"The Most Dangerous Game" Wrap-Up, And Also Horsefest 2k14 I Guess · 2:52am Aug 1st, 2014
So first things first: I finally placed in a writing contest. Holy shit this is actually a really big deal for me.
Seriously, though, after several attempts in writeoffs and one shellacking in an Equestria Daily Halloween contest, I've finally snapped my streak/curse of being unable to score a podium finish in contests with an audience vote component. More than anything else, I think that's what I'm going to take away from Far From The Tree: aside from it being the most highly-rated story I've ever published here and (in my mind, at least) one of the best things I've ever written, it also helped me conquer a little demon on my shoulder that's been bugging me for a good while now. So on that note, a huge shoutout and my genuine gratitude goes out to everyone who participated in The Most Dangerous Group in any capacity, whether by submitting entries to it, participating in the judging process, or reading and voting on the finalists, with special thanks of course going to those of you who helped Far From The Tree into a second-place finish.
On that note, congratulations are in order for the proverbial gold and bronze medalists, Cold in Gardez and Lucky Dreams, as well as Magello and Georg for snagging the other two finalist spots. All of you had great entries and deserved your spots in the final five, and I can say that with confidence now that I've actually read them all. I've been holding back on looking at the other finalists until after the contest ended to avoid any competition-inspired bias, and now that that's come to pass, I've collected my brief thoughts on each one below if anyone's still interested in that kind of thing (in the order I read them):
For Whom We Are Hungry, by Cold in Gardez
Fun fact: a little while after submissions were closed, I went through every story entered in the contest that was publicly listed on FIMFiction and analyzed each for ratios of viewcounts to total upvotes and to total favorites, because I'm a stats junkie and I like trying to quantify things that really shouldn't be quantified. Once I had everything compiled, I found that Cold in Gardez's story not only came out first in both categories, but the gap between his entry and the rest of the pack was such that I probably could've just eliminated his data as an outlier in a serious statistical analysis. Suffice it to say, I was calling a victory for this one before judging had even started in earnest, so I wasn't surprised to see this one take the top spot, nor do I disagree with that result now that I've read it for myself. Cold in Gardez can be trusted implicitly with basically everything he touches, and his command over his characters and the fascinating world they inhabit was on full display here. Good writers makes complex things like tense pacing, subtle worldbuilding, and layered characters look easy, and Cold in Gardez is a damn good writer. Out of all the other finalists, this was far and away my favorite.
The Young Filly And The Sea, by Georg
Usually I can boil down a story's flaws to having stemmed from errors in either concept or execution, but this one landed somewhere in the middle for me. Even granted their nerdy and somewhat neurotic natures, the vocabularies and speech patterns of Twilight and Rex skewed a little too far left of believable given their stated ages, and the last two chapters didn't feel like afterthoughts so much as just full thoughts that the author didn't have to realize in their entirety. With an extra ten thousand words and another couple weeks in the shop, I think this one could've been a pretty touching tale. As it is, though, there were too many bare bones and not enough meat to grab my full attention.
To Love the Sun, by Magello
This contest was actually the first time I've heard of Magello, and if his entry is anything to go by, I hope this isn't the last. Aside from including every single prompt and turning them all into a functional story in under three thousand words, Magello absolutely nails the golden rule of writing dark things: hit your audience fast and hard, and keep firing at them till it goes click. This story is a frenetic, fragmented account of a broken and pathetic man, and the implications it leaves smoldering in the wreckage left behind by its conclusion are worth the gut-check that precedes them. Some people complained that Celestia is out of character in this, and while I can see where they were coming from, I don't agree with them. This is Old Testament Celestia, before Luna's banishment and everything after stamped down the fire that a goddess of the sun must surely carry inside her somewhere, and it's done right.
In the Place the Wild Horses Sleep, by Lucky Dreams
This is the story that very narrowly (I mean, by literally a single point in the popular vote portion) fell behind mine in the final results, and after reading it I stand by my assertion prior to reading the finalists that I have absolutely no clue how I got the better of Lucky Dreams here. Although this story is the polar opposite of what I normally prefer to read, I was mesmerized by it all the same. The narration is lyrical in the way the best of children's stories are, alternating between prose and poetry in a manner that almost demands illustration to accompany it. Not only could I see this being a published picture book on a Barnes & Noble shelf, I'm a little surprised it's not already. Lucky Dreams clearly knows what he's doing, and while my own current enjoyment of fan fiction over original writing precludes me from saying he's wasting his time posting his work here for free, I'm adding him to the short list of authors on this site whom I absolutely believe could make it as writers in the real world.
In other news, I'm currently sitting on the Northeast Regional just a few minutes out from the Baltimore train station, so I figure now's a good time to update y'all once again regarding my plans for this weekend at BronyCon. As per my duties for Equestria Daily, I'll be covering press conferences and panels for most of Friday afternoon going into the evening, but on Saturday and Sunday my schedule should be a lot more open. I'll be hanging out in Quills and Sofas whenever I can, but if you'd prefer a little more structure for a theoretical meet'n'greet, I'll also be participating in the following panels:
Equestria Daily Pre-Reader Q&Neigh: Saturday, Hall of the Moon, 11:15 AM-12:15 PM
Worlds Beyond (crossover fic panel): Saturday, Hall of the Star, 1:45 PM-2:45 PM
World Beyond Ponyville (adventure fic panel): Sunday, Hall of the Moon, 11:15 AM-12:15 PM
And as I'm wont to say, that's all I have to say about that. See you at the con.
Some people wryly noted that it has been for about fifty years. I think that it suffered for that somewhat, as well as being a children's tale which, well, isn't really my thing either. As you'll note from the actual judge scores on it, it got 10s from a bunch of judges... and then a 5 from the last one.
So, what's your plan for Couch's contest?
2334544
Spew out whatever I can on the train back from Baltimore, aim for a thousand words a day beyond that, and hope I don't have to rush the ending the day it's due. It's gonna be a bit tight, but I think I can manage it. The bigger problem will be keeping it under 15k.