The basic rules are simple.

There are some other technical rules listed below, but that's pretty much it.

Our goal is to accept and review all entries. We have only two exceptions to this goal.  First, we will disqualify entries that are substantially over the limit of 3000 words.  Second, we will only review entries that have enabled reviews in the item options.  If "email comments only" is enabled, your story will not receive a review.

Of course, not all entries are equal. After all, this is a contest.  There will be consequences in scoring for not following contest rules.

Third person limited is hard to do. That's why we created this contest. We wanted a place that would showcase the craft involved, as well as a learning space for authors.  Some of our winning entries have slipped now and again into omniscient narration.  There has even been an occasional "head-hop" where the point of view jumps from one character to another.  There are consequences in scoring for this kind of submission, but the submissions are not disqualified. 

It's hard to imagine that a submission with a first person narrator would win an award in a contest that's about third person limited point of view.  After all, 40% of an entry's score is for effective use of third person limited.  Still, our goal includes reading and reviewing these submissions as well.

Similarly, submissions that exceed our limit of 3000 words won't automatically be disqualified.  Exceeding the word limit falls under failing to follow the contest rules.  That will result in a reduced score in the contest evaluation, but it won't generally result in disqualification. 

However, we have a hard and fast rule that submissions longer than 4000 words will not be eligible for an award and probably will not be reviewed, either.  Remember, we are volunteers.  Reading and critiquing is time-consuming, challenging work. Please respect the time and effort of our judges by complying with our word limits. 

Everyone who enters will receive 1000 GPS.

Starting with the July, 2017 round of the contest, the best stories, as determined by the judges, will earn additional awards.

Unless they have been previously reviewed by one of the judges, these three entries each will receive an in-depth, review from one of the judges. At the discretion of the judge, the review may be public.

If we have three or fewer contestants, we will defer the competition and will roll the entries over to the next contest. 

Every contestant earns the 1000 GPS for entering whether we run the competition or not, but you don't get a second 1000 GPS if your entry rolls over to the next contest.  A story can only earn the 1000 GPS once.

If we have four, five or six contestants, we will award only the "Best Story" and "First Runner Up" prizes.

  We reserve the right to reduce the number of prizes if we do not have at least six entries that substantially use third person limited.  If, at judging, we discover that no entries make substantial use of third person limited, there will be no prizes.  If you are unsure what we mean by "third person limited," please read the essay "Just One Point of View" .

Judges will endeavor to provide every entry with an in-depth review, but these are not guaranteed.  Remember, our judges are volunteers with their own busy work and writing schedules.  We will only critique entries that have enabled reviews in the item options.  If "email comments only" is enabled, your story will not receive a review.

  At the discretion of the reviewer, critiques provided to contest entries may be public and posted to the public reviewing page.

All decisions by the judges are final.

Yes.  To be sure that we are able to give each entry a fair reading, we can accept no more than ten entries in each iteration of the contest.  We'll post a "Contest closed to entries" message in the forum after the tenth entry.  If you're too late for this contest, you may enter the next one!  We expect to offer the contest at least every other month.

We expect to run the contest at least every other month, starting June 1, 2014.

The contest will close to new entries after receipt of ten submissions or on the fourth Monday of the month. 

If we have three or fewer submissions by the fourth Monday of the month, we will extend the deadline for submissions to the fourth Monday of the succeeding month.

If we have three or fewer entries by the the fourth Monday of the second month, we will roll contest entries over to the next iteration of the contest.

The deadline for entries is when the tenth entry to the contest is posted or
whichever happens first. 

In Universal Time, that's 1:00:00 PM UCT the fourth Monday of the contest month.  To convert the deadline to your local time zone, go to
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

If we receive more than ten entries, the eleventh and subsequent entries will roll to the next iteration of the contest.  The date and time of entry are the date and time posted to the contest board.

If you're interested in why "Coordinated Universal TIme" is abbreviated "UCT" instead of "CUT," see
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/utc-abbreviation.html

Only one entry per contestant per contest, please.  Feel free to enter every round of the contest if you like!

Whoa, there, pardner!  Here are some other rules.

No.  You can even enter the same story more than once in our contest, but you can only enter one story per month.  However, if your story has previously been a finalist in this contest --best story winner, one of the two runners up, or an honorable mention--it is ineligible for re-entry.  Finally, a story can earn the 1000 GPS for entering only once.

If you re-enter the same story in more than one round of the contest, you will receive a review only on the first submission, even if you have revised the story.

If Max Griffin or Carol St. Ann have previously reviewed your story, you will not receive a second review on entering this contest, even if you have revised the story.

If you re-write a winning story using a different character for the point of view and place it in a new static item, then it will count as a new story, eligible for reviews and for all contest awards.

In third person limited, the author writes in the third person and chooses one character to provide the point of view.

It's easy to tell if your story uses a third person narrator.  If the narrator describes what's happening using "he," "she' or "they," then the author is using a third person narrator.  If the narrator describes what's happening using "I" or "we," then the story uses a first person narrator.  It's possible to use second person--"you"--but this is rare. 

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with first person narrators.  About 30% of all commercial fiction published today uses first person.  But this contest is about third person limited narration.  Hence, stories using first person narration are not going to win a prize in this contest.

The "limited" part of "third person limited" means that the author--and hence the reader--is inside the head of one and only one character, the point of view character.  The reader can know what that character sees, hears, smells, and otherwise senses. The reader can know what that character knows, thinks, or feels emotionally, as well. But the reader has to infer these things about all the other characters through their words and deeds.   The author--and hence the reader--is limited to a single point of view character.

The idea is that the author places the readers into the head of the point-of-view character, and then the readers encounter the fictional world through that character in a holistic manner, the same way they encounter the real world. That will help draw the reader into the fictional world and thus into the story.

Contestants may wish to read the article "Just One Point of View"  for a more detailed discussion of third person limited.

Yes.  However, each contest round we will post a "Contest closed to entries and editing" message to the forum, usually at noon on the fourth Monday of the contest month.  That's so we have a week to read and judge the stories.  Once we've posted the message, do not edit your story.  Doing so can result in disqualification.

Art Of Criticism Feature Articles  (E) Links to Art of Criticism issues where the feature article is by Max. #2026142 by Max Griffin

Max's Alphabetized links to Useful Stuff  (E) Some links to things every author needs. #1708934 by Max Griffin

FOLDER

Thoughts on Writing  (NPL) Here are some short essays on the craft of fiction. #1847273 by Max Griffin

It's simple!  Just post a message to the board below, with the subject, "MY ENTRY" followed by the title of your story.  In the body of the message, include a link to your item in "bitem" format like so:
Please do NOT include the story itself.  Include a link as described above.

When you post your message, we'll see a link to the item that looks like this:

STATIC

A Day at the Park, With Pie  (18+) Ruby saves the world with her knitting and homemade pie. #1894810 by Max Griffin

If you're still not quite sure what to do, check out "Newbie Hyperlinking 101 - Bitem Format"  for a step-by-step tutorial.

                                                             
May 2017
First Place: -- Aiva Raine for "Strange Bedfellows" 
First Runner Up: -- Robert Edward Baker for "The Presidential Press Briefing" 
Second Runner Up: -- Kecia for "For Better or Worse: Proxy to Murder" 
                                                             
March 2017
First Place: -- Corrine Shroud for "Out of Season" 
First Runner Up: -- Azrael Tseng for "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth" 
Second Runner Up: -- Pernell Rogers for "Texting Guy" 
                                                             
January 2017
First Place: -- Cubby for "Love is Blind" 
First Runner Up: -- DollarDays is painting for "A New Life" 
Second Runner Up: -- super sleuth for "Simon and Jake" 
Honorable Mention -- 9 years whew! for chapter one of "The Tie that Bonds" 
                                                             
November 2016
First Place: -- FuryStrife for "Strife on the Strait-C and B series #3" 
First Runner Up: --  Dan The Teacher for "A Weight Worth Bearing" 
Second Runner Up: -- ~QPdoll~ for "Psycho Cat" 
                                                             
September 2016
First Place: -- Corrine Shroud for "Only the Weak" 
First Runner Up: --  Mrs. MontyB is three! for "Life After Rewrite" 
Second Runner Up: -- Jenny Leigh for "Nightmares" 
                                                             
July 2016
First Place: -- KS66  for "Monsters" 
First Runner Up: -- Soh for "Andante Andante (Day 2)" 
                                                             
May 2016
First Place: -- Choconut is 2! for "Charlie's Story" 
First Runner Up: -- Strauss for "The Bench" 
Second Runner Up: -- ☮ Grum in peace & friendship for "So The Ant Said To The Elephant" 
                                                             
March 2016
First Place: -- John Yossarian for "Price Of Doing Business" 
First Runner Up: -- DollarDays is painting for "Voter's Rights" 
Second Runner Up: -- Writer's Blockhead for "Invalid Item" 
                                                             
January 2016
First Place: -- DollarDays is painting for "Decisions" 
First Runner Up: -- mikema63 for "Mammon" 
Second Runner Up: -- Happyfingers for "The Agenda" 
Honorable Mention -- Matt for "Remembering the Fallen" 
                                                             
November 2015
First Place: -- BD Mitchell for "Stronger Than Rage" 
First Runner Up: -- Corrine Shroud for "Spit at the Devil" 
Second Runner Up: -- Jim Hall for "Bittersweet Memories" 
                                                             
September 2015
First Place: -- Champ for "The Beach Goddess" 
First Runner Up: -- amyjo-Keeping it real and fun! for "The Best Laid Plans" 
Second Runner Up: -- Dawn Embers for "Three Months and Counting" 
                                                             
July 2015
First Place: -- r32312 for "bedspread " 
First Runner Up: -- Word Warrior published author! for "The Asylum" 
Second Runner Up:  (TIE) -- Josh T. Alto for "The Sign"   and Greg Schuler for "Just One Point of View - July 2015" 
                                                             
May 2015
First Place: -- keikoalvarez for "Invalid Item" 
First Runner Up: -- Tiger Cub 🔱 for "Invalid Entry" 
Second Runner Up: -- Ladee Caid for "The Yeti" 
                                                             
March 2015
First Place:  Corrine Shroud  for "Love You To Heaven and Back" 
First Runner Up: J.K  for "Invalid Item" 
Second Runner Up: blunderbuss  for "Invalid Item" 
                                                             
January 2015
First Place:  Corrine Shroud for "Coat of Many Colors" 
First Runner Up: CasualWriter~thanks, Anon! for "Mis-marriage" 
Second Runner Up: writingbyjazzy for "Invalid Entry" 
                                                             
November 2014
First Place:  Storm Machine  for "Advance Planning" 
First Runner Up: wien for "Invalid Item"  
                                                             
September 2014
First Place:  relanka for "Invalid Item" 
First Runner Up (TIE): Medvekoma for "Invalid Item"  
First Runner Up (TIE): LJB for "Invalid Item" 
                                                             
August 2014
First Place:  ameadon  for "Invalid Item" 
First Runner Up: relanka  for "Invalid Item" 
Second Runner Up: Medvekoma  for "Invalid Item"  
                                                             
July 2014
First Place:  C Fowler for "Maury" 
First Runner Up: Soh for "The Parting Gift" 
Second Runner Up:   The Shane-O-Mac Attack for "Digging up the Truth" 
                                                             
June 2014
First Place:  Coelacanth for  "Invalid Item" 
First Runner Up:  Dance-Monkey ~ We've got this for "Optometrist" 
Second Runner Up: Cubby for "Remi" 
Honorable Mention: Soh for "Angel" 
                                                             

                                                             
The May contest is over. Check out our awesome winners above. 
Congratulations to all the awardees and thanks to everyone who entered.
Come back in July for the next round of the contest.