Secrets and Lies Story Challenge 2013

Which reminds me that American spellcheck and grammar check systems, with their inimitable mixture of illiteracy and totalitarianism, insist that "any more" is wrong as it must be "anymore". In the UK that's still wrong.

Well, my fears were unfounded. I'd kept my diary quite clear in the few days before going on holiday, with the result that unless there's another "site outage" (shurely shome mishtake: shite outrage?) I'm going to have been able to read and mark all the 66 submissions.

Just a thought about what we're looking for. I always believe the subject of the challenge should be treated with respect. So a story that only marginally involves whatever the subject or prompt for the challenge is, should be marked down however readable it is. This time the subject gives us a lot of leeway. But just as I mark up an original take on the subject or picture, I feel the best submissions for this one ought to include twists, turns and surprises. That's what I'm taking into account, anyway, along with "Is it sexy?", "Is it well written?", "Is there some depth to the characters?", "Is it credible, or at least a consistent fantasy?" and suchlike.

Excellent criteria, BH. I wish everyone judged the entries in this manner. I also think the theme matters. Secrets and Lies should play a central role in the development of the plot.

Usually I manage to create a reasonably even distribution of marks from 1 to 9, with the odd 10 and very odd 0. This time I was in a bit of a hurry because of the approaching holiday. Finishing my reading and marking last night, I thought to look at my marking. I found two big spikes on 5 and 7: that is, I gave lots of 5s and lots of 7s and far fewer anything else. I suppose this reflects that with a number of stories I thought, "Hmm...OK, nothing wrong, reasonably interesting, but for me, nothing special" (5), OR "I liked that. It was good fun and well-written, but it had a flaw or I was impressed but not hugely" (7). Interesting, anyway.

I don't worry about the title simply because it falls under the old adage "Never Judge A Book By Its Cover." A person may be missing out big time by not choosing a less than erotic or thrilling title. I've found some real gems here so far. I judge the stories by how well written they are, how well they keep with the 'challenge subject matter (theme), and how well they hold my attention as with the longer stories.

When I think about it, it's not easy coming up with different plots in stories, especially for the subject matter involved with the LSF. I could say, "well, it's sort of like watching porn movies. How many different ways can they do it? It's all the same thing." However, our authors seem to do it. Yeah, some are on the very line of 'the same old thing,' but they're great stories none the less.

Your arguments sounded so much like the ones I would have made that I had to check my own scores, and what did I find? Among the 42 scores I have given so far, there are eight 5's and eight 7's, and next on the list is 6 which I have only given four times this far! The distribution is, in fact, almost totally symmetric with the center at 6. Almost spooky...

Well, that's me all done... All read, commented and voted on... I am now taking the rest of the year off (I wish!)

Some great stories anyway, well done all

I am also done. A quite enjoyable challenge, I thought, with some very good stories. Now it only remains to see who wrote what...

Just finished all 66 (65 if I discount my own story) and voted on them all, eve if I didn't manage to comment on more than about a quarter. The quality was high as always and I felt bad being so ruthless with my votes!
Nswitch/thereader0987

Far from done. I read, commented and evaluated 14 stories (~20% of the lot). I'm trying to get to 50% this week.

I have read 61 stories so far, and I have to say that these are really great stories - some of the best I have ever read. There are such great authors at LSF.