Honorable Mention

"L'anello" by K-PopAirbender

First of all, let me compliment you on your use of a futuristic alternate universe for your setting. You were the only contestant to do that. I like the way you did your world-building, and I'd venture to say it was the most well-developed AU among the entries in this contest. Since I placed a maximum word count limit on the entries, it was impossible for anyone to include every detail of an AU they created, and setting had to come subordinate to plot and other things at some point, but you definitely did a good job within the bounds of your word count. Aside from good world-building, you had a healthy balance of plot development and character development. The twists toward the end were well foreshadowed, so the reveals did not feel completely random but at the same time still had enough of a surprise factor to entertain. I think the weakest link here was really your writing style. There were noticeable awkward patches throughout the narrative that prevented it from truly shining with all of its potential. However, overall, your story was good enough to win this honorable mention.

Third Place

"Unlikely Fairytale" by xdreammerx

This is not entirely relevant to my judgment of your story, but parts of what you wrote in the fourth chapter about intersecting lines reminded me of a Facebook status I posted about a month ago. I wrote a story-like paragraph about parallel lines and how sad it is that they never intersect, to which one of my friends commented something similar to what you wrote about intersecting lines. Anyway, speaking of parallel things, the way you developed the parallel elements in this story made me quite happy. I especially like the way things came full circle with the characters, so that even if they didn't get the ideal happy ending, they got something of a satisfactory ending, albeit a slightly open-ended one. I think sometimes the not-perfect-but-still-positive endings are underappreciated. In real life you don't get a perfect ending, but that doesn't mean you're destined for tragedy either. The worldbuilding in this story wasn't as strong as in some other entries, but the characters and relationship development were the main focus, so that's understandable. Moreover, the setting wasn't as essential to the concept of the enchanted object itself, so it didn't detract from things too much. The most prominent weakness in the story was the preponderance of dialogue in certain places. I think a greater amount of description would have given the narrative more substance. Other than that, though, the story was well done.

Second Place

"Fisherman's Register" by xinli_ang

Your entry was the shortest among the top 4, but the length didn't put you at a disadvantage at all since you made excellent use of your words. I'm a bit of a er for stories like the one you created about the water elves and the merfolk, stories that inspire wonder but also inject a cautionary theme into the mix. I think you did a good job of creating a realistic setting with the fishing village, and the atmosphere was well suited to this kind of story, where the mundane and magical are not quite as far apart as one may believe. Although it didn't really affect how I ranked your story, as someone who's interested in linguistics, I was personally thrilled that you subtly incorporated that into the story, so while I normally don't care for author's notes and tend to find them annoying, in this specific case they were like little bonus goodie bags that added to my appreciation of the story. Now, the way you created the concept of the two mirrors, Refrain and Reality, was in my opinion quite elegant. Due to the nature of the mirrors, the ending to the story was perfect in the sense that it made sense and felt right, even though it was far from being the usual fairytale ending of "and they lived happily ever." While it's true that you are one of my friends (albeit not a close one), you can rest assured that this second place was well-deserved and legitimately earned on your part.

First Place

"If You Believe in Magic (Come Along with Me)" by kissychuu

Although the setting of the parallel universe wasn't labeled in any way beyond the name of the entire land, it served its purpose well in being the backdrop to a fairytale-esque quest, and the necessary details were there in relevant scenes. I'd like to compliment you on your depiction of the protagonist. She had her strengths, but they weren't overstated, and likewise, her weaknesses were noticeable yet did not lessen my overall respect for her as a person. Also, while it may seem ironic, I really appreciate that she almost literally had to be dragged kicking and screaming into playing her part as the heroine, as sometimes it's tempting to make the protagonist someone who just charges into action when confronted with an overwhelming and foreign obstacle, even though that's pretty unrealistic. On top of just being very humanized, I liked that she was a dynamic character and learned a lesson or two throughout the course of her adventure. Although the history of the sword and the exact nature of the enchantment on it were really only alluded to, I think the way the sword was incorporated into the story more than made up for that. Not only did it serve as a literal element, it was also something of a symbol for the recurring "fake it 'til you make it," "believing is seeing" theme. To summarize, this story cobbled together quite a few things but managed to weave them together almost seamlessly. I don't know how to describe it elegantly, but when I read this story, I had this overwhelming feeling of "yes" inside. I guess you could say it tickled my fancy in all the right ways. The sort-of-but-not-really swashbuckling adventure, the poking fun at stereotypical fantasy and fairytale stories, the allusions to familiar tales coupled with subversions of expectations, the supporting characters that somehow manage to be a bit obnoxious yet endearing at the same time, the shamelss wordplay...all of these things added up to make for a great read.

Winners, I will contact you with details about the prizes shortly (within the next 24 hours), so bear with me a little while longer.

As with my previous contest, I'd like to take a few moments to recognize some other stories that didn't make the winners' list but still caught my eye.

First is "astrological." by blissful. If I'd judged purely based on writing style, you probably would have won first place. The description--the details, the imagery, the figurative language--was quite vivid, and your style was the most distinctive out of all of the entries I read. The fact that you related everything to constellations not only gave everything a sense of unity but also pleased my inner astronomy lover. It was a beautiful piece, but it simply didn't satisfy what I was really looking for when I created the contest.

The other story I'd like to comment on is "The Reign of Darkness" by neomanuisarang. I had five stories in my top tier, and yours was the one that didn't make the it into the final four because I found more weaknesses in your story compared to the others. However, it was overall a good story, and I definitely enjoyed reading it. Also, since I remember your entry in my previous contest, I can tell you that your writing improved, so kudos to you on that.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this writing contest and to everyone who faithfully followed its progress. I hope everyone had a good time writing and/or reading these stories. I certainly enjoyed hosting this contest.

For those of you who haven't already seen it, I just opened a new contest for 2014. Instead of being a fantasy-themed contest, its main focus is my ultimate bias, Dongwoo. Those of you who don't have Dongwoo as your ultimate bias, don't despair. The contest allows you to write about the other Infinite members and even other idols outside of Infinite as main and side characters, so entries do not have to be exclusively about Dongwoo, and the contest by no means requires you to write an ode to Dongwoo's unparalleled greatness. I suggest you check out the details before making a decision on whether you want to join. (FYI, I'm upping the prizes a bit to create a bigger incentive for people to participate.) If you know of anyone who might be interested, please help spread the word! Here's the link.