Contests are great fun, the chance of a prize is enticing. However, I hate it when I'm trying to find some really good stories and all of them are contest stories, with exactly the same plot. One type of story I found this in was zombie stories. I LOVE zombie stories, but I seem to find that they're all "Zombies rule, vampires drool" contest stories. Which is REALLY disappointing.
I want to have lots of gore and fighting and running and GUNS... lots of guns! Not a highschool full of pansy girls who spend all their time yelling at eachother about how hard their lives are.
Of course, twists on zombie stories are fine. Feed is an amazing zombie story. I love it, it's a great idea and doesn't comply to so many typical "rules" of writing. Like wearing plot armour (where the characters don't die simply because they're needed for plot)
So, I guess it's not contest stories I hate, just really crappy contests that ruin the type of story for me
