Kslib: I cant believe i havent even written anything down..
Na wa oo.. Even if na 2lines,i must submit sha...
..
@mazi,submission starts tomorrow and ends on the 2nd of october right?
..
All izz well!

Efemena_xy: Hello All,

Firstly, I'd like to commend Mazi for this idea of his - good stuff and it'll help a lot of budding writers, so kudos to him for this.

Well, as a judge, I'd like to let you all know that I'm quite harsh in my critiques. I don't do friends or favours here and will be looking at the technical content of your write ups. You must strive to impress. By impressing me and the fellow judges, you'll also help improve your writing skills. Now without further ado, here's what I'll be looking out for:

Plot – How complex is it? The more complex, the better
Setting – Should be easy for the reader to visualize. Even better if the five senses are engaged: sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch
Characterisation – Individual characters should be well thought out, unique and thoroughly 'fleshed out'
Action – The reader(s) must feel engaged
Dialogue – Excellent level of interaction needed with minimum dialogue tags.
Romance – for love and romance genres, fiction (for fiction), sci-fi (for sci-fi) and so on. Point is, the reader MUST feel the genre
Suspense – Same as above

In addition to that, I would be looking out for the following:

Spelling -- Including English vs. British Variances for Consistency
Typographical Errors
Capitalization
All Punctuation
Proper Paragraphing & Dialogue Transition
Sentence Structure (Run-On Sentences & Sentence Fragments)
Verb-Tense Consistency
Redundancy
Point-Of-View Consistency (Head Hopping)
Narrative Consistency (1st Person--2nd Person--3rd Person)
Scene-Change Clarity and Flow
Story Structure:

~ Imagery of Scenes
~ Character Development
~ Believability of Action, Plot, and Resolution
~ Historical and Data Correctness

I've also suggested to Mazi that he up the stakes for this competition with regards to the prizes on offer here. That notwithstanding, I'm willing to aid in this respect:

First prize $100
Second prize $50
Third prize $20

Not sure how Mazi plans to organize this but I'll leave that to him.

Nonetheless, bottom line here is that we'll or rather I, would be looking out for quality works. You must endeavour to show and not tell. Now what do I mean by this? Say for example, you're describing a character's physical appearance: don't tell me she's beautiful. Show me what makes her beautiful!

Finally, your very first paragraphs MUST have that hook to keep me glued to your story. If I'm bored, I'll toss your write-up over my shoulders.

Let's show the world that Nigerians have it in them to produce the finest, quality works ever. Make your country proud and moreso, yourself!

Goodluck!

O my God!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yehhhhh..... This woman is wicked oooo.........

She did not reveal all this things since na now... Men.... Time to see the effort of writers.

N15,700 no be beans ooo.... E go buy you new phone self

Oya, start submitting

Popowaa: Just saw this can i join?

HumbledbYGrace: yea if you do not have a completed work on nairaland.

Ishilove: Lol. Efe, you're intimidating the writers. Some of the points you have enumerated is too high a bar for some, especially first time writers to meet, but thanks for the added incentives.

@writers, read Efe's post carefully and try to follow it to the tee, but don't let it hinder your creative flow. The most important thing is WRITE. Let it come from the deep well springs of your heart. Don't write to impress or because you want to win the prize, write because you want to and because you love to.

That doesn't sha mean you should write Latin for us o . Efe's post still encompasses the desirable elements that a good work of art should contain, so y'all gast to bring in your A-game

Efemena_xy:

Cheers Ishi

To be honest, it's not my intention to intimidate the writers out there, but to encourage them to strive for excellence. I know that there are some good ones out there - perhaps, this will encourage them to come out, that's why I think it's worth raising the bar... and on that note, I think (my opinion) that the minimum number of words submitted should be 10,000 and Mazi should consider extending the deadline for submission by a week. That way, we can be guaranteed quality submissions and more or less separate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone who's serious about this will take it up as a challenge.

What d'you think?

Efemena_xy:

Cheers Ishi

To be honest, it's not my intention to intimidate the writers out there, but to encourage them to strive for excellence. I know that there are some good ones out there - perhaps, this will encourage them to come out, that's why I think it's worth raising the bar... and on that note, I think (my opinion) that the minimum number of words submitted should be 10,000 and Mazi should consider extending the deadline for submission by a week. That way, we can be guaranteed quality submissions and more or less separate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone who's serious about this will take it up as a challenge.

What d'you think?

Efemena_xy:

Cheers Ishi

To be honest, it's not my intention to intimidate the writers out there, but to encourage them to strive for excellence. I know that there are some good ones out there - perhaps, this will encourage them to come out, that's why I think it's worth raising the bar... and on that note, I think (my opinion) that the minimum number of words submitted should be 10,000 and Mazi should consider extending the deadline for submission by a week. That way, we can be guaranteed quality submissions and more or less separate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone who's serious about this will take it up as a challenge.

What d'you think?

Mazi_Omenuko: The submission thread will be created shortly and submission will commence. I've been a bit busy today, but I'm back now.

You all heard Efe_xy. She's the current literature section poster of the year, you know what that means don't you?

About the take home prize, I will implement all she said for the subsequent edition coming up before the end of this year. For a star prize of $100, I think 10,000 words is okk. But let us concentrate on this maiden edition and see it thru before we start planning for subsequent editions.

Thank all for participating.

Submission thread coming up soon.

Efemena_xy:
Hello All,

Firstly, I'd like to commend Mazi for this idea of his - good stuff and it'll help a lot of budding writers, so kudos to him for this.

Well, as a judge, I'd like to let you all know that I'm quite harsh in my critiques. I don't do friends or favours here and will be looking at the technical content of your write ups. You must strive to impress. By impressing me and the fellow judges, you'll also help improve your writing skills. Now without further ado, here's what I'll be looking out for:

Plot – How complex is it? The more complex, the better
Setting – Should be easy for the reader to visualize. Even better if the five senses are engaged: sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch
Characterisation – Individual characters should be well thought out, unique and thoroughly 'fleshed out'
Action – The reader(s) must feel engaged
Dialogue – Excellent level of interaction needed with minimum dialogue tags.
Romance – for love and romance genres, fiction (for fiction), sci-fi (for sci-fi) and so on. Point is, the reader MUST feel the genre
Suspense – Same as above

In addition to that, I would be looking out for the following:

Spelling -- Including English vs. British Variances for Consistency
Typographical Errors
Capitalization
All Punctuation
Proper Paragraphing & Dialogue Transition
Sentence Structure (Run-On Sentences & Sentence Fragments)
Verb-Tense Consistency
Redundancy
Point-Of-View Consistency (Head Hopping)
Narrative Consistency (1st Person--2nd Person--3rd Person)
Scene-Change Clarity and Flow
Story Structure:

~ Imagery of Scenes
~ Character Development
~ Believability of Action, Plot, and Resolution
~ Historical and Data Correctness

I've also suggested to Mazi that he up the stakes for this competition with regards to the prizes on offer here. That notwithstanding, I'm willing to aid in this respect:

First prize $100
Second prize $50
Third prize $20

Not sure how Mazi plans to organize this but I'll leave that to him.

Nonetheless, bottom line here is that we'll or rather I, would be looking out for quality works. You must endeavour to show and not tell. Now what do I mean by this? Say for example, you're describing a character's physical appearance: don't tell me she's beautiful. Show me what makes her beautiful!

Finally, your very first paragraphs MUST have that hook to keep me glued to your story. If I'm bored, I'll toss your write-up over my shoulders.

Let's show the world that Nigerians have it in them to produce the finest, quality works ever. Make your country proud and moreso, yourself!

Goodluck!

Efemena_xy: Hello All,

Firstly, I'd like to commend Mazi for this idea of his - good stuff and it'll help a lot of budding writers, so kudos to him for this.

Well, as a judge, I'd like to let you all know that I'm quite harsh in my critiques. I don't do friends or favours here and will be looking at the technical content of your write ups. You must strive to impress. By impressing me and the fellow judges, you'll also help improve your writing skills. Now without further ado, here's what I'll be looking out for:

Plot – How complex is it? The more complex, the better
Setting – Should be easy for the reader to visualize. Even better if the five senses are engaged: sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch
Characterisation – Individual characters should be well thought out, unique and thoroughly 'fleshed out'
Action – The reader(s) must feel engaged
Dialogue – Excellent level of interaction needed with minimum dialogue tags.
Romance – for love and romance genres, fiction (for fiction), sci-fi (for sci-fi) and so on. Point is, the reader MUST feel the genre
Suspense – Same as above

In addition to that, I would be looking out for the following:

Spelling -- Including English vs. British Variances for Consistency
Typographical Errors
Capitalization
All Punctuation
Proper Paragraphing & Dialogue Transition
Sentence Structure (Run-On Sentences & Sentence Fragments)
Verb-Tense Consistency
Redundancy
Point-Of-View Consistency (Head Hopping)
Narrative Consistency (1st Person--2nd Person--3rd Person)
Scene-Change Clarity and Flow
Story Structure:

~ Imagery of Scenes
~ Character Development
~ Believability of Action, Plot, and Resolution
~ Historical and Data Correctness

I've also suggested to Mazi that he up the stakes for this competition with regards to the prizes on offer here. That notwithstanding, I'm willing to aid in this respect:

First prize $100
Second prize $50
Third prize $20

Not sure how Mazi plans to organize this but I'll leave that to him.

Nonetheless, bottom line here is that we'll or rather I, would be looking out for quality works. You must endeavour to show and not tell. Now what do I mean by this? Say for example, you're describing a character's physical appearance: don't tell me she's beautiful. Show me what makes her beautiful!

Finally, your very first paragraphs MUST have that hook to keep me glued to your story. If I'm bored, I'll toss your write-up over my shoulders.

Let's show the world that Nigerians have it in them to produce the finest, quality works ever. Make your country proud and moreso, yourself!

Goodluck!

Jekyll & Hyde:
Mazi,

Please, strike out my name. I won't be able to submit any story.

Thanks.

Kslib:

Jekyll,did Efe scare you? lol
..
Me sef fear her ooo.. Hian!!!
All izz well!

Lol. Scare? Nah, she typed like an editor.

No fear. You can do it.

Thinking of it, I'd love to read his (her) works. There's something else I need help with.

Jekyll & Hyde:


Lol. Scare? Nah, she typed like an editor.

No fear. You can do it.

Thinking of it, I'd love to read his (her) works. There's something else I need help with.

Kslib:
I just dey joke.. Dont pull out nah..
..
Help? What is it?
..
All izz well!

Hahaha, okay. I thought as much. Lol, I have to. I no go finish am. I can't deal with myself if I don't finish something.

Na one writing ish sha. Lemme read his (her) works first and I'll decide.

You don start?

Jekyll & Hyde:


Hahaha, okay. I thought as much. Lol, I have to. I no go finish am. I can't deal with myself if I don't finish something.

Na one writing ish sha. Lemme read his (her) works first and I'll decide.

You don start?

Jekyll & Hyde:


Hahaha, okay. I thought as much. Lol, I have to. I no go finish am. I can't deal with myself if I don't finish something.

Na one writing ish sha. Lemme read his (her) works first and I'll decide.

You don start?

Miss_Fibre: Wow!!!... Ehm... I look forward to seeing the first person to drop his story.

Stakes too high.

An0nimus:
Maybe its too late for this question but what if the writers send their stuff to an email address and everything is submitted on a set date?