Writing contest discussion thread

[Insaanah]

and greetings.

This thread is for all comments and discussion regarding this years writing contest.

The entries are here: http://www.islamicboard.com/creative-writing-art/134330354-writing-contest-entries-please-vote.html

It is unusual to have just two entries. I'm sure there are more good writers out there, and hope that they'll be encouraged to enter next time, if they've felt shy this time.

Please do have a read, vote, and then offer your comments in this thread as I'm sure the writers, having spent time writing their stories for you, would appreciate any feedback you can offer.

Thank you, and get reading and voting and commenting!

 

[Muhammad]

:wasalamex

:jz: to everyone who has contributed to this year's competition. It has been something to look forward to.

I have just finished reading the entries. :ma: they were both interesting in their own ways. :ia: I will try to write more detailed comments later.

Do we have any guidelines in terms of criteria to judge a story? I'm not sure if it was discussed in earlier competitions. It's just a thought that occurred to me for trying to make a fair vote.

 

[aamirsaab]

Generally speaking, the ethos of judging the stories as it were never went as far as vote for the one you liked the most.

Since it was mainly muezzin (and sometimes myself) making suggestions for the rules (and since none else really offered any alternatives those ended up being the rules), we actively tried to make them as open as possible.

We didn't want to set a criteria to judge as we felt this would have led to tick box exercises or "Oscar" baiting which defeats the purpose of the contest. On top of that, entries had consistently fallen in number with each contest so we tried to "make" the rules as welcoming to all. Other things to mention were not everyone having the same "skill" level or being native English speakers - had the rules for judging been based on grammar, spelling etc we felt this may have dissuaded folk from entering.

In any case it is pleasing to see the contest continue!

P.s the voting poll should be set to visible.

 

[Asiyah3]

I voted for the Garden story. It seemed more of a family story, which I like, one whom both kids and adults would understand. Short, simple, beneficial and nicely written.

 

[Muhammad]

:salamext: aamirsaab,

I agree with the points you raise. I think it is good to leave the voting process open to how people may wish to interpret it. The last point you mentioned about skill level was perhaps one of the things that got me thinking... by considering different aspects of a story the significance of mistakes in grammar/language might be less.

Generally speaking, the ethos of judging the stories as it were never went as far as vote for the one you liked the most.

What did you mean by this? I thought that was part of the ethos, no?

Nice to have your input : )

 

[aamirsaab]

We were very much playing devils advocate with the rules opting to err on the side of caution. What we didn't want to ever happen was to set a criterion that the stories need to adhere to since we felt this would have lead to nit-picking, snobbish and a generally negative atmosphere "oh this story had bad grammar and was unreadable I don't think it is worthy of voting" for example. If that is how people chose to vote for their choice, that's upto them. We just didn't want to cultivate that kind of atmosphere - the whole purpose was to be inclusive, that any member of any age/skill level/gender/religion could enter. Whether they won or not was a different matter, but at the same time there were no rewards on offer for actually winning.

Of course, the downside to this method is it makes it very hard to pick just one. But since we are essentially choosing from being more restrictive and less restrictive rules, I would choose the latter every time.


Had the entrants increased or at least stabilised at a respectable number (I.e more than 3) we may very well have been more receptive to implementing either judging criteria or possibly monthly/quarterly contests with other sets of rules (specific themes, genres etc). Shoot, we may have even implemented prizes. Alas, even with the rule set being as wide as it is, the trend unfortunately is a steady decline in numbers (for various reasons).

If anyone does have a legitimate alternative method, by all means suggest them for next years contest to the respective organizers; this in and of itself was also an issue we faced in previous contests. Actual or should I say usable feedback and suggestions were very rare to come by -both for the entrants and the organizers. The rules as they are set are so because none has really said nor argued otherwise. Again, if anyone has any solid arguments for new rules or against existing ones, let the organizers know in the appropriate threads. But most of all please enter future contests if you have/haven't already. And please vote and give what feedback you can for this years contest too!


The ethos bit was a typo on my end...sorry To clarify, vote for the one you like the best.

P.s and just so as not to fall on my own sword, I liked both of this years entries! But as I have taken up so much cyberspace with this post already that's all I will say for now!

 

[Muhaba]

Story 1 had a nice theme. Though there were grammatical mistakes and parts were like a summary, the story if revised and improved could be a good story that teaches a moral.

Story 2 is simply not my type. I don't like horror or inclusion of gruesome details (about human death) in a story though some people like reading that genre. The story does have potential and could become a good sci-fi / paranormal story. There were parts that were very well written and interesting. But the start wasn't as well written. Maybe because it's part of a longer work and not really a short story. I don't think it can be squeezed into a short story of this length. It would need to be longer because having so many action scenes one after the other is straining and the right thing is to have some action / conflict scene followed by a scene without conflict, to help slow down the pace and give people a chance to catch their breath. The ending was satisfying. So yeah, the story has potential but I would suggest to remove the gruesome details about human death and intersperse with nonaction scenes.

As for not having as many people entering the contest, that could be because of the short time given. Some contests give up to 6 months for entering. Having a longer time might help increase the number of entries. Also a direct message to all members especially those who have posted in the creative section. It's also possible not having stricter rules discourages people from entering. A solution could be to have two sections, one with stricter rules - for advanced writers. And another for beginners. This could encourage beginner writers to enter too because they will feel they will have a chance to win when competing with others of the same level. A third incentive could be a prize like a how-to-write book for the winner or a short writing course given here on the forum to those who enter.

I myself did not enter as i didn't have anything written this time. In sha Allah next time.

 

[Muhammad]

Seeds of the Paradise

I liked this story because of the message behind it. The imagery used and the way that good deeds were likened to seeds that need nurturing and effort was interesting and inspiring. The story had a ‘warm’ feel to it and, as sister Asiyah said, the simple yet beneficial message is one which both adults and children can understand.

Although English is not the writer’s first language and it's a bit of an unfair comparison between the two stories, it was nice to see the effort put in to make it a quality piece. Keep writing and :ia: your skills will improve each time.

Hostage Crisis

This story is not for the faint-hearted! The writing skill was of an impressive standard :ma:. In particular, the story was rich with descriptive language to make the reader really visualise what was happening. Although at first I was thinking it wasn’t my cup of tea, I found myself intrigued to find out what would happen next and felt the suspense. There was a back-story of the main character to add depth and more meaning to its ending. There was also coherence in the way that earlier references were made use of later.

It’s difficult to identify how the story could be improved. In addition to sister Muhaba’s suggestion of having variation between conflict and non-conflict scenes, perhaps variance in the style of writing (length of sentences?) might also help, just as an idea. The other thing that comes to mind is double-checking through action scenes to make sure it flows, such as the character being on the floor or standing in relation to what’s happened previously.

 

[Insaanah]

Jazaakumullahu khayr to everyone that has offered feedback, and I hope others will still do so, even though the poll has closed.
Brother aamirsaab, I deliberated over whether to have the poll public or not, and then took a chance in not making it public. If no one has any objections, we could unblind it.

Now for the results....

The winners are:

1st place: Seeds of Paradise by Sister Herb
2nd place: Hostage Crisis by brother Muezzin

Congratulations, and many thanks, to both of you for writing such wonderful stories for us. How did you find writing the stories? If you want to share anything about how you went about it, how you found it, please feel free to share... or if you have anything to say about the contest itself, what could be improved, please feel free - your opinions and advice are valuable.

Jazakumullaahu khair again to the participants for their time and effort, as well as those who took the time to read the entries, share their feedback and vote.

We hope to read much more from our talented writers, and to see many more entrants in the contests to come in shaa Allah.

 

[aamirsaab]

Unblinding it is neccesary to ensure no one votes for their own work, giving the competition integrity (although having said that, in the past someone did indeed vote for their own even with it being public...they didn't win though!). Also I want to judge people for not liking the same things I do! ;D

Congrats to Sister Herb on a well deserved win, nice to see new authors entering the fray, and nicer still that they end up winning. Well done!

Muezzin...well at 5-7, you can at least say you didn't lose...badly. You also didn't win. At all. Because...you lost. Tsk tsk, looks like I will have to enter next year to show you how it is done. :shade:

 

[Muhammad]

Well done to both writers, :ma: ! Looking forward to more writers next year :ia:.

 

[sister herb]

I had two stories in my mind when I started to think my story. One was from Khalil Gibran:

In the autumn I gathered all my sorrows and buried them in the garden. And when April arrived and spring came to inaugurate the country, grew beautiful flowers in my garden, different from all the others. And my neighbors came to see them and all said to me: "When autumn comes again, would you give us seeds of those flowers so we too will get these flowers to our gardens."

And other one was a story how a teacher wanted to teach to hers students how important is forgiveness:

A kindergarten teacher decided to let her class play a game.

The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes.

Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates.

So the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.

So when the day came, each child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes; some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go (even to the toilet) for 1 week.

Days after days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After 1 week, the children were relieved because the game had finally ended....

The teacher asked: "How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?". The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.

Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. The teacher said: "This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go.

If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime???"

The writers were anonymous but I think quite many knew who might be behind the story where is mentioned the garden, the roses, carrots and thymes. Thanks for all who voted and also all of those whose read it. Hopely you enjoyed this little story.

:statisfie

Unfortunately my English isn´t perfect - but hopely I can improve it story after story.

 

[Muezzin]

Congratulations, Sister Herb! It was a very enjoyable, elegant story. It was like reading a great Studio Ghibli movie. I loved the metaphor and it was communicated well.

I wrote the first draft of Hostage Crisis about ten years ago. The original draft was nearly 10,000 words long. So after a lot of distillation, I was able to get it into shape for the contest. It's half the length and double the power. It's pacey and action-packed, and I like that. I'm really glad that people enjoyed it. I hope to bring something brand new to the next writing contest I enter. As it is an annual tradition, I suppose I can get started right away!

Jazakallah to everyone for reading and voting!

If you have not already, please do let us know what you thought, as your feedback is extremely valuable!