Two texts, one event: a public 후기 and a KakaoTalk message

These differ in stance, not just in level.

(A) Newsletter 후기 → -습니다체 as the base, with -더라고요/-거든요 used sparingly for the personal parts.

• Base: "저는 이번 대회에서 4위를 했습니다." Neutral, reportable, and readable by an organiser who is standing in the same room.
• The problem: pure -습니다체 for a personal reflection sounds like a report about someone else. Korean 후기 writing typically opens with -습니다체 and allows a warm -더라고요 for the moments of experience: "무대에 서 보니 준비한 것보다 훨씬 떨리더라고요."
• The reader includes people who ran the event. That constrains content more than grammar (see the next task).

(B) KakaoTalk to 민수 → 반말, because he is a close friend and roughly your age.

• "민수야, 나 대회 끝났어! 4등 했어."
• Register here is a relationship claim: using -요체 with a close same-age friend would signal distance and make the advice feel like a lecture.
• But (B) still has to be useful: 반말 lowers the formality, not the information value.

Key judgement: the same facts (4th place, delay, mic failure) appear in both. What changes is not the truth but the verdict you attach to them. (A) ends on what you gained; (B) can be blunt and funny ("마이크 꺼져서 내 개그가 그냥 증발했어 ㅋㅋ") because 민수 needs the real texture to decide whether to enter.

Draft: "결승전이 40분쯤 늦게 시작하는 바람에 긴장이 풀려서 오히려 준비한 말을 잊어버릴 뻔했습니다. 시간을 넘겨 발표한 참가자들도 있었는데, 저는 그 시간에 제 원고를 마지막으로 점검할 수 있었더라고요."

Constraints that shaped it:

• The organisers are in the readership. "심사가 공정하지 않았다" or "대회 운영에 문제가 있었다" would be a public accusation of named people who gave up their Saturday. In a text they will read, criticism must be either omitted or reframed as an observation about your own experience.
• "-는 바람에" carries an unplanned, mildly negative consequence - ideal for the delay, because it is grammatical in the exact place where a complaint would be. It lets the sentence sound like self-deprecation rather than blame.
• The over-time speakers are not accused. "시간을 넘겨 발표한 참가자들도 있었는데" reports a fact without an evaluative adjective; the pivot "-는데" then hands the sentence to your own use of that time. No rule was alleged to be broken.
• "-더라고요" marks a first-hand realisation, so the sentence reads as a discovery, not a verdict on the organisers.
• Omit numbers you cannot verify: "40분쯤" is safer than an exact claim about an official schedule.

Test: read the sentence as the organiser. You would feel informed, not criticised. That is the pass condition.

Add substance that the reader needs; do not add adjectives.

Legitimate additions:

• Preparation detail with -느라고: "대본을 외우느라고 일주일 내내 거울 앞에서 연습했습니다." This earns its place because it explains the outcome (4th) and is the kind of thing future entrants read a 후기 for.
• The joke that died: narrate it as a lesson rather than a grievance - "마이크가 꺼지는 바람에 준비한 농담은 못 했지만, 다음에는 마이크 상태를 미리 확인해야겠다고 배웠습니다."
• Specific gratitude: name the teacher who coached you and one thing she told you. Korean 후기 convention expects an acknowledgement section, and it is usually where the word count is genuinely short.
• Advice to next year's entrants: two concrete sentences ("원고는 400자 이내로", "예상 질문 세 개는 꼭 준비하세요").

What would break it:

• Repeating the same point in different words to reach a count - the reader notices padding faster in Korean than in English because sentence endings start to rhyme.
• Filling with 사자성어 or 속담 you found in a dictionary. Misapplied ones (e.g. 우공이산 for a 4th-place finish) are more damaging than a plain sentence.
• Inventing dialogue you did not have.
• Switching to 반말 mid-text for a lively effect - in a public 후기 this reads as a register error, not as style.

Check after adding: does every new sentence answer "what does a future entrant or a teacher need to know?" If not, cut it and accept 190 words.