...I thought it would be a good idea for the PFS open calls, but Josh's critique hit me a lot harder than I thought I would with the first round of open calls...
Hey Charles, glad you pushed through that to keep doing good stuff! I really enjoyed reading all the critiques, professional and not, of the Superstar tests last year, it was interesting AND informative. Did Josh critique each entry on the PFS Open Call privately, or was there a big thread devoted to it? If so, I'd appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction. (I wasn't able to find anything poking around on my own.)
Off-hand, what did you pick up most from Josh's comments?
Learning to take criticism is one of the hardest things to learn about freelancing. Getting good feedback is the other hard part, and more often than not, completely out of your hands.
Yeah I looked at the forum. Not that worried about it dropping of the front page.
Chief Technical Officer
|
Knowing how to use BBCode formatting for your entry is not a requirement for this contest. Nobody gets eliminated for bad messageboard format—though if you used it well, it couldn't do anything but help you, and if you used it badly (or tried to use HTML, which isn't supported), it probably made a worse impression on the judges than not using it at all.I was under the impression that BBCode was disabled for some reason. As the usual "Show" button at the bottom was gone, and I seemed to then recall a post from Vic somewhere saying don't worry about how to use them, it wasn't part of the contest...
I made... a formatting choice we shall call it for now... based on thinking the entry form wouldn't let me boldify something. I am now hoping that didn't bite me on the ass.
No worries. The whole point of my post was to say that whatever you did in an attempt to make your entry more presentable was not counted against you—at least, not consciously. (And I glanced at your entry just now, and see nothing awry.)
|
Learning to take criticism is one of the hardest things to learn about freelancing. Getting good feedback is the other hard part, and more often than not, completely out of your hands.
The only thing that you learn from never being corrected, when you have done something incorrectly, is the brash arrogance of egotistical ignorance.
In all seriousness, constructive critique, especially upfront sans obfuscation and diplomacy, is one of the best ways to learn how to do something as subjective as creative writing. If you find a writer who says that they have never had a rejection letter, well they are either a liar or have never submitted anything before. Most writers treasure these little things, as they might be crushing, but they inspire you to correct yourself, write toward an audience, and hone your craft.
Both sides of the coin, though, need to want and provide such things, in fact they could learn a bit from academia, where it is much more common place. Of course, academia has a better ratio of submission to reviewer than the average creative writing venue.
Now I could have said, "What Lilith said," but if I did, I'm sure someone who is use to my writing would have asked me if I was sick, or something. ;)
Says the girl with no critics. : }
I have my share, and my awesome editors do a great job at cleaning up my text to make it presentable. :D
Hard to be critical while you are constantly being bribed with cookies. I'M ON TO YOU LILITH! ;)
The cookies help with getting the assignment. Sometimes. ;) All the double fudge chocolate chocolate chip cookies will not turn bad writing into good though, and the only way you get better is by practicing. And getting rejected. And practicing some more, and getting rejected again, until you get approved. Hopefully you get some good, detailed feedback that shows where you flubbed some steps, and really hopefully, show/tell you how to correct it for a rewrite. So far, all of my editorial experiences have been positive and have improved my writing ability.
Well, reading this thread is interesting. Its good to hear the feedback from the judges. I avoided most of the pitfalls of this year. I dodged a bullet bigtime when I opted not to submit my 'divining coin' idea. I attributed the mass coin submissions to the latest batman movie. It got everyone thinking about two-face's coin, even if it was on the unconsious level. Still, the spell in a can is tuff to avoid as is thinking of all the abuses or mechanical flaws. I prolly didn't go into enough detail when it came to mechanics. Still, it was fun to try for the contest.
I eat criticism and crap revised drafts.
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
Here's another pitfall I noticed folks falling into: leaving out something important.
I'm not talking about missing a format requirement like price, but about missing something integral to the item—some information needed to completely understand and operate the item.
Perhaps the author explains how to activate the item, but leaves out how to *deactivate* it.
Perhaps they fail to explain what type of actions are used to do different things. (Is using the item a standard action, or a full-round action?)
Perhaps the item raises unique questions about how it might interact with characters, spells or other items, but doesn't answer those questions. For example, the bag of holding description tells you what happens if you put a living creature in the bag, or if you place the bag into a portable hole. A good designer will try to figure out what questions need to be answered; a novice will miss that.
Perhaps the item has a clearly configured number of things it does, and then explains only a subset of them.
The worst of these, to my mind, are the ones that are *aware* they're missing something, and suggest that the "GM discretion" be applied to fill in the holes.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32
,
Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8
|
To any readers or judges:
How was costing evaluated? I know in the item which I submitted, straight costing as per the rules lead to an item wildly expensive for the effect. I actually halved the price of my submission to put it more in line with similar existing items. Was costing seen as more art or more science?
To any readers or judges:
How was costing evaluated? I know in the item which I submitted, straight costing as per the rules lead to an item wildly expensive for the effect. I actually halved the price of my submission to put it more in line with similar existing items. Was costing seen as more art or more science?
I had this issue too. Following the actual guidelines would have given a price more than many of the most powerful and versatile items in the game. And it wasn't even close. I fudged and hoped Clark's comment on costing being more art than science from last year would still hold true.
- Ashavan
EDIT - it may have been Eric's comment... I can't remember and I'm not up to looking for it without an idea of which thread it was in.
Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
|
Perhaps they fail to explain what type of actions are used to do different things. (Is using the item a standard action, or a full-round action?)
If not otherwise stated, it's a standard action (table 9.2), but it's not always as simple as that, particularly if activating the item allows/requires you to take one or more other actions, may or may not require an action, or if using it as a standard action would be significantly less or more effective than is reasonable in the circumstances when it's likely to be used.
The worst of these, to my mind, are the ones that are *aware* they're missing something, and suggest that the "GM discretion" be applied to fill in the holes.
Ack. Yes. That pretty much suggests that either the designer couldn't imagine how the item might be used, or all the answers he could think of were equally unworkable, or he ran out of space because the item's too complicated.
|
Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
|
To any readers or judges:
How was costing evaluated? I know in the item which I submitted, straight costing as per the rules lead to an item wildly expensive for the effect. I actually halved the price of my submission to put it more in line with similar existing items. Was costing seen as more art or more science?
The table showing costing is called an estimate for a reason. The text for "Magic Item Gold Piece Values" gives greater importance, if anything, to comparing the item with others that are similar.
I may have fallen prey to the cost issue (or a variety of other pitfalls).
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
Perhaps they fail to explain what type of actions are used to do different things. (Is using the item a standard action, or a full-round action?)If not otherwise stated, it's a standard action (table 9.2), but it's not always as simple as that, particularly if activating the item allows/requires you to take one or more other actions, may or may not require an action, or if using it as a standard action would be significantly less or more effective than is reasonable in the circumstances when it's likely to be used.
Sorry—bad wording on my part. I didn't mean to suggest that everyone needed to specify the action needed to use their item... I was thinking of items that allow the user to do a specific thing, where it's not immediately apparent what type of action that specific thing might be.
I'm pretty sure I got owned by SRD format, I was using the last years winning entries as templates for my item. Blast it....
Dedicated Voter Season 9
|
Learning to take criticism is one of the hardest things to learn about freelancing. Getting good feedback is the other hard part, and more often than not, completely out of your hands.The only thing that you learn from never being corrected, when you have done something incorrectly, is the brash arrogance of egotistical ignorance.
In all seriousness, constructive critique, especially upfront sans obfuscation and diplomacy, is one of the best ways to learn how to do something as subjective as creative writing. If you find a writer who says that they have never had a rejection letter, well they are either a liar or have never submitted anything before. Most writers treasure these little things, as they might be crushing, but they inspire you to correct yourself, write toward an audience, and hone your craft.
Both sides of the coin, though, need to want and provide such things, in fact they could learn a bit from academia, where it is much more common place. Of course, academia has a better ratio of submission to reviewer than the average creative writing venue.
Now I could have said, "What Lilith said," but if I did, I'm sure someone who is use to my writing would have asked me if I was sick, or something. ;)
If I wanted to know why my entry didnt make it, i would ask of it was a mechanics issue or a creativity issue. If mechanics tell me what i jacked up...wrong format, too many words, yadda, yadda, yadda
creativity issues...i could take it, but not needed
To any readers or judges:
How was costing evaluated?
If you go visit the other thread on the also-ran entries I did a detailed eval of an item near the end of the thread. In it, I talk about how I do costing. Sean does the hard math. Wolf does the hard math to some degree. I am more of a gestalt guy. I look at where it falls on the wondrous item price list. I compare it to similar items. I compare it to scroll prices for similar effect. See that discussion for more detail.
I am more of a gestalt guy. I look at where it falls on the wondrous item price list. I compare it to similar items. I compare it to scroll prices for similar effect.
OMG! I'm turning into Clark!
Help me someone, please...
:P
Wow! What a thread.
I was told by a published author that you can get beautiful writing by re-writing your works over and over. He said you cannot stop that process till you vomit.
Cheers,
Zuxius
Hee...there was a book (by Camus? Sartre? Some other French guy?) about a man who has been rewriting the first sentence of his novel-to-be for the last 20 years because he hasn't quite managed to turn it perfect...so knowing when to go "that's good enough" is quite important too :)
Hee...there was a book (by Camus? Sartre? Some other French guy?) about a man who has been rewriting the first sentence of his novel-to-be for the last 20 years because he hasn't quite managed to turn it perfect...so knowing when to go "that's good enough" is quite important too :)Wow! What a thread.
I was told by a published author that you can get beautiful writing by re-writing your works over and over. He said you cannot stop that process till you vomit.
Cheers,
Zuxius
That sounds like something from the 'The Stranger', though it might also be The Myth of Sisyphus. But yes, it is definately the sort of thing that Camus dealt with.
I am starting to feel a little like i have set my self a Sisyphian task with my current project.
|
|
I look at where it falls on the wondrous item price list. I compare it to similar items.
Infuriatingly, using the magic item guidelines we were given created one price, and comparing it to similar, already existing items provided another. Then, using the magic item guideliness to construct the already existing item I was using as a guide gave me a vastly different price than the official one.
Finally, I just threw up my hands, deemed the magic item guidelines useless for anything that was more than a spell-in-a-can and winged that mother.
|
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012
,
Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9
|
Here's another pitfall I noticed folks falling into: leaving out something important.
I'm not talking about missing a format requirement like price, but about missing something integral to the item—some information needed to completely understand and operate the item.
Perhaps the author explains how to activate the item, but leaves out how to *deactivate* it.
Perhaps they fail to explain what type of actions are used to do different things. (Is using the item a standard action, or a full-round action?)
Perhaps the item raises unique questions about how it might interact with characters, spells or other items, but doesn't answer those questions. For example, the bag of holding description tells you what happens if you put a living creature in the bag, or if you place the bag into a portable hole. A good designer will try to figure out what questions need to be answered; a novice will miss that.
Perhaps the item has a clearly configured number of things it does, and then explains only a subset of them.
The worst of these, to my mind, are the ones that are *aware* they're missing something, and suggest that the "GM discretion" be applied to fill in the holes.
I may have been guilty of this one. I didn't do anything blatant like putting something in about "GM discretion", but I did omit something that is typically included in items that have the effect that mine does.
I think that comes from the word limit. Some of the classic examples given earlier (flying carpet, helm of brilliance, and iron flask) go over the word limit, even including tables and charts. There are many ways to specify how an item can be used, or prevent abuse, but not many ways to use accepted verbage and still be under the word count. If the word limit was upped to 250 and did not include the required format block in the word count I think the quality of the submissions would be improved.
Right, but you were given 200 words. Of course you can say more given more words. But you're best avoiding items that would require more words, when that's part of the challenge.
I'm reminded that this season on Top Chef, a chef was sent home because he was given an hour to do a dish. He chose to do creme brulee, which is physically impossible to do in one hour. If he had two or three hours, maybe he could have pulled it off. But that wasn't the challenge.
Similarly, it's not that a flying carpet isn't a good, iconic, magic item grounded in myth. It's just that it's a bad choice when you only have 200 words to play with.
The Word Limit is important... as a freelancer you will be given a firm word count for the vast majority of stuff that you write (not only with Paizo, but for any sort of magazine or publishing company in virtually any field for that matter). By giving a word limit on the wondrous item they are seeing if you can A) write succinctly enough to come in at or under a word limit, and B) follow directions (which is just as important when you are a freelancer)--in fact I would say that being able to write succinctly and follow directions are as important as being able to come up with great ideas and having a solid grasp of the game mechanics.
I hope for the next contest they remember that the quality of their best submissions will relate to the amount of freedom allowed within given parameters.
I... don't think that's necessarily true. In fact, I think it's just about the opposite of true. Laxer guidelines won't necessarily result in better submissions, and seeing whether writers can write within the guidelines is important. I don't think 200 words is unreasonable. Yes, there are items that can't adequately be described within 200 words. So don't submit those items. In the real world of publishing, you'll have guidelines too that not all your ideas will fit.
I am concerned when the examples of what they are looking for do not follow the guidelines the contest gave.
What examples? They never said that all the existing wondrous items are good examples for the contest. In fact, they've explicitly said that many of the items from the SRD would not have done well in the contest.
I don't think a point system is necessary, and I think it would be far more trouble than it's worth. You don't get rated on a point system in the real publishing world.
I admit it was a little hard for me to get my item under 200 words (I do tend to be a bit verbose at times). In fact, my first idea for a submission I didn't use in part because I couldn't get it down below 200 words without leaving out what I thought was essential information. Do I think I could have submitted a better, more interesting item if I had a larger word limit--or no word limit? Sure. But that's not what the contest is about. It's not about just submitting the most interesting wondrous item you can, period. It's about submitting the most interesting wondrous item you can within the given guidelines. I think there are reasons for the 200-word limit, and I don't think it's at all unreasonable.
EDIT: In fact, someone posted another thread in this forum about a call for open submissions for an upcoming product by Goodman Games. The guidelines for submissions include a word limit--and explicitly say that going over the word limit will be cause for immediate rejection. See, this happens in real freelance work, too; it's not just in this contest.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
|
The Word Limit is important... as a freelancer you will be given a firm word count for the vast majority of stuff that you write (not only with Paizo, but for any sort of magazine or publishing company in virtually any field for that matter). By giving a word limit on the wondrous item they are seeing if you can A) write succinctly enough to come in at or under a word limit, and B) follow directions (which is just as important when you are a freelancer)--in fact I would say that being able to write succinctly and follow directions are as important as being able to come up with great ideas and having a solid grasp of the game mechanics.
This is very true, and this gets back to a point that Clark has raised repeatedly - this contest is not about showing off that you are a true artiste of D&D - it is about showing whether you can produce creative, interesting professional-grade content within the strictures of professional requirements - on deadline, on format, and on word count. Paizo (and any other publisher) has a limited amount of time and people-power to deal with the in-office turnaround on things, and those practical parts of being a freelancer are important. You gotta have good ideas and ability to express yourself, since on-time, concise, perfectly formatted crap is still crap, but you need to be able to work within the system of writer, developer, editor, and publisher.
Take the adventure manuscript I turned over to Paizo for an upcoming Legacy of Fire AP adventure. I overshot my word count even after editing out some stuff, so I talked with the developer/editor and suggested that, given that the adventure was more a sandbox than a flowchart, I could send it in over count with some suggested cuts. I didn't just want to slash and burn, because I wasn't positive which sections would appeal most to him and would best fit the scope of the AP. They were all neat, fun, interesting sections, but some I thought would be easier to cut without disrupting the whole adventure. Still, he said send it with the pieces in.
Interestingly, some things I thought were more peripheral and easier to cut the developer liked more than some stuff I thought was more integral. Also, the editor and publisher suggested removing another section of it, a big maze area. It was a section I liked and had worked hard to create, but they felt it was an easy cut because past reader feedback suggested that while mazes are fun to read and look at in the adventure for the DM, they usually are pure tedium to play at the table and require more expensive art orders for extra maps with greater detail, and here's a section they thought could easily be cut.
There are all kinds of reasons that your creation will get folded, spindled, and (in your creative mind) mutilated between the time you send it in and the time it sees print. You gotta learn how to take if you want to be a freelancer in the biz. What comes out the other end may be a darn sight different from what went in.
Someday you may become a SuperDuperStar like Monte Cook or Wolfgang Baur and you can have your own company and publish stuff just exactly the way you want it (in theory - even they have to slice and dice a bit), but while you're climbing the mountain to greatness you have to work within the specifications you are given. Just like in this contest, there's plenty of competition out there, lots of smart, creative people, and you want to give the audience of potential publishers/editors/Superstar voters reasons to choose you, not choose against you.
Stick out in a good way (by being awesome), not in a bad way (can't follow directions).
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
The Word Limit is important... as a freelancer you will be given a firm word count for the vast majority of stuff that you write (not only with Paizo, but for any sort of magazine or publishing company in virtually any field for that matter). By giving a word limit on the wondrous item they are seeing if you can A) write succinctly enough to come in at or under a word limit, and B) follow directions (which is just as important when you are a freelancer)--in fact I would say that being able to write succinctly and follow directions are as important as being able to come up with great ideas and having a solid grasp of the game mechanics.
Much truth above.
Importantly, we think 200 words presents a decent—yet realistic—challenge. It's not supposed to be easy.
The other big reason is that we don't want to overwhelm the judges. When you're expecting several hundred entries, adding even 50 words to the word limit means that the amount of text that the judges have to review will increase by tens of thousands of additional words. The judges are generously donating their time, and dropping what amounts to an extra novel on their to-do list isn't beneficial to the contest.
Hee...there was a book (by Camus? Sartre? Some other French guy?) about a man who has been rewriting the first sentence of his novel-to-be for the last 20 years because he hasn't quite managed to turn it perfect...so knowing when to go "that's good enough" is quite important too :)Wow! What a thread.
I was told by a published author that you can get beautiful writing by re-writing your works over and over. He said you cannot stop that process till you vomit.
Cheers,
ZuxiusThat sounds like something from the 'The Stranger', though it might also be The Myth of Sisyphus. But yes, it is definately the sort of thing that Camus dealt with.
I am starting to feel a little like i have set my self a Sisyphian task with my current project.
It was "The Plague" by Camus. The guy never got his book started because he kept altering the "fantastic" beginning. Nice reference!
How was costing evaluated? I know in the item which I submitted, straight costing as per the rules lead to an item wildly expensive for the effect. I actually halved the price of my submission to put it more in line with similar existing items. Was costing seen as more art or more science?
There is an art to it, but there is also a science to it.
Rule 1 for pricing: compare it to existing items.
Rule 2 of pricing: lacking an appropriate comparison, use the formulas.
Unlimited-use or constant items tend to fall into category 1. If your item does everything that a pair of boots of striding and springing does—and then some—but costs less than the b.o.s.a.s., you have failed to do the proper research.
Charges-per-day items and straight-by-the-formula items usually fall into category 2. If your (simple) item lets you cast fireball 3/day and costs less than the formula would indicate, you've failed. If your item gives a +3 luck bonus to all three saving throws and costs less than a +3 cloak of protection, you've failed.
Likewise, if it's costed way too high, like 10x what it should be.
Within the boundaries of this contest, I know that explaining your pricing counted toward the word count, so most people didn't include it. As a developer, I LOVE it when a designer includes this info because I can see if their logic is reasonable, and it saves me from having to derive the cost from scratch (and perhaps miss some key thing for which they gave a discount). Except for simple, formulaic items, I try to always include pricing info on my magic items and comparison info on all my spells (usually in teal so at the end the next person can do an f/r to remove it all in one step) ... it makes the developer's and editor's work that much easier.
The Word Limit is important... as a freelancer you will be given a firm word count for the vast majority of stuff that you write (not only with Paizo, but for any sort of magazine or publishing company in virtually any field for that matter). By giving a word limit on the wondrous item they are seeing if you can A) write succinctly enough to come in at or under a word limit, and B) follow directions (which is just as important when you are a freelancer)--in fact I would say that being able to write succinctly and follow directions are as important as being able to come up with great ideas and having a solid grasp of the game mechanics.
Yep. Following the publisher's directions are important if you want to get work from them more than once.
* * * MASSIVE TANGENT WARNING * * *
The ideal designer's turnover is:
1) good/on topic
2) on time
3) the proper length
4) properly styled
To explain each of these points, and how to fail at them (and mind you, I've failed at just about all of these at one point or another):
1) A good/on topic turnover meets the goals of the outline, is clear, free of language hang-ups, and entertaining to read. Failures: writing about things irrelevant to the outline (such as 4 pages on angels when the book is about Cheliax and the outline doesn't mention angels at all), confusing (were you drunk or on heavy meds?), overuse of goofy terms (I am overly fond of the semicolon, some writers like passive voice too much, others create too many names with the letter "X" in them, others say "tends to" at least once a paragraph, some overuse "exists," and so on.
2) An on-time turnover means that when your deadline arrives, the manuscript is finished and in my inbox. Failures: turning in most of it with a promise for more "soon," an incomplete manuscript with no promise of more, a complete manuscript that hasn't been spell-checked or grammar-checked, or no manuscript at all and a designer who doesn't answer email.
3) A proper-length turnover exactly on the target word count, or close enough that we can make it fit with a little creative editing (generally within 10% is okay). Failures: a 15k out of 20k manuscript (or even less than that percentage), a 25k out of 20k manuscript (or even more than that percentage), or a 20k out of 20k manuscript that doesn't actually include an entire chapter mentioned in the outline.
4) While this seems the most optional ("it's just text!"), writing in your publisher's style means the developer and editor spend less time fixing style issues in your manuscript and can spend more time fixing content issues in your manuscript. After all, would you rather they spend 5 hours putting your document into the proper style, or spend 5 hours turning a good adventure into a great adventure? Style is little things like "spell names are in italics, feats are capitalized," or big things like "ask them for a sample Word doc with the styles built in, and type into that using their formatting for body copy, sidebars, headers, stat blocks, and tables." Learn if they want you to use superscripted ordinals (1st, 2nd, and so on) or not and use that style. Is it a "bonus to saves" or a "bonus on" saves? Does your manuscript refer to non-Open game content like beholders, illithids, and names from Forgotten Realms? Do they say "and so on" or "etc." or "et cetera"? Failures: manuscript in plain text, items or spells using the SRD or WotC format, monsters or spells in 2e format, using non-Open content, and so on.
Do a lot of these seem like nitpicks? Sure. But to some drivers, speed limits, driving while intoxicated, staying in your lane, using proper signaling, maintaining proper tire pressure, and not blasting your stereo are also "nitpicks"....
* * * MASSIVE TANGENT WARNING * * *
The ideal designer's turnover is:
1) good/on topic
2) on time
3) the proper length
4) properly styledTo explain each of these points, and how to fail at them (and mind you, I've failed at just about all of these at one point or another):
Having made Sean's life as a developer a case of living in interesting times in the Chinese manner of speaking, I'll second absolutely everything that he said. I got nailed on SRD formated items/spells and being over word count recently. I'm not at all happy on that either, because it makes his job more difficult.
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
So... the judges have officially selected their Top 32, along with several alternates, and the guest judges are now commenting on them.
And now that I've had a chance to look at this year's Top 32 all in one place, I have to say I'm kind of surprised by how often the judges effectively said "this item is broken it at least a couple of important ways, but I see a creative spark here that makes me want to see what this writer will do in the next round."
And that kind of brings it around for me—while much of this thread has focused on what people did badly, it's good to shine a light on what people did well, and that is that they brought something unique and interesting to the table. If you can manage to do that, it's a lot easier to overlook some minor problems.
I have to say I'm kind of surprised by how often the judges effectively said "this item is broken it at least a couple of important ways, but I see a creative spark here that makes me want to see what this writer will do in the next round."
. . . and the dream is still alive!
I know I can't be the only one thinking that.
|
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
aka KissMeDarkly
|
How exactly is it decided which alternate is moved forward in the event someone drops out or is disqualified?
Also, last night while working on the villain concept for the next round (as practice) I thought of a Wonderous Item I wish I had submitted. Dang it. There's always next year.
|
Contributor
|
Within the boundaries of this contest, I know that explaining your pricing counted toward the word count, so most people didn't include it. As a developer, I LOVE it when a designer includes this info because I can see if their logic is reasonable, and it saves me from having to derive the cost from scratch (and perhaps miss some key thing for which they gave a discount).
Drat! I really really wanted to put my pricing justification in there, and I had the wordcount to spare. I decided not to though, because I didn't want to seem like I was insulting the judges' intelligence. Seemed like a good decision earlier when Clark was talking about something along those lines.
Still, I'm pretty sure my pricing won't be what gets me in or out. My item is novel but simple, which may translate as dull, depending mostly on your personal perspective. Most of my friends reactions to it were along the lines of "Okay, sure. Looks alright. Hmmm. Wait a minute. Okay, that's actually really cool. Wow!"
We'll see though.