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Alex (Season 8 Co-Winner)
Alex's Winning Submission
Final Score Breakdown:
Creativity and Originality: 27/30 pts
Structure and Organization: 23/25 pts
Engagement and Impact: 25/25 pts
Grammar and Spelling: 10/10 pts
Prompt Adherence: 10/10 pts
TOTAL: 95/100 pts
Creativity and Originality: The idea of having a seemingly innocent character secretly being a villain is not unheard of, but the way in which you build the story around how they act in a dream without revealing what they actually did, put a refreshing twist on the theme.
Structure and Organization: Your formatting was excellent and did not pull the reader out of the story. The story structure itself was fantastic. From an innocent beginning to the twist at the end, everything was very well put together.
Engagement and Impact: Change nothing here. Your story is the kind that will stay with a person long after they finish reading it.
Grammar and Spelling: I could not find any errors in your grammar or spelling.
Prompt Adherence: You did an excellent job of addressing the prompt.
Overall:
At first, I wanted to know more about what the narrator experienced in the dream world. The way you handled it without revealing any details was nothing short of masterful. The way you tied in the opening and final lines gave the piece a beautiful symmetry.
The sense of mystery and excellent use of keeping things vague are the stars of your story. It forces the reader to keep guessing and try to fill in the gaps with their own possible narratives. You tend to see that in the best kind of writing.
If I had to give a criticism, it would be that the characters are a little flat. I understand that keeping the main character’s traits a secret are integral to the story, but the supporting cast felt like they could have used more attention. Maybe highlight a few of them individually and use them to drop a hint or two about the true nature of the main character. The story still works wonderfully as is.
Writing Challenge:
Suppose you are in a lucid dream of your own creation. This lucid dream lasts for an entire month in your dream world but only one night in the real world and you have complete control over what happens in this dream. Write a 2000-word short story that vividly describes the experience of having this dream. This experience does not need to be exclusive to the events you encounter in the dream itself. Some parts of your story can focus on what happens to you and your surroundings before and after the dream. Finally, the dream you refer to does not need to be a dream you have had before (i.e, you can make up all the relevant details as needed to complete this challenge).
