Contest Story of the Week - SOW by Arkbear at All poetry

Welcome Poets!

Story of the Week

- Hosted by Arkbear -

founded - 7/18/08

SO' Contest # 1

The SO' Contests are NEW!

- We will be moving to *stories* in the near future -

If you pull or delete your entry after a thorough critique, or not come back to finish your write after reserving a spot, you will be banned from the SO' contest in the future...no exceptions!

If you want to win the SOW contest, bring the most Original & Creative Theme, and pen it wisely, in Short Story Format ONLY ~

We do NOT provide Phrase or Graphic Prompts, and we do NOT allow Fancy Backgrounds, or Borders to enhance your write.....we expect you to work with your Imagination, White Background, and ONLY Black Font ~

Plagiarism and/or copy & paste from

your old stories will not be tolerated ~

Your Imagination is your strongest tool

....use it wisely!

7 spots available ~

51 hour contest ~

Judging will commence at 7 pm Sat. eve. only!

This will give you plenty of time to re-check

your work and edit if needed ~

Once a Judge has CRITIQUED your work,

.....DO NOT TOUCH IT UNTIL AFTER CONTEST CLOSES ~

This SOW contest is sponsored by:

Arkbear

islekine

Talloaks

Opens 3 pm, Friday, July 18, 2008 -

United States Pacific time ~

Closes at 7 pm, Sunday, July 20, 2008 -

United States Pacific time ~

Your #1 Judge is, Arkbear

Your #2 Judge is, trista

Your #3 Judge is, islekine

Your #4 Judge is, Starz of Heaven

Your #5 Judge is,

Your #6 Judge is,

Your #7 Judge is,

Needing ( 3 ) more Judges who are familiar

with this sequence of contests!

RULES!

* Creativity ~

* Black Font ~

* Fresh Fiction ~

* Nothing Cliche' ~

* 100 Lines or Less ~

* White Background ~

* Uncommon Themes ~

* Challenge Your Quill ~

* Use Your Imagination ~

* Use Short Story Format ~

* Epic Stories not allowed ~

* We Reserve the Right To DQ ~

* Watch For Proper Punctuation ~

* Graphics/Borders Are Not Allowed ~

* No Massive Cursing or Hard Erotica ~

* Place Theme or Topic in Authors' Notes ~

* Place *SOW Contest* in your Authors' Notes ~

* 1st, 2nd & 3rd person.....or more, is fine as well ~

* No Editing After A Judge Has Touched Your Work ~

* CAPPING every line, NOT allowed, unless required ~

* Do NOT use these Filler Words in excess....>>

* the, and, is, of, that, to* ~

* Blank spaces are not considered lines, only text ~

* SS format is proper use of:

Introduction, Topic, Body, Summary, Conclusion ~
.....however, without, the Epic run-on Storyline ~

* Have Fun!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Points for this sequence of SO' contest ~

*SOD* is 400 points for Gold, plus ( 3 ) HM's ~

*SOW* is 1000 points for Gold, plus ( 3 ) HM's ~

*SOM* is 1500 points for Gold, plus ( 3 ) HM's ~

*SOY* is 90% of all left-over points from the year ~

We will be looking for FRESH Fictional writes,

...."specifically" for these contests!

ALSO...>>>>>

Your entry may NOT be in another contest

at the same time as the SO' Contests ~

Show us Creativity, Originality, Imagery, Power, Emotion, Impact, Thought and Focus in the SO' Contests ~

Donations are Most welcomed with your entries and Very much appreciated, as these contests will eat up points quickly ~

Sponsoring Poets:

Arkbear ( 1 X for SOW, SOM, SOY )

islekine ( 1 X for SOW, SOM, SOY )

Talloaks ( 1 X for SOW, SOM SOY )

davidwright ( 1 X for SOW, SOM, SOY )

Disclaimer:

We are not using any donated points for our own benefit ~

You may at any time ask how many points each Contest has in its' personal Bank ~

Your donated points are used soley to keep the SO' Contests open for your interest and fun ~

The *SOD* = Story of the Day, account name, Sod-1 ~

The *SOW* = Story of the Week, account name, Sow-1 ~

The *SOM* = Story of the Month, account name, Som-1 ~

The *SOY* = Story of the Year, account name, Soy-1 ~

90% of points that roll over, will be added to the *SOY* for an incredible award of points at the end of the Year!

Please re-read these rules if you are still unsure about how this sequence of contests is conducted ~

Notice:

I am proud to say that I am sole holder of the SO' Contests,

yet I could not do this without the help of your donations, or your other Judges ~

We want great Short Stories that will make us read it and think.....Wow,

....that's grrrreat penning!

Now you know what we want....now go spill some Ink!

......and remember,

May Your Higher Power & the Power of Your Quill,

Always Be Your Strength!

,~<::##########::

~ Bear ~

Contest is Over

Contest was judged on July 21
Rewards: Gold: 1000, Honorable mention: 4 people
Final notes:

Bravo!

We want to thank each of you for taking your time and molding your passion for writing, into the first SOW Contest!

This will be a day we remember in years to come, as we have begun a new chapter in the O' Contest Series, with Short Stories ~

We are not sure if AP is going to insist we move over to AP's Sister Site, *Stories*, but until we get confirmation of that, if at all, we shall remain right here on AP ~

We are thrilled each one of you joined us, and allowed us to go through your work as if we owned it.....thank you!

Each of you are so unique and talented......your Judges and I wish you the best in your future of writing, and we hope to see you back once again for the next SOW........the SOM will be coming out the last Friday of evey month, same as the POM ~

However, to allow more Writers to find and have a chance at the SO' Contests, we ask, if you will wait two weeks before returning, as this will give others a chance to discover what the SO' Contests are all about as well ~

We thank you for your patience~

Ok......let's get right to it!

With a total of 400 points available, your Gold Winner earned a total of 369.5 points!

Congratulations, *light insight!

You are a great talent, whom we hope to see come back as often as allowed ~

We will be looking for another Judge next week, and we ask that the Gold Winners step in and share in the fun the following week........and if this is not possible, then we go down the list and ask the Silver Winner....etc...>>

Lovely write, and indeed well-deserving of Gold ~

Ok, your Silver Winner, a Poet who we know from the PO' Contests, has earned her way up to Silver by earning 367.05 points!

Very close.....and I have a feeling, you will be seeing more of Sonja, so if you want to win Gold, or get around her, you will have to bring your mightiest quill and spill some great ink!

Nice job Sonja!

Your Bronze Winner, Katie, what a treat!

Such a treat to have this Poet write for us this week.....she is not going away anytime too soon!

She earned 348.3 points.....and what a delightful and witty Story she brought us this week ~

Thank you Katie!

Ok.....your HM's ( ARE ) in order..>>>>

HM 1...346.3
HM 2...344.05
HM 3...338.2
HM 4...336.6

Yes, we added a 4th HM.....they deserved it, however, from now on, we will only have room for 6 spots in the SO' Contests, except for the SOM, there will be 10 ~

The most Creative Story goes to: Legend of China Wall

The best Title goes to: Legend of China Wall

The most Thought-Provoking write goes to: Lana

The most Fun write goes to: Apple-Land

....and there you have it!

Such a joy to read all of you......we hope you all take our suggestions as merely that, suggestive criticism from Poets who adore Short Stories and the written word ~

I want to thank God first, for allowing us the privledge of getting to know all of you, and your love for writing ~

Next, I want to personally thank your Judges....without them, your entries would not receive the quality of reviews, nor the number of eyes watching you write.....and because of your other Judges, you are given a better chance to see how many others are looking at your work as well ~

Thank you so very much Judges.......and Writer, for being a part of the very first SO' Contest!

We hope to see all of you in a couple of weeks......and please do drop by and take a look at next weeks entrants, as they will be facing the same thing you just went through........

......and remember,

May Your Higher Power & the Power of Your Quill, Always Be Your Strength!

Bear

Starz of Heaven:
7 hours ago Here are my scores for SOW I hope you have a great day

Sow

The Avril Storm
Hello there and welcome to Sow
After reading through this piece quite a few times I will have to say it is an enjoyable write. There are alot of filler words in here and there are also quite a few times where my brain could not grasp certain pieces of this story I think it would of been more better if I would of found more earlier on.I would of love to see more detail also.Goodluck in this contest best wishes.My score will be added at the end of the contest
Title 9
Theme 9
Story 9
Creativity 9
Flow 9
Ending 9
Impact 9
Grammar 9
Form 9
Rules 9
Total 90

Shipwrecked

Hello there and welcome to Sow
This is a great story I found the sentences to never end and that made me stummble quite a bit but then I recoved further down.All in all a great write.I would of liked to known alot more of the surival day to day though
Title 9
Theme 10
Story 9
Creativity 10
Flow 9
Ending 9
Impact 9
Grammar 9
Form 9
Rules 10
Total 93

Letter From the Old Dart

Hello there and welcome to Sow
I also did enjoy this poem but I will have to ssay that is what it is a poem with a hint of prose I saw a bit of a story line but I feel that it could been more and that would help the cauise but I am just a newbie judge and lots of others have more experience then me.
Goodluck to you in this contest.My score will be added at the end of the contest
Title 9
Theme 9
Story 9
Creativity 9
Flow 9
Ending 9
Impact 9
Grammar 9
Form 9
Rules10
Total 91

An American Hero
Hello there and welcome to Sow
I did enjoy this piece it is one of my favorites after reading it again and again the more I read it the more impressed I was able to follow through the whole story without being tripped up with words.This is a great piece.
Goodluck in this contest best wishes.My score will be added at the end of the contest

Title 10
Theme 10
Story 10
Creativity 10
Flow 9
Ending 9
Impact 9
Grammar 10
Form 10
Rules 10
Total 97

Lana

Hello there and welcome to Sow
By far this a very well written piece I love the story it is well written and thought out I would say that it is wordy but I did enjoy the read from the first time that I read it until now this left me wanting more the impact of this story was great for me. This is a great piece.Goodluck in this contest best wishes.My score will be added at the end of the contest
Title 10
Theme 10
Story 10
Creativity 10
Flow 9
Ending 9
Impact 10
Grammar 10
Form 10
Rules 10
Total 98

Apple-land

Hello there and welcome to Sow
I did enjoy this piece as my family is a family of farmers from corn to strawberrys to pumpkins and everything in between fresh vegetables and fruits are the best so this did remind me of all the time that me and my daughter spenmd on our familys land and the greast is fall with all the beauty.This is a great piece.Goodluck in this contest best wishes.My score will be added at the end of the contest

Title 9
Theme 9
Story 9
Creativity 9
Flow 9
Ending 9
Impact 10
Grammar 9
Form 9
Rules 9
Total 91

Legend Of China Wall
Hello there and welcome to Sow
I did enjoy the read of this story the lines seem to be a bit never ending to me and that made me stumble quite a few times in areas but I was once again to pick myself back up through the spots and found alot of information that had me wanting to know a bit more as I enjoy history this was a great read for me. Goodluck in this contest best wishes.My score will be added at the end of the contest.
Title 10
Theme 10
Story 10
Creativity 9
Flow 9
Ending 9
Impact 10
Grammar 9
Form 9
Rules 9
Total 94

islekine:
right now Aloha!!!
Wow...I was starting to edit each story, piece by piece....can't happen!
Good thing we have several judges...I will be changing my scorecard next week...
Thanks one and all!!!
As you can see, I scored you all fairly darn close!!!
Hope to see everyone and their pens...again.
Write on!

Here are my first scores:
SOW

Avril Storm

Title 9.8
Theme 9.7
Story line 9.8
Creativity 9.8
Flow 9.5
Conclusion 9.7
Impact 9.5
Grammar/Punctuation 8.9
Format 8.9
Rules 9.3
TOTAL: 94.9

Shipwrecked

Title 8.9
Theme 8.9
Story line 8.8
Creativity 8.9
Flow 8.9
Conclusion 8.5
Impact 8.9
Grammar/Punctuation 8.5
Format 8.7
Rules 9
TOTAL: 88

Letter From the Old Dart

Title 9.8
Theme 9.7
Story line 9
Creativity 9.3
Flow 9.5
Conclusion 9
Impact 8.7
Grammar/Punctuation 8
Format 8
Rules 9
TOTAL: 90

An American Hero

Title 9.7
Theme 9.9
Story line 9.7
Creativity 9.7
Flow 9.8
Conclusion 9
Impact 9.5
Grammar/Punctuation 9
Format 9.5
Rules 9.3
TOTAL: 95.1

Lana

Title 9
Theme 9.3
Story line 9.7
Creativity 9.8
Flow 9
Conclusion 9
Impact 9.5
Grammar/Punctuation 8.7
Format 8.9
Rules 9.5
TOTAL: 92.4

Apple-land

Title 9.7
Theme 9.8
Story line 9.7
Creativity 9.8
Flow 9
Conclusion 9
Impact 9
Grammar/Punctuation 9
Format 9
Rules 8.9
TOTAL: 92.9

Legend of China Wall

Title 9.8
Theme 9.9
Story line 8.9
Creativity 9.3
Flow 8.9
Conclusion 8.9
Impact 9
Grammar/Punctuation 8.9
Format 9
Rules 9
TOTAL: 91.6

trista:
9 minutes ago Hi Bear...

Here are my scores and final notes for the SOW. I'll have to send the breakdown of scores to anyone who wants it, but to save on space and time didn't want to put each one up here. (You'll understand why when you see how many catagories I'm covering...lol)

The Avril Storm
by Star of Atlantis
67

Shipwrecked
by davidwright
65.5

Letter From the Old Dart
by Shenton
69

An American Hero
by light insight
81.5

Lana
by Sonja
83.5

Apple-land
by Kattie Lazette
69.5

Legend of China Wall
by Roaddog Wolf
70

Final Notes:
This has been an exciting contest for me to help judge, and I hope it's the first of many such enjoyable experiences. Thank you all so much for sharing your talents with us, and for being patient while any "wrinkles" get worked out. If any of you are familiar with my scoring in the PO contests, you'll probably notice a huge difference with my scores seemingly very low. I'll be fine-tuning by scoreboard during these first couple or few contests, so please bear with me. I've scored on the categories below, with the max number of points behind each...yep, it's a lot of areas to cover, which is why I'll be working to narrow it down in the next couple of contests.

Any questions or suggestions, please let me know.

Congrats to our winners, and hope to see you all back again soon! : )
~Julie

Rules: 5
Story Development 15
Theme: 5
Imagery: 5
Dialogue: 5
Setting: 5
Point of View: 5
Mechanics (grammar,style,punctuation) 20
Show Vs. Tell: 5
Ability to Hold Interest:10
Character Development: 5
Originality: 5
Lasting Impression: 10
Max Total: 100

Wishing you all a wonderful week!

PEACE -

Contest Winners

An American Hero

This is a fictional story that as a nation we can only hope it may one day become reality.

by light insight 8 lines, 9 comments, on Jul 19 1:25 AM. In Society, Other, Thoughts
Gold trophy winner

• Commented on by judge. [remove]
Lana

~

by Sonja 95 lines, 16 comments, on Jul 19 3:35 AM. In Love, Story, SOW
Silver trophy winner

• Commented on by judge. [remove]
Apple-land

Have you ever gone to Apple-land, where all the trees are full of big juicy apples and the trees talk. Well I have. It's a wonderful plac

by Katie Lazette 5 lines, 12 comments, on Jul 19 9:13 AM. In Contest, Fantasy, Life, Nature, Thoughts
Bronze trophy winner

• Commented on by judge. [remove]
Legend Of China Wall

From somewhere deep in North West Montana's pristine snow capped peaks, of the now 14 million acres of protected wilderness, emerged a myst

by Roaddog Wolf 17 lines, 12 comments, on Jul 19 10:27 AM. In Fantasy, Life, Thoughts
Honorable winner

• Commented on by judge. [remove]
The Avril Storm

The Avril Storm
By: Star of Atlantis

by Star of Atlantis 37 lines, 12 comments, on Jul 18 6:43 PM. In Fantasy, Hope, Love, Nature, Other
Honorable winner

• Commented on by judge. [remove]
Letter From the Old Dart

by Shenton 70 lines, 5 comments, on Jul 18 7:58 PM
Honorable winner

• Commented on by judge. [remove]
Marooned

Christened John Joseph at birth he awakened face down in the sand with the incoming tide lapping at his

by davidwright 8 lines, 7 comments, on Jul 18 7:01 PM. In Contest
Honorable winner

• Commented on by judge. [remove]

Entries [7]

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right now

Adding your comment:
aboomer
July 18
Edit | Reply

Please explain what you would call a short story format....I'm not sure I know what that is.
thanks
- Arkbear
  July 18
  Edit | Reply
  
  Hi boomer!
  
  SS format is proper use of Introduction, Topic, Body, Summary, Conclusion ~
  
  However, without the Epic run-on Storyline ~
  
  100 lines MAX!
  
  Spaces do NOT count as lines ~
  
  Bear ~
- - aboomer
    July 18
    Edit | Reply
    
    Thank you! I think I'll just read and get the 'feel' of them before I ever think about attempting one...lol
Cupcrazy
July 19
Edit | Reply

Hey Bear this contest is a great idea, and I wish you much success with them.
As a side note was wondering for clarification puposes, above you say Short story poetic format, which to me is a story in poetic form Ex: The Raven, by: Edgar Allen Poe, but by the entries and your explanation below it sounds like it can be strictly a short story. Which way do you really want the entries to be written? Hugs, Bunny
- Arkbear
  July 19
  Edit | Reply
  
  Oh gosh.....I can't believe I put the word, *Poetic* in there....thank you for catching that ~
  
  I guess my mind went directly to Poetry ~
  
  This is going to be a great deal of fun.....and interesting to see how it turns out......thank you so very much for the well wishes
  
  Short Story is the Format.....1st, 2nd & 3rd person.....or more, is fine as well ~
  
  Thanks Bunny....God bless you!
  
  Bear ~
Arkbear
July 19
Edit | Reply

Notice!!!!!

Ok....6 hours before ANY Judging might begin......you have 6 hours to perfect your write.......however, you can still edit until a Judge touches your work with a review ~

Good luck, and remember, punctuation is crucial in this format, if you used speech ~

Remember your CAPS and do not forget, your format is extremely important!

Spelling and proper grammatical choices will be looked at in depth ~

Bear ~
Midnight-x-Rose
July 19
Edit | Reply

Ah stories, I can do these better than poetry I think... Or at least judge it lol.
Great contest, can't wait to see these get onboard as well as the PO' contests!
islekine
July 20
Edit | Reply

Thanks to all for entering...
Since this is the first SOW, I decided to let all entries stay as entered. We can critique them all,
and people will see what is expected. Focus is the one thing that lacked, in my opinion. Run-on sentences and repeated words. Story lines going every which direction. But as with every new venture....we all learn....Thanks again everyone...
and Best wishes in the First Story of the Week Contest!
Write on!
- Arkbear
  July 21
  Edit | Reply
  
  Ditto!
  
  .....and then some
judyjudyjudy
July 20
Edit | Reply

SOW?!? Sounds a bit offputting to me? Can't you come up with something prettier? Even SSOW (short story of the week) would be preferable.

Just observing. Nice to see some room for prose on the site. But, having said that...Can you really write a short story without using "and, the," etc? I know you can write a poem without 'em because I've done it. But a short story? Come on!!!
- Arkbear
  July 21
  Edit | Reply
  
  Hi Judy ~
  
  This will remain the SOW Contest ~
  
  .....and we never said to NOT use filler words in the SOW, we said to not use them excessivley
  
  God bless,
  
  Bear ~
Sonja
July 22
Edit | Reply

Congratulations!
... to all SOW participants, thanks to judges for their hard and great done job and thanks a lot for this great silver honor.
~Sonja~