The 2013 ATS Halloween Writing Contest! [WINNERS ANNOUNCED!!!]

Well ghouls and ghosts, it's that' time of year again.



Halloween is upon us next month and just like the years prior, 2013 will include a writing contest for our members. I will be carrying over the new format from last month's contest as we had a really good turn out of non writer status members as well as established writers.

This contest is meant to be an open ended Halloween story. It can be fiction or non fiction, horror or a love story, which ever you prefer.

The Contest will run from October 1st to October 31st At Midnight. Submissions entered before or after those dates will be disqualified.

Contest Rules & Guidelines

All T&CS Apply.

All entries MUST include HWC2013 in the title.

All entries must be linked in this thread.

There is no minimum or maximum character count.

All writing forms are acceptable.

1 single submission per member. (Make it count!)

There will be 3 winners among members who already have "Writer" status. They will be judged separately from all other entries based on stars and flags received.

1st Place -- 5 Applause & next contest theme choice.**
2nd Place -- 3 Applause
3rd Place -- 1 Applause

There will also be 3 winners from the non-writer category who will receive the following, along with writer status:

1st Place -- 3 Applause
2nd Place -- 2 Applause
3rd Place -- 1 Applause

** As with the previous contest, the story with the most flags will receive the honor of choosing the next Special Themed Writing Contest, which in this case I do believe would be Christmas based, unless anybody has any other holidays upcoming that would make a good theme.

This prize is a bit more special as it allows the member in question to select a contest based around a time of year or event that occurs yearly. Not be confused with the existing writing contest price of next Theme.

Scoring

I'm going to try something new as far as scoring the contests is concerned. A new point system will be introduced based on both Stars & Flags.

Flags will be worth 2 points each.
Stars will be worth 1 point each.

** Note that this is trial only and I may decide to go back to the original scoring method if I see too many issues.

Once the contest ends I will tabulate the results and post the winners. The current Show Case of Champions thread has become full as far as the OP character count is concerned, so I will be creating a new one to showcase winners from this contest forward.

I would like to thank all of you for the immense success of the writing forums over the last few years that I have been involved. It truly is a pleasure to read every entry and promote a great atmosphere for new and old writers alike.

Truly, none of this is possible without you guys.

So, I give you the next 20 or so days to work out your ideas and get talking about this contest.

Also if you have any feedback on the guidelines and any ideas that would make scoring better, or really anything about the contest format you'd like to see changed, please make yourself known .

So, what say you guys?


Winners!!!

Overall, congratulations to everybody, we had over 20 submissions to this contest which I'm quite proud of all of you for.

Here's what the final count looks like:

Non Writer Category

1st Place: The Dragon’s Diary – Swanne =37 Points

2nd Place: The Garden – Lumpy79=24 Points

3rd Place: Red – XxNightAngelusxX=21 Points

Writer Category

1st Place: From My Hands – Kantzveldt=27 Points

2nd Place: Tire Swing – Grayeagle=24 Points

3rd Place:Stripes – Druid42=23 Points

A huge congradulations to all of our winners.

Overall winner of this contest is Swanne with a total of 37 points. This means that Swanne will be able to choose the next *Themed* Writing Contest.

Otherwise thank you all so much for your hard work and submissions, I'll be doing the long overdue Time Travellers Contest in a few hours and then stay tuned for our November Contest!

~Tenth

Glad to see you clear up issues stemming from the other thread here. I look forward to reading along.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


I'll definitely be entering.

Thanks for another oppourtunity.

1 single submission per member. (Make it count!)

That's going to be the single hardest hurdle to overcome. Halloween is my favorite time of the year, and of course there are going to be a bazillion entries, so that makes complete sense.

That also gives me plenty of time to craft a completely wicked evil story. Gonna love this contest.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Well, like you say,

So, I give you the next 20 or so days to work out your ideas and get talking about this contest.

I'll be entering, I think, but I will give this one some thought.

Where to begin...

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Alright!

This is going to be a lot of fun!

Time to embrace my dark side again...been a long time...

reply to post by tothetenthpower


That is great. The timing for me is also great as i re-watch all the serial killer movies(Halloween-Friday the 13th-Nightmare on Elm street) and i was thinking to write something like that.

You'll hear from me.... ....sooooooon

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Depending on my available free time, and progress on my existing projects, I may be throwing my hat into the ring as well.

It should be fun.

I just found this thread, sorry... ignore the u2u, Tenth.

I will be entering this one, hands down. Just a few days now...

For Ambiance :


Link to my story:
~~MINE TO TAKE~~

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Hello, I'm Starheart.

This is the first time ever that I write for an ATS contest, so I hope you enjoy my little story:

HWC - A Study In Orange & Black

I wish you all an Happy Halloween!

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Hello. I am much pleased to report that I completed my HWC2013 story, The Dragon's Diary. It is my most sincere hope that you will find my story light-hearted, informative and entertaining. I wish you all happy Halloween,

...Lux

Great start guys!

I put a banner ad up as well for the contest, so hopefully that will draw in a nice crowd

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Many Thanks!

Here's my story sorry for any mistakes, happy hallowweeeeen

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Here's what I have so far;

---> Red

"One single entry" does this mean a single post consisting of 7500 characters?

Okay, I got a few hours with which to work on something for this contest, I hope you guys enjoy my entry.

The Wheels on the Bus [HWC2013]

My contribution: Stripes.

Enjoy.