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Honestly, I'd just submit it anyway. They weren't asking for a stat block, they were asking for a story.
I have no idea what class my guy is. He could be a ex-bard, ex-paladin, prestige class Arabian flavored sword fighter with some rogue levels. I have no idea how to stat him up, but it really wasn't important. The character was.
personally i like better those stories where gamming concepts are ignored... characters should be more than rogues, fighters and wizards, they must eb the sum of their personalities, perks and flaws...
for an story you must forget about the numbers and think what they mean.
so I do prefer characters to be spoken by their profession than their class...considering a mercenary, a soldier or a crusader could be any class, and the english language has enough definitions to describe some things without refereing to fighter, rogue, etc...
but that is me. :)
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Sorry to hear that Guy. I shed a tear for those that have the talent but miss the deadline.
On a side note, we are officially closed for submissions.
You should all be very proud of yourselves. The total individual submissions was 61 people. Given that most are around the 4500 word limit, I can firmly say that I have 274,500 words of Golarion goodness sitting on my desk.
...I can firmly say that I have 274,500 words of Golarion goodness sitting on my desk.
So...what you're saying is you got my 4,500 word shortstory and then Todd Stewart turned in one that ran 270,000 words long? Way to go, Todd. <_<
Heh. ;-)
--Neil
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Honestly, I'd just submit it anyway. They weren't asking for a stat block, they were asking for a story.
I have no idea what class my guy is. He could be a ex-bard, ex-paladin, prestige class Arabian flavored sword fighter with some rogue levels. I have no idea how to stat him up, but it really wasn't important. The character was.
Thanks everyone for the support, but we're not talking a +1 bonus here or there, or a swift action being a standard. We're talking about a core assumption of mine being just plain wrong.
Oh, it wasn't the only issue. I didn't start getting the support materials together until last week (place names, dates, etc), and domestic issues meant I ended up looking after the kids in the time I'd allotted for writing.
I am awfully bad at naming characters, so I had placeholders for some of the supporting cast, and a ship, which I was going to run through yesterday and replace.
I've got so many dead PCs over the years that it's a running gag that I don't name them unless they survive a session. LOL
So while I'm going through the Wiki to get the feel for authentically ethnic names, I'm also checking some queries I have in the rules, re the hero and the main antagonist. What, no Beast Shape on the Ranger list? OK, I can work round that, he's a wildshaping druid. No big deal, But then, I find that JJ just specifically ruled out two options for eidolons, on which the whole thing hinged, one being the major twist, and the other being the wrong conclusion, that gets the support cast killed.
I was very pushed for time, and am full of cold, as well.
So what I thought would be 'write a bridging paragraph, change some names and spellcheck' became 'do total rewrite'.
OK, big jug of coffee, let's DO IT.
But with 6 hours to go, I've got a document that's half old plot and one-tenth new, the meds kick in, and I know I'm going to fall asleep at my keyboard if I don't go to bed, and I still haven't picked a name for the ship's Mate and a priest of Asmodeus.
So, Poop.
I may submit the original to PF Chronicles, but I'll wait till the judging's over, so it doesn't interfere with that.
I'll look forward to reading all the entries, whatever happens, and thanks for running this.
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I was very pushed for time, and am full of cold, as well.
So what I thought would be 'write a bridging paragraph, change some names and spellcheck' became 'do total rewrite'.
OK, big jug of coffee, let's DO IT.But with 6 hours to go, I've got a document that's half old plot and one-tenth new, the meds kick in, and I know I'm going to fall asleep at my keyboard if I don't go to bed, and I still haven't picked a name for the ship's Mate and a priest of Asmodeus.
I may submit the original to PF Chronicles, but I'll wait till the judging's over, so it doesn't interfere with that.
I'll look forward to reading all the entries, whatever happens, and thanks for running this
man i do understand... sometimes one requires full rewrites for each piece to work like we want them to work.
Still we hope to have you on Pathfinder Chronicler and check this story soon. You can upload it whenever you want... je i just don't promise we can check it until after the 25... as 62 (if my excell is right) stories with an average of 4,028 words and a total of 249,717 words to read (which I myself consider a complete success, not only for the quantity of the submission, but also because of the quality of most of the stories I already read), i believe most of us would be pretty busy the coming days...
I myself i am at a 3rd of the list... so the long road has just begun :)
Another of those who didn't make it, here. I feel your pain, Snorter. I didn't learn about the contest until there was only about ten days left, and between my day job and family stuff, I just couldn't finish in time. I'm disappointed, because I felt pretty good about the story I was writing, too.
Any chance of doing another contest like this in the near future (hope, hope)?
Congratulations (and good luck) to everyone that entered!
I got mine in with about an hour or so to spare last night. Yay!
I'm kind of surprised there were only 61 submissions. I was expecting more. Still, I won't complain. It improves everyone's odds to win. :)
I got mine in with about an hour or so to spare last night. Yay!
I'm kind of surprised there were only 61 submissions. I was expecting more. Still, I won't complain. It improves everyone's odds to win. :)
Likewise, I am not going to complain. 61 submissions means something on the order of a 1 in 12 chance of making the top 5. Though with folks like Todd and Neil in the mix... well, it's a long hard road.
Best of luck to everyone who entered... and of course to the judges, who have many hours of reading ahead of them.
- Ashavan
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Another of those who didn't make it, here. I feel your pain, Snorter. I didn't learn about the contest until there was only about ten days left, and between my day job and family stuff, I just couldn't finish in time. I'm disappointed, because I felt pretty good about the story I was writing, too.
Any chance of doing another contest like this in the near future (hope, hope)?
Congratulations (and good luck) to everyone that entered!
Is in the plans, yes, but first let us finish this one and then we will plan for the future, but I think this would be the only contest for the year.
Actually they were a bit more submission than 61 (still i think they are 62... will have to check), sadly we had to disqualify a few ones. Mostly because of length.
in the meantime... yes... we do have a lot to read :P
Here's to hoping that the contest is successful enough to spawn a sequel since I didn't have time to finish mine, boo. Good luck to those who entered and looking forward to reading the winner's entry.
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Congrats to everyone who entered, and everyone who even STARTED a Golarion story! Even if you didn't get into the contest before the deadline, you still have a work in progress or completed story that you can put on Pathfinder Chronicler for everyone to read!
A big thank you to the judges, who will have a lot of difficulty ahead of them deciding the top 5, I'm sure.
Y'all sure are fans of the last minute. I had 35 story submissions in my inbox this morning. :P
Hm. My story itself clocks in at 4494 words, but if you add the cover letter it's a bit more than the max. I assume the cover letter isn't counted toward the word count, correct?
My strategy for writing a short story is to think about it, and think about it, and think about it some more, and sleep on it, and then one day sit down and bang out the whole thing at one sitting, maybe two. Then let it sit for a day or so, go back through it line by line making little tweaks, and then it's done. I hardly ever do extensive re-writes, and I've only abandoned a story in progress once or twice in my life. Usually by the time I start actually typing, the cake is already baked and it's just a matter of adding the frosting and the candles.
Seems to work for me. But I did get my entry in almost a week ahead of deadline, which is unusual.
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Hm. My story itself clocks in at 4494 words, but if you add the cover letter it's a bit more than the max. I assume the cover letter isn't counted toward the word count, correct?
The wordcount considers only the story, the cover letter is not relevant for countdown, I make sure that Word gave me the exact number... in the PDFs I have to trust every entry until I pass it to word (we make notes, so its easier to work like that)
besides we are not sending the cover letters to Sutter :P
So considering how everyone who was close to 4500 was careful not to push beyond that, any stories pushing not 20 but 150 the wordcount were immediately disqualified
My strategy for writing a short story is to think about it, and think about it, and think about it some more, and sleep on it, and then one day sit down and bang out the whole thing at one sitting, maybe two. Then let it sit for a day or so, go back through it line by line making little tweaks, and then it's done. I hardly ever do extensive re-writes, and I've only abandoned a story in progress once or twice in my life. Usually by the time I start actually typing, the cake is already baked and it's just a matter of adding the frosting and the candles.
Seems to work for me. But I did get my entry in almost a week ahead of deadline, which is unusual.
Interesting process... and we do thank every early entry, it lets us begin the evaluation early :)
Cool. Danke Montalve.
My strategy for writing a short story is to think about it, and think about it, and think about it some more, and sleep on it, and then one day sit down and bang out the whole thing at one sitting, maybe two. Then let it sit for a day or so, go back through it line by line making little tweaks, and then it's done. I hardly ever do extensive re-writes, and I've only abandoned a story in progress once or twice in my life. Usually by the time I start actually typing, the cake is already baked and it's just a matter of adding the frosting and the candles.
Seems to work for me. But I did get my entry in almost a week ahead of deadline, which is unusual.
Somewhat similar to mine. I think and research and think and think. I usually have a nugget of an idea, like "I want to set this in Thuvia". I then research every reference ever put in Thuvia and then let the idea grow from what's come before. The whole thing kind of grows organically. I often had a few core scenes in mind and I write them out first thing.
Then I have a Belgian ale and bang out 3000 words in one sitting. After that I just desperately try to find time between work and life to hammer kinks out and throw more in or out.
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Snorter:
Sorry to read about your experiences. There are some months where events just seem to conspire against you...
I know; what burns is that I'd been playing one of the 'twists in the tail', as a core theme of my PFSoc PC (one of those you nearly killed with your freaky dice-rolls, LOL), and no-one blinked an eye.
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Congrats to all that entered. Several people I know submitted stories, and I am glad there will be some stiff competition for this.
I have no idea how I would stat up the main character for my story either. Paizo already won, since I bought one of the older guides in PDF for reference for the story. :)
It was a nice bonus to have a teacher-wife to edit and find grammatical mistakes too!
Good luck!
This is all very exciting. I think I passed my Craft (Short Story) check and am pretty sure my Knowledge (Golarion) was pretty good, but I suppose we'll see! :)
With 62ish stories, you judges have a lot to read in the next bit. Abit of math just informed me that it's up to 279k words to read! That's comparable with a mid-sized Wheel of Time book. So not only good luck to the other entrants, but good luck to the judges also! You've taken on quite a task.
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With 62ish stories, you judges have a lot to read in the next bit. Abit of math just informed me that it's up to 279k words to read! That's comparable with a mid-sized Wheel of Time book. So not only good luck to the other entrants, but good luck to the judges also! You've taken on quite a task.
since i am mad... i reedited every piece into the same format, made a compendium for easy use and printed it on the office... God thanks printers can work with 2 pages on the same sides and print on both sides...
All the entries would be a nice book of 493 pages, considering 1 cover, 3 index pages and 1 blank page.
I am keeping the index still secret
I am keeping the index still secret
Actually it'd be really cool to see a list of the names of the stories that were submitted, just to get an idea of what themes and/or locations people had in mind when they were writing their submission. :)
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Actually it'd be really cool to see a list of the names of the stories that were submitted, just to get an idea of what themes and/or locations people had in mind when they were writing their submission. :)
To keep things fair and not have the beans spilled, we have decided to post the list of titles (and authors) after James Sutter chose the winners. Until then, be patient, please.
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I missed my deadline due to being chomped on by pitbulls so I never submitted. Will instead cannibalize most of the story into a new Purvis Wade short story and submit it to wayfinder. along with a weal and woe that stats up Wade and the villain of the novel on pathfinderchronicler.net
ugh
well at least you are better man, i am really sorry for what happened, still we always projects on mind.
I am keeping the index still secret...
Contest Compendium 01
Contest Compendium 02
Great product placement there, Montalve, with Before They Were Giants lying in the background. :-)
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Great product placement there, Montalve, with Before They Were Giants lying in the background. :-)I am keeping the index still secret...
Contest Compendium 01
Contest Compendium 02
jeje thanks :)
between offering comparison for the size and being related it sounded like a good idea :)besides... I need to have it at hand for when i have some free timeto read the last stories... i am with R.A. Salvatore's hobbit story, not my favorite so far (i am no fan of hobbits :P)
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Montalve, thanks for that photo of your "compendium of the Pathfinder fiction contest." But why do you have a spice jar on your desk? Were our stories too bland? ;)
nah, i blame my old father for the custom of condimenting everything before tasting it.
PS: lol so much for hoping no one would notice the tajin :P...
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Got my story in late that Saturday night ('bout 2-3am). Had a rough time parsing it down to just 4500 words (final count was 4496 w/out title page). It was a struggle on the technical front, too. When I was in high school the table top PC was that hallowed device kept in the reserve room in the media center, so I was never really exposed to the wonders of PC use. Most of my younger friends run rings around me when it comes to tech-talk- as a matter of fact I had to ask someone how to save in rtf format! I'm getting better, although Microsoft Works is the only writing program I'm familiar with. I just hope I sent it in a format that could be worked with!
The story just started writing itself after I got past the 1st few 100 words, and it was a blast- I never had anything flow out of me like that. I've always wanted to write, and this has definitely made the writing bug bite! This was exhilherating and I look forward to the next contest.
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Got my story in late that Saturday night ('bout 2-3am). Had a rough time parsing it down to just 4500 words (final count was 4496 w/out title page). It was a struggle on the technical front, too. When I was in high school the table top PC was that hallowed device kept in the reserve room in the media center, so I was never really exposed to the wonders of PC use. Most of my younger friends run rings around me when it comes to tech-talk- as a matter of fact I had to ask someone how to save in rtf format! I'm getting better, although Microsoft Works is the only writing program I'm familiar with. I just hope I sent it in a format that could be worked with!
The story just started writing itself after I got past the 1st few 100 words, and it was a blast- I never had anything flow out of me like that. I've always wanted to write, and this has definitely made the writing bug bite! This was exhilherating and I look forward to the next contest.
no worries
i could work with every format sent... and those which caused a bit of trouble I converted to something workable, i am sure the others did the same (and if not i added them to our pool)cool the contest did that for you :)
next year we talk about the next contest :)
but not before getting Sutter to chose a winner here :P
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Enyn, don't lose that.
Only five people will go over the top but that doesn't give you an excuse to stop. At Pathfinder Chronicler, we shred each other's stuff over and over. You have never seen a more ugly story than the ones edited by us. Talk about feeling leveled.
We challenge everything the author puts forth, from mispelling to plot choices, wording to story flow. We challenge your character's actions as well as the credibility of what you are describing. I got called out for my old dead bodies appearing too fresh.
As a hairstylist once said, "We don't look good unless you look good."
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Thanks, Zuxius
I'm rarin' to go again with more stories featuring the same characters. My friend and I both entered the contest and we've been saying that even if we just place in the top five that' would be reward enough. Right now I'm sketching out story ideas for future Pathfinder tales with the same characters, but one in particular has been trying to claw its way out of my head so I guess I'll be tackling that one first. Are there word limits to what can be posted at the Patfinderchronicler website?
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At Pathfinder Chronicler we leave nothing out. You can do poetry, riddles, music, art work, you name it. But it seems the subjects we have now revolve around two forms for the moment.
Short Stories and the Serial Novel/Novella.
I prefer to write Serial Novel for my characters that seem to have a big story to tell. These are much like Flash Gordon serials if you will. Each piece has a cliffhanger and weighs in about 1500-2000 words per part. Naturally you can write Parts 1-57 or whatever. If you wish to write a novel and post it bit by bit, than that would be the place for it.
As for the Short Story form, it too can have multiple parts but nothing like a serial novel would have. We really have differences of opinions on just how a short story is categorized. For myself I like to think a Short Story has a beginning-middle-end. The author sets up the story with a lot of variables and by the time the story ends all those variables are pretty much brought together for a conclusive ending. Some writers on the site beg to differ with me on that approach but we get a lot of people telling themselves they will start with the short story format since it seems to be a good place to test the waters. And then they begin their Epic Opus that has no way in hell of a remote possibility of ever ending (something to the proportion of say Terry Goodkind). For the Short Story format I strongly recommend reading Who Fears the Devil-The Complete Silver John and Robots Have No Tails . These stories convey the short story format brilliantly and leaves the reader pounding at your doors for more. Short Stories that leave a whole backyard open to the reader with nothing conclusive makes a reader want to turn the page for the conclusion they are seeking. I get a very shallow feeling when I read a short story that has no conclusion whatsoever. Short stories I feel should deliver a strong conclusion. If you can't do it than I think you aren't writing a short story.
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I get a very shallow feeling when I read a short story that has no conclusion whatsoever. Short stories I feel should deliver a strong conclusion. If you...
which not all of us agree, my own recommendation is the same as sutter... red "Before they were giant" for very good short stories that sometimes grow in longer stories by themselves, other is the realization that there is something else besides.
wordcount in the site is not important, but we divide each piece into smaller pieces so its easier and less tiring for the reader... wall of text are really dreaded
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I get a very shallow feeling when I read a short story that has no conclusion whatsoever. Short stories I feel should deliver a strong conclusion. If you...which not all of us agree, my own recommendation is...
...and yes, Pathfinder Chronicler is a group with a diversity of opinions. We are not all seeing eye to eye on one particular thing or the another...and that is a good thing.
I've got about 27 left to read and score. Woo!