Fun and Games

December MWC Contest Winners

It Was a Tough Choice

Deliberation was intense. We added two new judges to the judging panel — Liv Pasquarelli and Mackenzie Saunders. Along with Gary Chapin and Amy Sea, we set about to select the winners.

As before, we reminded ourselves what we were looking for in this contest.

Four criteria were used.

1. Originality of concept.
2. Laughter factor.
3. Memorable lines.
4. Just damned good writing.

And we reminded ourselves that in the end, we’re looking for well balanced pieces. Belly laughs count for a lot, and we got plenty of those. We are also interested in creativity and this general sense, after reading a piece, that we just collectively received the gift of feeling good — even joyful — at having spent the last five minutes with your writing.

Here were all the entries —

From the category Pablum, the winner was Andrew Rodwin. His pitch deck was fabulous. I’d hire him in a second to put a pitch deck together for me, any day of the week. We were torn, because we thought Matthew Thiele’s piece on grown men was a wonderful entry as well, but the meticulously crafted graphics in Andrew’s piece is what tipped the scale. We’re delighted he’s putting his business and technical skills to optimum use for MuddyUm.

Comedy Writers — 1, Corporate America — 0.

For the category Hemorrhoids, the winner was Gary Chapin. This category was tough as well. The entries all really scratched our itch to laugh. Lest you think with these two winners we are favoring our editors, put that thought right out of your head. I personally take a neutral position, even when the sentiment in the room is tied. And no, Gary didn’t get to vote for his own piece. It helped the editors’ cause though, that both Andrew and Gary did a lot of writing for the contest.

For the category Gallivanting, we spent the most time in debate. It was a hot contest between T. Kent Jones with his very funny premise which had Human Resources retiring Gallivanting after all these long years — and Chris Eno McMahon’s well crafted piece about actually retiring to go gallivanting. These two pieces were equally inspiring. In the end, we chose McMahon’s piece. As Gary Chapin noted, it was “joyful and committed, and I felt better about life after having read it.”

I do wish to make one additional note about this category. Sianna Lani wrote a hilarious piece based on true events involving an elk and a tire, but missed the deadline. Had it come in on time, it would have made choosing this category winner infinitely more difficult, but I did want to give her an honorable mention, because the piece is truly funny.

For the category Swivel, there were only two entries! The winner was a grain of infinity with this complaint from a coffee machine.

And the winner of the $6.00 grand prize for December is Chris Eno McMahon! Come forward and take a bow.

In the discussion about her piece, we noted the feeling we all had, even as we read it out loud. It was so well crafted. Its pacing, poetic construct, alliteration and clever word play and madcap were all packed into a dense 5 paragraphs. If “Brevity is the soul of wit,” as the Bard noted, this is representative. It is also representative of the essence of MuddyUm. We strive for this wide reaching sense of fun in all we do. Chapin noted that he was reminded of James Thurber as he read the piece. We all agree. It’s a winner.

Thanks all for participating! And NOW — you have exactly half a month for the January contest. The categories this month are

1. Keurig
2. Poetry
3. Curtain-Call
4. Frostbite

Submissions to MuddyUm are open from now through midnight your time zone, January 31st.

The post that started the year long MuddyUm Writers’ Contest

Winners of the November contest:

If you disagree with any of our decisions, maybe YOU want to be on the judging panel as well! Send all complaints, requests and other business to the EIC at [email protected].