Let The Games Begin
The First Challenge of the Gibberish Writing Competition
Before I get into the business of the day, I just need to say—WOW. The reception of this competition, which began as a bit of a lark because I enjoyed watching some cooking show, has been amazing.
You all really showed up. The post received lots of comments and attention, and best of all I had 12 worthy applicants that I needed to sift through to select five.
I cannot understate how difficult it was to choose contestants here. We have so much variety and talent in the Substack fiction writing multiverse. When I was choosing competitors, I considered a number of factors but all of them were subjective—there’s vague rhyme or reason but I couldn’t tell you that I picked so-and-so over such-and-such because of xyz. I really regret that more people cannot participate because I really wanted everyone to be able to join!
To be clear: that people were not selected doesn’t say anything about them. It means that they were unlucky, but all of them are eminently worthy Substacks and they deserve huge accolades for being willing to put themselves out there and willing to test themselves in the fire of competition.
So before we get too deep, Let’s give some love and shouts-out to all the would-be competitors!
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I know all of them would do fantastic in this competition, and I hope they follow along with the competition and share their own takes on the prompts—give them a follow if you want to see all the excitement happening on the sidelines!
The Final Roster
There are five names that are not mentioned in the above list of would-be competitors, because they are the five bold and brave souls who have agreed to this massive challenge, and were lucky enough to be selected.
These five people will duke it out over the next month with three challenges, thousands of words, and careful scrutiny by one judge. Let me be clear—one of them will be named “winner”, but that does not mean that the others will be “losers”. With boldness, they put their name into a hat. With little rhyme or reason, they were selected. Under the pressure of tight deadlines and large word-counts, they put stories together based on prompts they did not know about before hand. This competition is not designed to decide who is “best” at writing fiction. This competition is to challenge writers to stretch their muscles and flex their skills. This competition is designed to bring out the best of all the competitors and give examples of stellar fiction and (I hope) quality feedback which ALL writers can use to better their craft. No one loses in a competition like this—but one person will win.
So which one of these fine writers could take home the title of WINNER of the first ever Gibberish Writing Competition?
- of —He’s got a knack for dialogue, but could perspective prove to hold him back?
- of —She’s got the dynamic imagination to make quick work of prompt challenges, but can she pace herself to tell the story properly within the wordcount?
- of —His characters leap off the page, but can he give the spaces they occupy just as much life?
- of —She knows how to tell a good story, but can she tie the scenes together with as much expertise?
- of —His characters have a dynamic emotional tapestry, but will his narrative voice paint an equally powerful picture?
Subscribe to them all to watch their stories unfold in real time over the next month! Read your favorite, read them all!
The Challenge Revealed
Competitors, the three challenges have already been decided, and they are known only to me, your intrepid judge for this journey. Let’s learn about our first challenge:
One of the hallmarks of a good story is taking the reader on a journey—making the reader feel things, putting the reader on the edge of their seat. Great fiction can set the reader on edge just by describing the setting, or with just a few words fill the imagination with unseen terrors. It requires forethought and planning to both create suspenseful tension and then to satisfy it. Careful attention to pacing, word choice, and structure can all build a suspenseful environment for a reader.
This challenge will push our competitors to take narrative control of the entire story in order to build intensity and suspense. They must expertly choose from the literary techniques available to them: foreshadowing? Dialogue (or lack thereof)? A hidden danger? Emotional contrast? Any and all of these or something else entirely? …in order to engage readers and demonstrate mastery over the reader’s experience.
Your Challenge This Week: Write us a story emphasizing intensity and suspense. I am looking for both tension AND release. In any genre, take your readers on a journey that leverages these key ingredients of intensity and suspense.
Your Rules: You have no less than 1,500 words and no more than 2,000 words to tell this story. You must complete the story and publish it any time before 11:59pm American Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 12th. Publish it to your own Substack and tag
.My Judging: I will read and assess all five stories between the 12th and the 15th. I will be using my six criteria found here.
Grammar, Syntax, Spelling - Make your words correct, clear, and intentional.
Craftsmanship - There’s a structure to the story, even artfulness to how it is set up and delivered
Characterization - Make your characters believable, relatable people, with voices of their own!
Storytelling & Prose - Show more than you tell, unless it serves your story not to!
Pacing - Keep the story moving, and keep it moving on purpose!
Je ne sais quoi - If you pour love and attention into your writing, it will have that special something!
There are 5 points possible for each category except for JNSQ which is only 2 points. The maximum possible overall score is 27 points for each story. You will receive detailed feedback privately over email, including a breakdown of your scores. In the post announcing the next challenge, I will publish each competitors overall scores (up to 27 for each story).
Ladies and gentlemen…
Put on your authors hats! Because your time starts NOW!
Good luck!
Very excited for this! Well done to everyone who threw their hat in the ring, and congratulations to the finalists!
Love it! This is a great first challenge! I'm excited to read the stories and feedback.