New One-shot for Contest

Hello everyone,

I'm giving a brief update on something I've worked on for the past week or so. It's a new story, this one a one-shot I decided to write for that contest Obselescence is holding: The Most Dangerous Game Contest. I had a whim, and I followed it for the heck of it.

Some questions that some folks may have:

Should you all expect a change from my usual writing format?

No. I will continue working on my long-form story, My Little Poem. This was a one-time deal that I decided to participate in because I wanted to. I will say that I enjoyed writing it; changing things up was more enjoyable than sticking to the same story again and again.

However, I will limit the amount of times I do this. Staying on task is something I struggle with, especially when it comes to hobbies. I cannot count the number of projects I started, but then never finished. No, I'm not bipolar, in case you are wondering. I just like hopping from thing to thing as my fancy takes me, and I am trying to avoid that with my writing, for the most part.

Could you say this was one of your better works?

Not really, no. I liked the premise, especially within the constraints of the contest. But there are definitely some things about it that I would do differently; the beginning was exposition-heavy, and took a bit to get to the more interesting parts in the middle. The ending was also trite, and is a bit too open-ended. Then again, previous drafts were worse, so at least what was published was an improvement over my original writing, but that may be an overstatement to some folks.

Then again, I sincerely hope folks enjoy this story. I did enjoy writing it, flaws and all, and I hope folks find more things to like about it than I did when I finished it.

What did you think of the contest? Do you have hopes for winning it?

I anticipate having it judged in a fair and understandable manner. If the judges don't like my story, and if the audience doesn't enjoy it, then it won't go very far in the contest, and that is perfectly fine. I want the cream of the crop to win, and if that isn't my story, then that isn't my story. In short, I have neither hope nor despair; I have only anticipation for the results.

As for the contest itself, I think it is a good idea. It challenges the kinds of stereotypes we have developed here at FimFiction, where certain types of stories are always "bad" or "cliche", which is certainly not fair or objective. I sincerely hope that this contest proves that something believed to be "bad" or "cliche" purely because of its genre can actually be good, fun, enjoyable to read and vital to the community when done well. Bad writing in general makes bad stories, not whether certain genres are believed to be "bad" or "cliche" by a certain group of people.

Any closing thoughts?

This was a simple endeavor, yet satisfying. I hope it does well, both in the contest and out of it!

Sincerely,

Mr. Album