emails with the correct subjectline will be placed in the right email folder as opposed to the spam folder or whatnot. I don't want to take responsiblity for entries being lost when the author didn't follow the submission guidelines, especially not towards the end of the submission period when, if previous contests are an indication, the majority of the submissions will come in in a relatively short timespan.
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I should point out that I respond to all entries to confirm that they've been received. I don't do it right away, but if 3-4 days pass since you made a submission and you haven't received an email confirming it arrived, you may want to query (here or via email) about it.
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I should point out that I respond to all entries to confirm that they've been received. I don't do it right away, but if 3-4 days pass since you made a submission and you haven't received an email confirming it arrived, you may want to query (here or via email) about it.
Got my confirmation! I'm glad you do that. A confirmation of receipt goes a long way toward easing minds--you know the story has made it to its destination so it's just a matter of waiting at that point.
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I have a question:
The regulations forbid submitting works that have been published previously. What about an original re-working of a previously-published work? I have an old one-act play from another life that I'm considering re-working into a short story, and that was published somewhere already.
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I have a question:
The regulations forbid submitting works that have been published previously. What about an original re-working of a previously-published work? I have an old one-act play from another life that I'm considering re-working into a short story, and that was published somewhere already.
That's a good question. Let me consult with the other moderators and the editors about it and get back to you.
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So, the general consensus among the mods is that a story that is derived from a previous published work in another format (i.e. not a short story) is fine (assuming doing so isn't in violation of copyright, obviously). So that's a yes to this specific question and to other rewrites of published works.
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Awesome. Thanks Guys.
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*sees the contest thread and runs around in excited little circles like a lap dog on amohetamines*
Geez, I leave the forum to go on walkabout in my own head and this is what happens. I feel totally behind and late! Yikes, time to go put my brain to the grindstone.
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*sees the contest thread and runs around in excited little circles like a lap dog on amohetamines*
Geez, I leave the forum to go on walkabout in my own head and this is what happens. I feel totally behind and late! Yikes, time to go put my brain to the grindstone.
You've still got almost a month! Plenty of time. :)
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First drafts are done. Now if only I can stop my allergy-driven sneezing long enough to revise a bit...
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I know the payment to the winners is for the current flash story rate. But I'm a little confused on just what the flash story rate is--the submissions guidelines says $20.00 at one point, but "minimum $20.00" in another. Is it a flat $20.00, or $.05 a word? (Which would make the max for this contest $37.50--still sadly not SFWA qualifying :< )
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It's $0.05 a word, or $20, whichever is greater, so $37.5 for a 750 word story.
(The submission guidelines are a bit confusing, but the rate is always $0.05 for new fiction, it's the minimum that's different for flash).
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Is it possible to waive the payment?
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I'm confused about something that Norm said at the end of Escape Pod 359 about the contest:
Escape Pod is in the middle of its third annual flash fiction contest. This is getting to be a bigger deal each year for us, folks, and this year we're actually running three separate sub-contests for each of the Escape Artists podcasts: Escape Pod, Podcastle, and Pseudopod. First, second, and third place winners of each will receive a contract and audio produced version of their story aired on the show for the current flash story rate. We're accepting submissions up until September fifteenth. Head over the arcade and contests sections of Escape Pod's discussion forums for all the full rules and guidelines.
(emphasis mine). So, the way that sounds to me the Escape Pod contest is split in 3, the Podcastle in 3, the Pseudopod in 3, for a total of 9 sub-contests?
Wait, maybe he didn't mean "three for each of the podcasts" but rather "three total, one for each podcast". Clarification?
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Is it possible to waive the payment?
If I remember correctly, I thought I'd heard another SFWA market editor say they couldn't waive payment because SFWA guidelines say they have to pay everyone pro rates for every non-reprint story.
But I think that I also heard that it might be acceptable to request to have the money donated to a charity of the writer's choice. If nothing else, you could take the payment and then donate it back again, or donate it somewhere else yourself.
I think that the reason for that guideline is so that a writer can't say "I'll give you my story for free, just please please publish me", (I realize that's not what you're doing, Max) and so that an editor won't be tempted favor such a submission rather than pay pro rates to someone else.
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I think what Norm meant is that we're having three different contests, one for each podcast, as opposed to having a single multi-part contest like last time. The contest timings are frequency are decided by the forum mods, so I'd know if there were more EP contests planned ;)
As for waiving the payment - that's something the winners will have to discuss with Mur. In general, the contest falls under EP's normal payment policies for published work, and I believe that everything Unblinking wrote above is correct, but that's not something I have input about. If a winner really doesn't want the money, I'd suggest donating it right back to EA.
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If a winner really doesn't want the money, I'd suggest donating it right back to EA.
That is my intention.
But I have a healthy abhorrence to bureaucracy, and therefore (if I win, and that's a big "if") would simply like to skip that stage and just tell EA to keep the money.
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EA will also mail the check to a charity of your choice should you feel so inclined.
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New to the forums - looking forward to this contest!
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Let's do this thang. 8)
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According to the submission guidelines, emphasized words are to be underscored. Problem is, the story I'm working on has both italics and underlined phrases. Any suggestions on how to best handle this?
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I guess if you need two different types of emphasis, do both. This rule was something I copied without much thought from the previous contest and to be honest I don't think it was followed then particularly rigorously. I think for future contests we may rephrase it.
However, you should keep in mind that the ultimate goal of this contest is audio publication, and that the people will be judging with that in mind. Therefore, it may not be wise to submit a story that relies too much on the visual formatting of the text.
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Got it.
Transcribing from cuneiform is harder than it looks.
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However, you should keep in mind that the ultimate goal of this contest is audio publication, and that the people will be judging with that in mind. Therefore, it may not be wise to submit a story that relies too much on the visual formatting of the text.
Good point. Even in text, I would not often want to see both italics and underline--the story would have to justify it.
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I almost missed this, I've been traveling and am a bit backlogged on my listening as well the board. I have to say I love this contest. Not only because you get to read so many interesting pieces, but I love the criticism. I know that sounds weird, but you write a piece that in your head is so perfect, so logical, and you release it to a jury that talks openly about it in front of you. All of a sudden they are finding plot holes that you never imagined existed. They're calling you out on unrealistic plot devices. I found it enjoyable last time, inside my head begging people to like my story. "Release the Grammar Hounds..."
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I almost missed this, I've been traveling and am a bit backlogged on my listening as well the board. I have to say I love this contest. Not only because you get to read so many interesting pieces, but I love the criticism. I know that sounds weird, but you write a piece that in your head is so perfect, so logical, and you release it to a jury that talks openly about it in front of you. All of a sudden they are finding plot holes that you never imagined existed. They're calling you out on unrealistic plot devices. I found it enjoyable last time, inside my head begging people to like my story. "Release the Grammar Hounds..."
Not weird at all. That's exactly the kind of feedback one can use to learn to become a better writer.
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Got my second entry in today, now can't wait for judging and to read all the other stories! :)
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Are submissions due by midnight on the 15th? Or close of business? US time?
(leaving things very very last minute as always)
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US time?
And even "US Time" isn't very specific, there are 4 major time zones in the country. :)
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US time?
And even "US Time" isn't very specific, there are 4 major time zones in the country. :)
Also a smattering of minor time zones.
Like, my aunt Ruthie is approximately 17 minutes ahead of everybody else in the immediate vicinity.
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Are submissions due by midnight on the 15th? Or close of business? US time?
(leaving things very very last minute as always)
Midnight on the 15th. I'd go by Eastern Standard Time for that (although the official word I have is "around" midnight on the 15th. I'll get clarification when I'm able, but that's a decent guideline to start with).
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Let's say an author submits two flash stories that take place in a shared universe but do not depend upon each other -- like, for example, two Star Trek episodes might be. Let's say Story 1 is in Round 1 and does not move on, and as a losing story has the byline revealed. But Story 2 doesn't show up until Round 6, and astute readers figure out who the author is that way. I realize it doesn't really matter, because we're voting based upon story merit, not author name, but author name can still influence a story. For example, if we know a story is written by Tim Pratt or Mike Resnick, we go into those stories with certain preconceptions and expectations.
So, basically, the question is: is there a plan for if this should happen?
It's kind of obvious why I'm asking, isn't it...
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Are submissions due by midnight on the 15th? Or close of business? US time?
(leaving things very very last minute as always)
Midnight on the 15th. I'd go by Eastern Standard Time for that (although the official word I have is "around" midnight on the 15th. I'll get clarification when I'm able, but that's a decent guideline to start with).
Make it PST instead of EST.
Don't have an answer for you yet Listener but asking around. :)
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Don't have an answer for you yet Listener but asking around. :)
Maybe in that case there should be a special request to keep the author name from being revealed (which is an option anyway). Although, anyone who's reading this thread probably has a hint of this anyway. :P
In any case, I guess I wouldn't think that particular aspect of anonymity is too big of a deal. I imagine that there are plenty of stories for which some people could figure out the identity (i.e., I read slush at the Drabblecast, so if a story has been submitted there I may know the name, or if a story has been run through a critique forum like Critters or Baen's Bar). The important part, to me, is that the submitters follow the stated guidelines, and that the voters don't try to dig for author information, and try to vote based on story merit.
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Hey, I submitted a story to the Flash contest and just registered to ask a question.
I submitted the story almost two days ago and have not recieved a reply and, although I know eytanz said that it can take a while for the emails to be processed and responded to, I'm worried that I may have somehow formatted the email incorrectly. Below, I've recreated the format of my email and would like to know if there is anything wrong with it. Thank you.
Subjectline: EP FLASH SUBMISSION: "Title of Story"
Body of email
Title: Story Title
By: CS
Email: "email address"
Wordcount (Including Title): "no words"
"The Story"
End of body of email.
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Hey, I submitted a story to the Flash contest and just registered to ask a question.
I submitted the story almost two days ago and have not recieved a reply and, although I know eytanz said that it can take a while for the emails to be processed and responded to, I'm worried that I may have somehow formatted the email incorrectly. Below, I've recreated the format of my email and would like to know if there is anything wrong with it. Thank you.
Subjectline: EP FLASH SUBMISSION: "Title of Story"
Body of email
Title: Story Title
By: CS
Email: "email address"
Wordcount (Including Title): "no words"
"The Story"
End of body of email.
It looks fine to me. You may not get a response until the 16th or later, so relax and consider yourself "submitted." :)
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Don't have an answer for you yet Listener but asking around. :)
Maybe in that case there should be a special request to keep the author name from being revealed (which is an option anyway). Although, anyone who's reading this thread probably has a hint of this anyway. :P
In any case, I guess I wouldn't think that particular aspect of anonymity is too big of a deal. I imagine that there are plenty of stories for which some people could figure out the identity (i.e., I read slush at the Drabblecast, so if a story has been submitted there I may know the name, or if a story has been run through a critique forum like Critters or Baen's Bar). The important part, to me, is that the submitters follow the stated guidelines, and that the voters don't try to dig for author information, and try to vote based on story merit.
Yeah, I mean, I don't care if people know who wrote the two stories. I'm just trying to preserve anonymity for the purposes of voting only. And honestly I'm not that worried about it on a personal level.
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It looks fine to me. You may not get a response until the 16th or later, so relax and consider yourself "submitted." :)
Thanks, Talia. That's taken a load of my mind.
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Bah. I got a late start and no way I'm going to finish anything by the deadline. Still aim to have fun with the voting though. :)
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Hey guys! The last day for submission approaches and I still haven't seen a confirmation... I sent it a couple days ago now. Just wanted to get my two cents in again before I send my next story tomorrow...
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Bah. I got a late start and no way I'm going to finish anything by the deadline. Still aim to have fun with the voting though. :)
I wrote and submitted both of my stories this week. I just didn't have any inspiration until now. You do still have about 40 hours...
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Yeah. I'm still waiting for inspiration. Heh. That's the problem with not really practicing writing...
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I have a story in my head, but it's not a good one :\
Might try writing it out anyway...
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I have a story in my head, but it's not a good one :\
Might try writing it out anyway...
Just write it! Let the unwashed masses decide. :)
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Bah. I got a late start and no way I'm going to finish anything by the deadline. Still aim to have fun with the voting though. :)
You still have plenty of time. Even if you type slow, a 750-word upper limit isn't much!
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Yeah, I need to know if midnight on the 15th means the night between the 14th and 15th or the end of the 15th, start of the 16th. :)
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End of 15th, start of 16th. Good point, hadn't thought of that.
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Still no confirmation! Should I resend my story...??? Help! ;w;
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Still no confirmation! Should I resend my story...??? Help! ;w;
You're good to go. No need to resubmit.
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I imagine it must be a busy day at eaflash@gmail.com today, I just submitted my second story a few minutes ago. I'm really looking forward to reading everyone's entries again and getting feedback. Hopefully I managed to apply some of the great notes I got last time to this batch. :)
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Second story submitted! Huzzah! Still haven't got a confirmation for the first one though. lol
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Sorry everyone about confirmations - I was stuck for a few days on an island with no Internet (though I was told in advance I would have access there), and have fallen seriously behind. I now have a connection but not for long so I can't handle the backlog. Will send out all confirmations tomorrow evening once I'm in the USA. I'll post a note here once they've all been sent so you can know if you should have received yours.
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The 750 words includes the title, but not the byline.
Oh!
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The 750 words includes the title, but not the byline.
Oh!
On the bright side, if you included the byline, you just got at least three words back.
Also, fun fact: Google Docs inflated my word count by about 30 so once I had the story cut down to 750 I suddenly found myself with 30 more words when I ported it into Word. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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The 750 words includes the title, but not the byline.
Oh!
On the bright side, if you included the byline, you just got at least three words back.
I didn't :( but - happy face :D - I'm still under. Forgot I'd done some serious pruning. It's a Word word count so no jiggery googlery needed, I think!
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I'm new here and only managed to get one submission (first time I've ever submitted anything anywhere - eeks!)
And so I've been reading through the past contests to see how things work, and holy crap, if the competition this time is going to be anything like the other ones we're in for some really great stories.
Looking forward to when they get posted.
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I'm new here and only managed to get one submission (first time I've ever submitted anything anywhere - eeks!)
And so I've been reading through the past contests to see how things work, and holy crap, if the competition this time is going to be anything like the other ones we're in for some really great stories.
Looking forward to when they get posted.
Welcome, DoWhileNot! Now fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride. I wrote a story that didn't get beyond the 1st round last time but with all the comments and positivity, I spruced it up and now it's on Ether Books. Can't be bad 8)
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Got my confirmation. ;D
Let the games begin...
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I have a question about inviting friends/family to come vote for your story.
I understand that it may be a bit underhanded to just Facebook or Twitter spam everyone to come and specifically vote for my story, and I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. But where is the line drawn? I mean, obviously I can tell everyone to come follow the contest and vote, hoping that they will vote for my story. But am I allowed to get a little more specific, like pointing them to the round I'm in? Many of my friends and family don't have the time, or the desire to follow every round of the contest and read 90-some-odd stories. But if I can say, "Hey my story is one of the nine in this round, come read them and hopefully vote for mine" then it would be a bit easier on them.
But is that too specific?
Skirting the very edge of the rules...
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They'd have to be members of the forum and if they are, they're entitled to vote, is my understanding. After that, how each of us handles our personal ethics is, I suppose, up to us. For me, I'd spit grit to win, but I'd like to think it was down to genuine preference rather than loyalty. And I see you're saying that too, as you're not considering identifying your piece(s) to your cohort. What do you say, Mods?
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Last time around, I posted something to my blog saying I had a story in the contest and asking people to come, register, and vote, but I didn't tell anyone which story was mine. I'm probably going to send out a few tweets every now and then suggesting the same.
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Sounds reasonable. Opens up the forum to new members and doesn't give the game away - unless you've coded clues into the story. Ach! In the end, we all rely on honourable behaviour, but if that fails, and you lose out to someone else's tactics, at least you have a story you wouldn't have written otherwise. Probably you also have some helpful comments to make it better (free crit group), and you can take it on to bigger things.
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I have a question about inviting friends/family to come vote for your story.
I understand that it may be a bit underhanded to just Facebook or Twitter spam everyone to come and specifically vote for my story, and I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. But where is the line drawn? I mean, obviously I can tell everyone to come follow the contest and vote, hoping that they will vote for my story. But am I allowed to get a little more specific, like pointing them to the round I'm in? Many of my friends and family don't have the time, or the desire to follow every round of the contest and read 90-some-odd stories. But if I can say, "Hey my story is one of the nine in this round, come read them and hopefully vote for mine" then it would be a bit easier on them.
But is that too specific?
Skirting the very edge of the rules...
It seems unethical to me, but I might be off. My thoughts are if you tell everyone that your story is in heat 2 there is a better chance someone is going to know your style vs eight others. And then if it gets past the first round do you tell them to come back for semifinal #1. It gets a little odd there. The other thought is if your goal is to get people interested in the contest why tell them your group? If it's about people reading your story why not just post it after the contest or send them a link after the judging. I'm in Listener's boat, I will probably post something on G+ and twitter tomorrow telling people to sign up and follow the entire contest because it's a lot of fun and the more discussion you get on all the stories makes it even better.
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I think that telling people you're in the contest as a whole is fine. But I don't really like the idea of asking people to come just for the rounds you're in, for the reasons Bill listed, and also because I think the results are more meaningful if it's generally the same sample of voters that are voting for all. If a person doesn't have time to read all 90 stories and vote, that's certainly understandable, but it's disrespecting the other participators in the contest if you only hang around and vote for the part in which your buddy is in it.
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I think that telling people you're in the contest as a whole is fine. But I don't really like the idea of asking people to come just for the rounds you're in, for the reasons Bill listed, and also because I think the results are more meaningful if it's generally the same sample of voters that are voting for all. If a person doesn't have time to read all 90 stories and vote, that's certainly understandable, but it's disrespecting the other participators in the contest if you only hang around and vote for the part in which your buddy is in it.
I second that.
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Excited to be a part of this!
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Excited to be a part of this!
:) Welcome!
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I have a question about inviting friends/family to come vote for your story.
I understand that it may be a bit underhanded to just Facebook or Twitter spam everyone to come and specifically vote for my story, and I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. But where is the line drawn? I mean, obviously I can tell everyone to come follow the contest and vote, hoping that they will vote for my story. But am I allowed to get a little more specific, like pointing them to the round I'm in? Many of my friends and family don't have the time, or the desire to follow every round of the contest and read 90-some-odd stories. But if I can say, "Hey my story is one of the nine in this round, come read them and hopefully vote for mine" then it would be a bit easier on them.
But is that too specific?
Skirting the very edge of the rules...
Thanks for this question. To give the official response -
- It's perfectly fine, and indeed encouraged, for participants to suggest that friends and family join the forum to vote. One of the purposes of this contest is to gain more exposure to our little community here, after all :)
- It's not ok to let any of the voters know which story is yours, regardless of whether you know them in real life or not. That's where the line is drawn.
- I'm not going to allow people to publicly say which rounds they are in. That's a slippery slope towards people trying to figure out specific stories, especially since the winners of each round will remain anonymous but the other authors will be revealed. Pointing friends and family in private to your rounds - without mentioning the specific story - is ok, in my opinion, as it could also lead them to vote against you.
The tricky thing is if you have friends and family who are already familiar with the story. In that case, I think whether or not you introduce them to the contest should depend on whether you think they'll independently be interested in it, not on whether you think they're likely to vote for you.
Basically, the most important thing is that this contest should be determined by the quality of the stories, not by popularity. There's not much I can do to enforce it, but I have faith in the honour and honesty of our authors.
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We're allowed to vote on our own stories, right?
And participate in the discussion thread about them before the author is revealed?
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We're allowed to vote on our own stories, right?
And participate in the discussion thread about them before the author is revealed?
Yes and yes.
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And participate in the discussion thread about them before the author is revealed?
"I'm guessing that this author (who, by their typing style, I envision to be dashing and very attractive) is probably drawing a brilliant correlation between fast food and our country's political structure. To be exposed to such rapier wit is, I must say, a rare treat and in conjunction with the extreme attractiveness, truly an amazing experience. To know him... is to love him. And to love him, is to know him... Those who know him, loved him, while those who do not know him, love him from afar."
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And participate in the discussion thread about them before the author is revealed?
"I'm guessing that this author (who, by their typing style, I envision to be dashing and very attractive) is probably drawing a brilliant correlation between fast food and our country's political structure. To be exposed to such rapier wit is, I must say, a rare treat and in conjunction with the extreme attractiveness, truly an amazing experience. To know him... is to love him. And to love him, is to know him... Those who know him, loved him, while those who do not know him, love him from afar."
Can this count as an entry? I want to vote for it! :p
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And participate in the discussion thread about them before the author is revealed?
"I'm guessing that this author (who, by their typing style, I envision to be dashing and very attractive) is probably drawing a brilliant correlation between fast food and our country's political structure. To be exposed to such rapier wit is, I must say, a rare treat and in conjunction with the extreme attractiveness, truly an amazing experience. To know him... is to love him. And to love him, is to know him... Those who know him, loved him, while those who do not know him, love him from afar."
Dr. Graves? Is that you?
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Here comes the Contest, yay awesome stories to read!!! *runs around in more small excited circles*
Here comes the Contest, oh Gawd people are going to See What I've Written!!!! *runs and hides, but peeks around corner, cringing*
I call this Flash Contest Anxietment.
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Hello!
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I've noticed that some of the stories used _underscores_ to indicate italics. I know I did this, and I've seen a few others. Not all email software can send italics, and not all authors write assuming they will be able to format it that way. I've always read that standard manuscript format for italics is to underline, and the standard way to indicate this is to use underscores. Wouldn't it make sense to format the _emphasized words_ as italics? I can't imagine that any author meant sentences such as "I wouldn't type _that_." to be underscored rather than italicized. And it makes the story look worse.
Much like adding uniform paragraph spacing, I think this is a reasonable formatting decision that wouldn't trample on authorial intent while making the stories more visually uniform and appealing.
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I've noticed that some of the stories used _underscores_ to indicate italics. I know I did this, and I've seen a few others. Not all email software can send italics, and not all authors write assuming they will be able to format it that way. I've always read that standard manuscript format for italics is to underline, and the standard way to indicate this is to use underscores. Wouldn't it make sense to format the _emphasized words_ as italics? I can't imagine that any author meant sentences such as "I wouldn't type _that_." to be underscored rather than italicized. And it makes the story look worse.
Much like adding uniform paragraph spacing, I think this is a reasonable formatting decision that wouldn't trample on authorial intent while making the stories more visually uniform and appealing.
I generally tried to catch all the stories that used underscores and ask the authors whether they meant italics, but I may have missed some. It's very hard for me to manage the formatting on 92 stories where different authors used different conventions, and some only used underscores once or twice in a story. In future contests, I'm going to suggest a uniform style guide, but for this one, I've been trying to do the best I could.
Could you let me know what stories you are talking about?
Also, more general for authors - if you want to make sure that I italicize the underscores words or something like that, send an email to eaflash@gmail letting me know that there are words to be italicized within your story; that way I won't miss them.
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Well I've just sent you an email about my story, which hasn't been posted yet, but in the current rounds, I was talking about "The Inalien Crowd," which is full of them. I was admittedly more worried about mine, which, as I said, hasn't been posted yet. But your confirmation email didn't mention it, so that is why I didn't know.
Anyway you are doing a wonderful job moderating the contest, and I don't envy your workload. I did not mean for this to sound overly harsh. The speed with which you fixed the uniform spacing issue, the detailed release schedule, and the innovative second-chance round are all great, and you've clearly put tons of time and thought into organizing this.
For what it's worth, I also like the inability to change votes after casting them.
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No worries. This is an issue I didn't anticipate when planning the rules, and it's really easy to miss underscores when copy&pasting stories. I am now more aware of the problem so hopefully it won't recur. I just hope this didn't affect anyone's perception of The Inalien Crowd.
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I just hope this didn't affect anyone's perception of The Inalien Crowd.
I don't remember noticing any weird formatting, so I guess it didn't bother me.
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I just hope this didn't affect anyone's perception of The Inalien Crowd.
I don't remember noticing any weird formatting, so I guess it didn't bother me.
It bothered me, but not enough to detract from my enjoyment of the story.
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Ugh. I feel like a terrible person.
When the contest first started I read all the stories in the group, posted a comment on each one exactly what I thought and voted on them.
But I seem to be running out of steam. In Group 2 I posted in perhaps 3 threads, and I still haven't read all of Group 3 yet, much less Group 4. :\
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It's $0.05 a word, or $20, whichever is greater, so $37.5 for a 750 word story.
(The submission guidelines are a bit confusing, but the rate is always $0.05 for new fiction, it's the minimum that's different for flash).
This was from awhile ago, but I want to re-echo daneyuleb's sad face that the winners will not be paid a SFWA-qualifying prize. I know that the winners are likely to be members already, but on the off-chance that one is not, it would be great for the top three to get awarded $50 each for winning, and have any later honourable mentions that are broadcast be paid the standard rate (and similar for the other contests). Anyone who wins an Escape Pod contest is worthy of being an associate member of SFWA.
This is a contest, not a standard submission, and since the stakes are higher, the awards should be greater (in my opinion, feel free to disagree).
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I know that the winners are likely to be members already,
I don't think that's true historically, and I don't think there's any reason it needs to be true. If any thing, I'd think that a non-SFWAn has a better chance here than in usual slush because the stories are judged blindly by your peers. In the preivous contest, I believe that for at least some of the writers who won, this was their first published story, and I think a minority might've been SFWA members.
Having SFWA membership doesn't make one's stories better than others. It's a nice milestone to reach, a nice feather in the cap, but that didn't stop my "Escalation" from being trounced in the first round of voting! :)
This is a contest, not a standard submission, and since the stakes are higher, the awards should be greater (in my opinion, feel free to disagree).
Now, don't get me wrong, if someone says "I'd like to pay you more money" I'm not going to argue. But I don't see why flash contest winners should get better pay than those who go through slush. The stakes are not higher, the stakes are the same--paid publication in an awesome podcast. They are just alternate routes to the same worthwhile destination.
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Unrelated to my last post, I have a question to raise.
During the last contest, all entries made to Podcastle were read by the editors, and also considered as if they were slush even if they didn't win. But for Escape Pod and Pseudopod, they weren't, meaning that stories that were rejected from the contest could still be submitted in the slush at a later date. (I think that Pseudopod and Escape Pod meant to read them also, but with other responsibilities, never got to it).
So, is it expected to be similar this time? I know Mur is a busy, busy, being, so I'm guessing she's not going to volunteer to take on extra slush.
Basically, I just want to know whether my rejected story (or stories) can be submitted to Escape Pod in the future or not.
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Unrelated to my last post, I have a question to raise.
During the last contest, all entries made to Podcastle were read by the editors, and also considered as if they were slush even if they didn't win. But for Escape Pod and Pseudopod, they weren't, meaning that stories that were rejected from the contest could still be submitted in the slush at a later date. (I think that Pseudopod and Escape Pod meant to read them also, but with other responsibilities, never got to it).
So, is it expected to be similar this time? I know Mur is a busy, busy, being, so I'm guessing she's not going to volunteer to take on extra slush.
Basically, I just want to know whether my rejected story (or stories) can be submitted to Escape Pod in the future or not.
Good point.
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This is a contest, not a standard submission, and since the stakes are higher, the awards should be greater (in my opinion, feel free to disagree).
I don't know in what way the stakes are higher. It's worth noting that 3 out of 92 - i.e., about 1 in 30 - of the submissions are guaranteed publication, and there's a good chance others will be published too based on prior precedent (I have no say in that). That's much better publication odds than regular submissions to EP, especially for flash stories (which are almost never accepted these days).
During the last contest, all entries made to Podcastle were read by the editors, and also considered as if they were slush even if they didn't win. But for Escape Pod and Pseudopod, they weren't, meaning that stories that were rejected from the contest could still be submitted in the slush at a later date. (I think that Pseudopod and Escape Pod meant to read them also, but with other responsibilities, never got to it).
Well, you'd have to ask the editors about that - my guess is that Mur is not following the contest, and I'm not sure whether Nathan is or not. But it's worth noting that the chances of a 750 word story of making it through the slush process at EP are really small. As a slush reader for EP, my advice for anyone who wants to try submission of a contest entry to the regular EP slush pile is to think if the story can be expanded to 1500-2000 words.
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The stakes are higher in risk to ego, but I'm not sure that counts, lol. Of course, that's also the greatest reward of entering. The opportunity to sit back and watch people argue about your story is a huge bene. You learn so much more here than by submitting to slush. My most detailed personal rejection didn't come close to the feedback here.
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The stakes are higher in risk to ego, but I'm not sure that counts, lol. Of course, that's also the greatest reward of entering. The opportunity to sit back and watch people argue about your story is a huge bene. You learn so much more here than by submitting to slush. My most detailed personal rejection didn't come close to the feedback here.
Pretty much sums up exactly what I was trying to convey: risk of ego. And the other points are well taken, it is great that there is that guaranteed publication at the end, and with the stories I have read so far I think that the winners will well-deserve it.
my advice for anyone who wants to try submission of a contest entry to the regular EP slush pile is to think if the story can be expanded to 1500-2000 words.
Since I trimmed my submission down from that length, I think it will be an interesting task to try to build it back up in a way that makes it stronger.
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[qoute]
Well, you'd have to ask the editors about that - my guess is that Mur is not following the contest, and I'm not sure whether Nathan is or not. But it's worth noting that the chances of a 750 word story of making it through the slush process at EP are really small. As a slush reader for EP, my advice for anyone who wants to try submission of a contest entry to the regular EP slush pile is to think if the story can be expanded to 1500-2000 words.
[/quote]
I think Nathan is because I've seen him comment on a few pieces.
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I suspect Shawn isn't participating, and may not participate in the Pseudopod contest. Ben didn't in the last one, as that's shortly after the start-up many-hours paying job took away most of his volunteer time. I will be, and am planning on nudging authors to submit some items that I think have a good chance of making it through the process.
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Okay, I'll probably consider EP and PP stories resubmittable unless I hear otherwise, and will ask DKT about Podcastle.
Boy, I hope that flash stories have some chance at Escape Pod, have had one pending there for 122 days so I'm guessing it wasn't rejected by the slush team and is on Mighty Mur's desk...
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I know that the winners are likely to be members already,
I don't think that's true historically, and I don't think there's any reason it needs to be true. If any thing, I'd think that a non-SFWAn has a better chance here than in usual slush because the stories are judged blindly by your peers. In the preivous contest, I believe that for at least some of the writers who won, this was their first published story, and I think a minority might've been SFWA members.
It was my first published story, and I am still not a member of SFWA (had to finish my dissertation rather than focusing on fiction), but I hope to be someday!
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Finished my story, and only 11 days past the deadline! :P
Oh well, at least this got me motivated to get off my metaphorical arse and write again.
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Noob question, but what is SFWA and why would one want to be in it?
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Noob question, but what is SFWA and why would one want to be in it?
It's the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Here's a link with further info. (http://www.sfwa.org/about/who-we-are/)
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Noob question, but what is SFWA and why would one want to be in it?
It's the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Here's a link with further info. (http://www.sfwa.org/about/who-we-are/)
What Talia said. And, at least for me, it wasn't so important to me to be in SFWA, but it was a milestone to become qualified to join. I joined for a year as a trial, and I'm wondering why this is supposed to be worth $80 a year. You get to vote for the Nebulas, which is cool if that's important to you.
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What Talia said. And, at least for me, it wasn't so important to me to be in SFWA, but it was a milestone to become qualified to join. I joined for a year as a trial, and I'm wondering why this is supposed to be worth $80 a year. You get to vote for the Nebulas, which is cool if that's important to you.
Yep--it's the milestone aspect that's important to some. 2 "qualifying" stories in a pro market get you an associates membership, 3 get you a full one. But... qualifying includes the caveat: needs to pay at least $50.00. I wish they expanded that to allow for shorter fiction--say, 5 less than 1000 word pieces in pro markets also qualifying you, regardless of the total pay, something like that--or maybe a total word count of all stories published being an alternative qualifier. As it stands now, in a lot of qualifying markets, flash counts for absolutely nada in terms of the SFWA--someone could publish twenty 500 word stories and not qualify.
I just started submitting this year, and full membership is a goal I set for myself. The actual money itself doesn't matter at all, really--to me, counting for SWFA would be much more desirable.
(Of course, on the plus side...its not like I'm gonna win anyway!)
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Yep--it's the milestone aspect that's important to some. 2 "qualifying" stories in a pro market get you an associates membership, 3 get you a full one. But... qualifying includes the caveat: needs to pay at least $50.00. I wish they expanded that to allow for shorter fiction--say, 5 less than 1000 word pieces in pro markets also qualifying you, regardless of the total pay, something like that--or maybe a total word count of all stories published being an alternative qualifier. As it stands now, in a lot of qualifying markets, flash counts for absolutely nada in terms of the SFWA--someone could publish twenty 500 word stories and not qualify.
I just started submitting this year, and full membership is a goal I set for myself. The actual money itself doesn't matter at all, really--to me, counting for SWFA would be much more desirable.
(Of course, on the plus side...its not like I'm gonna win anyway!)
Yeah, a lot of SF-related rules tend to be biased against flash fiction. SFWA qualification, Hugo/Nebula categories, overall pay. Some of my best received (and in my opinion best written) short stories are 500-600 words, and because of the tightness of the format, they often took more work on my part than stories 3x that length.
On the other hand, for SFWA qualification in general, I didn't terribly mind that qualification because it has kept me eligible to submit to Writers of the Future for longer (because my $40 Daily Science Fiction sale didn't count against me)
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another noob question. What is slush?
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another noob question. What is slush?
It's a term used by story publishers to denote submitted stories, normally in the context of an open submission call.
There was originally a longer discussion in this thread, that started with a response to that question, about whether or not that is an appropriate term. Since it has nothing to do with the contest I split it out - you can find (and continue) that thread in the writing forum (http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=6456).
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As this is my first flash contest, I am wondering whether comments already posted on the stories will be carried over to subsequent rounds. The rules imply that new fora will be created each round, so that previous comments will not be immediately visible. I can see pros and cons to first round comments being conforaneous with the later rounds, just wanted to make sure I understand the rules correctly.
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As this is my first flash contest, I am wondering whether comments already posted on the stories will be carried over to subsequent rounds. The rules imply that new fora will be created each round, so that previous comments will not be immediately visible. I can see pros and cons to first round comments being conforaneous with the later rounds, just wanted to make sure I understand the rules correctly.
Previously, the whole thread was moved with a locked placeholder in prior rounds pointing to the redirected thread.
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Previously, the whole thread was moved with a locked placeholder in prior rounds pointing to the redirected thread.
Thanks for the clarification.
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As this is my first flash contest, I am wondering whether comments already posted on the stories will be carried over to subsequent rounds. The rules imply that new fora will be created each round, so that previous comments will not be immediately visible. I can see pros and cons to first round comments being conforaneous with the later rounds, just wanted to make sure I understand the rules correctly.
Previously, the whole thread was moved with a locked placeholder in prior rounds pointing to the redirected thread.
I plan to follow this model in this contest as well.
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As this is my first flash contest, I am wondering whether comments already posted on the stories will be carried over to subsequent rounds. The rules imply that new fora will be created each round, so that previous comments will not be immediately visible. I can see pros and cons to first round comments being conforaneous with the later rounds, just wanted to make sure I understand the rules correctly.
Previously, the whole thread was moved with a locked placeholder in prior rounds pointing to the redirected thread.
I plan to follow this model in this contest as well.
makes sense. LAst time the next rounds were populated right away, but that was because they were just percolated up in pyramidal fashion. I like the "random allocation without self-competition" used here better, and with the scheme, one has to wait to make the groups until all stories have been decided.
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I know people are probably burned out, but the amount of feedback in the last crops of stories pales in comparison to the first groups. We should all make an effort to comment about the stories constructively even if they get posted in the later groups, so that all the authors get some ideas of how their stories come across.
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I know people are probably burned out, but the amount of feedback in the last crops of stories pales in comparison to the first groups. We should all make an effort to comment about the stories constructively even if they get posted in the later groups, so that all the authors get some ideas of how their stories come across.
Hear, Hear!
I know I have some comments left to make, but I think I should point out that the lowest number of comments in Group #1 was 22, with one thread going up to 43. In Group # 10 there a story with just 2 comments, and three stories with just 3. Half the group may not clear 5 comments at this rate!
Group # 9 still has a 3, a 4 and only one story has cleared the 10 mark.
I'll be commenting on group 9 today or tonight, along with the rest of group 10. Let's all make a push to help people out!
It seems like the people who were in the first 5 rounds or so won the commenting lottery, and the last 5 rounds got shafted.
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I noticed that as I read the later groups, it took significantly more effort for me to think of something helpful. I'm not sure if that was due to flash fatigue or real-life fatigue with life getting busy or what. I did comment on every story but my own (that have been voted off already by now), but in the later groups my comments were shorter.
I've now read all the stories, and voted for all the preliminary groups before their deadlines. Now the rest of it will be easier, since I'm caught up on reading and there's just voting left!
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I started my own Google + circle of the authors after the reveal. Turns out they also share a lot of good stuff.
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I noticed that as I read the later groups, it took significantly more effort for me to think of something helpful. I'm not sure if that was due to flash fatigue or real-life fatigue with life getting busy or what. I did comment on every story but my own (that have been voted off already by now), but in the later groups my comments were shorter.
I'm noticing the same thing with myself. I think part of it is that stories with flaws tended to have similar flaws. As a reviewer I found myself repeating the same things over and over. It would be fun to take all of the critiques that have shown up here for stories and sort of boil them down to something like a primer of what to watch out for in a flash story.
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Gah!
I find myself checking the polls a thousand times a day! VOTE FOR MY STORY PEOPLE!
Or don't, because then it will be over for me and I can relax.
Either way. 8)
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Gah!
I find myself checking the polls a thousand times a day! VOTE FOR MY STORY PEOPLE!
Or don't, because then it will be over for me and I can relax.
Either way. 8)
The secret to relaxing in the contest is to have both of your stories appear in the first half of the initial round, and get voted off immediately. It also helps if they are clear losers from the first day. Ah, what a great strategy I have. ;)
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Gah!
I find myself checking the polls a thousand times a day! VOTE FOR MY STORY PEOPLE!
Or don't, because then it will be over for me and I can relax.
Either way. 8)
The secret to relaxing in the contest is to have both of your stories appear in the first half of the initial round, and get voted off immediately. It also helps if they are clear losers from the first day. Ah, what a great strategy I have. ;)
Hmmnn.. That seemed to work for me as well. Well, I did have to wait for group nine for one of them, but it did get voted off immediately.
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So, do you think there will be story discussion in the Final Round?
Or will most people figure they've already said everything about all of them and little actual discussion will occur?
...........................................
While we're on the subject, which place is the place to campaign for your favorites? is it in the poll thread? Or is it in the discussions threads of the stories themselves?
The way things seem to be going right now, people don't do any campaigning in the poll thread, and reserve the story threads for direct criticism or praise.
So there doesn't seem to be a place for story vs. story opposition and cross discussion.
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So, do you think there will be story discussion in the Final Round?
Or will most people figure they've already said everything about all of them and little actual discussion will occur?
I have a story that may make it to the finals, and I encourage everyone to avoid wasting time rehashing outdated observations and focus on praising what I wrote. Just tell me what a pretty, pretty pony I am. That's all I ask.
So pretty.
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While we're on the subject, which place is the place to campaign for your favorites? is it in the poll thread? Or is it in the discussions threads of the stories themselves?
It's fine, as far as I am concerned, to make direct comparisons of stories in the poll thread, as long as you don't say which stories are currently leading or anything like that.
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While we're on the subject, which place is the place to campaign for your favorites? is it in the poll thread? Or is it in the discussions threads of the stories themselves?
It's fine, as far as I am concerned, to make direct comparisons of stories in the poll thread, as long as you don't say which stories are currently leading or anything like that.
As it turns out, it seems there is no place to make the post that got edited out. The one where I was trying to decide which way to vote. :-[
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While we're on the subject, which place is the place to campaign for your favorites? is it in the poll thread? Or is it in the discussions threads of the stories themselves?
It's fine, as far as I am concerned, to make direct comparisons of stories in the poll thread, as long as you don't say which stories are currently leading or anything like that.
As it turns out, it seems there is no place to make the post that got edited out. The one where I was trying to decide which way to vote. :-[
If I remember correctly, the post I deleted was mostly a list of what stories you voted for. When I replied above, what I had in mind was a discussion of the relative merits of the stories.
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Any idea what the lead time is until we hear these on the podcast? Last time it was a few months, if I recall correctly.
Can't wait!
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Any idea what the lead time is until we hear these on the podcast? Last time it was a few months, if I recall correctly.
Can't wait!
The last contest's final poll ended on September 8, 2010. The "Flash Extravaganza" episode 302 (not be confused with the identically titled "Flash Extravaganza" episode 310) was published on July 21, 2011.
Not sure how typical that kind of lead time is. I think with any of the casts it's typically something like 3-4 months because it does require several steps of story edits, finding a volunteer narrator and getting the recording, sound production, and so on.
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Ah! Good to know, thanks for the info!
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Just chiming in to say that I don't know any more than Unblinking has already reported. The stories are now in the hands of the editors, and they need to figure out both the logistics and how the stories will fit in to the overall schedule.
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This episode has been published, #426.
http://escapepod.org/2013/12/13/ep426-flash-fiction-special/
Posting note here for anyone who had this flagged and for whatever coldly logical eyes are dispassionately excavating the electronic ruins of our civilization in the distant future.
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This episode has been published, #426.
http://escapepod.org/2013/12/13/ep426-flash-fiction-special/
Posting note here for anyone who had this flagged and for whatever coldly logical eyes are dispassionately excavating the electronic ruins of our civilization in the distant future.
And good to know that the Escape Artists forum will still exist to brighten the days of our future alien overlords.