The Halloween 2024 Official Contest Support Thread!

[Wineandcheese]

I got the required number of votes pretty quickly, but it’s certainly not a contender for the win. Currently 4.40.

 

[Nellymcboatface]

As I have said before (one of my fave authors Terry Pratchett said in an interview, (approximate quote) he sets the scene and introduces the characters and they have their own ideas on there the story goes and they have better ones than him. I have found that quite often, but my Halloween one was almost spooky in how it told itself to me! Like someone whispering it in my ear!

Yes, both comments are bang on.
trying to edit mine now, well for that really read going back to where the main characters arrived as bit parts but ended up part of the focus of the story, to give more depth to them to justify later happenings...
great fun writing tho, never thought there'd be so much fun in slaughtering vampires !
ha ha !

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

Yikes! My story length loaded funky. The story ends on page 4 but then… I do not know what to call it comments and stars, is the only thing on page 5

Sort of freaking me out … sorry mini stressor

 

[AlbericGrunnion]

Well, submitted my first contest entry! I actually started the story as a Christmas one, but it morphed on me! Didn't take much to fix the end result to properly fit the category, but now I'm struggling to find my muse for the Christmas contest! I'm guessing I need to create a series of 'Pajama' stories for all the holidays!

Yeah, I've been called out for too many exclamation points in my writing.

 

[Bassytian]

Well, submitted my first contest entry! I actually started the story as a Christmas one, but it morphed on me! Didn't take much to fix the end result to properly fit the category, but now I'm struggling to find my muse for the Christmas contest! I'm guessing I need to create a series of 'Pajama' stories for all the holidays!

Yeah, I've been called out for too many exclamation points in my writing.

This one is the second contest I have entered. It's quite exciting, good luck to you!

 

[ChasBozwell30]

As a quick fix, here is a link to give a listing of Halloween 2024 stories by Voter Score

Enjoy or weep !

can't see mine on there, any reason why some don't show up?

 

[AlexFourways]

can't see mine on there, any reason why some don't show up?

@ChasBozwell30
It does a search on stories with the tag 'Halloween 2024' so if you only put that in the notes to Admin field rather than also as a tag it won't find it.
This link shows more stories (from the front page) approx 82 but no ratings, as opposed to 27 my way.
I don't know if there is way to get Laurel to add a story tag, or see the ratings from the front page link.
Hopefully a longtime user will be along to help!

 

[Voboy]

Yikes! My story length loaded funky. The story ends on page 4 but then… I do not know what to call it comments and stars, is the only thing on page 5

Sort of freaking me out … sorry mini stressor

Mine did the same thing.

It's nothing you can do anything about, and it won't hurt your story.

This link shows more stories (from the front page) approx 82 but no ratings, as opposed to 27 my way.
I don't know if there is way to get Laurel to add a story tag,

You can, but I THINK you'd need to back out and resubmit. She occasionally adds them herself.

or see the ratings from the front page link.

 

[Rustyoznail]

@Sandman_Nightmares has an issue with his audio stories not on the main list. Anyone else in the same boat?

 

[Actingup]

@ChasBozwell30
It does a search on stories with the tag 'Halloween 2024' so if you only put that in the notes to Admin field rather than also as a tag it won't find it.
This link shows more stories (from the front page) approx 82 but no ratings, as opposed to 27 my way.
I don't know if there is way to get Laurel to add a story tag, or see the ratings from the front page link.
Hopefully a longtime user will be along to help!

Thanks for doing that count - 82 versus 27 underlines that the tagging is more the exception than the rule. And some of the untagged ones are killer stories as well, including those by @ChasBozwell30 and @Voboy, so sorting by rating on the tagged list is deceptive (even if good/bad for the ego). It actually might be better to not have a sorted list of any kind until the results are in, so that we can enjoy the stories without worrying about who's 'ahead' on the day?

 

[Rustyoznail]

Thanks for doing that count - 82 versus 27 underlines that the tagging is more the exception than the rule. And some of the untagged ones are killer stories as well, including those by @ChasBozwell30 and @Voboy, so sorting by rating on the tagged list is deceptive (even if good/bad for the ego). It actually might be better to not have a sorted list of any kind until the results are in, so that we can enjoy the stories without worrying about who's 'ahead' on the day?

Yes - my Summer Lovin' story went from 4.43 to 4.62 in the blink of an eye after the end of competition sweep. The only score that matters is what it is when the chequered flag drops.

TBH, I used to obsess over scores of all competition participants until I realised it was pointless. You don't know who gets hammered by uno-bombers and what the final effect on the results will be.

 

[Rob_Royale]

TBH, I used to obsess over scores of all competition participants until I realised it was pointless. You don't know who gets hammered by uno-bombers and what the final effect on the results will be.

Not to mention there are a few categories that are just plain hard to beat due to the popularity of the genre.
I'm not worried about the contest. I know I put out a decent product, regardless of the score and this is just a way to get more eyes on it.

 

[Wineandcheese]

I can only hope my Halloween story has been “uno-bombed.” My rating is currently 4.38, lower than any of my others. I concede that the story may deserve that score, and perhaps even lower, but I hope it comes up a bit.

 

[ChasBozwell30]

@ChasBozwell30
It does a search on stories with the tag 'Halloween 2024' so if you only put that in the notes to Admin field rather than also as a tag it won't find it.
This link shows more stories (from the front page) approx 82 but no ratings, as opposed to 27 my way.
I don't know if there is way to get Laurel to add a story tag, or see the ratings from the front page link.
Hopefully a longtime user will be along to help!

Ahh, I see. To be honest it didn't occur to me to put halloween as a tag, I should have!

 

[AlexFourways]

Ahh, I see. To be honest it didn't occur to me to put halloween as a tag, I should have!

The evidence is you are in the majority and I the minority. That said the last time I provided such a link there were few exceptions - possibly April Foolers are Taggers and Halloween Haunters are not!
As others have said, the ratings mean nothing until 'The Fab Laurel Sweeps'!

 

[Fatdog25]

Submitted "Double Blind" for the contest in I/T.

 

[nicksouth]

This one is the second contest I have entered. It's quite exciting, good luck to you!

Second contest for me too. My entry for the previous has by far the most comments and views of my works so hoping for a boost here even though I'm in a nice category for this one.

 

[nicksouth]

My entry "cum costume" goes live in Fetish tomorrow. I don't expect it to do well, but we will see. My first story in that category.

 

[gleader]

The evidence is you are in the majority and I the minority. That said the last time I provided such a link there were few exceptions - possibly April Foolers are Taggers and Halloween Haunters are not!
As others have said, the ratings mean nothing until 'The Fab Laurel Sweeps'!

I just read your story and laughed at the States terms. But I guess the low scores were because you tried too hard to be British and the majority here are from the US. Bringing up the God may also has side-effect.

I had a look at the last year winner "A Halloween Tail". It just mentioned London as the location but did not have any detail about the environment. I guess the name itself was enough to bring the spooky feeling to American readers.

I'm worrying about my London story now...

 

[FreyaGersemi]

you tried too hard to be British

I believe the author IS actually British.

 

[gleader]

I believe the author IS actually British.

I can tell that from his writing and Kryten.

 

[Wineandcheese]

One of the best thing about contests is how it brings attention to the back catalog. My Summer Lovin’ story just crossed 100K views.

 

[AlexFourways]

I can tell that from his writing and Kryten.

Gleader: I'm glad you laughed.

Oh, Definately British (English by birth and upbringing Welsh by majority of my life).

When you said you laughed at the States Terms, I presume you meant the glossary. Or maybe Google lied to me about them.

God got mentioned by Jennifer, I thought Nick didn't say much. I thought the real basis for the tension will be between social and insurance finance of healthcare - again not as spelt out as I originally thought it would be. The thing I found odd was the 'unintended' moral of the tale, (in that universe) that 'hating' is the only 'vice' and 'loving' the only 'virtue'.

As I said elsewhere, I was suddenly inspired by the idea of a costume that would possess the wearer and the rest of the story just flowed into my mind like someone was whispering it in my ear.

Not sure about the votes, not irredemable at the moment (4.13/15 and 4.5k views - so couldn't win if it was a solid 5.0) 1 in 300, but my other new story in LW and not Halloween is 2.43/22 1.7k views 1 in 80. I'm not worried that it is an all time low as I knew they were a hard crowd over there ! But also avid readers and voters - been promised that they might comment as well!

Keep laughing, but not demonically!

 

[nicksouth]

Well, my story "Cum Costume" is about 4.00 points higher rated than I expected ! Definitely not for everyone though

 

[Actingup]

Well, my story "Cum Costume" is about 4.00 points higher rated than I expected ! Definitely not for everyone though

I marked it up because (even though it's not really my thing) you so thoroughly jumped the shark by treating that costume as a serious task! I'm sure I'm not the only one.