Author Support Group discussion

Hey, Sharon! Did you get to read my story? Now that's the contest is over, I'm dying to know what you thought of it.

The Fold

I'm terrified of the people over in the forums so I don't know if I can go over there and see what others will say. I know I got a bunch of 1-star votes.

I haven't read it yet, no ... I tried to get to all of them and just couldn't.

There was, IMO, some deliberate sand-bagging of outstanding stories. I know that I made the mistake of tweaking my story too much before I sent it, but there were some really great stories hovering between 2 and 3 stars -- and that makes no sense.

Okay. Just went and read it, LOL.

I thought it was good. I thought the language was evocative, and that you told a complete story by showing, not telling.

I really wish I knew what was up with the way people voted. Out of 128 reads, I got only 51 votes ... and a score of 2.27. Even given the over-editing on my part, I don't think it was *that* bad, LOL. I guess you can decide for yourselves:

http://editorunleashed.com/forum/show...

I didn't get to read them all either but I did get to read your story. Do you want to know what I thought? I hesitate to post in the forums--for the reasons stated earlier--but there was one semi(and I mean semi)-negative thing about yours that really stood out to me. (Honestly, I can't remember exactly what rating I gave you, though.)

As far as the rating goes, it was good old-fashioned sandbagging, as you said. With the views, however, most of the stories had at least 50 views before the voting even started.

Hi, Jaimie. I'm happy to know what you thought. :-)

Ok. Please, please, please don't take this wrong. It was the title. By using "Judas" in the title, you kind of gave the ending away. For me, anyway. I read the title, realized in the first sentence that there was a man involved, and kind of knew where it was heading. Otherwise, I thought it was very well-written and descriptive--I had no trouble picturing the whole scenario. An interesting story, really. It was just the title taking the surprise away that really "marred" it for me.

Are you mad? *cringe*

No, I'm not at all mad. That's information I can use. If I decide to re-enter it somewhere, I can change the title. I am *definitely* undoing the tweaks I did to it, though; I had deliberately not identified the gender of the narrator, and I think it was stronger that way. :-/ I think I watered it down with my changes.

Honestly, your criticism of the title is a big help. It's something I hadn't considered (how lame is *that*)?

Now I'm thinking about alternate titles, LOL. "Betrayed by a Kiss" keeps coming to mind. Hmmm.

That's a great title! Then, when people read his name, they'll go, OMG! (I think I had an actual blond teenager moment there. Did you hear the weird inflection in my "voice" when I said OMG?)

I'm so relieved you are not mad! And very glad I could be of help. :o)

I meant to ask you:

Do you know of any contests that would be right for my story? I'm very, very new to the whole flash fiction, entering writing competitions thing but I can't let go of the "liking" I have for my story. I don't know. What do you think? Should I try again?

I think you should definitely try again. There is a short-short competition on Writers Digest where I am probably going to enter the re-titled and untweaked version of my story: http://writersdigest.com/short

I don't suppose you know of any free contests? lol

No, I don't. :-/ But I'll keep an eye out. :-)

Thanx. I'll have to check the Editor Unleashed forums, too, I think. If I can work up the courage. :o)