IWT 10 - Voting

[mizal]

I don't understand why everyone but me is suffering from horrible illnesses or other medical problems all at once, but please get better soon.

Anyway as always I look forward to your posts, they are like beautiful freeform poetry. (written on a phone while drunk, exactly like t.s. eliot) I was hoping for the same with reviews.

[Sponge.]

continue to throw your selves in the sun.

you can suck it like a pro,

I will not do anything this year.

meningitis

[Usoki]

Anyone else planning on voting? End? DEP? dreamshell?

[BatCountry]

Yes I plan on voting and yes the 23rd would be a better date. I've only read one story so far.

[Usoki]

Honestly, the entire reason I put the deadline so early is so that people would pretty much have to post to ask for extensions, thus allowing me to know who would and would not be voting.

[Vesnic]

My votes are in! *wipes brow* Phew! Managed to avoid both the SHAME and SCORN monsters, two furry little bastards who have run right off the cliff while trying to capture me.

[mizal]

Okay, someone has to be the first to come in here and ask for an extension because GOD KNOWS we can never meet any deadlines ever, and so it might as well be me.

I didn't actually bother reading anything yet and now it's 4 am and I'm working a LOT the next four days, I need a one week extension okay? Pretty please?

P.S. God also knows that this morning you drank straight from the milk carton, you picked your nose when you thought nobody was looking, you didn't tip your waiter last time you ate out and also there was that one time you murdered that hooker

[Usoki]

It bears repeating- if you don't tell me in advance that you plan on voting, I'm not going to know to wait for your vote. I'd like to get the voting phase wrapped up as quickly as possible so that the torch can be passed along.

[Usoki]

The Basics:

The Submission deadline is February 9th, 11:59 PM, Pacific Time. Post the link to your story in either thread. If you plan on voting, please declare your intent here. Voting will have a soft close on February 16th. If you want to vote but you'll need more than one week, post below and tell me to wait for your vote. I'll extend it until the 23rd for those people- perhaps even later. Voting will officially end once February 16th has passed, and once all voting extensions have been received. There will be no warning. If you want to vote but don't tell me, then it gets ignored.

Scoring will be on a 1 to 10 scale in these 4 categories:
Writing Style
Plot/Creativity
Enjoyment
Theme

Weigh one category that you think is the most important so it will count for double the points. The weighted category must be the same for all three stories. Doing this brings the point total to 50 points, which is a great number to work with.

PM your ratings to me and I'll calculate everything to see who the big winner is.

I will take all PMs over the main site, simply so that the message in question will appear on a larger frame than it would if sent by forum. Less steps to reach them, too. And let's not forget how easy it is to miss seeing PMs on the forum. If you don't send your vote over the main site PMs, prepare to receive SCORN. And for the love of God, send me all story votes/critiques in one PM. Don't spread them out.

The Stories:

Vesnicie: Long Hours, Endless Days

Usoki: Solipsism

BatCountry: The Prophet

Mizal: Saga of the Splintered Lands

Mizal needs to vote to get rid of SCORN. Ves, BatC, and I must also vote, or we will obtain SCORN.

Extended Category Definitions:

Plot/Creativity- This one is pretty self-explanatory. How was the plot? Did you understand what was going on? Did you see the ending from a mile away? Have you seen it all before, or did the story offer a new take on things?

Enjoyment- What did you think of the story? Did you like it? Was it too short? Too linear? Did you keep running into unwritten choices after two or three rooms?

Writing Style- Formerly the spelling and grammar category, it has been expanded to cover things like pacing, description, and dialogue. Did the story have a huge introduction sequence that dragged on for too long? Did you have a hard time following the plot because nothing was described? Did you get bored reading the story because it was written at a first grade reading level?

Theme- This category is solely devoted to the over-powered character or characters. What did you think? Were they too under-powered? Were they so overpowered that the story was boring? Did the over-powered character end up with a ridiculous handicap just to keep the story plausible?

In addition to these numerical ratings, you should provide a critque explaining why you voted the way you did. More is always better. At the very least, you should try and have at least one paragraph. Nobody like that guy who writes one unhelpful sentence and calls it good enough. I can't stop the guy who does that, but I can offer him SCORN.

You are strongly encouraged to read the entire story, all paths. If you cannot bring yourself to do that- the story is too bad, or too massive- make sure you mention that in your critique.