WOTM #20 Voting (Advanced)

[Jorick]

A win that's not a tied victory? Well I can't complain, but I was getting used to the tying shenanigans after the last two.

Thanks to Butter, Holmishire, Lord Azazel, Syllanna, and ZombieKiller for voting for my entry. Oh, and some extra appreciation for those who took the time to write up reviews this month. The praise and critiques are a major reason for why I, and probably the other entrants, participate in the contest in the first place, so thanks for taking the time to write them up.

As per the usual, I'll respond to each review in some fashion because why not.

Entry 4 - The reason why I voted this as the best because I loved how the story progressed. It was very well written and The author has made me jelly because I wish I could write that way. I do not even know how to write that long let along that good. So yeah really good story.

Anyone can tell you that length isn't always a good thing, so I wouldn't get too caught up on that. Honestly, I sometimes find myself jealous of those who can write well with a sense of brevity, those who can finesse the same amount of plot and detail into half the word count that I could manage. I always find myself adding and adding and adding until my intended few paragraphs become a bloody novel. But I've come to accept that different people have different writing styles, so I don't try to force myself to something other than what I'm comfortable with. The quality is more important than the length anyway, so no use worrying about it aside from staying inside word or page count limits for whatever you're working on.

Anyway, thanks for the compliments. I've felt that proper, smooth plot progression has been a problem for me in previous WOTM entries, so I'm glad you enjoyed that side of things for this one.

Entry #4:
My first response was, "Wow, this sounds almost exactly like the first one." The plot may be different, but the idea is ultimately the same. The Seven Sins are running around and wanting to be better than the angel(s). There was another idea within that brought originality to the whole piece, and I loved it. The fact that the main characters were the sins made it unique, and I also enjoyed how you made the king victim of all seven of the sins instead of just one. It must have been hard, but it was wonderfully played. I also think the fact that the king was so filed with the sins that it even repulsed the sins themselves made it wonderfully unique. That is probably an aspect that most people might disagree with me on, sins the sins are the manifestations of all that their particular sin beholds, but I believe it exemplifies the level of which the King was sinning on. Now to get on to the writing style. That was beautiful, and I personally loved it. Again with the violin reference. I may not know why the sound the violin makes is so perfect in my ears, but I do know that it sounds perfect. The same rule of thumb applies here. I don't know what it is exactly about your writing style that's amazing, but I've never been one to notice a particular writing style. I just notice if it works or not. The one you chose seemed to add something to our piece that words could not.

Funny you should mention those pieces of the story in particular. My first concept for the plot was rather simple: all seven sins are physical entities, one being the main character, and they're going after a man so rife with sin that it sickens sin itself. Everything else was built upon that foundation, so I enjoy the fact that you found those to be the things that made my entry unique.

As for my writing style, thanks for the compliments there. I understand exactly what you mean about the violin, and the sound-based metaphor is another neat thing for you to bring up. When writing this entry I had a particular voice in mind that I tried to match it to, to make it fit that voice. The voice in particular that I was working with was that of Michael Gambon, best known as the man who played Dumbledore in all but the first two Harry Potter films. The inspiration for using his voice came from an episode of Doctor Who, a Christmas special in which he was a main character and the narrator. I liked his voice for narration so much that I tried to emulate it as best I could in text through style and tone. I don't know if I succeeded in that exact goal, but I'm happy it was something noticed and appreciated either way.

Entry #4 undoubtedly the best story of the bunch and I mean this as no insult to the others. It is a fantastic story that does several things well, but first a short summary of what the story is. The story is in short about a king who is visited by the seven deadly sins who in this case personified as vengeful spirits created by the sins they represent.

It spends a good two paragraphs in the beginning to set the setting and from there only gets better. Its characterization and pacing are excellent examples of how to do a story well. There is a logical progression. I explain something and then I show you a scene where what I explained is used. In this case, the history behind the sins is explained and then it goes into the description of the castle, giving you a reason based on what you know from the background why these spirits of the seven deadly sins are here in this castle.

Also, there is a purpose for anyone or anything introduced in the story. You don’t have people in there for no reason or conversations that don’t lead anywhere. Everything has a reason for being introduced into the story and the story goes through this pattern of listing the reasons of things it has introduced, whether that be spirits or angel that appears in the room, to the castle in the background, to the servants in the hall, to form a splendid conclusion that takes everything we’ve encountered and learned in the story and ties them together.

I really enjoyed Entry#4. Everyone should read it. Recommended x10. Good, good, good. I cannot state enough. I shake your hand unknown author.

Well damn, that's a lot of praise. Thanks.

About the efficiency of the story, I'm glad you liked it. To be honest, I felt like it was too simple when I finished with it. The introduction of how the Sins were made felt far too short to me and the direct "introduce bad thing here, reiterate in climactic scene" thing got to feeling formulaic by about the fourth Sin speech. Maybe that's just because I like to over complicate things and I should learn to keep things simpler in the future, or maybe I'm just overly critical of my own writing. Whatever the case may be, thanks for the compliments.

[Tasuke]

Jorick, y u gotta b winnin' all deez contests?

You're like.. the Tebow of WotM.