Iron Pen

[Valka D'Ur]

It's temporarily napping.

 

[Mouthwash]

Has a competition taken place already? I'd be interested in doing this, whenever the hiatus ends.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

One round has taken place.

 

[Mouthwash]

Is there a thread? When are you starting back up again?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=519987
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=520162

I haven't decided when to start up again. If you're interested, please PM me, as some details for participants depend on secrecy, to ensure the competition is about the writing and won't turn into a popularity contest.

 

[Blasph23]

I'm also checking this thread regularly, hoping for some update and to take part, eventually.

 

[Kyriakos]

I am not really into a lit contest here, but i wanted to revive this thread, and ask if i can post a very brief flash-fiction i just translated (around 400 words iirc).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Thank you for asking, but Iron Pen is a competition between two or more people. Unless someone else is also translating the same story as you, within the same general number of words, it's outside the intent and rules of Iron Pen.

Feel free to post it in a new thread, though.

 

[Kyriakos]

Ok, cool

 

[Luckymoose]

I'd battle Kyriakos.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That could be interesting; what criteria do you have in mind?

 

[Mouthwash]

Someone would need to edit Kyriakos's story, since he isn't that great with English grammar. Would that be within the bounds?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

So each contest is basically a 'one off' between two people? Am I getting this right?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Someone would need to edit Kyriakos's story, since he isn't that great with English grammar. Would that be within the bounds?

Nope. Authors are responsible for their own editing. The problem with using someone else as an editor is that the person editing couldn't help but change the story in some ways, no matter how much they tried not to. Plus, there's the chance the editor could ruin something by changing it when it was supposed to be that way to begin with.

So each contest is basically a 'one off' between two people? Am I getting this right?

That's right. I tried a three-person competition once, years ago, and making the poll was a nightmare.

 

[Mouthwash]

Well, if Kyriakos has problems doing this then I'll battle Luckymoose. Although now that I think of it, he could just get any English-speaking friend to do it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That would be cheating...

 

[Luckymoose]

I could learn Greek really quick?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You'd need to teach the rest of us Greek, too. I know most of the alphabet and can recognize a few words, but that's all.

Plus, there's that non-English translation rule CFC has...

 

[Kyriakos]

Hey i am way too frightened to battle anyone, so Lucky wins by default

(and my english is even more spuriously austere when i translate my own literary work).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Kyriakos, in my experience, everyone who takes part in Iron Pen is nervous (I participated in this as a writer before becoming the host, when I ran it on another forum years ago), and it was one of the most stressful writing assignments I ever took on. Even though participants use a Pen Name (so the voting won't be a popularity contest instead of on the merits of the story), it's still a nerve-wracking experience. Unlike NaNoWriMo, where the goal is length and the quality doesn't matter, in Iron Pen, quality is what counts most (although I reserve the right to disqualify stories that are egregiously over/under the word-count limits).

On the flip side, you can interpret the "secret theme" any way you want, as long as the competition rules are followed and you don't violate any of CFC's normal posting rules.