Constrained Writing Contest #12 + Winners of Constrained Writing Contest #11

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Most writing contests give you a writing prompt or at least a couple of words to work your idea around, which is why I decided to host a slightly different contest.

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A constrained writing contest

Instead of giving you an idea or a writing prompt, I will allow you to choose the topic completely by yourself. But, varying from week to week, I will come up with different challenges to limit your writing.

You will be required to omit certain words, use a specific word in every second sentence, use a given sentence unchanged, write a story with a certain amount of words... or a combination of all.

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Winners of constrained writing contest #11

This week I was the judge for the contest and I must say, you've given me a very hard task! There were a total of 9 amazing entries this week. I thank everybody again for their entries, I had a very good time reading them.
Here are the winners:

• 1st place: 0.609 SBD + 0.221 STEEM
  @foragingquietude with the entry "Death of a lawyer".

Judge's note: I believe your work gives valuable insight into the potential mistakes that occur during police work – or any other work for that matter – even when you've taken all precautions and studies all possibilities. Well, almost all. ;)
Your story shows that we are all merely humans who make mistakes no matter how hard we try not to. Sometimes, they just happen. Sometimes for the better... and sometimes for the worse.

• 2nd place: 0.366 SBD + 0.132 STEEM
  @earthangel with the entry "The Encounter".

Judge's note: As @earthangel knows, I've had a comment about the woman's story falling a little short. But I can't help myself but be blown away by the twist in the story. Amazing imagination that was, that little slipup aside, also well executed!

• 3rd place: 0.244 SBD + 0.088 STEEM
  @soulturtle with the entry "A puzzling situation".

Judge's note: This story had a real life lesson very well embedded into a fictional setting and as I already told @soulturtle, it was exactly what I needed to read in that moment to get me to do something I've been postponing just a little longer than I'd be willing to admit.

Congratulations to the winners!

Honorable mentions in no particular order:

• @thot2word with "Love on Steemit"
• @dfrankle with "The meeting"
• @kbbyelizabeth with "The text that never sent"
• @simgirl with "The alternative route"
• @brazen with "Stranger than Facebook"
• @felt.buzz with "Breakfast in bed"

Judge's overall note: There were some amazing entries this week that I feel sorry for that I couldn't place in the top 3. I was thinking long and hard, trying to come up with as much different criteria as possible to define the 3 winners. The competition was tough.
I guess I've given you a hard task to write the story with a constraint, and now you've come back at me and made it hard to decide who wins.
It makes me very happy that we've come from zero or 1 entry a week to 9! And it also makes me very happy to see so many great entries. I believe future holds great things for all of us!

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Happy new year everyone! I have decided to send 0.1 STEEM to each and every one of you who participated in this week's constrained writing contest! It's not much, I know, But it's spreading the cheer and joy all around that truly matters! Thank you everyone for participating and keeping me motivated to both host this contest, and to continue writing stories myself. You guys are the best! Hope to see many more entries from all of you in the coming year! :D
Also sending out a special 0.1 STEEM to @ewkaw for keeping me entertained and motivated at all times.

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Proof of payment:


Or you can always check our wallets ;D

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With that out of the way, onto constrained writing contest #12!

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Rules:

This week we have @simgirl joining us as the judge for the Constrained Writing Contest #12. She is responsible for the rules; and for picking the winners. Here are the rules for this week;

• Include ”Little did he/she/I/we know” somewhere in your story
• The story must be at least 250 words long
• Upvote this post (Since this post has been downvoted to oblivion, please consider upvoting the Constrained Writing Contest #12 Promotion post. It is by no means compulsory, but it is very welcome)
• Resteem this post (optional, but preferable)
• Post a link to your entry in the comments below
• Include tag #constrainedwriting among your other tags

An example story by @simgirl can be found here.
An example story by @svashta can be found by clicking here

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Prizes

I will pay out the post's payout in full, both SBD and STEEM!

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That way your upvote is directly tied to the prize pool and hopefully there won't be too many 5% upvotes.

• 1st place: 45% of post's payout
• 2nd place: 27% of post's payout
• 3rd place 18 % of post's payout
• Judge takes 5 % for his/her efforts
• I will take 5 % for hosting, writing and editing the contest

*In case I receive any donations for the contest, the payout percentages apply to the donation itself as well.

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Judges

This week we have @simgirl joining us as a judge. She will pick a winner based on her own preference and try to be as objective as possible.

What's that I hear? You wish to be a judge too? Well look no further!
To apply for a judge and make up your own rules, send @svashta a hearty hello on steemit.chat.

*Disclaimer: I will only allow fellow writers as judges to keep the competition high quality.

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Deadline

• Entries are accepted until this post's payout
• Your entry post must be newer than this post

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Good luck!

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