Announcing the winners of our Free Spirit Competition

Congrats to all, those in the top ten, and especially those on the podium. Neat competition, 2000 words is a tough Mistress but she inspired so many, I so enjoyed reading all the stories. Thanks to all who wrote, read, commented, organised and judged.

Congrats to all of the top 10!

This was a great comp, from those which I managed to read! I must get round to reading the rest soon!

Fashionably late for the party... had stuff on my plate and, well, missed the gala, I guess -- and that I had hit the top ten! 😱

Thank you, everyone, for participating and huge congrats to the well-deserved top 3 as well as the top 9. Must have been a hell of a comp to rank with such outstanding entries.

Late beer's on me.

Helloooooo! Is anybody here?

Fearless leader, when’s next comp announced? Eager beavers wanna know.

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Helloooooo! Is anybody here?

Fearless leader, when’s next comp announced? Eager beavers wanna know.

This week. We'll do a fairly lighthearted one for Halloween time, then that should take us nicely into the festive season :)

Quote by Jen

This week. We'll do a fairly lighthearted one for Halloween time, then that should take us nicely into the festive season

Woohoo! :)

Quote by Jen

This week. We'll do a fairly lighthearted one for Halloween time, then that should take us nicely into the festive season

I like the sounds of this. Though my Halloween stories are rarely lighthearted (glances at 2021's rather dark Halloween comp entry on SS), I am sure I can manage it once.😉

Quote by Jen

This week. We'll do a fairly lighthearted one for Halloween time, then that should take us nicely into the festive season

can we have light hearted murder in it?

Quote by sprite

can we have light hearted murder in it?

I love you to death! You put the "laughter" in manslaughter.

Quote by Jen

This week. We'll do a fairly lighthearted one for Halloween time, then that should take us nicely into the festive season

A light-hearted Halloween comp? Have you MET the writers here? I expect gruesome buckets of blood and guts.

Quote by Ensorceled

A light-hearted Halloween comp? Have you MET the writers here? I expect gruesome buckets of blood and guts.

yeah, but light-hearted gruesome buckets of blood and guts, right?

Quote by sprite

yeah, but light-hearted gruesome buckets of blood and guts, right?

Who needs buckets of guts? I wrote a story about a guy who gets a phone call from one of his employees ... who is in HELL!! Yeah, I was in a cheery mood that Fall or something.😉

Actually, buckets of blood and cum is a little more appropriate.

Quote by Seeker4

Who needs buckets of guts? I wrote a story about a guy who gets a phone call from one of his employees ... who is in HELL!! Yeah, I was in a cheery mood that Fall or something.😉

Some stories just stick in the mind. This was one of them, just perfectly constructed.

Quote by Jen
This week. We'll do a fairly lighthearted one for Halloween time, then that should take us nicely into the festive season

Once again it's into the breech, dear friends, writing a southern hemisphere Beltane story while most others are scribing a northern hemisphere Samhain story. With humour (or is that humor?) too.

May I make a suggestion to the mods for future comps? I think a reason this last one was so well attended might have been the 2000 k word limit. I think a 2000-3000 k limit opens up a comp to more people, by keeping things short. It sorta levels the playing field. And it makes the entries easier to read, so the writers might get more reads out of it. Just a thought.

Quote by CuriousAnnie
Some stories just stick in the mind. This was one of them, just perfectly constructed.

Thank you. That site is so quiet anymore, I am never sure how my older stories are seen.

Quote by Ensorceled
I think a reason this last one was so well attended might have been the 2000 k word limit. I think a 2000-3000 k limit opens up a comp to more people, by keeping things short. It sorta levels the playing field.

OTOH, the last SS comp had no limit other than the site's traditional 10000 words and I don't think anyone even broke 5000 (your winner, for instance, shows at 4.3K). One of the podium stories (third place) was only 1.4K. So I think not having a limit generates more diversity in length rather than necessarily keeping people out.

Now if you have a high MINIMUM length, say minimum 5000 and maximum 8000 or something, that could be more limiting to participation than no maximum.

Quote by Ensorceled

May I make a suggestion to the mods for future comps? I think a reason this last one was so well attended might have been the 2000 k word limit. I think a 2000-3000 k limit opens up a comp to more people, by keeping things short. It sorta levels the playing field. And it makes the entries easier to read, so the writers might get more reads out of it. Just a thought.

My fav to read and write is 2K-4K, and I agree it brings more entries, but I like the diversity in comp lengths. I know a few authors who write amazing long ones and will Top Ten those, but then sit out under 5K, so I like occasional long ones for them to show their stuff. We also have some who only do the 1K or less. And although long, Noir was one of my fav comps.