Actually last time you got exactly 4.885 votes, but I rounded it up 
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@SteveAdamo, for the next round… hmm. Well so far we’ve had conflict, recovery, Stonehearth (that is, stories must relate to SH etc), whatever your round 3 plan is, and a limit of 350 words. In terms of entries we’ve also had both the serious and the humorous, and both prose & poetry. I think the conflict theme is always a good one, because it usually means some kind of protagonist / antagonist action, which always helps writing (at least IMHO).
Thinking about the workshop nature of these competitions though, I do have a couple of suggestions. First, a character piece: a short story etc that gives you a lot of insight into just one, or maybe two, individuals. Second, a sympathetic character piece about someone you don’t like (fictional people only though !). I think it’s easy to write well about characters you like or approve of… not so much for the villains.
Right, let’s have a look at the stories in round 2 
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@TurtleSquish - Double Recovery
Few spelling or grammatical errors (eg “lie under the covers” rather than “lay…”, but really not much to worry about), and the pacing seems nicely done too.
As for the story itself, I’m confused as to why the blanket worked the way it did (ie restoring Jeren to sensibility) - it doesn’t seem magical, nor does Jeren seem so attached to it that he might prefer being comatose to life without his precious blanket. Story structure (build-up etc) is fine though.
Also, that pun is truly cringeworthy 
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@Zilla - The Recovery From Smartness
Mostly grammatical errors (“Inside were all the creatures…” or “and heard lots of chewing…” for example), but spelling seems fine. In particular, you should look into when to use a colon ( this thing => : ), as I’d have used it when Tall Tim finds the sword & armour, and when he looks at his reflection.
Little confused as to how Tall Tim made it back to the other goblins after being attacked (did the others follow him?), but not much else to say really - sympathetic characters and all that .
@Dwarf - Spring Comes To Silverwell
The one thing that struck me in terms of technical stuff was your use of " its’ ". You want to use “it’s” as the short form of “it is” and “its” for the possessive form (eg “its icy daggers…”). I’m also a little confused by “The bright dawn shun the ragged hole…” - do you mean the dawn shunned (ie, avoided) the hole, or that it shone into the ragged hole?
Nice and clear recovery theme in the story . I did notice though that Navin goes to sleep 6hrs after dawn, yet when he wakes up it was dawn 4hrs ago - did he sleep for nearly 24 hours?
@Lepoard200 - Redbreeze
Some minor spelling and grammatical errors (“from” not “form” in the opening sentence, or the lack of dashes or commas around the “stolen by deserters” bit), but otherwise okay. I guess you copied it from Notepad or w/e though, as the forum preserved the odd line breaks.
The main thing I’m confused about is the story is about. Talk of the village of Redbreeze makes it sound like it’s a hearthling village, but the final paragraph makes me wonder if it’s goblins instead (also, what’s with mention of the column?). That aside, the theme is obvious, and the pacing fine.
@Newf - Preparing For Winter
Some missing full stops and a few other odds and ends, but nothing major on the technical side (eg “as they did to everything else” instead of “do”).
I think the problem with this story is that the theme of recovery isn’t very clear in it. To be sure, the lord & his riders do reach the intact barn with its food stores, but with the scythe-armed lunatic trapping them in, it’s not clear that this is a story about recovery so much as botched recovery .
@PDanford - Alive At Least
Not much to say here - “Idrias head rises” needs an apostrophe, and I think after “Martin?” you needed a full stop and new sentence for Idria’s response. Few technical issues basically.
In terms of story it’s also nice. I might have had a bit more emphasis on the recovery theme, but it’s there in various forms. Nice little sequel to your previous entry
@Atralane
Struggling to find technical issues here . I would have dropped the “so” in “namely so because” and swapped in “by” instead of “in” in “in goblin standards”, but… yeah. Technically fine.
A nice continuation of Liyl’s lore and history. Of course now I’m stuck because there’s not much to criticise here, and a line and a half seems a little short for this. Oh well .
@SprungCardinal8 - Peace At Hearth
Not much here on the technical side, though as a phrase I’m not sure “at a loss of balance” works that well (“unsteady on his feet” or “struggling to stay upright” etc?).
As for the story, I’m struggling to detect a clear “recovery” theme here. It’s a nice story to be sure, and amusing to boot, but I’m not sure where the recovery bit comes in. No mention of the hangovers even !
@Sanyo201 - North Greenstone
Very little on the technical side to comment about. I’d have put in a colon after “head held high” I think, but again there’s little to point out.
Another nice story, one of my favourites from this round I think. The theme is clear, the mayor (at least I assume it’s his thoughts and not the captain’s) gets a nice bit of fleshing out as a character… yeah, nice stuff. One thing you might have done differently (I don’t mean better, just differently) that occurred to me was to have the mayor believing everyone was dead (and to thus be heading for the metaphorical cliff), only for a voice up the (literal) cliff to ask him to go prop that fallen ladder up - could’ve made for a nice sudden swing from one extreme of emotion to the other.
@Coasterspaul - Berry Glen
The usual nitpick-y list (you forgot a space between “answer” and “his”, or “I remember being taller” etc), but as with most entries there’s very little to criticise on the technical level.
Not entirely sure where the recovery theme comes in (recovering from an obsession? Maybe? Hmm), but that aside it’s a nice and amusing story. I was a little confused though by how Jeren says Pyat has no choice about leaving his room, then has already gone in time for Pyat’s lunge, and reports to Lorna that he won’t come.
Looking over all the stories, I think the most common issue (leaving aside the usual smattering of grammatical nitpicks and such) is the theme, which I at least have sometimes struggled to see clearly. So, do remember to stick clearly to whatever theme @SteveAdamo has set, because if I can read it and wonder about where the theme in the story is, I’m sure I’m not alone.
Anyway, hope everyone’s found the comments useful .
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), or can I just write about any (ie potentially not related to Stonehearth) character?