Le Ministre de l’au-delà, should we return submissions as the body of the email or an attachment?
An excellent question, TriPolar. Either one has worked out well so far - gmail seems to be able to deal with all of the standard document formats. If you’ve used any bold, italic or underline, it seems to be a good idea to mention it to me - even when those codes show up in gmail, it sometimes takes some extra effort to get them to appear on the SDMB.
Ok, another dumb question (I’m new at this), is Word 2007 an acceptable format?
Can I just ask - in what way does the picture have to be on the page? Like as in a description, or the actual picture?
This contest virgin, here!
Thanks.
I just punted on that. The image depicted in the picture is in my story. I’m done, if it doesn’t qualify, well that’s the breaks.
I don’t even know what “it must centre around 3 randomly selected words and one randomly selected photograph” actually means either. I put the elements in the story, but they aren’t really the center (or the centre).
I included the words in the story and kinda centered the story around the picture.
Glad you got it. I am still trying to work within my self-imposed three hour deadline, as I need practice with writing quickly. Finished this one with time to spare! (Of course, now I wish I could edit a few minor things, but I have to get over that.)
I liked the open theme, and liked the photo as well.
Thanks again for organizing this Le Ministre de l’au-delà!
Allow me to speak for Le Ministre de l’au-delà, but the photo is purely for inspiration and you do NOT have to actually include the photo itself in the story.
Again, allow me to chime in for Le Ministre de l’au-delà and say you can type in anything, but then you CUT and PASTE your story into the email response, as if you were just writing him a really long email.
(I am sure Le Ministre de l’au-delà will be here shortly to correct any misinformation I might have passed along, but at least that is how I have been doing it for these contests.)
The idea is to make the playing field even, so that someone doesn’t dust off some short story they have been working on for 8 years and pass it off as something they did in the 60 hours. Thus, there is a photo for inspiration, and you must incorporate the three random words, somehow, somewhere into the short story.
For instance, if the photo were of a beach in Hawaii (not the photo used this time), you would be hard pressed to explain why your story takes place in the Tundra, unless that person was dreaming about being on a beach in Hawaii.
Of course someone could still cheat, but we sort of assume people play fair and use the photo to inspire some aspect of the new, original story they create in the time-frame allotted.
I’ve just attached my MSWord doc file to a reply to the original message. I can’t speak for Word 2007–though I can save a doc in that format, I usually use 97-2003, since it can be read by just about any Word version out there. But you certainly can send an MSWord doc file to Le Ministre.
The photo just has to be part of the story in some way. I post the stories as written on my blog, and you can see that the inclusions range from being very literal (like “Straight Though the Heart” or “Spring Break”), to being a very small part of the story (like “Silver Blues” or “Christmas with Timmy”). Either way, they pass muster.
Hello, I’m back - yes, I’m quite sure a Word 2007 .doc file will open for me.
The extent of centring around the words and the picture will vary from writer to writer - it can be as little as a passing reference or the entire story can revolve around any one of them. Ultimately, it’s up to the readers to determine how well they think a writer has used the obligatory material. I have to say that I found this month’s image so specific, it was impossible for me to refer to it in an oblique way, so the image ended up dominating the entire story. Have to wait and see if anyone finds it effective or not…
Submitted.
I’ve lost track of acknowledgements. So far, I have submissions from -
Puddleglum
Barkis is Willin’
DMark
Bohomite
Le Ministre de l’au-delà
TriPolar
Quarter Lane and
Hrududu.
(Just in case anyone was wondering ‘Did you get my story yet?’.)
Some fantastic work going on here!
Since I submitted yesterday evening…
Did you get my story yet? 
Ha! Yes, I did, and it’s great!
Still room for lots more, folks.
Hereby submitted for your approval.
The 11th isn’t like, forever. I’m sure you’ll get more. 
Whew!
Sent mine at about the 59 hour mark.