Power of the Pen
* Read my Round 1 Best of Round piece, The Ringing of Bells- If you're a dedicated Utena fanfic freak like myself (an UFF, to be certain), then perhaps you've read Alan Harnum's "Jaquemart." This is an EXCELLENT unfinished fanfic. I can't wait to read more... but anywhoo, this story is inspired by the title "Jaquemart," which in French mean: "The figure of a man striking the hours on a clock with a hammer." I find myself especially proud of this piece. Even thought the use of "Jaquemart" is Harnum-san's, the story itself is my own.
* Read my Round 2 Best of Round piece, An Innocent Once More- What is it grown-ups are missing in their lives? One woman looks deep enough into herself and daughter to find just that. Another Best of Round which I am most proud of.
* Read my Round 3 piece, The Sense of Emily- I love everything Emily Dickinson. She is just so... the perfect example of a female poet. The details in this story are not factual, but it came out quite well nevertheless. I'm told that this was almost my THIRD Best of Round... yeesh, I would've fainted had that happened.
Power of the Pen is a writing competition occurring only in the state of Ohio (USA, duh?). Students try out to be on a team of six members. The basic "happenings" at a Power of the Pen tournament are as follows:
1) Get oriented in the host school, find first room, sit down (and get reeeeeely nervous).
2) Receive the prompt (e.g. "The Mark- create a narrative based on this title).
3) Write a story based on the prompt: you have 40 minutes to do so (creativity is the KEY!). And if you aren't finished in 40 minutes the judges have express permission to rip the paper and pen out of your greedy little hands. Thankfully, this has never happened to me.
4) Break for 10 minutes, go to second room and repeat steps 2 and 3.
5) Repeat step 4. *NOTE: After writing frantically for nearly 2 hours straight, your brain should be mush. It happens to me every time.
6) Sit and wait nervously for the judges to judge and the awards ceremony to start.
7) Sit and wait nervously till you've nearly wet your pants and wait to see if you did well...
8) Well, as for the last step, you either place or you don't.
9) See if your school placed (WE CAME IN 1ST IN DISTRICTS AND REGIONALS!)
10) If you're in the top 18%, then it's off to States for you!
In other words, you get 40 minutes to write the best story you can (staying as close as possible to the boundaries of the prompt) and you do that 3 times over the course of 2 and a half hours. There are 6 writers per judge (or per two judges, as is at Regionals) and you are ranked within those 6 writers. A "1" is the best, while a "6" is certainly not good in the least. You want to get 3 "1s" and if you do, you're certain to do VERY well. There are also rank points given, which are used to break ties. Awards are given for the top 15 writers in each grade, as well as 1-4th places for teams from each grade, and at Regionals there is the Sweepstakes Trophy, which is given to the highest scoring team from both grades (WE WON THIS TOO! GO US!). Best of Round awards are given to the best story of each round, in each grade. A special reader is asked to read for Best of Round (usually a journalist, or English teacher), and they read all the stories that ranked as "1" for each round. Then they narrow it down to one single story that they believed was the best in that particular round... I try not to gloat, but I got two... nearly unheard of in POP.
Also- at States, you only get 35 minutes to write and if you do really well in the first 3 rounds then there is something called the "Power Round" where you have to write yet another story. It sounds hard and boring, but it really is a lot of fun and very rewarding.
Go to the Power of the Pen official website: Power of the Pen