MTG Salvation

All righty. Good thing I never miss a deadline. Ever.

Now that I look at the other judges' scores (I didn't want to influence myself by accident), I think I may have scored these pretty harshly and focused on the negative, but it's all out of love, I swear. I aimed at what I thought needed work, and tried to look at these stories as both a writer and as someone receiving them for submission. I'm offering what I hope are useful and honest criticisms I'd throw at any other writer, with suggestions for how things could be improved on the creative and technical levels. For the latter, I want to see if I can give you guys some of the benefits of my limited experience and help you avoid mistakes that I (and, probably, all writers) have made.

And of course, I'm calling out what I like, too. I'm just spending more time on the criticism part of constructive criticism because . . . well . . . it's constructive?

I can't stress this enough -- every writer, EVERY writer, has little quirks and failings in their work that they struggle to improve throughout their writing lives (well, unless they become a King or a Rowling, then they can tend to get self-indulgent at times, but that's neither here not there). And everything I've called out in these scores and comments are things I've been guilty of before, and may be guilty of in the future.

Okay, enough with the preamble and the explanation and the "please don't hate me if I gave you a 2 out of 10 on Plot & Structure." Time to get postin'!

CJH

PS -- If anyone wants to check my math on those totals, that probably wouldn't be a bad idea.

PPS -- Thanks to everyone who submitted stories. You're a brave, brave bunch. And thanks for VestDan for inviting me to participate, this has been really fun.

Heh, no problem Cory. And don't sweat being more harsh than Scavenger or I... Will was always the harshest judge too. Heh, comes with the territory I guess.

Quote from Craven

First of all, many thanks to Cory Herndon for helping in this contest!

VestDan, do you want to write something for the Front Page? If you do, please also PM an admin so that the winner of this contest gets his trophy!

Do I want to? Eh, not PERSONALLY, though it should be done. I haven't even added up all the points yet, heh... I'll get to that now. If you'd like to, as you've done it in the past, that'd be good ;).

Edit:

Okay, the results are in, and here they be:

Cabalwannabe’s “Clone of Joan”: 25.5 + 31 + 16.5 = 73 (24.3 average)
diablos_flame’s “In My Eyes”: 21.5 + 18 + 23 = 62.5 (20.8 average)
Sam111111’s “Lamb”: 12 + 10 + 17 = 39 (13 average)
Deimographica’s “Hold Firm in Faith” = 43 + 30 + 29 = 102 (34 average)
MoFo’s “Arc of Fire”: 38.5 + 34 + 32 = 104.5 (34.8 average)
turnip_song’s “Arc Angel”: 44 +39 +32.5 = 115.5 (38.5 average)
Tanthalas’ “The Fire Inside”: 35.5 + 21 + 29.5 = 86 (28.3 average)
EnemyWithin’s “Hellion”: 40.5 + 34 + 35.5 = 110 (36.6 average)
Riley’s “Time Crosses”: 33 + 29 + 18.5 = 80.5 (26.8 average)
linx_389’s “I Dream of Joanie”: 19.5 + 16 +19 = 54.5 (18.1 average)

Which means turnip_song is the winner! He'll receive a little trophy on his sig, a front page mention, a copy of Cory's Ravnica trilogy, the choice of the next topic, and most importantly... an insulting nickname. *thinks* If you take the "nip_so" from the middle to the front, it becomes "nip so tung," so, some variation of that? Simply "tongue?" Or can anyone think of anything easier?

Congrats turnip_song on victory!

Many thanks to Vestdan, Cory Herndon and Scavenger for judging. I didn't do as well as I was hoping, but I got alot more out of you three then most have said about my work up til this point. Again many thanks, your words aren't going unoticed or not taken to heart.

Now about the next contest (assuming there is one): I take it this month is being skipped since it's almost over?


Post script:
Cory, I'll be addressing your comments on my story like I have with Vestdan's and Scavenger's in the next few days. I want to make sure I address the importent parts instead of wasting your time in the wrong areas.

Scavenger had a much better idea than mine for Turnip_song's new name: Turnipple.

So, Turnipple... ball's in your court, now!

Hooray for Turnipple!

Thanks Veedee for letting me judge, I enjoyed getting to take part in the contest despite not entering. And heck, I enjoyed reading about Joan of Arc for a month straight. Good books, those.

And I think I speak for everyone when I say "you'd better make the next prompt good you ninnie."

No pressure.

McGough also uses the boards, so you'd only need to use him. As for King... WHY?

I'll try and start the next contest relatively soon- I'll need to thrash out the prompt I have in mind a bit first, and find some judges before I do. I have a fairly good idea of what it should be like, though.

You could always go to a writing website forum and ask a judge from over there.

Just an idea. We don't have to have someone already published to judge all the time.

Quote from Cabalwannabe

You could always go to a writing website forum and ask a judge from over there.

Just an idea. We don't have to have someone already published to judge all the time.

I dunno...I'd definitely say one of the cool features of these contests is how we drag magic authors out from under their rocks to judge for us.