The Official Authors' Hangout Halloween 2023 Contest Support Thread

[MelissaBaby]

I have tried writing the same Halloween story twice now, and just have not been able to make it work. I'm going to throw in the towel on it and see if I can't get something else done before the deadline.

If anyone wants to take a crack at this idea, have at it. A young woman becomes conscious in a cheap motel room, and realizes she is looking down at her own murdered body. She is a ghost stuck in the room, unable to leave. She finds that when the room is empty, she goes into a semi-conscious state, a sort of hibernation. When people are in the room, she becomes more alert. She feeds off the sexual energy of those who use the room for that purpose. But when darker events take place, she becomes a raging spirit seeking to protect anyone else from her same fate.

Seems like a good idea, especially from a voyeuristic standpoint, but I just can't get it right. So, if anyone wants the idea, perhaps for next years' contest, it's all yours.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Oh, @MelissaBaby, I can't finish crap for the Halloween contest now. She-Wolf stagnated, the African Goddess fell flat on her beautiful face, and I'm struggling to catch up with my paid obligations.

I have tried writing the same Halloween story twice now, and just have not been able to make it work. I'm going to throw in the towel on it and see if I can't get something else done before the deadline.

If anyone wants to take a crack at this idea, have at it. A young woman becomes conscious in a cheap motel room, and realizes she is looking down at her own murdered body. She is a ghost stuck in the room, unable to leave. She finds that when the room is empty, she goes into a semi-conscious state, a sort of hibernation. When people are in the room, she becomes more alert. She feeds off the sexual energy of those who use the room for that purpose. But when darker events take place, she becomes a raging spirit seeking to protect anyone else from her same fate.

Seems like a good idea, especially from a voyeuristic standpoint, but I just can't get it right. So, if anyone wants the idea, perhaps for next years' contest, it's all yours.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I have tried writing the same Halloween story twice now, and just have not been able to make it work. I'm going to throw in the towel on it and see if I can't get something else done before the deadline.

If anyone wants to take a crack at this idea, have at it. A young woman becomes conscious in a cheap motel room, and realizes she is looking down at her own murdered body. She is a ghost stuck in the room, unable to leave. She finds that when the room is empty, she goes into a semi-conscious state, a sort of hibernation. When people are in the room, she becomes more alert. She feeds off the sexual energy of those who use the room for that purpose. But when darker events take place, she becomes a raging spirit seeking to protect anyone else from her same fate.

Seems like a good idea, especially from a voyeuristic standpoint, but I just can't get it right. So, if anyone wants the idea, perhaps for next years' contest, it's all yours.

Way too cerebral for me, sorry. But a cool idea, I agree .

Em

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I have tried writing the same Halloween story twice now, and just have not been able to make it work. I'm going to throw in the towel on it and see if I can't get something else done before the deadline.

If anyone wants to take a crack at this idea, have at it. A young woman becomes conscious in a cheap motel room, and realizes she is looking down at her own murdered body. She is a ghost stuck in the room, unable to leave. She finds that when the room is empty, she goes into a semi-conscious state, a sort of hibernation. When people are in the room, she becomes more alert. She feeds off the sexual energy of those who use the room for that purpose. But when darker events take place, she becomes a raging spirit seeking to protect anyone else from her same fate.

Seems like a good idea, especially from a voyeuristic standpoint, but I just can't get it right. So, if anyone wants the idea, perhaps for next years' contest, it's all yours.

I LOVE that idea!
I'll let it stew in my weird little brain, and if I can make it work for next year, I'll credit you.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Way too cerebral for me, sorry. But a cool idea, I agree .

Em

That was part of my problem. I kept getting wrapped around stuff like "Can ghosts smell odors".

 

[MelissaBaby]

I LOVE that idea!
I'll let it stew in my weird little brain, and if I can make it work for next year, I'll credit you.

I hope you will give it a shot!

 

[EmilyMiller]

That was part of my problem. I kept getting wrapped around stuff like "Can ghosts smell odors".

I thought it was just me who stressed over stuff like that .

Em

 

[MelissaBaby]

I thought it was just me who stressed over stuff like that .

Em

I started from the premise of a ghost story from the ghost's point of view. But that sucked me into soooo many details about what it might actually be like to be a ghost that I kept losing my grip on the narrative.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Well, I’ve had over 7k views on today’s story and 168 votes. It might have been nice for a few of the latter to have been a bit more quinquevalent; but you can’t have everything.

Overall, pretty happy so far .

Em

 

[Rustyoznail]

I LOVE that idea!
I'll let it stew in my weird little brain, and if I can make it work for next year, I'll credit you.

Ooo, that's an interesting idea.

Belle, if you don't write it, I'll have a crack.

 

[JaxonHill]

Does someone know a way to get a sense as to how the contest is going?

It's really hard to tell where things stand from a score/views/etc perspective simply by clicking through all the stories, especially since the list changes order every time I go back to it LOL

 

[MelissaBaby]

Does someone know a way to get a sense as to how the contest is going?

It's really hard to tell where things stand from a score/views/etc perspective simply by clicking through all the stories, especially since the list changes order every time I go back to it LOL

You could always go through and check the scores on each story, one by one. There's not much point to that though, considering some of us haven't even submitted ours yet.

 

[JaxonHill]

You could always go through and check the scores on each story, one by one. There's not much point to that though, considering some of us haven't even submitted ours yet.

This is the first time I've ever paid attention to a contest before. So I don't really understand how it works. I guess I should just be patient and see how it goes.

<confession> My competitive streak is kicking it because I think I'm doing fairly well at the moment, but I can't really tell relative to the other stories since (as you said) it looks like the only way to check it out is one-at-a-time.

 

[Bamagan]

That was part of my problem. I kept getting wrapped around stuff like "Can ghosts smell odors".

I've wondered that myself. I suppose it depends on how much physical presence they still have or can manifest, since smells and tastes depend on physical interaction with chemicals. If your tale permits them to touch or move items then an ability to sense and interpret things that move through them would be an extension of the same ability. Their entire ghostly being could function as a giant ear, nose, tongue, and eye, and it would be mental patterns set by a brain that no longer exists that interprets the sensations as smells, tastes, etc.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I've wondered that myself. I suppose it depends on how much physical presence they still have or can manifest, since smells and tastes depend on physical interaction with chemicals. If your tale permits them to touch or move items then an ability to sense and interpret things that move through them would be an extension of the same ability. Their entire ghostly being could function as a giant ear, nose, tongue, and eye, and it would be mental patterns set by a brain that no longer exists that interprets the sensations as smells, tastes, etc.

Sight is one of the five physical senses. If a ghost can see, it should almost certainly be able to hear smell touch and taste.

But ghosts don't touch things, you say. How do you know? Are you a ghost? Ghosts move things, and who's to say that ghosts can't at least experience the sensation of touch even if they don't actually touch?

Fixed your font issue btw. Just take out these font tags.

[FONT=book antiqua][/FONT]

If you take out the size tags too it will look just like everyone else's.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Does someone know a way to get a sense as to how the contest is going?

It's really hard to tell where things stand from a score/views/etc perspective simply by clicking through all the stories, especially since the list changes order every time I go back to it LOL

It's impossible to have anything more than a vague idea. Even what you see on my score is delayed, and a single low (or high) score can wildly shift numbers if there's a low number of votes.

Then a bit later in the comp, votes that the system deems to be dodgy will be swept. Just to confuse you more.

 

[JaxonHill]

It's impossible to have anything more than a vague idea. Even what you see on my score is delayed, and a single low (or high) score can wildly shift numbers if there's a low number of votes.

Then a bit later in the comp, votes that the system deems to be dodgy will be swept. Just to confuse you more.

So what's the process once we reach the "end".

Do we get a full ranking? Again, sorry for my ignorance, I haven't really paid attention to contests in the past.

 

[Bamagan]

This is the first time I've ever paid attention to a contest before. So I don't really understand how it works. I guess I should just be patient and see how it goes.

<confession> My competitive streak is kicking it because I think I'm doing fairly well at the moment, but I can't really tell relative to the other stories since (as you said) it looks like the only way to check it out is one-at-a-time.

You might be able to extract the scores as displayed on the story pages and export them to a spreadsheet. It's part of the source code for each page, so a file that had the proper links and updated regularly could keep one appraised, although as mentioned, the scores tend to fluctuate wildly for the first few days, and contest entrants probably get swept more often and perhaps more vigorously.

 

[Rustyoznail]

So what's the process once we reach the "end".

Do we get a full ranking? Again, sorry for my ignorance, I haven't really paid attention to contests in the past.

This is my guess, with no data to back it up. At the set finish time, all stories are locked and the scores cleaned. The winners are determined, the stories are reopened, and the winners get dive bombed.

 

[JaxonHill]

This is my guess, with no data to back it up. At the set finish time, all stories are locked and the scores cleaned. The winners are determined, the stories are reopened, and the winners get dive bombed.

Sounds amazing.

 

[Rustyoznail]

More like frustrating.

I know I've received a few one votes early on, but will they get swept? Will that make a difference?

Dunno. Just have to sit back and keep refreshing the scores.

 

[JaxonHill]

More like frustrating.

I know I've received a few one votes early on, but will they get swept? Will that make a difference?

Dunno. Just have to sit back and keep refreshing the scores.

I started out with some of that for sure. I don't know if I'll ever break 4.7 at this point. I have 377 scores so it would take a lot to move the needle.

Edit: made a quick spreadsheet. I would need 50 more 5 star scores with nothing less to break 4.7 -- Yeeeeeaahhhhh... I don't think so.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Can't complain about that score. Probably not a winner, but still good. Mine's just a bit below that. Just for reference, your submission page doesn't show a score yet. The story has 4.68 against it.

 

[JaxonHill]

Can't complain about that score. Probably not a winner, but still good. Mine's just a bit below that. Just for reference, your submission page doesn't show a score yet. The story has 4.68 against it.

"That's quite a spread. You wouldn't have an early English horn in your collection?"


I just wanted to say thank you for this line

 

[Bamagan]

Okay, so, as a test to see if I could, I tried to make a spreadsheet to answer the question about 'who is in the lead' by cross-referencing the stories on the Halloween list with the top rated stories of the last 30 days. With the caveat that there's no telling* when those refresh and therefore just how out-of-date the numbers are, it might provide a blurry answer to the question.
At the moment, these are the ones who are maybe in the lead.
Edit: I trimmed off the names but left the numbers in place as a benchmark.

The low number of votes for the top ranked story suggests that it is likely to still be pretty volatile and may vanish soon. And this may fail to capture anyone's stories if none of them are one of the top 250 of the last 30 days.
If anyone's interested I will be happy to provide occasional updates in this thread or by DM**. Theoretically all I need to do is refresh the spreadsheet and it will fetch the new data from the website (if it has been updated), but as mentioned, this is a new experiment for me so I might be completely wrong about everything.
*Someone probably knows about when and how often, but I don't.
**But if you ask me several times a day for updates I'm going to quickly start lying to you.