The Great Planeshift Story Challenge! Rules and Comments Thread

[Caraick]

It's finally here! 

Yes, all of the stories have been collected, and are finally posted up onto the forums in the "Story Challenge! Stories Thread".  A big thank-you goes to all of the authors who took the  time to put together these wonderful stories, and share them with the rest of us. 

The "Story" Thread is located here: http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=40402.0

This thread is going to be for comments on the various stories, and for me to explain how the voting process if going to work.  As per a kind suggestion by Novacadian (Thanks again, Nova  ), we're going to be voting for various categories of awards for the stories.  The categories are listed below. 

Categories!
Best Short Story
Best Long Story
Most Interesting Character
Best Plot Line
Best Creepy Story
Best Sad Story
Most Funny Story
The Ted Dekker Award for Best Surprise Ending
Most Dark/Creepy Character
Best Action Scene
and finally... Best Overall Story!

Voting Rules [IMPORTANT!]
- You may vote for  up to TWO stories/characters for each category. 
- You may NOT vote for the same character or story in the same category twice.
- You may only submit ONE voting "ballot" (Described below)
- Do NOT post any comments in the "Stories" thread! Put them in this one, if you have any!
- Your ballot must match the example, below
- All ballots must be submitted by November 5 in order to be counted in the vote!
- Submit your votes via a PM to my forum account (Caraick)

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Example Ballot

Name: Mary Sue
Date Submitted: 20, October

Categories:

Best Short Story: "A Story Name" by An Author.
                        "A Story Name 2" by Author 2

Best Long Story: "A Story Name" by An Author.
                        "A Story Name 2" by Author 2

Most Interesting Character: Character Name, from "A Story Name" by An Author
                                      Character Name, from "A Story Name" by an Author
Best Plot Line: "A Story Name" by An Author.
                        "A Story Name 2" by Author 2

Best Creepy Story: "A Story Name" by An Author.
                        "A Story Name 2" by Author 2

Best Sad Story: "A Story Name" by An Author.
                        "A Story Name 2" by Author 2

Most Funny Story: "A Story Name" by An Author.
                        "A Story Name 2" by Author 2

The Ted Dekker Award for Best Surprise Ending: "A Story Name" by An Author.
                                                                  "A Story Name 2" by Author 2

Most Dark/Creepy Character: Character Name, from "A Story Name" by An Author
                                      Character Name, from "A Story Name" by an Author
Best Action Scene: Scene Description, from "A Story Name" by An Author
                                     Scene Description, from "A Story Name" by an Author



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Kapeesh? 

Again, the voting deadline is November 5 Put any questions you have about the stories, or the rules in this thread, not the stories thread!

Good luck, and happy voting! 

[Aramara Meibi]

squee!

can't wait to read em all at work tomorrow

[Mariana Xiechai]

I'll reduce my response to "wow" for now. 
"The Ted Dekker award for the best surprise ending?" I approve of this.  NERD POWAH!

[Aramara Meibi]

wow... there definitely is a THEME connecting these stories together. I'll leave individual comments for after the voting is done.

[Caraick]

"The Ted Dekker award for the best surprise ending?" I approve of this.  NERD POWAH!

>_>

[Mariana Xiechai]

{Insert conspiratorial wink here?} 

[Caraick]

Oh yes. Oh, yesyesyes.   

[miomo]

Caraick, would you be so kind as to put up the link to my PDF document for my story, "Confessions of a Clamod, Part 2?" I worked nearly as long on that as I did the story itself, and I encourage folks to download and read it in that format. If you've lost the link, I can regenerate it.

Also, the formatting for some of the stories is broken, and it looks like extra carriage returns were put in with an assumption of where lines would end, instead of allowing the web browser to flow paragraphs to the width of the window as it was designed to do. I'm not sure if that was done with the submission to you, or the copy from that submission into the thread. Regardless, it makes the story harder to read, and can negatively impact the author's vote.

In case it was that way in the author's submissions, here is the technique to avoid that. Write each paragraph as one line with no returns. You can put in returns while editing the story, but remove them before submitting. The web browser will word wrap each paragraph automatically. I would be happy to help correct the formatting problems if you need assistance.

[miomo]

Do we count Aramara's stories as one, or two for the sake of voting?

[Caraick]

You'll see I included the PDF now, thanks for the reminder.  Regarding Aramara's story, that's to be considered a single story; as it exceeded the maximum post count for a single post, I broke it into two seperate posts.

Regarding the stories' formats.  All of the authors works were put in exactly as they were sent to me.  When possible, I simply inserted a /quote from the PM from the author, all returns and spaces were entered by their authors.

[miomo]

After reading the stories I realize now that the formatting must have been retained from the original submission, and I retract my previous statement.

[Dannae]

I got the pdf of your story Miomo, twice now, but something is wrong with it and all I see is 12 blank yellowish pages.

[Soloyos]

I got the pdf of your story Miomo, twice now, but something is wrong with it and all I see is 12 blank yellowish pages.

Same here.

[Mariana Xiechai]

Same, unfortunately. Says something in the file is corrupt. 

[Aramara Meibi]

*Aramara raises her paw and chimes in, "Me too."