Oahray:
hmmm... It haf reach like that?

Yes. Tit for tat

Caracta:


Yes. Tit for tat

well I have neither tit nor tat. Which did I give you?

Oahray:
well I have neither tit nor tat. Which did I give you?

Tit

@whitemosquito,i included a title in my entry..my title was the subject of the mail i sent,but it didnt appear thus..wat do i do?

Caracta:


Tit

lol.

I'm sorry Caracta. How have you been?

Bhenehdikt:
@whitemosquito,i included a title in my entry..my title was the subject of the mail i sent,but it didnt appear thus..wat do i do?

Bobo, does that not sound wrong to you? How can you put it as the SUBJECT of your mail and not the TITLE? The two sound alike to you?

Anywho... I'll do a modification of your entry now. Nothing spoil.

Mehn... See eye food, I go read tire. Thanks whitemosquito.

whitemosquito:
Bobo, does that not sound wrong to you? How can you put it as the SUBJECT of your mail and not the TITLE? The two sound alike to you?

Anywho... I'll do a modification of your entry now. Nothing spoil.

whitemosquito!..tanx dearie

Oops, forgotten I can't open my ymail with my phone...what's your entry titled, bhenehdikt?

whitemosquito:
Oops, forgotten I can't open my ymail with my phone...what's your entry titled, bhenehdikt?

A touch of Hope

@ whitemosquito
there is a little issue with my entry, Yepala's price

a lot of adjacent words have been merged together for some reason (I wonder why). could you be kind enough to put the spaces where they belong. that way, it will be less clumsy. tenk!

cc: Larrysun Repogirl

Oahray:
lol.

I'm sorry Caracta. How have you been?

Alive and well.

Hmmm.
Everyone is blaming some mechanics for their errors, abi? Issorai. If they had posted it themselves, they wouldn't been saying so...

@eillo,that's exactly how it appears in your mail,but no problem, I've fixed it.

Whitemosquito,funny name.

I observed that a lot of us either did not understand the rules or we didnt bother to read them.

Very bad. In any contest, one of the most important things you can ever do is to READ THE RULES...and understand them. I even opened a comment thread specifically to respond to questions and clarifications, unfortunately even some of the questions asked were not the right questions..

So while the judges are judging, lemme be dropping little clues...

Now, one of the guidelines reads that contestants may write based on a theme of their choice- comedy, humour, tragedy, romance etc, right?

Okay.

But didnt I go further to state that this edition's Challenge is woven around the PROMISE AND EXCITEMENT OF THE NEW YEAR?

If you think about it carefully, it means only happy stories. Stories that are filled with happiness or excitement. Not tragedies.
If you decide to write a tragedy, you must tweak it or twist it with the best of your skill, somehow towards the finish such that it ENDS ON A HAPPY/EXCITING NOTE.
That's the Challenge.

A lot of contestants failed here.

whitemosquito:
I observed that a lot of us either did not understand the rules or we didnt bother to read them.

Very bad. In any contest, one of the most important things you can ever do is to READ THE RULES...and understand them. I even opened a comment thread specifically to respond to questions and clarifications, unfortunately even some of the questions asked were not the right questions..

So while the judges are judging, lemme be dropping little clues...

Now, one of the guidelines reads that contestants may write based on a theme of their choice- comedy, humour, tragedy, romance etc, right?

Okay.

But didnt I go further to state that this edition's Challenge is woven around the PROMISE AND EXCITEMENT OF THE NEW YEAR?

If you think about it carefully, it means only happy stories. Stories that are filled with happiness or excitement. Not tragedies.
If you decide to write a tragedy, you must tweak it or twist it with the best of your skill, somehow towards the finish such that it ENDS ON A HAPPY/EXCITING NOTE.
That's the Challenge.

A lot of contestants failed here.

busted.

hahahahahaha!...whitey,u suppose undastand na,wen money dey involved,man fit forget rules...but nothing spoil sha.
Wen will the first phase end? @whitemosquito

If you look at it in a way been pregnant is a happy Ending!

chrisviral:


If you look at it in a way been pregnant is a happy Ending!

lolz..oga calm down o!

And the same, should I call it nonchalance or negligence, was displayed in the entries. Typos, tensal errors, misspellings...when you're submitting for the purpose of a competition? When you're work will be analyzed and scrutinized? In depth?

That's just sad.

Some of the entries I posted, I had to clean up and arrange, which strictly speaking, is wrong.
Entries without titles...when I specifically stated, TWICE- in the general guidelines and again when I dropped my mail address- that all entries should carry titles and monikers. I had to attach ppl's monikers to their entries.

Some addressed the SUBJECT of the mail as the title of their entry. So, how am I supposed to know what youre submitting FOR? What if I was running two separate competitions simultaneously? You don't leave things to chance like that.
The SUBJECT should have been The White Mosquito Flash fiction....blah blah, while the BODY OF YOUR MAIL SHOULD CARRY YOUR TITLE. If you were attaching files, same thing. Your title should be contained in your file.

Some people saved their files as "yeah" or "aha". Like really? When I opened them, they contained titles only or titles and monikers, no White Mosquito Challenge anywhere in the entire mail. Na wa.

Then the arrangement style was just...painful. Some people wrote like they were writing letters to themselves or perhaps their girl/boy friends. Some used fonts that my laptop didnt even recognise.

As far as arrangement or presentation of entries is concerned, very few people impressed me. One of such was mobsync; he/she included the nl profile URL for his/her moniker as well as the title. Beautiful. Over and above call of duty; well thought out.

I choose to believe that a lot of us didn't take the Challenge seriously. After all, some people even said they were in it for "fun", "to while away time", since the prizes offered were paltry for those of them that use "laptops to browse".

All well and good. There's nothing wrong with doing things for fun. Infact one of the purposes of the Challenge was to entertain. I haven't lacked that since I created the first Challenge post; there's been a bevy of entertainment, especially on this comment thread.

However, we say that we are writers. Writing is technical. Deliberate. Careful.
If there's anything I want anyone to take away from this competition, it's this: BE DELIBERATE. Work your craft. Yes, you have a gift of imagination. Yes, you have creative expression. But that's where it ends. Writing itself is a SKILL, NOT A GIFT. You have to WORK IT. Learn it. Hone it.

And not just for writing alone. It's a life skill. Being deliberate, that is. Whatever you choose to do, as long as you have chosen to expend time and effort to do it, DO IT WELL.

whitemosquito:
I observed that a lot of us either did not understand the rules or we didnt bother to read them.

Very bad. In any contest, one of the most important things you can ever do is to READ THE RULES...and understand them. I even opened a comment thread specifically to respond to questions and clarifications, unfortunately even some of the questions asked were not the right questions..

So while the judges are judging, lemme be dropping little clues...

Now, one of the guidelines reads that contestants may write based on a theme of their choice- comedy, humour, tragedy, romance etc, right?

Okay.

But didnt I go further to state that this edition's Challenge is woven around the PROMISE AND EXCITEMENT OF THE NEW YEAR?

If you think about it carefully, it means only happy stories. Stories that are filled with happiness or excitement. Not tragedies.
If you decide to write a tragedy, you must tweak it or twist it with the best of your skill, somehow towards the finish such that it ENDS ON A HAPPY/EXCITING NOTE.
That's the Challenge.

A lot of contestants failed here.

lol. Tragedies can have happy endings with some tweaking?

Funny thing about NL contest rules, they are usually ambiguous, and get refined at will, often too late. Not all promises get fulfilled, and not every excitement end with mirth.

Bhenehdikt:

lolz..oga calm down o!

Lmao
I need that money... that's all!

I'm not trying to belittle anyone's gifts or talents, neither am I trying to trivialize anyone's efforts. Everyone has interpreted the rules to the best of their knowledge. It's the different colours of threads that make a fabric beautiful...

So, lemme rush a disclaimer, If I have said anything that can be construed in two ways - one negative , the other positive - please, rest assured that I mean it in the most positive and respectful way possible. I appreciate everyone's efforts, contestants and judges alike and I'm excited that The Challenge received this much attention.
It's one thing to cook a meal, and another to have people ready to sample it...

Thank you for participating, truly. I hope more than anything that we ALL learn as MUCH AS WE CAN, accepting corrections with an open and sincere mind.

*modified*

Oahray:
lol. Tragedies can have happy endings with some tweaking?

Funny thing about NL contest rules, they are usually ambiguous, and get refined at will, often too late. Not all promises get fulfilled, and not every excitement end with mirth.

Yes sir, a tragedy can have a happy ending in the context I used. What I meant was, if your story starts out as a tragedy( a ritualist kidnapped a little child and cut her head off) towards the end you must establish the excitement of the new year (the ritual worked, he made bags of money and went on to become a Chief or politician or whatever)

The rules were not ambiguous, were never refined at my will. The only time the rules were tweaked was at the insistence of contestants themselves. It wasnt my initial idea. I take exception to whatever you are implying, sir. However, I shan't make the mistake I made once upon a time. So, I ask you straight up. What are you implying?

whitemosquito:
Yes sir, a tragedy can have a happy ending in the context I used. What I meant was, if your story starts out as a tragedy( a ritualist kidnapped a little child and cut her head off) towards the end you must establish the excitement of the new year (the ritual worked, he made bags of money and went on to become a Chief or politician or whatever)

The rules were not ambiguous, were never refined at my will. The only time the rules were tweaked was at the insistence of contestants themselves. It wasnt my initial idea. I take exception to whatever you are implying, sir.

no vex, a tragedy ends badly in whatever context. When there's a sharp pleasant twist at the end it becomes a tragi-comedy.

A change from "any theme of your choice (eg romance, comedy, tragedy)" to 'you have failed because it is a tragedy', is a refinement. In reality, excitement and promises do no rule out the possibility of tragic events.

Relax, I'm not implying what you think I'm implying, whatever that is. Just an observer expressing my thoughts on a thread created for it. If it is unwelcome, I'd only watch henceforth.

Oahray:
lol. Tragedies can have happy endings with some tweaking?
Funny thing about NL contest rules, they are usually ambiguous, and get refined at will, often too late. Not all promises get fulfilled, and not every excitement end with mirth.

The rules are kinda the way you put it, very ambiguous. We are to write in any theme of our choice then all of a sudden it must now have a happy ending? The story must also depict our culture which I thought that and the excitement of the new year was the major thing to be worried about. Right now Im very confused. This is a flash fiction not an essay or a long story. @whitemosquito I would love to read a piece written by that follows all your rules maybe I would be less confused.

Oahray:
no vex, a tragedy ends badly in whatever context. When there's a sharp pleasant twist at the end it becomes a tragi-comedy.

A change from "any theme of your choice (eg romance, comedy, tragedy)" to 'you have failed because it is a tragedy', is a refinement. In reality, excitement and promises do no rule out the possibility of tragic events.

Relax, I'm not implying what you think I'm implying, whatever that is. Just an observer expressing my thoughts on a thread created for it. If it is unwelcome, I'd only watch henceforth.

Exactly my point.

I must confess, I enjoyed the stories I read, but now, concerning the rules, I just wonder who and who would scale tru. Hmm, it has been fun all the way and I just wish all the writers good fortune.

Why do you ppl like arguments?
I said if it starts out as a tragedy it should have a twist that causes it to end on a happy note. You said all tragedies have unpleasant endings, now you've turned around to admit that there are tragicomedies. Oh, you knew that did you?

@ spacefreak, the rules said write any theme of your choice, true. But I DIDN'T SAY WRITE TRAGEDIES. I gave EXAMPLES of different themes, eg Romance, comedy etc.
Further prompts said 'weave it around the promise and excitement of the New year. Common sense would tell you that whatever story you produce should be happy/hopeful.
Sir, if you were expecting me to spell it out for you as in Queens Premier, then you aren't qualified for the Challenge.

whitemosquito:
Why do you ppl like arguments?
I said if it starts out as a tragedy it should have a twist that causes it to end on a happy note. You said all tragedies have unpleasant endings, now you've turned around to admit that there are tragicomedies. Oh, you knew that did you?

@ spacefreak, the rules said write any theme of your choice, true. But I DIDN'T SAY WRITE TRAGEDIES. I gave EXAMPLES of different themes, eg Romance, comedy etc.
Further prompts said 'weave it around the promise and excitement of the New year. Common sense would tell you that whatever story you produce should be happy/hopeful.
Sir, if you were expecting me to spell it out for you as in Queens Premier, then you aren't qualified for the Challenge.

"2 Only one submission per entry. Each submission must be a prose written in any theme of your choice, (comedy, romance, tragedy etc)."

What I quoted above was your number 2 rule on the main thread. Im not a fan of arguments, I know when Im wrong and when Im right. You wrote clearly that the theme should be totally the writer's choice. Now you saying the story MUST have a happy ending. In that case a tragedy is a no no contrary to what I quote above. I might be wrong though. I would still love to read a piece written by you.

whitemosquito:
Hmmm.
Everyone is blaming some mechanics for their errors, abi? Issorai. If they had posted it themselves, they wouldn't been saying so...

@eillo,that's exactly how it appears in your mail,but no problem, I've fixed it.

thanks a lot. But, no, i'm certain it was not my error. Mechanics, like you said, I guess. Thanks again!