Weekly Wattpad Contests

Contest #35 Results

Hello again friends, acquaintances, and other.

It is with great pleasure in which I type this up at my office at 20:37 on a Saturday Evening, instead of playing Dungeons and Dragons while getting absolutely (moderately) intoxicated with my ex-boyfriend.

So, here wo go:

Preface to Contest Results:

I'm quite pleased to have participated in my first contest! Congratulations to me.

I hope you all went well and stretched your typing hand.

I have a hand-cramp now from typing up these results (yes, I'm typing my preface last, it's technique).

Going into this, I didn't fully know what to expect. Participation wasn't the best, we had very few entries, but that's absolutely fine. It gave me the time to really think thoroughly on all the stories presented.

You can find all the entries here if you want to take a look (and I do recommend that you do): https://www.wattpad.com/list/747430165-weekly-contest-valentines

I'll ask Nadia from the Contests account to pretty please add a picture of me in my Zombie Appreciation Day outfit, to ensure you all that I had an absolutely wonderful time getting wasted and singing Bon Jovi songs at Karaoke.

I hope you had as much fun as I did in Valentine's week.

Also, please note that Bonus points don't actually do anything, but it's always nice to have them. Now, ONTO THE RESULTS!

Crossing This Bridge -   Katherynnicolee

First Impressions:

This is perhaps the only story I've read where I wasn't intoxicated, and boy am I glad for that! I have absolutely no desire to go into a drunken existential crisis, because this one hit me - hard.

At first, I thought that story was all over the place – in a good way. It brings up really serious topics and very complicated concepts, mixing light, fun humour with deep emotional reflection. It sounds messy, but it turned that was all for a very good reason.

I wouldn't recommend reading it if you have human emotions.

The Critical Analysis:

Structurally, this is very well written. It progresses naturally and takes you on a very simple journey of introspection. While it may seem, at first, like a lot of loose strings are thrown into the mix, the author ties it in to a very simple, very poignant, ribbon at the end.

Conceptually, this is wonderful. The only character that matters is simple, defined and has a valid character arc. The story addresses the notion of desire and self-fulfilment, and alludes to that constantly. It says to the reader, "Hey, you know what matters on Valentine's Day, truly? You, you and you. Go chase your happy ending, Darling."

Do we want to talk about escapism? Are we prepared for that? You bet your sweet patootie we are:

Katherynnicolee evidently understands the importance of chasing hopes and dreams in black heeled boots. While, on Valentine's Day, perhaps family, love and chocolate from the teacher's lounge vending machine might be vital, the real MVP's are a person's ability to recognise opportunity's open door and shove your foot in there before it slams shut.

To be real – life sometimes sucks. Responsibility, Mental illness, social pressure, all the good stuff. Sometimes people want to get away from that, to find a way out. It's the most basic reason for film and literature's great success over the years. It presents us with an opportunity to get out of that, to escape for maybe a few minutes or hours and live somebody else's life with them.