I just wanted to make an official place to discuss Arrest Us, which as you may have noticed, is officially accepting submissions.
Click here to submit your story or to read other's stories
You might also want to visit the official announcement post for more details.
If you have any questions, let us know. And HAVE FUN!
This is where people lay down the smack talk, right?
(I just posted here so I could more easily follow said talk.)
I'm so glad they are doing another challenge. I've already read and rated 4 or 5 and people are bringing their A game. I'm submitting my story to the workshop today and hopefully by the weekend I'll have it submitted to the challenge. I've learned getting in early and reading as many other stories as possible really helps you get others to read yours.
Let us know when you forum members post your stories. I always like to read the stories of the "locals" first.
I've been redecorating so haven't followed the contest (though I did submit). Just popped on and seen we have the same issue as last year. Somene has been liberal with the thumbs down without leaving comments. One story has had no comments but at least one thumbs down. Bit harsh that. Only read one so far, but The Quiet Detective is superb. Can't wait to get stuck into the others.
Yeah, there was a story, "Successful Losers" that I thought was really well done and the first day I gave it a thumbs up and left a comment. The next morning it had a couple thumbs down and one more positive comment. Weird.
Oh, and I forgot the smack talk in my first post. Um, your mom and stuff. Crap, I'm no good at this.
Interesting. Some of those negative votes have been reversed.
You are so spot on Lawrence. My mum LOVES stuff.
If you guys have suspicions about any of the entries or contestants, feel free to PM me, Rob, or Kirk with the details so we can look into it.
Thanks, Nathan. Hopefully that won't be necessary. I want to believe we can have nice things!
Apparently there was an issue with the formatting of my story the first time I posted it, I have removed the original post and posted it in a different format that should work.Thanks to all that read it and I am enjoying reading the other submissions.
Hi Kirk - I have no worries at all . You were quick to step in during Teleport Us when there was some less than honest activity, so I have complete faith that if there is a repeat, it'll be dealt with. I just found it a little interesting that most stories had taken a hit, including one that had no reads but had been given a thumbs down with no comments attached, which I thought a little harsh. I leapt to the unfounded presumption that it'd be one person doing that, but clearly that is not the case. As I said above, a lot of them have been reversed now, so all is fine and dandy once more.
I've read a few now, and only given thumbs up so far. Some gooooooood stories submitted so far.
Hi all,
I have a question. I know that serial killers is a no go in this year's competition.
My story is about a woman waking up in a hospital room dead. Her husband walks in and starts talking to her (don't want to write the entire story here , otherwise no-one would read it, lol). He happens to be a serial killer. But the story is not about his killings or his crimes, it's about him and his wife and their relationship. Is that acceptable ?. Admittedly I already submitted the story in the hope that this would be OK.
Thanks for your feedback
Hi Geert,
I took a look at your story, and while my judgement isn't the final one, it does appear to be in violation of the "no serial killers" and "no sex crimes" rules. Even though we don't see the crimes take place, the only crime aspect in your story involves the rapes and murders by a serial killer, so that's probably not going to be accepted as a candidate for publication by ThugLit. The leadership may disagree with me, but it seems pretty cut and dry. Sorry.
Hi Nathan,
Thanks for the feedback. I understand your point: If it's ok, I'll leave it posted anyway as I value the feedback of people reading it. If I should remove it, just let me know.
Thanks.
Read three stories so far, and it's got me back into critiquing...hadn't realised how much I'd missed it until I started reading competition entires on my iPhone during a car journey. Planning on submitting something, I've just got to find time to get it written. Will probably make a last minute post just minutes before the final deadline.
I just posted my story.
http://litreactor.com/events/arrest-us/not-a-sailors-girlnot-a-truckers-...
Evening all.
See here: http://litreactor.com/events/arrest-us/donation
Now I'm going to get reading and rating.
Thanks.
Probably would have missed this contest if I hadn't followed an unrelated LitReactor post and noticed it lurking (admittedly, on the front page!). Thought there might be more noise, on twitter etc? but then I guess it might have whizzed past unnoticed. Which would have been a shame, as I enjoyed the Teleport-Us challenge.
Here's my entry :
Looking forward (with a trepidation) to my first comments.
Liam
Eddie, Seb, Liam, I'll put you guys at the top of my list.
I think I'm going to go the random route for this contest. I know I won't get to read them all (as a standard thing I do, I have to read 30 odd short stories a month anyway, plus I'm reading so I can vote in the Hugo Nominations, and heck, you know, writing?) so this seems a mite fairer than just reading the stories of people who are active enough to read mine. Well, random plus any that leap out as a must read, of course!
I'll make a solemn promise though to read and rate as many ratings as I get. So if you want to make work for me... :)
Liam
I finally thought of something, i'll write it this weekend. The prompt actually stumped me, which i didn't expect.
I am happy to jump in and read some stories this summer with all my new free time--benefits of being a teacher. I posted my first story here at Lit and I am pretty excited to read through all these creative crime stories.
Read & Be Read
Hi. Totally new here. I'm sorry if I missed it, but I didn't see a deadline. Is there a final date to submit? Thanks!
Have you guys considered making comments mandatory if someone wants to give a thumbs down? I'm sure you can guess why I'm asking...
@CremedelaCrime: The deadline for submission is the July 1st.
@Doug: I'll ask up the chain. I'm not sure if it's doable mid-contest, but I'll see.
@Nate, understood. Even if it can't be backdated to mine, maybe something can be done to save other worthy stories from some shady voting.
Judging on last year, Doug, the occasional thumbs down with no comments has little bearing on the final results. Quarter of the way through and you are sitting pretty in the top group. Not that I'm calling you pretty... though I'm not calling you ugly either. If a story is good enough, the odd shady tactical vote will make no difference.
That's good to know.
I'm not usually very competitive, this is just irritating. You get it, though--I saw you postings above from when the contest kicked off.
Man, I was going to try and read all of these stories and go for the reader rewards but, shit, there are so many there's no way I can keep up. And every one I have managed to read are really top notch. Haven't read a really bad one yet, so I'm a little surprised anybody has gotten thumbs down at all.
@Ed, yeah I got a little overwhelmed trying to keep up, so I figured I'd start with the people that read mine, to return the favor.
The random button was a great addition last year. I'm driven to read them all because I don't want to miss any good ones. There are a lot of good solid stories, but four stand outs for me so far.
@Doug - I got one down vote out of 21 votes last time (teleport us), and though there was a comment, it was about as helpful as water wings for a brick. Annoyed me, but didn't have any real impact as I still got a "proper" review from a professional. That THEY didn't like my piece is another story... I think the thing to note is the number of +s, and 13 up is a (very) good start!
Not sure there will be as many professional reviews this time round, I think they will be harder to win, BUT hopefully you'll get decent (and helpful) feedback from all the others in this contest, which is ultimately all we're really signed up for...
Yes, for the most part the reviews gave lots of good stuff to help improve the story.
Hey all, I just posted my entry to the contest. It's called "Nesting," and you can find it here:
http://litreactor.com/events/arrest-us/nesting
Any and all comments, critiques, opinions, are greatly appreciated, especially if you feel I've violated one of the contest caveats. Anyway, thanks in advance.
My story, Pork Chop, is up and needs some love. Or hate. You decide. I'll be reading stories all this week, can't wait to dig in.
Looking forward to reading the submissions, but I'm waiting until I submit mine. Want to get that out of the way first. It's finished, just waiting to hear back for some friends' notes (so it's "finished" up to this point).
I don't think i can add 1300 words to my story to make it the required 3000 words and it still be effective. Oh well, at least i got a story out of it.
"No hitmen" means 'no killing or attempted killing as per a contract/agreement,' and not 'no killing or attempted killing as part of a scheme which does not require the death of a target as per a contract/agreement,' right?
Here's my weird little entry to the contest
JYH:
Hitmen are definitionally contract killers, so I would imagine contract killings are a no-no.
Remember that Thuglit was the driving force behind our criteria, and the grand prize is publication by them. They told us what they were sick of reading. If they want something different than hitmen, they probably aren't interested in something that tries to toe that line on semantics.
@NS: Fair enough. I was thinking about some nameless antagonism which could be construed as a "hit", not a main character hitperson. Maybe they'd not mind that, maybe they would.
I could use a few more reads: http://litreactor.com/events/arrest-us/book-heist and will read any story in return as well. I've read some intresting stories so far.
Thanks
Can i submit my story even though it's not long enough? I know i wouldn't be eligible to win but i'd like the reviews anyway.
SConley - might depend how close it is. I've seen over and under submitted so far, and I think I'll be fairly relaxed (though 6.5K one was a bit much...). It might rule you out of Thuglit etc (not sure who set the word count limit, but one hopes it's for a good reason!) but you should get some feedback regardless.
Liam
P.s. Show me yours and I'll show you mine...
http://litreactor.com/events/arrest-us/criminal-class
:)
I'll check it out, here's mine
http://litreactor.com/events/arrest-us/making-history
I've only read a few stories but they're really good. Like really good. There's some really stiff competition, guys.
Sconley- I left some feedback on your story. I hope it doesn't sound too negative. When I put the reviews up, the main concern is trying to help make the story better. Good job.
Fired the story in early days with what I found out to be a load of mistakes in it
Now uploaded a revised version that should improve it (hopefully)
Finally got my story in. Now I'm going to get back to reading and rating. The talent level in this pool is extremely high. I've thoroughly enjoyed the majority of the stories I've read so far. If you have time to read mine I'll make sure to return the favor. Thanks.
http://litreactor.com/events/arrest-us/foxtrot
I'll check it out.