Thank you for your submission! A bit of feedback on it to help you truly compete: pay close attention to the thematic prompts for the contest. In order for this piece to be considered for placing anywhere in the top 5, it has to have a central theme of a timepiece, which is absent from your current story. I would suggest an edit of the story to be more compliant with the contest rules and stipulations, otherwise, it will be disqualified. This will be the only time I make note of it, as a thorough reading and understanding of the rules is an important consideration the judges make when judging pieces for winners.
Thank you! !PIZZA !CTP
Cam you throw more light on what you really meant by central theme of a timepiece? I don't get it...
Sure! In order for the story to be considered for competition purposes, it has to include a thematic element of a timepiece (e.g., a clock, a watch, pocketwatch, etc.). If the story doesn't involve this primary theme in some way, it does not adhere to the stipulations of the contest. It falls well into the horror genre, but doesn't have anything to do with a timepiece. Therefore, it doesn't meet all the criteria for the contest. This is what I'm referring to. I hope that helps!
Please, i have done a little editing, but I don't know if this is the right thing.
So I like how you're getting a little closer to the intended theme by incorporating time into it more clearly, BUT it still has very little to do with a timepiece right now. The time element of the story is almost an afterthought, rather than a primary theme of the story. If you had the haunting happen at a certain time of the day where all the clocks stopped or started going haywire or something like that, it would be closer to the designed purpose of the prompt.
The intent of the thematic prompt is to keep the stories we are getting from our contestants somewhat close together in order to eventually create a collection of submitted pieces in an anthology. We can't do that if the theme of the stories are all over the place. The story has to focus on the involvement of a time-keeping device in some shape or form.
Here's the definition of a timepiece to assist you: "An instrument, such as a clock or watch, that measures, registers, or records time." If this element is not in the story, we cannot consider it for the competition. Thank you.
I have inserted the time somewhere in the story but if that is not the best way, then I can easily remove the ss-monthly tag just to leave it in the scribeandscholar Community alone.