TTAC Future Writers Week: The Winners Get Their First Assignment
You noticed that I needed to catch my breath a bit from TTAC’s Future Writers Week. The results still have me breathless. At the start, I thought with seven a day, I probably have enough until Friday. Was I ever wrong.
Even extending the event by two more days due to overwhelming popular demand, I still have enough candidates for another few weeks. Don’t despair: Your works will be presented to the ruthless readers of TTAC, in the future, after we have digested that whale of a contest.
After a grueling week, 19 writers join the ranks of TTAC, which makes Thetruthaboutcars not only the carsite with the best readers, but most probably the carsite with the most writers.
Here is the final list:
TTAC’s Future WritersNameContestantRankedDayMichael Trainor41MondayGeorge William Herbert72MondayGrant Tillery13MondayMatthias Dean-Carpentier201WednesdayAndrew Nevick162WednesdayEvan Reisner193WednesdayMatt Oppen221ThursdayWilliam Simonsick232ThursdaySean Scoggins243ThursdayJeremiah Cayce321FridayJeff Snavely352FridayThomas M Kreutzer293FridayKeith Kostecke391SaturdayDerek Young412SaturdayMichael Stephenson363SaturdayBilly Pollock491SundayDan Reitman462SundayMatt Horsfield483SundayNot to forget David Hester, Contestant 31, who earned the highly coveted Editors Choice Award on Friday. Should I ever get a ticket in Canada, I will drop your name, David, and I expect the ticket to be dropped.
Also do not forget: There were no winners on Tuesday. Tuesday was deemed an awful day by our jury. My condolences to Paul and Mike, who may have been disqualified by association.
Many of TTAC’s new writers already wrote and said: “What now? When do I start? How do I start?”
Here is your first assignment:
- Finish the winning story.
- The snippet that was quoted during the contest must be part of the story, verbatim. Everything else is up to you.
- The story should have anywhere between 400 and 800 words. Please not longer. Also include one short paragraph that introduces you: Who are you, what do you do, where do you live. Please send the stories to my personal email, which will be given to you in a few days, along with more instructions.
- Deadline: Saturday, February 9, 2013
Start wirting! (And please, use a spell checker.)
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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> Start wirting! (And please, use a spell checker.) And the first new wirter to make a typo will be shamed to oblivion. Right? Can't wait, that will be fun. Heh, I won't be on the receiving end.
Well, the snippet that got me a win was part of a four part, 2000+ word article I wrote for an online Volvo magazine over 10 years ago, so there's no way I can "finish the story" in 4-800 words AND include an autobiography. However, I am a pretty crafty guy and I will figure out how to make *something* work.