Aaaand after having had a bit of a
hiatus for a week, it is now finally time for the results of the second round
and announcing the second SuperRead of the week! Again, I’ll be giving out
points for the following subjects:
- Originality (of the
story genre, theme, story itself/storytelling, choices, character
personality/looks, etc.)
- Directing (no/barely
any mistakes in directing, paying attention to details like people in the
background and use of overlays, etc.)
- Creativity (use of
backgrounds/overlays in a new way, nice covers, creative use of
language/way of story telling, etc.)
I will make a top 3 of stories that
scored best on these subjects, in my opinion (which mostly lines up with the official
grading rubric of Episode, as I found out recently, lol) and give an
explanation why I think they excel and deserve their place in the top 3. Only
the top 3 stories per subject will be able to get points for those subjects.
The division of points is as follows: number 1 will get 100 points, second
place gets 70 points and third place will be provided 40 points. Also, the amount
of readers gained within a two day period after the review of a story got
published will be added as points on top of the points gained in the three
subjects. At the end I’ll add up all the points gained per story and we’ll be
able to see who scored best and deserves the title of SuperRead of the week.
Also, I’d like to introduce a little addition to this week’s final results. I really
want to add my personal favorite to
this post as well, because last week’s SuperRead, was really awesome and well
written indeed, but if I’m honest, it wasn’t really my personal favorite
(though I did like it a lot, really!). So, for last week’s sake I’ll do a
little shout out to Love Quest of Katie and
Maddie, since I just loved their idea of this really interesting gameshow
story. Be sure to check it out, if you haven’t done so yet, it’s great!
Then let’s get started with the
first subject, namely the amount of readers gained within a two day period.
Here are the results per story:
Joanna: this
story went up from 92 reads to 113 reads, this is an improvement of 21 reads!
See the Real Me started off with a meager 10 reads, but gained 6 reads in two days time.
War of Love & Love of War: this rewritten story started out with 931
reads already and gained 25 reads.
Changed: 160
reads to 172, gaining 12 reads!
The Academy: King Hill: went from 912 to 921 reads and so gained 9 reads.
911: Call me if you can: the thriller of this week started out with 340 reads and gained a
baffling 61 reads in the set two
days time!
Those are some amazing results and I’m
really hoping that my blog contributed to these amounts 😊. These past two weeks the blog has gained
another 359 views and the average
amount of readers gained by the reviewed stories was 22!
On to the subjects of originality,
directing and creativity: like I said, I’ll be judging them in separate top 3’s,
so they all get their own little header from here on out.
Originality
1.
911: Call me if you can: Being the only thriller amongst a
lot of dramatic and/or romantic stories, already speaks for itself a bit, but
aside from that this story has quite some original perks. Take the system of choices
with serious consequences for example. These are some hard life-or-death-decisions
you make! Plus, I love how this story makes one reflect on their opinion about
cops/911 dispatchers. I know I won’t be as quick to judge next time I see a cop
do something “foolish”, I mean: in this story I got knocked out by a kidnapper
because I stubbornly went to a meeting place all alone instead of getting my
cop friend to come with me.
2.
See the Real Me: This story could become a real awesome shout out to blind people,
or any people struggling with disabilities really, to show that they are seen
and not forgotten by the mass. Also, I really appreciate the author’s great
effort to try and understand how her blind character senses the world and would
react to it. It’s actually pretty stupid, we call blindness and such
disabilities, when their sense and unique opinions and perspectives of the
world actually sometimes add more meaning and insights to this world than
thousands of non-impaired people combined ever could. Back on track, though, I
found that, aside from this very interesting subject, this story also already
had some interesting choices within the published few episodes I could read.
They seem to affect the relationships with certain people like the main
character’s best friend, which I found very fitting, meaningful and, while,
more original than just the usual character-editing.
3.
War of Love & Love of War: Though still a drama, this story
takes place in a fantasy world in which aristocracy still rules and wars could
break out at any time. Complex relationships, loveless marriages, hostility and
family statuses make this drama stand out from contemporary drama’s.
Directing
1.
Changed: Being a drama with a bit of a sci-fi
background story, the author has been very creative in directing it! Using
semi-transparent overlays for the tubes that held the main characters, the
whole scene with the running and getting tackled by the male main character,
the use and directing of the children in the story…it’s really some very decent
and creative directing skills I’ve seen so far.
2.
911: Call Me
If You Can: First of all, compliments on the many choices directing
throughout the story! I know it can be tough trying to implement them and -depending
on the system used- sometimes making them work correctly at all. But the
choices aren’t the only good directing in this story. There’s also a decent use
of background characters, overlays, zooming and sound to keep the story
dynamic. Overall this author’s done a great job on this department, though I do
believe it does still somewhat lack in creativity when compared to the way
Changed was directed and therefore this story earned its second place.
3.
The Academy: King Hill: Having nearly perfect use of
directing, this tale deserves third place. The directing is on the traditional
side, but the way it is used to tell the tale is impressive to say the least. Using
background characters, sound and interesting picture-perfect positioning of
characters (especially in the scene with the red couch in episode 5) makes this
story worthy to be in this top 3.
Creativity
1.
Changed: Aside from the creative use of directing and
overlays as I mentioned earlier on, the way the author tells this tale is also
rather interesting. Balancing between flashbacks that explain where the
feelings and thoughts of the present-time main characters come from and the
situations and growth they start making by slowly learning to leave those things
in the past, is very intriguing. It also helps forging a bond between the
reader and main character really well.
2.
911: Call Me If You Can: Barely using the narrator and
telling pretty much everything from a first-person’s perspective requires quite
some skill, I believe. Also, I love the creative way of including pictures in
the picture frames and the blood-stain overlays to make the investigation feel
even more real. The cover art is very neat as well: it fits the genre and is a
very good representation of what the story is about.
3.
Love of War & War of Love: I loved some of the unique
backgrounds that are used in this story. Aside from that the cover art is
lovely and I believe the storytelling is done very well, especially the use of
the old-fashioned English is a nice touch to it.
And now, the moment of truth…who
earned first place and the title of SuperRead of the week? Let’s find out!
In 6th place is Joanna with 21 points.
5th place is taken by The Academy: King Hill.
See the Real Me is in 4th place
Now for the top 3…
In 3rd place:
War of Love & Love of War!
Proudly 2nd is
Changed!
And that means that the
winner is 911: Call Me If You Can
Congratulations!
I will give your story a big Shout Out on Instagram and the Episode Forum, plus
I’ll recommend it in the Episode app! Also, there will be a big post on the
review on this story plus the results it got on the different themes in this
post on this blog!
My Personal favorite
Honestly,
I really loved 911: Call Me If You Can. But since I’d like to give a shout out
to a different story than the winning one as well, I’ll do See the Real Me the honors, as it was actually pretty much an equal
favorite of mine as 911: Call Me If You Can. As said before: I really love and
respect that the author of See the Real Me brings the subject of visual
disability to light. It’s very meaningful and I’m interested as to how the
story will develop from now on. Keep up the good work!
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