Hullo.

Hey, everyone!

I’m Katie, and I’ll be maintaining the info on the Vaccuum Contest tumblr and blogspot! I’m sure that Tessa will occasionally pop back in for a post, but for the most part, you’ll be reading my stuff.

So, I bet you want some further information on what you’ll be dealing with at with the judges. Well, here’s what they’ll be looking at when your 5000 word piece is being read.

CRITERIA:

- Clarity of Purpose (Is the piece good, entertaining, interesting, et cetera?) —-40 points
- Coherence of Delivery (Does the piece maintain the reader’s attention well?) —-20 points
- Efficiency of Language Use (Is language used well?) —- 20 points
- Accuracy of Mechanics (Spelling and Grammar) —-10 points

- Prompt Usage (How creatively is the prompt used?) —- 10 points

This is what the judges will be using to judge your pieces. All this being said, I’d recommend using both a spell-checker and finding a friend to read through and critique your story before you send it to us.

The details of how to submit your story will be released on June 30, the day before the contest begins on July 1. The submission period ends on July 31, at Midnight in your local time zone. We will be judging your pieces during August, and the winners should be announced in mid-September. We will also be getting your pieces back to you, critiqued by your judges. The judges will give pointers on how to make your piece better. We figured that everyone deserves this, because that’s been something that has annoyed a lot of people in the past about writing contests. You enter something in, and then you never find out what it was that made you win or lose. I personally find that frustrating!

So, yeah, that’s all for now! Have fun, and start brainstorming!

- Katie