Congrats to the winners!~

Congrats!

Yes, congrats!

Grats to the winners, and thanks to all the judges and organizers for this too, and hopefully it'll keep getting bigger every year!

Congratulations everyone, well done

Can you put links to the winning entries?

Congrats to the winners!

Well, that was totally unexpected Congratulations to everyone else, it looks like we've got a damn good crop of winners this year.

Good job! Grats!

Thanks Danath!

A lot of new names were in this years entrees, a lot of last years favorites didn't participate so it gave a chance for everyone to shine. We were pleasantly surprised not only by that but the talent that all the new writes to the contest brought.

Congrats to you for placing! I should mention 3-5 was hard to break apart and scale. XD

Thanks! It's always nice to see fresh blood in any sort of competition, and yeah, any sort of sorting out numerical places has got to be hard X_X

On that note... sent you an e-mail so answer it when you can! :)

Wow! I am with Burst in my surprise! I did not expect to place that high, given the great array of stories submitted.

I remembered I have a sofurry account, so I may post my story over there, but in any event the contest has the freedom to post the stories I submitted.

we had quite the time debating the top two!~ You did well, congrats to you~

So I hear! I would have liked to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. And thank you, since you have helped run and judge the contest. I am honored to have competed, and moreso to have placed.

Congratulations to all those who ranked there!

Sweet! I'm honored to have placed so well out of such a plethora of entries. Great showing by all.

You did well this year dude, it was really hard to place 3rd - 5th, they were all really good reads, so congrats!

Congrats, great story~!

This also has to be one of the most realistic inductions I've read in this competition; seems like you took a number of standard steps from self-induction and meditative yoga, and turned it into a playful & sexy script. Here's to informative reading! (Take note, readers!)

Wow, "Authentic". That's certainly a weighty compliment, and one I'm honored by. I can't count the number of times I started to fall asleep while writing this. I suppose I was very fortunate to have chosen one of those rare niche genres in which putting your audience to sleep with your story is a good thing.

Congratulations all. =)

Didn't know what to expect with this as I was burning the midnight oil on finishing it. X3 It's quite a pleasant surprise.

Also a hearty congratulations to everyone else (knew I forgot to say something. :x). ^_^

Thanks indeed! This is Shevvie Impala.

Elephant Tears was a fun story to write, once I sat down and actually got it written. It started off a bit rough because I wasn't terribly sure where I was going with it. I still didn't know until I got to the end. LOL

If anyone is interested in reading it, let me know. I can post it here and at SoFurry. Right now, it doesn't exist online.

And like Darmaratus, I completely flaked...Congrats to everyone else as well!

You should post it! Share the love!

Ack! Sorry it took so long. The story has been uploaded both here and at SoFurry. I'm not sure if this will link the way I want it too, but we'll see: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10706165/

Congratulations to the winners!

I feel a little bad at not placing anywhere though in my second shot at this. Still, I guess there were a lot of entries and some high quality of writing, so I suppose I shouldn't take it as me being a bad writer.

I certainly enjoyed your story, and you're definitely not a bad writer!

If you look at the winning entries though, some of the aspects which make them stand out is that they dedicate quite a bit to world and character building. These are both extremely difficult skills to master, so it makes sense that they get a bit of a nod in that regards. Your story has excellent focus on sensuality and the actual act of the seduction, but the characters, their world, and location are of less consequence. That's not a bad thing; if someone wants a quick erotic scenario, that kind of story is perfect! But in the scope of a writing competition, it makes sense to award those who have showcased their abilities of those other bits as well.

Best of luck in the next round!

Well it's good to know you enjoyed my story. Thanks for the critique! I'll have to keep that in mind if I decide to write an entry for next year's contest.

I won! AWESOME!

And, for the record, I do have a Furaffinity, too :-P

Congratulations to all the winners! Another fantastic year.

Great job! Congratulations all!

And a big thanks to all those who contributed, even if you didn't win; your story is still someone's favorite, so keep 'em coming!

Thanks to everyone who read my story. Really wish I had more time to polish it for the final submission. Guess I'll have to start next years entry now. ^_^

Congrats to the winners but to be fair, Zsis, I know they're your friends but a judge of writing should be able to read, speak, and write fluent English, right? X3 I read these and I don't think you were fair to some of the authors who wrote much better stories, it's not even my opinion. A literature professorial could spend a day correcting the mistakes in some of these X3 some are like a Kaa fiction on DA, I should know I've read em all ;P
They are fappable, but is that what makes them win?

Hold up there. "I read these and I don't think you were fair to some of the authors who wrote much better stories" is exactly your opinion on the matter. It doesn't matter whether a "literature professorial" could correct the grammatical errors, the concept of what was "fairly judged" and what was a "better story" is something that you have formulated in your own head, just as the actual judges have their own opinions on the stories; it just so happens that their particular opinions were the ones that mattered in this case.

Part of the challenge of writing in this competition was not only writing a good story, but one that was tailored to what the judges wanted, and they went into a lot of detail about that when the contest was announced. Even if a story may seem "better" in your eyes, the judges may have found something lacking in the ones you like or something more they preferred in some of the other stories. The fact that the judges are friends, or may not native speakers of the English language, does not change the fact that they were the ones who got to decide the winners. To suggest that they are somehow less qualified for judging the material is presumptuous and a tad rude. The judges even introduced themselves at the start of the competition, which meant that every writer was on equal grounds when it came to understanding who they were and what kind of content they would be looking for. I'd even say that this particular contest was far less nebulous in its rules and requirements than some of the other ones that I've seen. I can tell you that as I wrote my story for this contest that I went back to the contest journal and kept making sure that I was also including the elements that were desired and outlined there.

I don't think that it was easy for the judges to decide on things this year or the previous years for that matter. I can certainly tell you that it wasn't merely whether the story was "fappable" that decided whether it placed or not. If you look back at the original announcement you'll certainly see everything else they were taking into consideration and "sexually stimulating" wasn't really on the list (but it may have helped if it was written well).

Missed a be "may not be native..." x.x

I mean no offense to the judges, it is simply my opinion. The thing is I realize HOW these stories were to be judged, but I've read the losers stories to, some were full, lively, imaginative, and are easily at least grammatically more correct than some of the stories here. My point is, and I admit I typed up that comment in haste and rather upset at the judging, my point is anyways that it seems to be merely opinion rather than skill level, and that seems unfair to the writers who wrote stories that were eloquent, well thought out, thick with plot, and not to mention a good deal of them being erotic.
I understand that Zsisron and the judges can choose to judge the contest by their opinion, but that at least should be stated clearly before hand if it is to be that way. because "Stories will be judged by the use of hypnosis, grammar, pacing, story development, and use of description." apparently was not the case since a few 'loser' stories could easily beat the lower placed stories on the winner's list. I don't mean to complain, but I feel it necessary on the behalf of people who deserved to win, not just by my opinion, but again even just grammatically and the way they were written. That is why I am even talking about this, because in terms of winning it should be at least added "The judges hold the right to pick stories as winners that appeal to them" because apparently that was the case in some of these.

I'm getting the feeling you don't understand the concept of what an opinion is. I understand that you have a particular vested interest in one particular person who did not win and as such are rather biased in your particular thoughts on the matter.

Everything that you have stated above is still your opinion. You believe that your friend's piece had greater merit than some of the winning pieces. That is an opinion, and one that you are allowed to have, but had no bearing on the judges thoughts as to what they chose best met the constraints that they had chosen for the competition. I believe that the judges made it clear as to what they wanted, and as they were the ones who make the final call on the pieces, the goal was to appeal to them, not to you. It is very possible that they saw something that didn't fit with what they were looking for, or perhaps even found grammatical errors that you may otherwise have overlooked.

Additionally, it isn't necessary to complain on behalf of those writers, as if they are truly skilled in the written language they can present their own particular arguments for their works.

I took college literature in my freshman year, there are base rules in English and grammar that say whether something was written write or wrong. There were stories that were written more right than the lower placing stories on this according to those rules.

That particular point doesn't make you an authority on the written word. Plenty of people take College Lit their freshman year. I'm pretty sure that arguing with you in this case is moot, but I will restate that you have no reason to stir things up here, as you don't need to argue on behalf of someone who is supposedly a well-written individual.

I still have the well over 200 page 'paper' she gave each of us on how to write if you'd like me to start giving examples. ;P

You're starting to build your house upon sand, are you saying there were not stories with better English and writing than these?

Again, I am flustered at the fact that some of these stories were clearly picked by opinion rather than stated conditions. You cannot tell me honestly that this was solely won on writing skill and plots.

This isn't me building a house of any sort, my argument was that you're looking at this from your own biased opinion and perhaps even blind to the mistakes that your own friend is making in their work (I've read their piece it isn't grammatically clean either). Even the paper you were given on how to write doesn't make you an authority on the written word, as I'm fairly certain that most college educated individuals (including myself) had to go through the same rigors of writing. I honestly hope that your friend asked for a critique from the judges because then they'd at least understand why they decided things.

My standing point is not that there were stories that didn't place that potentially had better English and grammar; rather that it was up to the judges to decide what pieces best fit what they were looking for. Once again, it's what they wanted to see, not what you wanted to see. Their decision making took time, and I'm pretty sure that they took many things under consideration before making the decision. And yes, the end result was partially subjective. Just as you thinking your friend's piece is better is also subjective, even when you include grammar rules. If you remove grammar, there is still the need to fit the rest of the judging constraints, that of "pacing, use of hypnosis, story development and use of description." If your friend happened to have tight grammar, but lacked elsewhere in the judges subjective opinion, then that may be a reason they failed to place.

Some stuff like grammar can be determined through rules and objectivity. However, some of the other constraints of the contest were subjective and could only be determined based on the opinion of the judges. Any writer going into this competition was aware of that. Those that somehow couldn't derive that from the rules were either naive, presumptuous, or failed to ask the right questions from the start.

I just came home from a 12 hour work day as security, am to tired and fed up with idiots to reply to this in length, but "rather that it was up to the judges to decide what pieces best fit what they were looking for" that is exactly my problem, is that they chose stories that were contrary to what the rules said they were looking for, it's not just a 'biased opinion' my friend, there were stories better than the lower place ones, hands down, from simply a grammatical stand point, as for opinion, yes I have my own, but majority would agree with me with side by side comparison. If you don't believe me you can note me and I'll show you.

" Stories will be judged by the use of hypnosis, grammar, pacing, story development, and use of description. " - Contest announcement page

And as Damaratus pointed out, your comment is phrased in a predominantly demeaning and immature tone. "...I don't think you were fair to some of the authors who wrote much better stories, it's not even my opinion." That's definitely an opinion, but moreover, if there is a particular story which you feel had overlooked merit, why not speak of the positive aspects of that story, rather than condemn the decisions of the judges? Perhaps you might inspire them to give a story an honorable mention through a well-argued statement of support, but making accusations, and being critical of the winners (who did a fantastic job regardless), is not a constructive approach.

Taking something out of context is rather immature in itself. This comment is not worth my replying, please just look above to my reply if it really interests you. But I will say this, it is to late to argue for the people who lost according to this contest, and some of the stories were better, this is NOT just my opinion (take that out of context again if you'd like) it's English 101.

Ohhhh. Interesting you emphasize the construction and significance of English; you've made several critical errors in yours, which lead to our misunderstanding.

"it's not even my opinion" vs. "this is NOT just my opinion" - I now see what you originally intended to say, though by omitting the word "just" from your original phrasing, you excluded yourself, making the statement incorrect.

I do certainly agree that quoting things out of context is immature! I did not do any such thing though; I quoted your statement exactly as it was conveyed, which apparently included the omission of a key word, so that the interpretation was not as you intended.

Perhaps you should move past English 101. As I've taught graduate level courses on the subject, I can assure you there is some wonderful emphasis on the importance of semiotics as you go further on.

Perhaps you need to learn some proper English yourself, as well as manners because you apparently have none. I don't need to talk to you at all or deal with any more idiots as I have had enough to deal with as security today. Thank you for your lovely comments.

I believe this discussion should be addressed privately. Contact me.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Well, as late to the party as I am, I really didn't expect to be placed in the top ten at ALL. I'll be the first to admit that the story I submitted was not my best, and was perhaps a little rushed. My writing style has also changed rather drastically since the start of this contest, HOWEVER! I am very pleased that the judges saw fit to put me and my work up there "on the board" as it were. Thank you very much!

(Next time though... )