Weekly Wattpad Contests

Contest #43

The trumpets herald the rising flags as coloured arrows fly rainbows trough the skies. Bugles blow with the rhythmic beat of marching feet. The orchestrators of the parade lift their melodies – violas, guitars, cellos – from the rolling wagons.

The festive comes.

The crowds cheer.

The music plays.

This week, you're celebrating. Certainly, various individuals have cause to celebrate varied victories. The vivid ring of high spirits is as moving as the haunting hum of low morale. The ululating eulogy of one is the triumphant trill of the other.

Your task is to celebrate your cause with a music of your own. Whether your cause is romance, conquest, adventure, silence or sleep, you must write the music and the lyrics that will mount your movement and move your mountains.

"But why, TimberWoolf?" I hear you cry. "Certainly music is better left to those who understand the intricacies of it?"

My child, my sweet child, oh, sweet child of mine, the craft we partake in is of words. Music exists without words, sure, but words do not exist without music. Words are the sonorous noises which fill our thoughts. It is the duty of any author to make those noises in the thoughts of others.

Your entry should be the lyrics to your song, and, while it is not necessary, it is highly encouraged that you attach a recording of your performance for the song to your submission.

At some point, I need to mention this, but I can't find a good place for it so I'm putting it right here: I'll have a co-judge this week. You might be familiar with the Frances Clare Band from the 'Poetry' contest. Frances is very excited to help us out.

(Don't tell anybody, but I'm working on getting another professional songwriter and singer to co-judge as well. Watch this space, we might just get the coolest rock'n'roll band from this side of the equator to join – (I mean the Southern Hemisphere – I'm under no illusion that Maria Brink doesn't exist).) <- I have no idea what to do with this punctuation.

"Why is this an extra special contest, TimberWoolf?" I hear from the back of the room.

Wellllllllllllllll, *prospectively* there might be wonderful opportunities coming down the line. I make absolutely no promises at this point, but also I can't put this contest off forever. I've been in conversation with local radio stations, and the co-judges. If – big, giant _*IF*_ - either of these judges absolutely love and are inspired by your writing, they may be willing to professionally record it and credit you as a writer (and all the good stuff that comes with it), with your permission, and the radio stations are more than willing to play it publicly. Alas, we must not get ahead of ourselves. It's a busy, busy life, and these things will potentially only happen months down the line. IF they happen, that is.

I do hope, however, that this is encouragement for you to go a little out of your way and perform your song, upload it to the YouTubes, and attach it to your entry.

If nothing else, we get to experience the wonderful music stylings of our wonderful little Weekly Contests community. We don't really do this for reward, we do this because we love words and the way they sound in our brains.

The judging criteria are absolute this week. After all, we're bordering on professional music here:

Be Yourself. Make your music. Do what makes you happy. Share your own thoughts. Share your voice. Any decent musical artist and lyricist will denounce commercialism and say success comes from sharing who you are with the world. Nothing else should matter.

And with that, my pet, I leave you.

I hope you have fun, because that's what I'm here for.

With many musical musings,

TimberWoolf

(This is TimberWoolf of the Future, speaking. I'm sure you must all be very eager to get the results from Contest 41 and 42. I deeply apologise for the wait, but I've been consumed by the responsibilities of the real world and, honestly, it sucks. I'll have them for you in the next few days. This is a solemn promise.)

Due date is on Sunday the 21st of April.

VERY IMPORTANT: HOW TO ENTER A VALID ENTRY ALSO SEE DETAILS REGARDING GOOGLE LINK

In order to ensure that your submission for this week's chapter of Weekly Wattpad Contests is valid, please follow the steps below:

(1) Write your entry and make sure that it meet the guidelines or requirements for the contest.

(2) Publish it in a book under your Wattpad account. It can be a book dedicated to your entries, a chapter in one of your existing books or just a book with that single entry.

(3) Add "This is my entry for Weekly Wattpad Contest #43" before you write your entry. Make sure Contests is tagged and the contest #number is correct. Note that this does not have to be the title of your published chapter or work, simply just a text input before the introduction of your contest entry as an additional safety measure.

(4) Comment in the comment section of this chapter and state where your entry was published in your profile and the title of it book it is in.

(5) Share the love by voting, commenting and encouraging friends and fellow competitors!

What does the winner get?

Apart from the fact that as a writer you can brag about winning a freaking Weekly Wattpad Contest, the winner will also get a follow from as well as a shoutout in the next chapter, in addition to that, a detailed review as to why your entry was successful will also be published and if you have any works of your own, that will also be read and commented on.