HOL WriMo
Everything started because I was too frustrated from NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last year. After realizing that November was nearing once again, I thought of all the people who must be feeling down because they try so hard, yet they never reach the dreaded 50,000 words. I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be nice if people had the chance to accomplish something easier first?" and that was the moment when I thought of creating a writing contest. However, after I talked around about it, I heard that Prof. Zenix James already had already presented an idea of that kind. I instantly hunt down Zee to talk to her, and I found out more than I was looking for — she had other HOL and RL duties that were stopping her from leading the contest at that point, so she let me gather a team and host the contest. Of course, I went and asked the crazy Prof. Cassandra Lobiesk to help me right away, and the preparations started there!
Soon afterward everything was running, and our only worry was that we won't scare away people and end up without participants or winners in the end. But week by week time passed, and there were still a few people who kept sending in their weekly written work. It gave us hope that the contest won't be a complete loss. And once we got to Week 3, things went more smoothly. We were witnessing with our own eyes how people were forging their own short stories, and while some of the names ringed a bell, there were writers whose name we encountered for the first time. That was definitely a great sign; it meant people were coming out of their shells, we have found their weak spot!
By Week 4 it was pretty much obvious that we had lost most of the participants, but we were glad that the seven of them that were making progress were determined to get to the end. It was a happy end for all of them though! I honestly think they should all be proud of such an achievement, regardless of who got the popularity or the judges award. All the judges said that it was a truly hard task to vote for only one story, as they were all great. And to make things even worse, they all had different types of writing, and it's hard to judge between a comedy and a mystery. Here I must say a great thank you to Katina Tigano and Justine Provençal for taking the duty of judges at such a late time! We only 'hired' them a few days before the closing date for the voting poll, and they both did a fantastic job.
I'm just happy it all ended well, without any issues, and with a couple of winners who had amazing stories. They basically wrote a 6,000 words story in the busiest month, so if they could have done that, is there anything that can stop them from reaching 50,000 words in November?! I certainly hope not! I'm looking forward to the year ahead, and I hope to see all of them there. I know me and Cassie (who's won it 2 times in a row now) will be trying out again. Never give up from your goals if you truly want to achieve them!