Escape Pod Flash Fiction Contest 2016 - Submission Rules

[dagny]

Already submitted, but realized this morning I really want to change a word. (Just one!)

Should I withdraw and resubmit? Alert the moderator when my story shows up? Bite the bullet and allow my story to limp along unedited?

At this stage, the best thing would be to withdraw and resubmit. Once submissions close, I'll only make changes to stories to correct obvious typos, but at this stage, I don't think there's a reason to penalise people for submitting early.

Thanks so much!

[Tango Alpha Delta]

FWIW - as a voter, I don't penalize people for low-level typos, or spelling/punctuation/etc., because I figure small mistakes will not make it into the audio version. I focus on the strength of the writing overall; how it made me feel, how the story works (or doesn't), and (lastly) how it stands up against the other stories in the frame.

The fact that you care probably means that your story won't have any "fatal flaws"... unless you're writing something very Meta that is about having fatal flaws.   

[Unblinking]

I have nothing to submit and I haven't written anything for a while.  Must get the writer-brain engaged so that I can fully participate!

[biomathics23]

Very excited, hope to submit something worth reading!

[Not-a-Robot]

Woot!

Draft one of both (planned) stories complete.

Now all I have to do is:  decide which story is superior, revise it 75 times, end up hating it, throw it out, write two new stories, revise those, end up hating those, go back to the original, decide it really wasn't so bad and send it in!

Only 18 days to go.  Calm down!  

[Unblinking]

I typed up a first draft without watching the word count closely, just eyeballing the word count.

498 words!  Like a glove!  All in one sitting without any idea beforehand of what I was going to write about.

I rather like it, and will give it a bit of polish before sending it in.

[Thunderscreech]

My first draft came in at 550 words, a remarkable feat because in the past I've found myself at like 800.  "This is impossible, there's no way I can trim 300 words from this!  Every one of them is vital GOOOOOOLD!"

No, they aren't, and it's a funny thing about wrenching a story down to 500 words from 800, for me it seems to improve them remarkably.  That's not the same as 'they're good now', but they're not as bad afterwards.

[FireTurtle]

Oh BAD WORDS. How am I just seeing this NOW???

*runs around with hands in the air shrieking incoherently about not having enough time*

Oh well, I never do to well in Escaped anyway.

*deep breaths*

[SpareInch]

Oh BAD WORDS. How am I just seeing this NOW???

*runs around with hands in the air shrieking incoherently about not having enough time*

Oh well, I never do to well in Escaped anyway.

*deep breaths*

LOL

I know how you feel. I only heard about it after the sub window had been open for a week or two. I suppose the moral of the tale is to keep an eye on those EA blogs.

Or on The Arcade, of course.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Yup - I did the same thing with the Pseudopod contest; fell behind on the feed, and found out too late to write anything.

Then, of course, reading everyone else's stories inspired me to write one that was too creepy for this contest... so I'm ready for the next Pseudopod contest in 2-3 years. 

[Fenrix]

Yup - I did the same thing with the Pseudopod contest; fell behind on the feed, and found out too late to write anything.

Then, of course, reading everyone else's stories inspired me to write one that was too creepy for this contest... so I'm ready for the next Pseudopod contest in 2-3 years. 

So long as interest remains, the current plan is to roll approximately every six months into a new contest. So, two years.

[Unblinking]

To those who've said that you haven't heard about contests until too late, I have something that might be of use to you.

Do you use the Submission Grinder to track submissions or find markets? 
If you do, then you can go to the market listing for each contest and click on Follow, and then when it opens or closes you'll get a notification when you visit the site. This will at least give you the full length of the submission window to write something.
(Note: This will probably only be helpful if you continually submit and visit the site anyway, since there's not an email notification, you have to actually visit the site to see the notification)

Pseudopod contests:
http://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market.aspx?mid=1164

Escape Pod contests:
http://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market.aspx?mid=4650

Podcastle contests:
http://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market.aspx?mid=2275



Plans are in the works to give warning about the opening of upcoming submission windows in the weekly newsletter, this isn't implemented yet, but might be for future contests.  And it is also planned to give notifications when markets have recently opened or closed which might be more useful if one is not visiting the Grinder site frequently.
http://diabolicalplots.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9ff86969c64fb1747f3b87a64&id=6c170a4b10

[FireTurtle]

It is IN. eep. This is definitely not my contest. Someone says science fiction and my brain just locks up. Oh shoot, that should have been my story!

[Tango Alpha Delta]

It is IN. eep. This is definitely not my contest. Someone says science fiction and my brain just locks up. Oh shoot, that should have been my story!

That might work for Cast of Wonders, if you play it write. 

[Thunderscreech]

Alright, I've got my story submission int. It took me a week to realize I'd never actually FINISH it because I kept agonizing over every sentence. Structurally, my story stayed the same but I kept screwing with little parts that probably didn't make a big difference. I'm not sure I made anything better after all this thrashing so a few minutes ago I uploaded it before another wave of doubt hit.

I'd probably do better if I followed the Klingon method. Instead of 'being submitted' maybe a story should escape, leaving a bloody trail of bodies in its wake.

I don't know if it'll go anywhere in the contest, but I feel better getting it out the door. Watching authors in movies, I thought writing would be fun but it's more like a painful itch I have to scratch no matter how much damage I do.

Maybe that's not normal, but ahhh... that last itch is finally gone. Now, what's this next tingle all about? Aw nuts.

[Not-a-Robot]

Alright, I've got my story submission int. It took me a week to realize I'd never actually FINISH it because I kept agonizing over every sentence. Structurally, my story stayed the same but I kept screwing with little parts that probably didn't make a big difference. I'm not sure I made anything better after all this thrashing so a few minutes ago I uploaded it before another wave of doubt hit.

I sent mine in too.  I don't know, I like agonizing over every sentence.  I think that it gives the overall work a very polished feel, but, yeah, I agree. At some point it just has to storm off on its own, leaving a bloody trail of letters and phrases in its wake. 

[Fenrix]

Alright, I've got my story submission int. It took me a week to realize I'd never actually FINISH it because I kept agonizing over every sentence. Structurally, my story stayed the same but I kept screwing with little parts that probably didn't make a big difference. I'm not sure I made anything better after all this thrashing so a few minutes ago I uploaded it before another wave of doubt hit.

I sent mine in too.  I don't know, I like agonizing over every sentence.  I think that it gives the overall work a very polished feel, but, yeah, I agree. At some point it just has to storm off on its own, leaving a bloody trail of letters and phrases in its wake. 

These blast points are much too precise for sandpeople.

[Not-a-Robot]

Alright, I've got my story submission int. It took me a week to realize I'd never actually FINISH it because I kept agonizing over every sentence. Structurally, my story stayed the same but I kept screwing with little parts that probably didn't make a big difference. I'm not sure I made anything better after all this thrashing so a few minutes ago I uploaded it before another wave of doubt hit.

I sent mine in too.  I don't know, I like agonizing over every sentence.  I think that it gives the overall work a very polished feel, but, yeah, I agree. At some point it just has to storm off on its own, leaving a bloody trail of letters and phrases in its wake. 

These blast points are much too precise for sandpeople.

Ahhem... We sandpeople prefer to be called Native Tatooinites.

[Thunderscreech]

[Chairman Goodchild]

Alright, I've got my story submission int. It took me a week to realize I'd never actually FINISH it because I kept agonizing over every sentence. Structurally, my story stayed the same but I kept screwing with little parts that probably didn't make a big difference. I'm not sure I made anything better after all this thrashing so a few minutes ago I uploaded it before another wave of doubt hit.

I'd probably do better if I followed the Klingon method. Instead of 'being submitted' maybe a story should escape, leaving a bloody trail of bodies in its wake.

I don't know if it'll go anywhere in the contest, but I feel better getting it out the door. Watching authors in movies, I thought writing would be fun but it's more like a painful itch I have to scratch no matter how much damage I do.

Maybe that's not normal, but ahhh... that last itch is finally gone. Now, what's this next tingle all about? Aw nuts.

You've completely summed up my experience here.  I think, tho, that my story did benefit from all the tinkering I did with it.  I'm a pretty harsh critic.  I'm harsh on other peoples' writing, and I'm harsh on myself.  I spent much time ripping apart my paragraph and sentence structures and restructuring them, over and over, until well beyond the point of getting sick of it.  When I got down to picking apart individual word choices, I decided to give it a day or two and call it quits.  At that point, all of the love I had for my story had long since drained out of me, and I felt like a factory worker on an assembly line.  

And I've been working on a vampire story now for a long time that I thought had a cool concept when I started, but I'm losing faith now.  I know I just need to keep on going with it.  I keep telling myself the experience of writing it will be its own reward no matter how it turns out.

And I'll call them Sand People if I like, they didn't have any problem with being called that back in my father's day.  

[Renobarb]

@eytanz Thank you for your assistance in navigating the forum.  I'm looking forward to reading the entries!

[Not-a-Robot]

And I'll call them Sand People if I like, they didn't have any problem with being called that back in my father's day.  

Chairman Goodchild, I am your father.  

[Thunderscreech]

Stay on target.  We're almost there; if you've been poking and prodding your story for a few days, it's time to submit!  Don't miss the window!

[Moritz]

Submitted.

After last year's pseudopod contest, I wrote down some ideas for fantasy stories. Among them, there was one SF story, so that's what I wrote. In a hurry

[Thunderscreech]

Submitted.

After last year's pseudopod contest, I wrote down some ideas for fantasy stories. Among them, there was one SF story, so that's what I wrote. In a hurry FLASH

(Corrected, you're welcome.  )