Last week, no one participated in Literary Game No. 3. No problem. Being sad or disappointed is a waste of time. This week, we're doing something different.
Below are six words or phrases. You MUST use these six words or phrases in a story. Story length is up to you. But these six words or phrases must appear somewhere, in any order, within your story. The story can be about anything at all, in any genre. If you prefer, use the six words or phrases to write a poem.
The 6 Words for Your Story:
- Cornfield
- Truck driver
- Fire
- Become
- Distrust (alternatively: distrusting)
- Savage
A twist: Because I like to keep things interesting, I will add a little incentive. Let's make it a contest.
Each entry is an entry into the contest. Feel free to enter multiple times if you wish. But each story must be a separate blog post. Do not post more than one story within a single blog post. The winner will receive 2 HBD. I know that's not much, but, as the literary games grow, I'll be able to increase the prizes. For now, let's start with 2 HBD.
The Rules for Literary Game No. 4:
Every game has rules. That includes Literary Game No. 4. Here's how to play the game.
- Upvote and reblog this post. Follow me if you haven't already.
- Write a story of any length, in any genre, or a poem that uses the six words or phrases.
- Bold each of the words/phrases in your story to make it easier to find them.
- Tag your story #literarygames.
- Publishing multiple stories is allowed as long as each story is a separate blog post and follows all of the rules of the game (you only need to upvote/reblog this post once even if you submit multiple entries).
- Deadline for all stories is Tuesday, June 17, 12:00 UTC
- Read other participants' stories. Comment on them and upvote the ones you like.
- You can post your stories in any writing community as long as you follow that writing community's guidelines. Each story can be posted to a different writing community as long as it is appropriate for that community and follows the rules of the community.
- After publishing, drop a link to your story in the comments below.
- Above all, have fun!
How Do You Win?
Winning Literary Game No. 4 is not as simple as me choosing someone. There are three criteria that I will use to judge the winner. Here they are:
- First come, first points: Based on the number of entries, each story will receive a number of points (1 minimum) based on when published. The first to publish will receive the highest. The last to publish before the deadline will receive the least. Anything published after the deadline will get 0 points. Example: 10 stories were published before the deadline. The first one published will receive 10 points; the second to publish will receive 9 points, the third to publish will receive 8 points, etc.
- Highest Payouts: Stories will be ranked by payout. That means it could be 14 days before the contest winner receives their prize. However, the story with the highest payout during its 7-day payout period will receive the highest number of points. The story with the lowest payout among those submitted will receive the lowest number of points.
- My Opinion: I will rank the stories based on my own preferences. Which was the most entertaining, which successfully used the six words/phrases the best, and which one did I like the most or was best-written? This is the subjective criterion.
After all entries have been scored, I'll take the numbers from each of those judging criteria and add them together. The winner will receive the prize. Each judging criterion bears 33% of the weight for determining the winner. This will make it fair and impartial, impossible for me to just pick a winner at random and impossible for me to play favorites.
On that note, I'm looking forward to reading your entries. Have fun writing your stories.
@lauretb93 @luchyl @babygirl888 @ozd 
Image created by Whisk