Whether “Spark” can surpass “Sprout”, Zou Weijun did not care much.
The original intention of establishing “Spark” was not to compare with “Sprout” anyway!
However, now that “Sprout” had launched the New Concept Competition, “Spark” also had to rely on the essay competition to rise. Even if Zou Weijun herself did not compare, outsiders would use “Spark” to benchmark against “Sprout”.
Zou Weijun stroked her hand over a stack of storage baskets filled with many manuscripts. Her heart was filled with myriad emotions. After a moment, the boiling feelings returned to rationality:
“Xiao Ni has been following from beginning to end. Let Xiao Ni introduce the situation to everyone.”
Xiao Ni also had an excited expression on her face: “What we are seeing now are all the entries from the first cycle. There are a total of 12,393 entries. Excluding those that do not comply with the competition rules, there are 11,891 valid entries. In fact, not only the short story group has so many entries received, but even the long story group, which does not divide into preliminary cycles, has received more than a dozen long entries.”
It was impossible to complete the creation of a long novel in such a short time. These works should have been written long ago and not yet published. The authors were moved by the rewards of the Spark Cup and sent their unpublished works to participate.
These were not only competition entries but also the authors’ trust in the organisers!
As for why there were non-compliant entries, some contestants either did not understand the rules or thought their talent was astonishing and wanted to challenge the organisers’ rules. Either the word count was too short, or too long, and some even sent poems, prose, and other genres. Such contestants who went against the competition rules and were self-righteous were screened out in the first round.
Wen Ying randomly picked a long entry and found it was a handwritten manuscript rather than a printed one. The handwriting was neatly copied, with occasional additions and deletions that did not affect the reading experience; the author’s care was evident.
“If not selected, all entries in the long story group should be returned by post.”
Xiao Ni noted down Wen Ying’s suggestion.
“Of course they should be returned. Two manuscripts look like first-hand originals; I do not know if the authors kept copies themselves.”
Xiao Ni felt these authors were too bold, sending the originals directly. If no copies were kept and the manuscripts were lost, it would be too unfortunate.
Xiao Ni looked at the manuscripts piled up in the office, feeling joy and relief in her heart: “Fortunately, we listened to Wen Ying’s suggestion and started reviewing from the receipt of the first entry. If we left all the work until now, the workload would be too great. What everyone sees now are the manuscripts that have been classified after the first round of screening.”
Yes, when the outside world still did not know who the competition judges were, the reviewing work had actually started long ago.
It was said that for the college entrance exam marking, the average reading time for each composition was only tens of seconds.
In less than a minute, a 600-800 word composition would be classified by the marking teacher into first-class, second-class, or third-class labels, and scored according to the corresponding category. What could slow down the teacher’s reading pace was only full-score compositions. Full-score compositions needed repeated consideration; the vast majority of candidates’ compositions were mediocre.
In a short tens of seconds, the marking teacher would first look at the word count and length of a composition. Those with too short length were obviously not acceptable. Within the prescribed word count, writing as long as possible was better; otherwise, it would be seen as having nothing to say and weak expression ability.
Second, look at the title. For assigned topics, it went without saying. For self-titled ones, if the composition title fitted the theme well and was novel and unique, points would be added.
Third, look at pointing out the theme; the composition opening should be concise and attractive, smoothly pointing out the theme!
Fourth, look at the ending; the ending should echo the beginning and sublimate the theme.
Fifth, look at paragraphing; clear paragraphing would add points!
The body was actually looked at last. When a composition met the first five points, as long as the body was not written too poorly, the score for this composition was already stable.
The college entrance exam composition tested basic expression ability; such marking rules were certainly not suitable for the essay competition.
Tens of seconds could skim through an 800-word composition, but not a 5,000-10,000 word entry.
The contestants had put in effort and participated with full enthusiasm. Judging the quality of the work in just tens of seconds would be too frivolous!
For one manuscript, at least 3-5 minutes should be allocated.
3-5 minutes could not carefully appreciate the subtleties of a competition work, but it was enough to make a preliminary judgment. Good stories, even hidden among tens of thousands of entries, could be discovered within these 3-5 minutes.
Song Foxiang chuckled.
More than ten thousand manuscripts all left for Wen Ying and Zhang Guangzhen to read; these two would go blind from reading and still not finish.
In fact, the first round of screening manuscripts was done by a dozen editors from “Spark” and the Literature and Art Publishing House. Song Foxiang was also one of the people who quietly contributed.
Unfortunately, after working hard, he was not worthy of having his name mentioned. Song Foxiang naturally felt a bit depressed.
Xiao Ni observed all directions and listened to all sides. To urge the old salted fish to work, she could not give no incentives at all, so she specially mentioned Song Foxiang’s contributions:
“Including Editor Song, every editor from the magazine and publishing house has been working overtime to read manuscripts during this period. Our judgments certainly cannot serve as the basis for selection into the semi-finals, but after the preliminary screening by all editors, we have divided the manuscripts into several levels for Wen Ying and Teacher Zhang to read carefully.”
After being praised by Xiao Ni, everyone looked at Song Foxiang.
Song the salted fish was not embarrassed at all.
It was just that noticing the gaze of the goddess Zou Weijun made Song the salted fish a little tense.
This small interlude passed quickly, and everyone’s attention soon returned to the main matter.
Those with too low scores were stories that were clichéd and crude, with clumsy writing. Such contestants were there to accompany.
Writing a few thousand words short story and still having several typos; these contestants did not have a proper attitude.
Song the old salted fish resented being an unsung hero who paid silently, but as a judge to be pushed to the front, Wen Ying’s pressure was also not small.
The first cycle had reached the deadline, and the competition judges had not yet been announced to the public. Was this reasonable?
Therefore, after the deadline of the first cycle, the competition judges had to be announced.
The announcement channels had also been arranged long ago.
One channel was the official blog of the organisers!
Clearly knowing that the internet was the place of great traffic in the future, Wen Ying certainly had to hint to Zou Weijun and Xiao Ni and others. Taking advantage of the essay competition’s momentum, quickly set up the official blogs for the publishing house and magazine. Blogs were not just about setting up; they also needed good operation. Now, start nurturing the accounts slowly.
Another channel was Hunan Provincial TV. Yuan Fenghui had caught Director Fan as a sheep and would not let go without fleecing him bald. Anyway, Wen Ying’s three-minute promotional video had been broadcast; broadcasting a ten-second advertisement would also be fine.
The official announcement time was tonight, with Wen Ying and Zhang Guangzhen appearing!
Yuan Fenghui jokingly asked if Wen Ying was prepared. Wen Ying did not mind: “When Li Mengjiao performs on stage, she treats the audience below as cabbages. I will treat those who scold me as loving me. Scolding is their special way of expressing excited emotions. Teacher Yuan, do you think that is right?”
Yuan Fenghui directly burst into laughter.
“I was still thinking of comforting you, but you have comforted yourself. What can I say? With your psychological quality, it is truly a pity not to be a star. Do you want to make a cameo in ‘Galaxy and You’? It is your own script; making a cameo yourself would be so meaningful!”
Cameo?
Of course not.
Being able to go to the site to watch would be good enough. For cameo acting, Manager Chen would not agree, and Xie Qian would probably send her exam papers again. Even if these two were not on site now, Wen Ying still had a full survival instinct. Of course, Wen Ying herself had no interest in acting; even shooting a promotional video felt tiring!
Before Wen Ying herself refused, Zou Weijun could not help but speak: “An influential writer is a ‘star’ in itself, and a timeless superstar at that.”
