Fictionalized Life Stories!
Congratulations to our winners!
- Gaffney: Recollection--- is our upvote winner at 12 upvotes
- Jackmanganese: Memories and Old Vinyl (deleted by author)- Wins the "Feels" award with 4 gold stars!
As always we had an excellent crop of submissions. On behalf of the staff of the Wanderer's Library I thank you for your participation, cooperation and congratulate you on rising to a unique challenge. ~Vivax
Premise: English professors and teachers have a little trick in their back pocket to jar their tired, listless students into writing. "I remember". If you ask somebody to start writing on a blank sheet of paper with beginning each new thought with "I remember", you can provoke somebody into an endless introspective frenzy of words. This contest is essentially that. You, dear authors, write up short stories beginning with the prompt "I remember" about yourselves and submit them here for summary judgment and the winner gets to live fun and profit.
How does this relate at all to the premise of the Wanderer's Library? It wouldn't be a WL sort of thing to post stories without "the sense of wonder" in them. The Library is all about the fantastic, but sometimes, the fantastic is most meaningful when juxtaposed with the mundane. Therefore, instead of posting straight memoirs and personal stories, this contest requires that you fictionalize them to some degree. For example, whenever I swim alone, I will eventually experience a panic attack because some small part of me is convinced that I'll die if I swim alone. If I were to chose that story as the thing, I remember I'd write about all of the times I'd died while swimming, all of the flashes, the fantasies, the drownings, as if they were real. Basically, this contest is asking you to do is mine your memories for poignant, intimate, events and to turn those events into pieces of strange fiction.
How Will This be Judged?
It won't be!
There will be two winners. One winner of the "upvote" contest will be decided by the number of upvotes received during the contest period.
The other winner will be decided by "gold star". When you read through the contest entries, pick one and only one entry that tugs your heartstrings, gives you the feels, sends chills down your spine or what-have-you. You can do this by going editing the article and attaching an image of a gold star to the article (which will be provided by US at the WL). Because of this gold-star component, all articles for the contest must use the contest template which is located on this page. Using this template allows us to put gold stars on your page with minimal fuss.
What do I win?
These tales will be featured on the main page at some point. You get bragging rights and possibly something extra… We'll see.
Rules!
- The first two words of the story should be "I remember" or some equivalent expression. As long as the first words of the resemble the "I remember" prompt in some way you're golden. (Ask Vivax if you have questions)
- The story has to be based on something you actually remember. Playing fast and loose is okay so long as there is a kernel of truth. I mean…otherwise why have this contest, right?
- The basis of your story must be made available to Vivax in some way. PMing him, leaving it as a comment, chatting him up on the IRC, sending him carrier pigeons and smoke signals, these all work. Just get the message out to Vivax.
- You MUST use the contest template found on this page. Just scroll down until you see "add a contest entry" and add a contest entry! So simple!
- There's no limit to the number of entries.
- No content changing edit are allowed. Only spelling, grammar, and other minor changes will be permitted. Attempt to change content in an excessive way will result in the reversion of the page until after the conclusion of the contest.
- Stories which are in the negatives will be left up for public shaming until the contest period is over. No deletion votes will be started until the contest has ended.
- Tag the entry with the contest tag "Life-Contest".
- The contest will be open from October 13-27. The contest has been extended until November 3rd!
- Voting will be permitted throughout the open period and will end one week after the entry period: November 3 10. (Obviously you are free to upvote things after the period is over but the winner will be decided based on the total at the end of the voting period)
- Voting ends on midnight November 3rd 10 EST (GMT−05:00)
CURRENT ENTRIES:
| Salvation | Rating: 8 | Comments: 4 | Created 14 Oct 2013 18:21 | |
| In the Capital | Rating: 11 | Comments: 3 | Created 17 Oct 2013 22:53 | (user deleted) |
| Port Salinas | Rating: 13 | Comments: 5 | Created 01 Nov 2013 20:23 | |
| The Darkness Inside | Rating: 15 | Comments: 4 | Created 16 Oct 2013 20:20 | |
| Battle of the White Waves | Rating: 19 | Comments: 5 | Created 21 Oct 2013 18:44 | |
| Recollection | Rating: 23 | Comments: 2 | Created 29 Oct 2013 17:34 | (user deleted) |
| Storm of Daggers | Rating: 24 | Comments: 7 | Created 02 Nov 2013 09:41 |
The Contest Entry Module! Use this if you actually want to enter!
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