edonil Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 Hey everyone! Welcome back to the last part of this round of the Iron Quill! Great to see this forum so active with so many new and old faces! Before we get to the winner, I'd like to ask if people would stick around around the results to answer a quick poll on the future of the Quill. There are two proposed changes, and I'd appreciate it if I could get your thoughts on them. Alright, onto what you all came here for, the results! We had some amazing stories, and it's awesome to see the quality climbing higher and higher. Thanks to you writers for participating, you did a great job! Second runner up is ScrewedUpDice with his story The Cog Fight! First runner up is Hateful Darkblack with In the Shadow of the Giant Black Mountains! And our winner is Brewmaster, who wrote Eyes on the Prize! Thanks once again for participating! Ingredients are going to be posted on February 17, 2014, to accommodate feedback on the below items. If you didn't participate in this round, please feel free to join the discussion on these points! Item 1- Changing the word count from 1500 to 2000. We've had a number of entries that have had a hard time sneaking in under the 1500 mark, and it's an incredibly hard word count to meet. One of the most common pieces of feedback from authors to comments is how hard it was to get the story to fit 1500 words. To a degree, this is a good thing, in my opinion. For some of you guys, the Quill is a place to practice and be creative for the sake of someday being published. Learning to work within a tight word count is beneficial there. However, I think that giving people an extra 500 words is something that won't hurt the Quill, but improve it. It's not a big jump, so it shouldn't cause any problems. Item 2- Changing the Line ingredient to a Location. This one was suggested by Quill veteran ThePandaDirector, and is one that I'm admittedly neutral on. I think people will be able to make great stories with either one, and so both are perfectly fine to me! Alternatively, instead of replacing, we could add Location to the Ingredients, bringing us to Five, with authors still picking Two. What do you guys think? I'm the arbiter and organizer of this event, but as the competitors, these consequences have bigger impacts on you guys than me. I'm making a poll, please feel free to vote how you will! If you want to post your thoughts on it, please do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hateful Darkblack Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 I love the idea of adding Location! I say keep both of them. As far as the length goes, I like the shorter form, because I think stories seem to clock in just above that length and then get better once they're edited down. I also like it because they make faster reads, which means hopefully more people will read them. That said, I actually think it could be awesome to have a different length sometimes - sometimes a 100 word nanofic, sometimes a 5000 word novella. Honestly, I am up for either word count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hateful Darkblack Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 And congrats to Brewmaster for a fantastic fun story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScrewedUpDice Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 Congratulations to Hateful and to Brewmaster. Well done both of you. Thanks to Edonil for putting the comp together as well. The word count - I like working in the tight limit, however if it's causing people problems, I'd be happy to see it increased and see more authors getting their work in the comp. Would 1750 be a nice balance, or would the extra 250 make little difference. Location - Adding this as an extra item seems good, giving writers more ideas and scope with their stories. It'll certainly be impressive if authors work all 5 ingredients into a piece. Keeping the minimum at 2 also gives enough room to head off in wildly different directions. I'll happily go with whatever is decided. See you all in the next round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hateful Darkblack Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 Congratulations to Hateful and to Brewmaster. Well done both of you. Thank you! Congratulations to you, too! Great story! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewmaster Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 Seriously awesome fun-times to all who participated, and thanks for people digging my story! The Lacroix are the reason I'm into Malifaux, and after reading that sentence in the 2e book, I HAD to write this story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FourToedStatue Posted February 13, 2014 Report Share Posted February 13, 2014 I've been out of the loop here for a while, but when I entered it was the line that gave me the biggest inspiration for my story so I'd definitely say keep it as an ingredient. As for the location it might help some people who're struggling with ideas so perhaps include it in the next round and get feedback after to see what people think? The only way to know how it goes is to test it out. Hopefully I'll be free enough to get an entry in this time, very much enjoyed this back in the summer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormLordXIII Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 Hi all, Sorry again for not participating at the last second, and congratulations to all of our authors and to our winners! I don't have any particular preference - I think it's fine to have five ingredients, or we can switch line to location. The flexibility of having five ingredients adds more diversity, but then we have to raise the question of whether the Quill warrants choosing 2 of 5 or 3 of 5 ingredients? As for the word count, I think adding 250 first would be a nice change. If this still does not provide enough space for narrative closure, I think 500 is fine, but we ought to try 250 first. In my opinion, part of the challenge is keeping the writing brief. See you all next round! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edonil Posted February 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 Sorry for the lack of a post for the new round, folks. Last week was a bit hellish in the end. Just letting you all know what I'll be doing for the next round. Early on in the Iron Quill, we had things going where a new round would start the first Monday of the month. Starting this round, I'm going back to that, it was easier for me to keep to track amongst other things. That means that, sadly, we are still seven days from the next round. I've got all that data together and it'll be easy to post it. The Changes in Rules These'll be posted in the rules document in red next week, so it'll be in more than one spot. 1. I'm going to up the word count of the Quill to 1750. I know I put up 2k, but a lot of people seemed to like the tight word count, and this should hopefully be enough for people. I know 250 words doesn't seem like a lot, but it can make all the difference between a coherent awesome story and a slightly confused mess. 2. I am going to add Location to the Quill Ingredients. For now, we'll keep it to two ingredients, unless more people think we should up to three. A Preview for next Round Since I'm delaying the round for a week, I thought I'd give you guys a preview for the next round to be thinking over. Character: The Scorned Child 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hateful Darkblack Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 Yay! Can't wait! I'm formulating story ideas as we speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScrewedUpDice Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Can't wait for the 3rd then. The word count increase should give a nice bit of extra room to play in, especially for trying to work in all five ingredients. Dread to think how quick you're going to be Hateful, with this kind of running start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewmaster Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 I'm certainly tempted to try and race ya Hateful (insert clever Fast and Furious reference here) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hateful Darkblack Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 I'm certainly tempted to try and race ya Hateful (insert clever Fast and Furious reference here) Sounds fun! It's on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScrewedUpDice Posted February 28, 2014 Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 If all goes well with the next round, how will the picking of the five ingredients for April be done? The 2,1,1 split gave 1st place a head start in the 4 ingredient comps, but giving them 3 seems like an unfair advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edonil Posted February 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 I was either going to do a 2,2,1 split or a 2,1,1,1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScrewedUpDice Posted February 28, 2014 Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 Either of those sounds good. Gives a bit of leeway if we have another tie as well. Good luck to both Brewmaster and Hateful with their race. Love to be able to throw my hat into the ring, but time isn't going to be on my side until the start of May's Iron Quill. At which point, watch your backs. I'll post something next round though, just not in the first 24 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hateful Darkblack Posted March 1, 2014 Report Share Posted March 1, 2014 Thanks! Honestly, I'm more excited by high-quality stories rather than those that are hastily made. I have a tendency to write fast (NaNoWriMo will do that) but writing quickly is a lot less important than writing well. ScrewedUpDice and Brewmaster, you have both definitely shown big chops for your ability to do so! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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