And Here's My WisCon Spontaneous Writing Story
Tuesday, 27 May 2014 08:08![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsWisCon 38
Spontaneous Writing Contest Final Report
The 8 submitted entries in this year’s Spontaneous Writing Contest are on display at http://w38swc.blogspot.com Each contestant was given 60 minutes to build a story around a couple of paragraphs of supplied dialog.
There were 13 registrants, and the 1st 8 who were physically present on Saturday morning became the official contestants. Winners were:
• 1st prize ($50): Story B: We Service All Imported Vehicles, by Tucker McKinnon
• 2nd prize ($30): Story A: Politics and Religion, by Cislyn Smith
• 3rd prize ($20): Story C: The Boron Carbide Lathe, by Philip Edward Kaldon
Other entrants were:
• Story D: The Choice, by Katie Clapham
• Story E: Alpha and Omega, by Anna Black
• Story F: Dorm Room Drama, by Genta Sebastian
• Story G: Plotting Everest, by Zorah Quynh
• Story H: An Innocent Question, by Joe Blaylock
Many thanks to our judges for generously taking time out of their convention schedules to read and rank the entries:
• F. J. Bergmann, editor of Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association
• Darrah Chavey, chair of next year’s Tiptree Award jury
• Anaea Lay, caster of Strange Horizons pods
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The contest dialogue paragraphs that had to be used -- like the ingredients in Chopped or Iron Chef -- were:
Dr. Phil
Spontaneous Writing Contest Final Report
The 8 submitted entries in this year’s Spontaneous Writing Contest are on display at http://w38swc.blogspot.com Each contestant was given 60 minutes to build a story around a couple of paragraphs of supplied dialog.
There were 13 registrants, and the 1st 8 who were physically present on Saturday morning became the official contestants. Winners were:
• 1st prize ($50): Story B: We Service All Imported Vehicles, by Tucker McKinnon
• 2nd prize ($30): Story A: Politics and Religion, by Cislyn Smith
• 3rd prize ($20): Story C: The Boron Carbide Lathe, by Philip Edward Kaldon
Other entrants were:
• Story D: The Choice, by Katie Clapham
• Story E: Alpha and Omega, by Anna Black
• Story F: Dorm Room Drama, by Genta Sebastian
• Story G: Plotting Everest, by Zorah Quynh
• Story H: An Innocent Question, by Joe Blaylock
Many thanks to our judges for generously taking time out of their convention schedules to read and rank the entries:
• F. J. Bergmann, editor of Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association
• Darrah Chavey, chair of next year’s Tiptree Award jury
• Anaea Lay, caster of Strange Horizons pods
--------
The contest dialogue paragraphs that had to be used -- like the ingredients in Chopped or Iron Chef -- were:
“Wrong? How can writing be wrong?”A fun challenge.
“Structured backwards. Bad magic.”
“Backwards, you say?”
“Yes. Left to right. Idiots human subset write also top to bottom.”
“Surely the preferred direction of writing is arbitrary.”
“Gods say not. See also stupidities your other. Zones time many. Nouns follow descriptors. System measurement adequate but universal not. Flow electricity plus to minus. Humans backwards ways many.”
“Well, we don’t have a single planetary government to set or enforce standards.”
“Problem also. Gods like not. Humans sloppy. Query: we fix."
Dr. Phil
