1k Words: A Writing Contest | Hacker News Reader

1k Words: A Writing Contest

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96 pointssurprisetalk39 comments

Very fun!

I submitted this more 'nonfiction-y' entry:

https://gist.githubusercontent.com/gregsadetsky/08b6cdd56902...

It looks like it's only one entry per person, so I'm playing fair and not submitting this second entry, which encodes a compressed version of the image using a 128 word dictionary (ie each word encodes 7 bits).

The explanation + the dictionary + the encoded image result in 1000 words.

https://gist.github.com/gregsadetsky/97ac9c8efe9c2a9f08c9cfe...

I read your nonfiction entry, my thoughts where somewhere along the line of "well this escalated quickly".

For all the people asking whether or not it is exactly a thousand words or only more or less than that, I think it is very plain from the content. For example:

> "Write 1,000 words about it"

> "you are writing the definitive 1,000 words for this photo. Make them count."

> "Does it have to be 1,000 words? Yes...Your entry must be exactly 1,000 words"

It also says that the prize is $1,000, and there's 1 picture - but I haven't seen anyone asking whether each of those is an upper or lower bound!

Here's mine: https://gist.github.com/nvlled/45b60884523cb48029686c50d0719...

It ended up kind of weird, but it was fun writing it. The organizer should suggest what programs to use for word counting, since different programs slightly give different counts. I used vim to write but used google docs to check word count and spellings.

Curious if allowing AI-based submissions was because there is no reliable way of filtering this out 100%? Would have loved to read these submissions in search of some stellar non-ai writing.

That is a very good point, such a rule would place a huge burden on the organizers.

they say "a picture" is worth thousand words....not every picture....certainly not this one. fun idea but the choice of picture is dubious, but hey its not my money on the line.

It really depends on what a word is...

If a WORD is 16-32 bits, you could pack in quite a lot. If a word is a Unicode word, that's even more bytes. Or you could do this in German and go nuts.

Looking forward to some writing assignments. Like in school. Sometimes I miss that in my day to day job. Using just human intelligence. Or maybe "dog intelligence" ;-)

> Does it have to be 1,000 words?

> Yes. That’s what a picture is worth, after all.

Not to be pedantic but does this mean "1,000 words or fewer," "at least 1,000 words," or "exactly 1,000 words?"

I'm asking because with school assignments the number is usually a lower bound, but with writing contests it's often an upper bound (sometimes even a fuzzy limit).

"Does it have to be 1,000 words?

Yes. That’s what a picture is worth, after all. Your entry must be exactly 1,000 words, not including the title (if you choose to write one)."

Good catch, thanks. Unfortunately that information wasn't in the email.

Now, do hyphenated words count as one word or two? Do numbers count as words (e.g. is "12 years old" three words or two?) If I write 1,000 words but concatenate them without spaces, is that still considered 1,000 words, or one single word?

I don't know of any English word counting algorithm or MoS that does not count "12" as a word, do you?

MoS?

Took the bait and sent them my email to apply because, in the page linked, they would "send you the instructions" to it.

But no, no exact definition of what they mean for "1000 words" - wether if it's minimum 1000 words or what, or how are they counting those 1000 words - throwing everything to a Word doc? a parsing script? Will they count things like an "I" or an "a" as a whole word?

I'm thinking about giving this a try, though, but not being pretty clear about that rule seems quite odd.

if it's not exactly 1000 words, then no skill is involved and the writers may as well be published by Penguin or HarperColins or something.

I don't understand this comment at all. "At least 1000 words" would require at least the skills of writing decently & writing a moderate amount based on little. I get that getting to exactly 1000 requires some skill, but how on earth is that the only skill involved?

It's relatively easy to write many words, but it takes more skill to express the same message with fewer words, like how video compression needs more time for fewer bytes and same quality. As Pascal once wrote, "If I had had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."

The comment I'm replying to said "no skill is involved", not "less skill is involved".

fwiw, this entire thread exists because of the ignored [2] in the link.

[2] Write 1,000 words about it by August 31st, 2026.

this is 1 of the two constraints. you may have to rework sentences. the skills exercised are these efforts

This thread exists because of the ambiguity in "Write 1,000 words about it by August 31st, 2026."

My personal instinct is to interpret it as a minimum of 1,000 words -- but it remains ambiguous.

EDIT: After reading the site's content I think they may be targeting _precisely_ 1,000 words.

Sounds kind of like they are spending $1500 on an email list of people interested in creative writing, plus gaining writing samples.

There are A LOT of cheaper ways to get some writing samples on the internet. This is just someone having fun, and creating an interesting challenge for others to have fun with.

I am partially worried of discovering that writing a 1000 words is actually much harder for me now than it was when I was 13.

A lot of people will view this as the decline of creative power in adulthood, but I actually think it's just a sign of maturity. Writing a lot of words when you are thirteen is easier for multiple reasons:

- You know less about the world, so bullshitting is easier because you don't know, and maybe don't care about the truth as much (in many senses, ranging from ensuring you aren't spreading misinformation in a nonfiction text to ensuring your fictional work has some plausibility) - It's easier to write a lot when you don't care about reading time. When you mature, you appreciate the preciousness of time, and understand that less is often more when it comes to written communication. - Your increased knowledge can also create a kind of analysis paralysis or associative fan effect on the brain that's fatiguing. Again, the curse of knowledge as an adult might actually make it harder to start something even though you have more "raw material" to work with (I personally think this is part of the reason a lot of artists stress "beginner's mind" so strongly (another huge component of it being open to randomness and happy accidents, or course)).

probably for a lot of people, AI has been degrading our skills

Alright I am back from the trenches after having written 1k words and as expected: I did not impress myself.

I forgot everyone's phone number long before AI.

Here is my contribution, titled "The human zoo": https://gist.github.com/Essenceia/c54a8d8fe0d693f96fb7c036f2...

I used to exercise, by writing “mini-sagas.”

50 words exactly.

Got the idea from Dan Pink, although he didn’t invent it.

How are they going to review thousands of submissions?

Been looking to write more, this looks great! I love the general premise of just converting picture => 1000 words.

I can't find any restriction on the submission language, maybe that should be explicitly spelled out. 1000 words in German would carry a different amount of information from 1000 words in English or 1000 characters in Japanese.

It doesn't need to be spelled out when it's clearly indicated by context alone.

sounds fun!

This is an exceptionally boring picture to write about. You can of course be imaginative about anything, but seriously.

That's what makes the contest interesting. Anyone can write an interesting 1k words about an interesting picture. But can you write an interesting 1k words about an uninteresting picture? Remember what G. K. Chesterton said...

(So far, judging from this page, it is easier to write an interesting debate about whether the rules require exactly 1k words and what is a 1k word entry, exactly, than about the picture. So far so good! We wouldn't want it to be too easy, after all. Gotta earn that $1k.)

Wouldn't a subjectively boring picture present an even greater challenge to the creativity of the writer involved in the competition? It could have been a picture of a Barton Newman painting; that would be a significant challenge to structure a 1000 word essay on.

from the dog’s pov; so much noise and so many strangers. the smell of fresh dirt, then cement, water… so much water. the kids were excited and when it was done, oh the days of swimming, fetch, and fun. soon the stress was forgotten. the hot days of cool water and the smell of the food on the grill. but then the kids grew and left. and then the adult male was gone, too. now this is a reminder of how much fetching and roughhousing we did. now she’s gone a lot too. stupid fence; at least i could swim… but no.

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