⋮ No. 14512 ► 
You know what we need? A contest, of course! Christmas, snow-ins, snow days and all things that make winter wonderful and/or bleak and terrifying.
Rules are mostly the same as the yearly contest: deadline is 00:01 on the 1st of January, and you can make as many entries as you like. Anonymously, of course.
Also, don't be the guy that votes on their own stuff.
Anywho, categories are Porn, Newbie and Veteran. If you think yourself a newbie, novice, or just generally aren't confident in your writing, go write there. It's a contest, so don't be afraid to write, even if you're not the best.
Characters can be whoever! Doesn't matter, really. Just make sure it's taking place in winter, more or less. I'm mainly doing this to drum up more activity on the site. Expect more contests to come, though the next one will be less short notice.
Thread links coming shortly!
⋮ No. 14513 
Ohh, right. Voting ends on the 7th of January at 00:01, and at that time I'll consider starting another contest if this goes well. Likely a full-on CYOA contest of the same theme.
>>/at/38117 Adult
>>/shorts/2019 Veteran
>>/shorts/2020 Newbies
⋮ No. 14536 
As it's dropped down a bit, I'll wish myself a happy birthday without a single ulterior motive.
Nope. Nothing sneaky here. No bumping on the activity chart.
I'll also ignore that my birthday ended an hour ago and that I actually thought of a better reason to bump.
>>14518 Do note that another contest will come next month and the month after. If you can't make it in time, there's always that.
>>14516 That'd be nice~
>>14514 Good luck~ I look forward to facing against you, assuming we both know our stuff and aren't throwing pornstaches around.
Not that I'm not writing porn, mind you, but...
⋮ No. 14540 >>14537 [x] End votes on on the 7th
[x] Start contest later
I don't personally see any point to starting the next contest while you're still in the middle of one. I'd give it at least a week or two between contests to let everybody chill.
⋮ No. 14541 >>14537 I would like to direct your attention to this thread:
>>13743 More specifically to these posts within that thread:
>>13953 >>13954 >>13955 Now having read all that, do you still think that holding your next contest a mere week after this one is good idea? Because there is a very real probability that it well end up the same way as that failure of a contest did.
⋮ No. 14543 >>14537 [x] End voting on the 7th.
[x] Start the next contest after voting for this one ends.
I don't mind if that means starting the next contest the
day of the end of voting, I just don't want to have to deal with writing for another contest on top of voting for this one at the same time.
⋮ No. 14549 File
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With (hopefully) 24 hours remaining on the dot, I want to say, you guys have been wonderful! I can't wait to see if there's a last-minute rush of entries!
Now, as the vote had no real consensus, I've decided to simply consider your words and do my own thing!
This time, it's gonna be a unique contest that's more a test than anything. A year-long one! Will you be able to keep to your word in this newyears resolution contest? Will you taste the sweetness of victory, or will bitter defeat be all that's on your plate?
Let's find out!
⋮ No. 14552 
>>14550 Now, one vote per category! With lewd and newbie, just toss out advice and thoughts, as, well... only one post each.
Categories are:
lewd, newbie, shitpost, veteran, and general. I figured that a general category would allow the lewd and newbie to at least potentially get votes, so I included it.
------------
Newbie(s)!
A Story In Which Youkai Rhyme >>/shorts/2055 Veterans!
Winter's Warmth >>/shorts/2028 Krampus Steals Christmas >>/shorts/2032 >>/shorts/2033 A Story in Which Letty Whiterock is Beaten With a Shovel >>/shorts/2046 Out in the Cold >>/shorts/2053 Under That Lake of Ice >>/shorts/2054 Porn!
Between the Lines >>/at/38119 ⋮ No. 14561 A Story In Which Youkai Rhyme: Short but sweet. Could have been a longer story for all that was written. Perhaps felt a bit rushed.
Winter's Warmth: Nice title. I like the overall execution and buildup of the central idea, if that makes sense.
Krampus Steals Christmas: No comment.
Letty Shitpost: Well, that was a perfectly reasonable plot twist. The execution, though... I was impressed with how you built up the characters to such a degree in so few words. We learnt that our protagonist is willing to hit women with shovels, not to mention that he is considerate enough to make sure he has the right person. It wouldn't do to be beating the wrong person after all. I hope there's a sequel, detailing the grand adventure that is sure to follow. A man, a shovel and a question. But what could that question be? Why, no doubt it's an inquiry meant to garner the truth. Obviously he's a self insert, beating PCB the only way he knows how. One shovel at a time. Why he bothers with Letty while already knowing the culprit is beyond me. Obviously you have more plot twists in mind.
Out in the Cold: Short but sweet as well. I love the way you made a play on poison. It suits one with such a name, after all.
[X] Under That Lake of Ice: Heh. That was cute in many ways. Quite the way with words, haven't you?
Overall, a nice selection of stories, all enjoyable.
⋮ No. 14567 
A Story in Which Youkai Rhyme
A few little nitpicks; those second two sentences in the first paragraph were fragments; they should probably be redressed. A few commas seem to be misplaced throughout, and there are a few other fragments that don't work in prose. Some pacing issues throughout.
However, I do like the story; I laughed when Waka asked about the hangover; it was quite jarring. And that was cute what Seki did at the end.
It needs some polish, but a good job all around.
Winter's Warmth
Good scene building in the beginning. You don't delve long into purple prose, which is something I know I have trouble doing. There's a quick move from the intro to the scene-setting-soliloquy. A few quibbles on word choice, but that's likely personal preference. There's nothing major I see wrong.
Was sweet how it was Kosuzu that got through to her at the end, even if it took the tanuki tag team to really make the point. Reimu will probably be back to her surly self later on... But I believe you did a good job showing her relenting. All of the other characters seem to be right on point as well.
Krampus Steals Christmas
Was unsure where you were going with this at first. It was cute how the little granddaughter kept on interrupting and correcting Grandpa. The accent was consistent and there really. Seemed odd seeing some dialogue in quotes, and some not, but I suppose you did that intentionally to differentiate (and hide who Grandpa actually is by not giving him a description).
Felt like it just needed a bit of prose to wrap it all up. The confession at the end of part one was good, but without the reaction of the granddaughter, it seemed to lose a bit. Although, showing them as more alike than not was a nice little twist. Was a bit jarring at the end, switching to a more traditional layout.
Good humor, and good characterization all around.
A Story in Which Letty Whiterock is Beaten With a Shovel
Shitpost. No Koishi. Moving on.
Out in the Cold
Nice little short story, although I'm a little confused why Keine is at the Youkai Mountain (unless I've missed some of the meta). A couple of nice twists on words, though most of those were poisonous as well. The part about the deadliest poison (Moe?) was also nice, with it taking effect.
In the end, I feel that there just wasn't enough storybuilding and setup to explain "how we got here". The Kagiyama shrine portion was definitely a nice addition, and that paragraph's description was excellent. Just felt that there was more to get from a to b. A Medicine-Keine dynamic is interesting, though. There's the beginning of a setup, and a good ending, but this could be better with an expanded section connecting all the dots.
...Hidden Special Doll Place. Heh.
Under That Lake of Ice
Can't do my own.
So, as to the votes...
General Category:
[x] A Story in Which Youkai Rhyme
Just enough silliness to be enjoyable; the nitpicks are many, but most are minor and the rhymes flow decently well (even if a few are groan-worthy).
Veteran Category:
[x] Winter's Warmth
I feel like this was the most complete and consistent one. As mentioned by others, a bit predictable in its ending, but it was executed the best.
⋮ No. 14569 
General
A Story in Which Youkai Rhyme is the winner, with, erm... two votes!
Runners up include...
Krampus Steals Christmas: 1
Under That Lake of Ice: 1
Between the Lines: 1
As such, second place is a three-way tie!
Vet
As for this category, well... It's a four-way tie!
Winter's Warmth: 1
Out in the Cold: 1
Under That Lake of Ice:1
Krampus Steals Christmas: 1
Newbie
Sadly we had only one newbie, so we had to include them in with the veterans and porn, but hey! They were the winner!
Porn
Same for this one. My entry into the porn category was made in hope that it would perhaps cause others to join in, but, well... sadly that wasn't the case.
Final thoughts
While I felt that we had plenty of entries, sadly we lacked in voters. I feel that this was also a wonderful learning experience, and that this shall help next time. All I've been told, it has all been taken into consideration for the February contest, as well as the New Year's "contest" that started on the first, which will be running the whole year. I feel I well need to advertise better next time, but need to consider how best to do as such. I likely will have a longer voting period as well.
Here's to another great year of THP!
Ohh, as for what I wrote, they were Krampus Steals Christmas and Between the Lines. The latter was made in the spur of the moment, not to mention in a single sitting. It wasn't quite as shit posty as my Koishi one from the annual contest, but I'll admit I didn't really make any plan going in. I more or less just kinda didn't want there to not be a Lewd in the event someone actually posted one, much like I did last time. The former, well... I more or less knew what I wanted to do, but not how. Towards the end, it finally started to come together, but the ending just didn't work so well with the narrator/audience interaction I had set up, forcing me to switch. Still, I feel that I learned a lot from trying some stuff I wouldn't likely try in a normal story.
