Posted by

Rosalie Valentine

Posted on

October 20, 2019

Posted under

Writing

Comments

1 Comment

Symphony of Words 2019: Winners

Today is the day Charis, Anika, and I finally announce the winners of our Symphony of Words writing contest!

First of all, I’m sorry that this announcement has been so delayed! Some unexpected, unplanned for life stuff/busyness came up for me and one of the other judges, and the judging process ended up taking a lot longer than we planned for. We are sorry for the delay, and we so appreciate your patience. <3

Also, thank you so much to everyone who entered! There were so many amazing stories and styles sent in, and it was wonderful to step into your imaginations. Thank you for sharing your creativity and heart with us! <3 <3 <3

symphony of words winners

Now, without further adieu! The winners! Just click on the story title read the story and a note from each author about their inspiration!

Here are our honorable mentions:

Merie S. with her story The Nightingale Girl inspired by For King and Country’s God Only Knows.

Alexis C. with her story When I Belonged With You inspired by The Lumineers’ Ho Hey.

Kaitlyn K. with her story Porch Swing Hugs inspired by The SteelDrivers’ Where Rainbows Never Die.

Ash R. with her story Peony inspired by Taylor Swift’s Clean.

Now onto our prize-winning top three!

In third place: Abigayle C. with her story Remembrance inspired by I See Fire by Ed Sheeran.

To me, the author went a very unexpected route as far as setting and subject, and it was super refreshing! Not only is the writing tight, but the subject matter is handled with maturity and taste without wandering into undue morbidity or romanticism.

In second place: Emily H. with her story Stelle Tremanti inspired by Red by Taylor Swift.

I think what I loved most about this story was the feeling of being seamlessly taken into another period of time. With its winsome description and nostalgia-evoking writing style, I felt like I was just on the other side of a camera lens watching the story unfold in quick flashes. *dreamy eyes forever*

In first place: Bekah B. with her story Let Me Fall inspired by I Need U by BTS.

This is a very close story, told in such a way that you don’t just see the main character but you also experience her thoughts and emotions with her (which is a huge mark of good storytelling on its own). Unfortunately, I can’t say much more because I don’t want to give away spoilers, but I will say that while it dives into some heavy subject matter (all dealt with well within this contest’s guidelines, but I just want to give sensitive readers a heads up), it’s a story you don’t want to miss.

Abigayle, Emily, and Bekah: you can expect an email within a week regarding the final details of your prizes! Congratulations!!

Of course, thank you, Anika and Charis, for dreaming up this contest and letting me participate in it as a judge alongside you.

Thank you again to everyone who entered!! I was, personally, blown away by the depth and breadth of the type of stories we got, and I’m so glad you all participated. <3

With love,

Rosalie

p.s. – very sad news: WordPress crashed, and Anika’s blog has vanished entirely. *screaming ensues* If you want to keep up with her, be sure to follow her on Instagram.

Posted by

Rosalie Valentine

Posted on

July 13, 2019

Posted under

Stories, Writing

Comments

4 Comments

Announcing a New Writing Contest: Symphony of Words

“A Penprints post on a Saturday after a month of radio silence. Something must by up,” you think to yourself.

You would be right.

I’m here to announce a new writing contest: Symphony of Words.

And guess what. Sign-ups open TODAY.

Symphony of Words.jpg

What’s this?

Symphony of Words is a musically-inspired contest put on by Anika Walkes, Charis Rae, and yours truly. It’s the brain-child of Anika Walkes and Charis Rae, and I was privileged to be brought onto their team.

Each entrant will receive a song as a writing prompt from one of the three contest hostesses and will then have 30 days to write and submit a story.

We’ll be judging the stories on a scale of 1-10 and totaling up all your ratings for a final score (i.e. – each judge will give an individual score, and then we add our scores together. e.g. – if I give your story an 8, Anika gives it a 9, and Charis gives it a 8, your final score will be 25; 30 is the highest possible score).

Prizes, prizes, prizes.

Yeah, you have a chance to win stuff.

First place wins a free graphic design from Anika, an edit on your story from all three judges (judges will single out your strengths, areas to improve, etc.), and the winner’s choice of a coffee mug from C.G. Drews’s legendary PaperFury Society6 shop.

Second place wins an edit on your story from all three judges (judges will single out your strengths, areas to improve, etc.).

Third place wins a free graphic design from Anika.

(A graphic design from Anika will look like either a) a cover for your story, or b) a blog header + signature.)

Dates to keep in mind:

July 22, 2019: sign-ups close
July 24, 2019: entrants receive their songs
August 24, 2019: stories due back; judging begins
September 24, 2019: judging ends; winners are decided
September 30, 2019: winners announced

How To Enter:

Whether you’re in a writing slump, wanting to try your hand at short stories for the first time, finishing up a mammoth Camp NaNoWriMo project, or just drooling over PaperFury’s writerly mugs, this contest is for you.

(If you’re unable to view the Google form embedded in this post, follow this link to sign-up.)

The Rules:

Stories must be 2,000 words or less.
Minor swearing is allowed.
Romance is definitely allowed, but explicit sexual content is a hard no.
Violence and gore shouldn’t get gratuitous or very disturbing (I say “very disturbing” because violence is always disturbing).

Basically, keep things PG-13 and below. As the hostesses and judges of this contest, Anika, Charis, and I reserve the right to automatically disqualify any story at any time at our discretion based on these rules.

Meet the Judges:

Find Charis on her blog or Instagram.

Find Anika on her blog or Instagram.

That’s it!

Anika, Charis, and I can’t wait to read your stories!

With love,

Rosalie

p.s. – I’m going to try to ease back into my regular posting schedule in the next week or so. I’ve had a lot on my mind, and I’m still sorting through what this blog is going to continue to look like. Thanks for hanging in there with me, kids.