Winter Writing Contest 2016: Winners

This year's annual Winter Writing Contest has reached the end and the winners have been decided by both the judges and community!

Congratulations goes to AxisLight for winning the Judge's Choice award with his submission The Drowned Eschaton. You crafted a thought-provoking entry with a unique world filled with rich background that you made an effort to show. In addition, your story made tremendous progress and revealed to be impressively wholesome. Be proud you created something so intriguing and special. We also wanted to honor d(^_^)(^_^)d as the Runner-up for the tale of Zana the Demon Eater. Zana's arduous life was filled with suspense and emotion. The entry served as a peek into her life and revealed the hardships she had to endure as a result of her dangerous position. Thank you both for designing such unique and interesting worlds of fantasy.

Congratulations also goes to 正義 for winning the Reader's Choice award with his submission Dungeon Escape as the Writing and Fanfiction community determined his to be the top entry in the poll. I am also happy to wish a job well done by d(^_^)(^_^)d again as the Runner-up for the tale of Zana the Demon Eater, as he was closely deemed the Runner-up by the community. Thank you both for creating such suspenseful nail-biters.

You may have noticed quite obviously that d(^_^)(^_^)d won both Runner-up positions. In years past, in the event that someone the judges had selected won in the polls, we would do some scooching to give them the higher award, or if something like this happened, we'd give it to the next in line in the poll, which was AxisLight, but he already won the Judge's Choice award. We could go further and look at who placed fourth in the polls, but both xninebreaker and leonard267 placed equally. I think it's best if we just settle for that. This might seem a little strange, because it means everyone gets a prize, but really, I'm very much happy it worked out this way. In a contest where more people get prizes than don't, especially when those who don't equate to one person, it doesn't make me feel right or appropriate to deny that person something as well. If this is disappointing to people, I apologize for that, but you all worked hard on your entries and have faithfully kept to the community to share in these fun events. So what this means is that you're all winners, just like the picture to this thread implies.

With some specific details about what this means for the prizes, the winners of the Judge's Choice and Reader's Choice awards, AxisLight and 正義, will each win $25 of value to the FAKKU store, as a gift certificate to J-List, or similar online retailers within reason. This can include two months of subscription to FAKKU! or a physical FAKKU! publication delivered to you.

The Runner-up d(^_^)(^_^)d, as well as the rest of you, xninebreaker and leonard267, will receive any one (1) current or future digital download of a $10 FAKKU publication, a $10 value towards the FAKKU store. For a list of current and planned releases, check this link to the FAKKU! Store Manga & Doujinshi page. This could also be a full month subscription to FAKKU!

Additionally, AxisLight and 正義 have won a 3-stanza poem each dedicated to their honor. d(^_^)(^_^)d, xninebreaker, and leonard267 will be regaled with a limerick. You may find these in the next post.

Lastly, special thanks goes out to all the authors who participated in this year's contest and I hope it was as rewarding for you as it was for us, on behalf of the judges: Cinia Pacifica, Yanker, and myself. Thank you, it was an honor to arrange and judge this contest for you all. I will now provide my specific corrections and comments on entries to those of you who desire it. Please post here or message me if you would like and I will post it publicly, or privately if you wish.

Honorable mentions for this year:

There are none. Everyone won a prize, so they're all winners. If everyone is an honorable mention, then that means no one is too.

Ah, whatever. I'll give it to xninebreaker since your world and story was so endearingly sweet. The time elements in it were very unique as well.

Dishonorable mention goes to leonard267 because that's what he would want and I thought your entry was hilarious and very impressively crafted. The entirety was a complete tale of science fiction very appropriately inspired by Brave New World. You are more talented at writing creatively than you may think. Well done to you.

Lastly, thank you again to everyone who participated and read, and may next year hold even greater things for us all.

Poems

AxisLight:


正義:


Limericks

d(^_^)(^_^)d:


leonard267:


xninebreaker:

I did like AxisLight's entry a lot, so I can see how the decision came to be even if d's was my favorite. Either way, congratulations to AxisLight!

What a turn of events though. Literally everyone wins a prize. While I dunno if that's a good or bad thing, I will say that it's hilarious how it ended up. I've got a long way to go. That final day rush was rough, and upon reading my entry over again, I can tell there was a lot of work to be done!

If the judges or anyone else has commentary on my work, feel free to post it or send a PM, I'd love to see what you all have to say.

Also, love the limerick xenon; the poems are always fun to read.

Wow... Just wow. I'm a little shocked, to be honest. I didn't expect this! Don't worry, I'm shocked in a good way!

Also that poem was fantastic. I think I'm going to screen cap it! Thank you so much!

Everyone here writes because we love it, and I think that's what really matters, you know? Anyone can tell a great story, it just takes a little diligence. Good job to everyone who took part in this good show of sportsmanship and writer's conduct!

If anyone wants my thoughts, lemme know here. So far it's only Masayoshi, Xnine and d.

And gratz to everyone. Shame we couldn't get a few more entries, but they were of marginally better quality than usual. For everyone, leonard/Masayoshi included.

Congratulations, everyone!

Honestly, even though I won the reader's choice prize, I feel as though D deserved the first spot, so I am offering to abdicate that to him, trading prize values. If D accepts, I will receive the $10 value digital book, and D will receive the $25 prize for the Reader's choice top spot.

This is my own personal opinion and decision, and I will be very happy if everyone is respectful of that ^_^

D, if you want to swap, and accept, just quote this line from my post and reply "Accepted" or whatever you want o.o

Congratulations, everyone. Even if I'm a lazy guy, it was a pleasure to judge this year too. While the writing community is not what it once was, it's still nice to find some of you gather for the contests like this.

If anyone wants my thoughts on their entry, feel free to ask.


(Also some of you may wanna check out the Discord link where I'm gathering fellow writers.)

Grats, winners (aka everyone). Thank you, judges. Contest wouldn't be possible without you. Looking forward to another year of writing and hanging out with you all. Except Xenon. Thanks for giving away the secret to my name, you asshole.