BF Short Story Competition 2007

[Jon Masters]

Heh, 2497 words of loveliness are winging their way to Big Finish via Email. It's called Time Shear and features the 4th Doctor and K-9.

I cut the exploding giant frog though. I feel sure this will count against me!

What, that you cut it or that you thought of it in the first place ?

for getting it finished though.

[Andrew Curnow]

Well done Mr McCow - and what a great title (not to mention choice of TARDIS crew)! Good luck, my dears!

[Rob McCow]

Thanks guys

But I'm all worried about the gardening conotations of a pair of Time Shears now. Not to mention Billy Shears.

Should I get rejected, I'll put the story up on the PS Creativity page with the Giant Exploding Frog scene restored!

[Si Hunt]

Can I read it? You know my e-mail address!

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Andrew - did you get any kind of acknowledgement email? I believe we were supposed to send them an email with the title in the header and the text in the body (no attachments). Is that what you did?

[Dirk Gently]

Well done Mr McCow sir, you'll be brilliant...all of you!

[Andrew Curnow]

Rob - yes, I got an acknowledgement the day after, basically saying 'thanks, we've got it, we aren't reading any until the competition's closed'. And yes, I did send it in the body of an email?

Have you not had a confirmation? If not, I'd be inclined to send it again just to make sure - it would be awful to be out of the running due to an undelivered email.

[Rob McCow]

Thanks Andrew!

Hi Steven
Thanks for this, which we've received safely.
Just so you know, we won't start reading entries until after the
closing date. But we'll be in touch again as soon as possible after
that.
All the best,
Simon

Well if it's my boyfriend judging the competition, I'm bound to come at least fourth or fifth! Hurrah.

[SiHart]

I read that, you naughty man!

Si xx

[Jon Masters]

See, now I'm panicking because I sent mine off a couple of weeks ago and got no such reply (through a web based e-mail account). Now I've sent another copy using my wife's email and probably won't hear if that's got there or not until after its too late !

[Jon Masters]

Panic over for now

Hi Jonathan

Thanks for this, which we've received safely this time. Not sure what
happened before...

Just so you know, we've received far, far more entries than we were
ever expecting (we'll announce the final tally on www.bigfinish.com as
soon as we've finished counting them all!).

Every story of course deserves close and careful attention. But this
means it's going to take us a while to read everything and decide on a
winner.

So please be patient. We'll be in touch again as soon as possible.

Thanks again for entering,

Simon

Many thanks for Andrew for posting about the reply he got otherwise I'd have never known

[Rob McCow]

They had 1,073 entrants for the Short Story competition.

Somehow, they're going to announce the winner 'soon'.


In fourteen and a half... million... years!!!

[Paul Clement]

They had 1,073 entrants for the Short Story competition.

Somehow, they're going to announce the winner 'soon'.


In fourteen and a half... million... years!!!

They were only expecting about 80 entries.

[Rob McCow]

Assuming everyone wrote 2,500 words, that would be...

2,682,500 words to read!

Although Jon Masters did send his twice. So perhaps it's only 1072 entries, which isn't nearly so bad.

[Andrew Curnow]

1,073 is quite a lot isn't it. I was hoping for a lot less competition than that...

[Paul Clement]

It's been suggested on OG that if they were to do it again, that they may need to limit it to one entry per person only. A few people have submitted two, three or more stories and this has probably epanded the number by quite a ways.

[Rob McCow]

Oh really! Perhaps one person has submitted 1,000 stories. *wishful thinking*

[Paul Clement]

Oh really! Perhaps one person has submitted 1,000 stories. *wishful thinking*

And all of them feature the Daleks so are ineligible. *double wishful thinking*

[Dirk Gently]

I suspect that fair or not they will read the first 5 to 10 pages & decide on whether or not to continue or just throw it in the bin. Lets face it, if it fails to grip in that time it probably won't win.

[Rob McCow]

Seeing as the word limit was 2,500, I think they'll throw any story that's 5 to 10 pages long in the bin!

Although to be fair, if you haven't impressed them after the first three words it's going to be hopeless. What they might do is a scan for keywords, such as 'Dalek', 'Cyberman' and 'Nicholas Briggs Is A Slap-headed Turd-Herder' to help them pick out the entries that have failed to read the instructions.

[Rob McCow]

Those of you with stories still to peddle (and enjoy the sting of the bitter tears of defeat) may be interested in the SFX short story competition.

http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=...07_short_story

It's 1,000 to 2,000 words on any sci-fi subject. Last year's winner is now writing a Short Story for .... wowzers! Big Finish.

[Paul Clement]

From OG:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Javak View Post
Actually this raises a small issue: suppose BF, after selecting their winner, consider several stories to be close to publication quality... Obviously in the wake of the result the temptation for many (myself included) would be to immediately share their story with other authors, but perhaps we should all agree to hold off for a few weeks before committing our stories to the public domain? This would give the folks at BF the chance to catch their breath, and consider whether they want to contact other entrants to 'option' their story for possible (maybe... perhaps...) use in a later collection.

What does everyone think -- should there be a period of grace between the winner's announcement and when we all start bundling our stories onto the nearest fanfic web sites? What do the BF people think -- would this be useful?

The reply from Ian Farrington

These are wise words. The standard of the entries has been so high not only does it make the choosing of the winner more tricky, but it also opens up this previously untapped wealth of talent. I'd certainly say it's a strong possibility that some runners-up will be offered work on other anthologies. We'll have a definite winner of this competition, whose winning story will be published this year, but, who knows, maybe others will be asked if they want to contribute in 2008 and beyond (either with a version of the story they've entered or brand-new ideas).

So, yes, I'm afraid I'd say that 'going public' with your entry as soon as we announce the competition's winner would probably go against you in this respect - why would we want to publish something that's already available on a non-licenced website?

IAN

[Jon Masters]

Thanks for the heads-up on that, Paul. Not that I'm expecting to get very far, but I was planning on submitting my story to the PS website if nothing came of it.

[Rob McCow]

Even if a story has been published online, I'm sure it reaches a far, far smaller audience than if it's published in a book. It would be quite reasonable to make a few changes to a story that had been already published online and stick it into a book.

[Andrew Curnow]

Not sure if this will be of interest, but one of the threads on OG has a list of submissions - posted by Simon Guerrier on 16th May. By definition, it's quite a long list...

"436"
"But Not Forgotten"
"13"
"1753"
"2004"
"24th Century"
"3.14159... (The Cat in the Box)"
"58 Gothic Drive"
"7 and 8 Re-United"
"A Beauty"
"A Bit of Stage Fright"
"A Boy of His Time"
"A Breach of Quarantine"
"A brief momentary lapse in the otherwise perfectly normal operations"
"A Certain Type of Fellow"
"A Chance Meeting"
"A Change of Seasons"
"A Christmas Marvel"
"A Christmas to Remember"
"A Companion's Tale"
"A Dark Confession"
"A Distant Smell of Burning"
"A Fatal Misunderstanding"
"A fiction, too much faction"
"A Freak of Nature"
"A Greyish Deep Violet"
"A History of Blood Sports"
"A Kiss Before Sunrise"
"A Larger World"
"A Late Liberation"
"A Laughing Matter"
"A Life Worth Living"
"A Little Faith"
"A Little Knowledge"
"A Lock of Time"
"A Lost Horizon"
"A Matter of Accounting"
"A Matter of Life and Death"
"A Narrow Escape"
"A New Course in Egyptology"
"A Night on the Tiles"
"A packet of chips, a big blue box and Ice cream"
"A Parting Gift"
"A Place Called Hope"
"A Price To Pay"
"A Quality of Life"
"A Question of Principle"
"A Quick Shave"
"A Quiet Saturday's Spotting"
"A Scullion's Tale"
"A Self-Made Man"
"A Sentimental Old Thing"
"A Series of Comfort Breaks"
"A Small Favour"
"A Soldier's Story"
"A Southern Vacation"
"A Stranger in Paradise"
"A Suitable Match"
"A Time Lord in Greenwich"
"A Time to Prey"
"A Timely Intervention"
"A Torn Page"
"A Trip to the Zoo"
"A Twitch Upon The Thread"
"A Walk on the Wild Side"
"A Way of Sorting Things Out"
"A World Without Fear"
"About Face"
"Absent Father"
"Absolutes"
"Accidentally Like A Meddler"
"Accidents and Losses at Sea"
"Advice and Assistance"
"Agenda Items"
"Aija"
"Alien Dress Ups"
"Aliens in Disguise"
"Aliens of Appalachia"
"Aliens on the Orient Express"
"All Good Things"
"All Good Things"
"All Over a Cup of Tea"
"All Probability"
"All That Jazz"
"All The Girls Love A Sailor"
"All the Time in the World"
"All the World's a Stage"
"Alone Time"
"Alone"
"Alone"
"Alone"
"Always"
"Am I Just a Fly Lost in the Taj Mahal?"
"American-Briton"
"An Afternoon in Oxford"
"An Average Century"
"An Element of Doubt"
"An Eye for an Eye"
"An Invasion of Privacy"
"An Ocean of Stars"
"An Old Enemy"
"An Unknown Soldier"
"And All the King's Men"
"Angels and Apes"
"Angels of Time"
"Anjelita"
"Another Life"
"Antiques"
"Are You Out There Somewhere?"
"Around the Corner"
"As Much Of An Angel"
"Asleep in the Concrete Room"
"Attack of the Killer Plumbing"
"Attack of the Tentachrons"
"Attacks of the Plexons"
"Auld Lang Syne"
"Aye, Mudd"
"Babysitting"
"Bad Hair Day"
"Bad Signals"
"Bad Things"
"Bad, Bad Boy"
"Beacon"
"Bearing"
"Beasts of Fortune-tyne"
"Bedtime Stories"
"Beer and Time"
"Behind the Scenes Featurette"
"Ben"
"Best Laid Plans"
"Best of All Worlds"
"Better Tomorrows"
"Bishop's Knight"
"Blackout"
"Blame Jeffrey"
"Blind Alley"
"Blood and Ice"
"Blood Relations"
"Blue Box, Silver Box"
"Blurred Vision"
"Bomb"
"Boo! To The Goose"
"Borrowed Time"
"Boy Interrupted"
"Brand New Heights"
"Brave Heart"
"Break Time"
"Breaking Through"
"Bringing Up Baby"
"Broken Shells"
"Bullets Are Cheap"
"Butterfly"
"Butterfly"
"Cage of Demons"
"Caip's Fear"
"Carnevale"
"Casino Pan-Galactica"
"Cassidy and Angelina"
"Cataloging Time"
"Cave"
"Cellar Door"
"Cellmates"
"Center's End"
"Change Management"
"Changing Sky"
"Changing Times"
"Chemistry Class"
"Child of Time"
"Child's Play"
"Choice Cuts"
"Christmas in Perivale"
"Circles of Heaven"
"Circular Logic"
"Citizen Erased"
"City of Ghosts"
"Clearlight"
"Cloaking Device"
"Closing Walls & Ticking Clocks"
"Closure"
"Cloudskin"
"Coffee and Time Travel"
"Cold Comfort"
"Collateral Damage"
"Collateral Damage"
"Collecting Butterflies"
"Come On Stan!"
"Cometh The Hour..."
"Coming Around Again"
"Companion Piece"
"Confessions of a Warlord"
"Confidence in Peace"
"Constant Companion"
"Constant Companion"
"Conventions R Us"
"Conversations With People You Haven't Met Yet"
"Cooking Lesson"
"Corporate Ethics"
"Correctional Facility"
"Corridors in Time and Space"
"Crash"
"Crimson's Dawn"
"Crisis of Faith"
"Croatoan"
"Cross Myself and Hope to Die"
"Crossed Wires"
"Cucuy"
"Curiousity"
"Cyber Nightmare"
"Dangerous Lives"
"Dark Possession"
"Dark TARDIS"
"Darkness"
"Daughter"
"Dawn of the Dead"
"Day of the Devil"
"Dead Air"
"Dead Centre"
"Dead Faces"
"Dead Man Walking"
"Dead Man's Wish"
"Death in an English Village"
"DEFCOM"
"Diamond in the Rough"
"Diary of Chance"
"Digital Soul"
"Diplomacy"
"Directions"
"Dissipating Java"
"Distress Beacon"
"Divergence"
"Do the Trains Run On Time?"
"Do You Like Lemons?"
"Doc and Bull Story"
"Doctor Scarecrow"
"Doctor Who?"
"Does Travel Broaden the Mind?"
"Doing Time"
"Dolittle"
"Dolphin Bay"
"Don't Look Back In Anger"
"Doppelganger"
"Dorsetshire, Dinosaurs, and The Doctor"
"Double Vision"
"Down At The Bottom Of The Deep Blue Sea"
"Down The Rabbit Hole"
"Down the River"
"Dr Who Versus the Wobssorcs"
"Dragon's Fair"
"Drastic Measures"
"Dreaded Act"
"Dreams of Boats"
"Dreamstealers"
"Drifting in the Dark"
"Dumb Luck"
"Echoes of Shadows"
"Ecip"
"Egg & Chicken"
"Ekstasa"
"Electro Shock Blues"
"Empathy for Beginners"
"Empty Halls of a Mind"
"en.fictipedia.org/Elizabeth_Shaw"
"Endless Dark"
"Entanglement"
"Escape Clause"
"Escaping Sunbeams"
"Eternal Enlightenment"
"Eternal Torment"
"Eustace Hamlyn Goes To Space"
"Ever seen anything unusual, Benton?"
"Every Friday Night"
"Everybody Was Dead"
"Everyone has a story to tell, and this is mine"
"Evil Weevil"
"Evitability"
"Exodus"
"Extracts from the Diary of Mary Wilson"
"Eyes Open"
"Facing God"
"Facing His Fear"
"Fair Trade Rules"
"Fairy Godmother"
"Faking It"
"Fall of the Denham Empire"
"Farm Boy"
"Fate's Child"
"Father Iain's Waif"
"Fear of the Dark"
"Fearless"
"Feelings of Fire"
"Fiery Rebirth"
"Fight the Good Fight"
"Final Days"
"Finally Finding The Doctor"
"Finding Mr Right"
"Finding The Dream"
"Fine Print"
"Fire Suppression"
"Fireflies and Mirrors"
"Flesh Pod"
"Flight Time"
"Flight"
"Flowers of Remembrance"
"Foes of Freedom"
"Food for Thought"
"For Art's Sake"
"For Nyssa"
"Forbidden Science"
"Forgotten"
"Fragments"
"Free Fall"
"Free Mind"
"From A Journal Entry Believed to Belong to the Late Author H.P. Lovecraft"
"From Blue Box to Ballot Box"
"From the Corner of my Eye"
"Furthest From Humanity"
"Future Echoes"
"Future's Past"
"Gassing Geese"
"Gate Crashers"
"Genii Loci"
"Get Rich Quick"
"Gethsemene"
"Ghost Bride"
"Gillian's Story"
"Giving Something Back"
"Glaswegian Gothic"
"Gone"
"Good As A Holiday"
"Good Old Doctor"
"Green and Grey"
"Guard 482"
"Guard Duty"
"Guardian Angel"
"Guest of Honour"
"Guiding Lights"
"Halloween"
"He Made Me A Cup of Tea"
"He Volunteered"
"Heartache"
"Heavenly Intervention"
"Heavenly Matters"
"Here Be Dragons"
"Here Tonight, Gone Tomorrow"
"Hero"
"Heroes and Villains"
"Heroes"
"Hero's Heart"
"His Kind of Blue"
"His Last Bow"
"History Is A Mystery"
"Holocaust Denier"
"Home"
"Homeland Security"
"Hope"
"Hope's Prisoner"
"Horses and Squirrels"
"How Doctor Who Changed My Life"
"How I Lost My Little Girl"
"How the Doctor affected my life"
"How the Doctor and his magic little box changed my life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Death"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life - by Roland Newman, Class 7N"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How The Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life"
"How the Doctor Changed My Life: The Story of my, Bridget McKenzie's, experience with the Doctor and how he changed my life"
"How the Doctor Changed your Life"
"Hungry"
"I Am Become Death"
"I Glimley"
"I, Yin and My Yang"
"Ian and Barbara"
"If I Had My Time Again"
"If You Go Down To The Woods Today"
"I'll tell you how the Doctor changed my life!"
"I'm Sorry, Harry"
"Imprisoned"
"In a Jiffy"
"In A Stew"
"In His Name"
"In No Time At All"
"In The Nick Of Time"
"In The Nick of Time"
"Infected"
"Inseparable"
"Insider Dealing"
"Inspiration"
"Inspiration"
"Inspirational"
"Intelligent Design"
"Interlude"
"Interrupted Journey"
"Into The Unknown"
"Is Paris Burning?"
"It'll Be A Wonderful Life"
"It's A Wonderful Life, Doctor"
"J'ai Vu le Loup"
"Jelly Baby"
"JFK"
"John and the Quarn"
"Just Another Normal Day"
"Just Beyond a Coffee Break"
"Just in Thyme"
"Just One More"
"Justice"
"Katherine"
"Keeping House"
"Killing Me Slowly"
"Know Thine Enemy"