At last, it is time for me to announce the winners of the Infinitized Writing Contest! Before I proceed to listing the winning entries and offering my comments on them, I'd like to say that it has been a great pleasure hosting this contest. I'm sure my fellow Inspirits and AFF readers can attest that the participants have populated the "infinite" and "fantasy" tags with several new gems of writing.

These rankings were an extremely tough decision to make, but I believe I have done my best to judge and rank the entries fairly. For those who are curious, here are some stats on the winning entries:

I believe this is sufficient to convince myself (and the rest of you) that I didn't have any unfair biases in terms characters and pairings when judging and selecting the winning stories since Dongwoo is my Infinite bias, I'm more of a het person, and WooGyu is nowhere near being my top ship in Infinite.

The one thing all the winning entries have in common is that they're set in alternate universes. Writing an alternate universe story wouldn't have guaranteed placing in the contest, nor would not writing an alternate universe story mean an automatic loss, but the alternate universe was a factor because AU stories generally require more creative effort because of the worldbuilding involved, and this contest was about challenging your limits with creativity.

Now, on to the winner announcements.

Honorable Mention

"The Color of Blood" by kissychuu

While the story was based on "Little Red Riding Hood" and therefore didn't have the most original premise, it definitely did not disappoint or fall into cliche. "The Color of Blood" is not simply a retelling of the original fairytale but rather a vivid reimagining with a twist that breathes greater depth and life into the world of "Red" without losing the eerie fairytale-esque atmosphere. The two main characters, Yeonji and Woohyun, were quite engaging, and the suspenseful narrative ushered the reader along through the creepy woods effectively. Moreover, I truly enjoyed the way the author wrote the rules and details of the magical Craft, which helped imbue the fantasy elements of the story with an acute sense of realism.

Third Place

"Trip To" by eseech

This story pulled me into the realms of nostalgia, to say the least. I found myself embarking on a peculiar adventure alongside Sunggyu, who was portrayed as a child but no less lovable for it. "Trip To" is aptly named, as it takes the readers on a journey to a land of infinity--quite literally. The surreal setting and maddening characters (all of the Infinite members had a role) recall Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland, an unforgettable classic, while the whimsical narrative and use of shameless [but entertaining] word play and conversion of the figurative to the literal evoke impressions of Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, a lesser-known classic but also one of my all-time favorite books from my childhood to this day. While I have to admit that I thought the writing style was actually a bit inferior to "The Color of Blood" in certain aspects, I feel that this story truly captured the essence of the contest very well, thus swaying me to choose it as third place.

Second Place

"Lucifer's Matches" by btob2uty

Part fairytale, part adventure, part friendship story, part romance, part tragedy, this story has a pinch of everything in it. Readers follow Woohyun in his escapades to multiple other worlds, some more foreign and others more familiar, where he gains new friends and experiences galore after previously living a very lonely and sheltered childhood. The WooGyu romance is minor, but no less sweet. "Lucifer's Matches" also touches on missed opportunity and irreversible loss, thus adding a sober contrast to the fun and fluff. The magical elements are reminiscent of Diana Wynne Jones's more formulaic and theoretical and alchemical vision of spells and sorcery rather than the blast-stuff-out-of-your-hands type, making me (and perhaps others) sorely tempted to try to cobble together Lucifer matches of my own to see if they work. The ending was definitely a surprise, and it incorporated the "infinitize" concept in an interesting way. All in all, this story is one that will charm readers (pun totally intended).

First Place

"Ante Bellum" by genieforyou14

Shorter does not mean weaker, as evidenced by "The Color of Blood", which told an enchanting tale in a short three chapters, nor is longer always better, as demonstrated by those stories we all know should have lasted five chapters instead of eighty. However, in this case, the length (twenty chapters and over 50,000 words total) was substantiated by meaningful content with both breadth and depth. The first chapter was a little bit on the slow side, but after the second or third chapter, I couldn't put this story (or, I suppose, my laptop that was glued to my lap while my mom was nagging me to eat dinner) down. Although the love story played out pretty predictably, I can say that there was definitely more going for it than "omg I love you oppar you're so hot," including legitimate relationship development. Romance far from steals the spotlight, though, since this story also addresses friendship, family, war, and human nature--on top of the magic. The spells of this world manifest not through foreign incantations or bizarre concoctions but rather something far simpler and more familiar and universal to the human experience: song. Moreover, the magic has order and logic to it, as well as rules and limitations, and the author managed to work the "infinitize" concept into it. The setting is richly imagined and vividly described; the attention to detail is basically impeccable, drawing the readers into the alternate universe of "Ante Bellum" and immersing them in the characters' lives. It's the kind of fantasy that Tamora Pierce (who is pretty much my favorite author) pulls off that has kept me going back to her for more since I first discovered her works in 2003. While not perfect, I found this story to be fairly impressive, and trust me when I say that I am not easily impressed. In other words, it is a well-deserved first place win.

That concludes my attempts at sounding like a semi-professional reviewer. Congratulations to all of the winners! I will be contacting you regarding your prize details shortly. It might take a while to get around to all of you because first place winner must choose her acrylic charms before I can proceed to the second place winner, and so forth. Response delays and different time zones mean it could take two or three days. But worry not, you will receive your prizes!

In addition, I'd like to recognize a few authors who didn't win but caught my eye with their entries:

kisoap: "swallow" was quite chilling to read. Your writing style pared the experience of the story down to raw sensation and emotion. The plot and ideas were too static for me to rate it highly for execution of genre, but in terms of writing style, your story definitely stood out.

krazielilNYer: "No Escape" lacked the depth and sophistication of some of the other stories, but I enjoyed the way you mixed sci-fi and fantasy. It reminded me of one of my favorite books, Vivian Vande Velde's Heir Apparent. Also, you wrote three different female OCs but managed to make them distinct, so I commend you on that as well.

neomanuisarang: "The Seventh" was quite an epic story even though there were parts and elements that didn't quite match the overall tone and style of the narrative. Creation myths are among my favorites in mythology, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the Infinite members as divine forces and kings who were not immune to fallacy.

Thank you to all the participants for putting in the effort to create these lovely stories, and thank you to all of the other subscribers for watching over the progress of this contest and/or supporting the participants with encouraging comments on their entries.

Last, but not least, I am hosting another writing contest, the 1/3 Enchanted Writing Contest! It is a writing challenge type of contest rather than just a general contest. I will not begin accepting submissions until January 15th, but sign-up is already open. I hope everyone who participated in the Infinitized Writing Contest as well as those who didn't have a chance to participate will give this second contest a shot.

Thanks again to everyone, and good luck with your writing adventures!

-Eris