The Official (and Unofficial) Writer's Study Blog

The TotW has been fairly busy since the last blog posts, with a number of votes going up and closing and thus we have two winners to announce.

TotW 243 saw the brave competitors channel their inner Indiana or Lara Croft and go raiding some tombs. But what would they find? Treasure? Scrolls? The previous tomb raider? Six competitors set out into the dense jungle full aware that only one would come out alive. But who would it be?

Three came back however after the first vote and so we were faced with a problem that could only be solved by the dreaded tie-breaker. In the end, Darkan prevailed with his mysterious entry, presented as an inscription from a Pharoah’s tomb. Symbolic and mystifying, I really enjoyed reading Darkan’s entry. It was short and poetical and I really liked that every second line would only be two or three syllables long, it gave a feeling of it being a prophesy of some sorts or a ritualistic chant to it. I could just imagine drums beating, torches proving the only light as a priest read aloud the inscription. Great stuff Darkan, well deserved win but a hearty good work to the rest of the competitors who all had great entries.

The submission period, now on display in the British Museum’s archeology exhibit can be found here, the first round of voting is booby trapped here and within a sarcophagus lies the mummified remains of the tie-breaker here.

From archaeology and tombs to the inner temptation we all feel, TotW 244 saw the competitors changing from tomb raider to Gollum with the title “Where is the Ring? Things that we are powerless to resist.” A memorial to one of the greatest actors, Sir Christopher Lee, surely this would conjure up some tempting stories right?

Correct, three this time put up their hands to enter the fight. William the Marshal emerged victorious with his very abstract but amazing short story in an empty city, where time does not pass and colour does not lighten up the world. I loved the inclusion of an Anglo-Saxon riddle at the beginning and the whole things was difficult to wrap my head around, but in a good way, like a puzzle I wanted to complete. Is anything the narrator describing true, is this place real, maybe it only symbolises something, but what? So many questions! A very good piece of writing indeed, William the Marshal and congratulations on your win against two other very strong entries, I liked all them truth be told and it was hard choosing the two to vote for knowing one would lose out.

The submission period is being jealously guarded by Gollum and referred to as “my precioussnnesss” here, and here the voting thread can be found about to be thrown back into the fires of Mt Doom where it belongs.

Remember guys, TotW 245- Love’s Eturnal Flame still needs one more submission. TotW 246- Back to the Future is this weeks TotW in honour of us humans successfully surviving until 2015, albeit without hover boards and with fax unused and unpopular. Go sharpen your quill and submit now. I mean it, NOW!

That’s it from the Writer’s Study for now,

Merchant of Venice