These are the entries for Category 4, Writing. Judging ends December 9th for this `round`, where the top 3 will compete in the finals. Entries have been given a short snippet and then linked.

Judging Rubric
Creativity: 40%
Originality: 20%
Skill: 30%
Effort: 10%
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100% / 100%




ENTRY 1
"We come in peace, sort of. We have to be honest by saying that this is all one really big mess. We will do our best to explain everything, and if you have any questions, then please, send a message to the GSQAI, who will do there best to answer any questions you have.

Our race, the humanoid Soaplains are currently at war with the Lodixautions due to the fact that even the littlest drop of water is extremely deadly to us, yet it is extremely important to there survival. We have tried to live in peace with them, but they insist our quarrel with water is impure and unnatural. They have broken out into war with us, and we have reacted as we must in order to defend our people."
Title/Desc: "A short sci-fi story that takes place on another planet about a vigilante who is forced to fight in the same war that he wants his race to lose."
Link to Story




ENTRY 2
"They quickly got into their gear and into their planes. They started the engines and went through all the pre-flight preparations. They taxied quickly onto the runway and were in the air in a matter of seconds. They quickly gained altitude and speed, and raised their landing gear into the belly of the plane. The roar of the planes was one of the things that they loved about being up in the plane. Though it would just be deafening noise to anybody else who heard it, they were used to it, and it was a big part of their life."
Title/Desc: "........."
Link to Story
PUBLIC ENTRY FORM WAS NEVER FILLED OUT BUT THIS WILL BE JUDGED REGARDLESS. HOWEVER, AUTHOR SHOULD ADD HIS ENTRY FORM ASAP, OR RISK LOSING ANY MERITS OR AWARDS.



ENTRY 3
"Before I realized what the wilderness was or what pking was. I was attacked and killed at that spot he took me to. This group was laughing and calling me words that I did not know the meaning at the time such as noob. I pleaded and ran in the game but by the time I started to run I was dead. "
Title/Desc: "A short story about my first RuneScape experience."
Link to Story


ENTRY 4
" �€œJust shut it and stop drinking back there�€� said John.
You could tell by his voice that John was getting irritated by the other two shouting and complaining, but he knew they were true, he had no clue where he was or where he is going, all he saw was hills and sand around him. There was no population in miles to be seen. "
Title/Desc: "My short horror story, I hope you guys enjoy reading it"
Link to Story

Entry 1
Creativity: 30%
Originality: 10%
Skill: 15%
Effort: 8%
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63% / 100%


Entry 2
Creativity: 35%
Originality: 15%
Skill: 25%
Effort: 8%
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83% / 100%

Entry 3
Creativity: 35%
Originality: 15%
Skill: 20%
Effort: 10%
--------------------
80% / 100%


Entry 4
Creativity: 30%
Originality: 13%
Skill: 20%
Effort: 10%
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73% / 100%

My votes go for entries two,three, and four. Should entry 2 finish their form properly of course.

Chosen entries one, two and three. I nominate Entry 1 for 'Best use of profanity' award.

Rationale

Entry 1
Creativity: 33% / 40%
Originality: 16% / 20%
Skill: 18% / 30%
Effort: 8% / 10%
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75% / 100%

Comment: Seems like a fair amount of effort was put into this entry and it is very imaginative. I thought it was a very fun story and enjoyed reading it, but it did feel amateurish. It wasn't well written in that there werew plenty of mistakes such as 'there' instead of 'their', 'are' instead of 'our', 'then' instead of 'than', 'your' instead of 'you're' and 'it's' instead of 'its' and some grammatical mistakes.

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Entry 2
Creativity: 25% / 40%
Originality: 10% / 20%
Skill: 26% / 30%
Effort: 7% / 10%
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67% / 100%

Comment: Interesting and fairly well written. Only real flaw (besides a missed comma, saying 'is' instead of 'his' and a missing quotation mark) was word repetition, where sometimes it may have been better to word things in a different way to avoid starting the majority of sentences in a paragraph with the same word. Shame about the short length, I want to know what happens next!

Entry 3
Creativity: 15% / 40%
Originality: 15% / 20%
Skill: 25% / 30%
Effort: 7% / 10%
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62% / 100%

Comment: Quite an indearing story told coherently. It gave some insight into who he was and his thought processes. However doesn't show a creative flare since it is purely based on his own experience. I suppose one major criticism is that it presumes prior knowledge of RuneScape. Minor errors include using 'Lumbrage' instead of 'Lumbridge'.

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Entry 4
Creativity: 20% / 40%
Originality: 10% / 20%
Skill: 20% / 30%
Effort: 7% / 10%
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57% / 100%

Comment: I found this story the hardest to read due to its lack of spacing and paragraphs and generally poor grammar. The dialogue was fine and the story generally interesting - I loved the ending, but at no point was I particularly scared (maybe because I didn't care about the characters). Minor mistakes: says 'encase' instead of 'in case' and has at least two word omitted (one at a crucial point I might add) - by mutated did he mean mutilated?

Category 4, Entry 1
Creativity: 40% / 40%
Originality: 15% / 20%
Skill: 5% / 30%
Effort: 10% / 10%
--------------------
70% / 100%

Very fuckin' original. Actually, I did find it an interesting storyline. Full marks for creativity. However, there were dozens of mistakes. It would take me about an hour to go through and fix all the mistakes, and well, having appropriate skill is part of the score. Has this been written better with a larger vocabulary used, it would have gotten better marks.
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Category 4, Entry 2
Creativity: 30% / 40%
Originality: 10% / 20%
Skill: 20% / 30%
Effort: 10% / 10%
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70% / 100%

I felt no tug or pull to the main character. Who is the main character? Where's the draw-in? The story suddenly ends.
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Category 4, Entry 3
Creativity: 35% / 40%
Originality: 17% / 20%
Skill: 20% / 30%
Effort: 8% / 10%
--------------------
80% / 100%

Big "Hmm." Now, who in their right mind would talk about their experience in Runescape. I find this entry slightly amusing, and a little confusing. Now, should I give it higher marks on creativity/originality because who would even want to talk about Runescape? Well, I have chosen to basically give it average on everything. It's written somewhat well, although I think there are too many sentences that start with "I"; more description would have put this entry over the top.
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Category 4, Entry 4
Creativity: 30% / 40%
Originality: 14% / 20%
Skill: 28% / 30%
Effort: 10% / 10%
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82% / 100%

A horror story probably isn't the most creative, or original thing to write for a contest, but out of all the entries I liked this one the best. First is the descriptive content. I would have been more descriptive, but what it is now is adequate, a lot of the detail is left to the mind. The story flowed a lot better than the others with dialogue, although the dialogue was too heavy in some spots.

I choose entries 1, 3 and 4. Tie broke between 1 & 2 because it looked like #1 put in a lot more effort.

Entry 1
Creativity: 10%
Originality: 5%
Skill: 10%
Effort: 4%
--------------------
29% / 100%

Comment: Seems they took elements from the plot of Alien Nation.


Entry 2
Creativity: 30%
Originality: 14%
Skill: 24%
Effort: 7%
--------------------
75% / 100%


Entry 3
Creativity: 19%
Originality: 9%
Skill: 18%
Effort: 7%
--------------------
53% / 100%


Entry 4
Creativity: 16%
Originality: 13%
Skill: 22%
Effort: 6%
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57% / 100%