Some of your favorite stories in the Writing Challenge -- NOT for voting.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Bright ...?

 

[The Judge]

...er... yes... I wanted to change that afterwards when I realised it was simultaneously both weak as a word and inappropriate for the subject, but I'd left it too late to edit. Ho hum. Perhaps "dark yet sumptuous tapestry"? Or perhaps not. [Note to self: lose the stupid imagery next time...]

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

No, no, a compliment is a compliment, and is gratefully received at this end.

I just wondered if you were really talking about my story.

 

[Talysia]

Again, there have been so many great entries in such a short amount of time! I'm reading through the entries as they come in, and there's already a fair number on my list of favourites. I'll post up my shortlist closer to the end of the contest, but I know right now that I'm going to find it difficult to choose!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The stories I like the most so far are mostly those written by the people whose stories I liked the most the last time we did this. With so many good stories, I suppose personal taste is bound to come into it.

Meanwhile, though the quality is high, we have far fewer entries than we had at this time last month. I wonder if it's because some of those who posted early in April are waiting for the perfect idea to strike them, or because a lot of them just wanted to see if they could do it last month -- and having seen that they could are less interested in trying again.

I'll be surprised if we come even close to the same number of stories this time around. Although 24 is still a good showing.

 

[Erin99]

When I loaded up the challenge thread today, there were so many good entries! Some of them are outstanding. I'm not going to list my favs here, though, to be fair, although there's three I particularly like.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

This time, I'm not rereading the early stories over and over, as I did last time. I think that gave some of the first ones an unfair advantage. Some stories take a while to sink in; sometimes it takes a while or a few readings to "get" what a story is really about. So I'll wait until they are all in, and read through everything a few times then.

But until then, since it's not possible to vote for everything I like, and because JP created this thread so that we can share our impressions, those that impressed me on a first reading, were Breaking Free, by Talysia, A Fairy Tale Ending, by Mouse, A Hopeful Case by Sephiroth, and Dives, by Parson.

I can't vote for them all, and maybe something else (already there or yet to be written and posted) will strike me in such a way that I end up not voting for any of these, but so far these are the stories that stand out for me.

(Oh, and things are looking up! After a couple of days when the stories barely trickled in, we have 32.)

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

It's still hard for me to tell which ones I like best. So many of them seem to be so morbid and dark....however, if the vote were to go right now, I'd probably have to fall upon A Hopeful Case by Seph.....

 

[chopper]

yeah, there's a lot of darker ones. i think the overall standard has picked up on last month (not that any of last month's entries were shabby at all, but the choice is definitely much harder this time around). my own favourites so far? hmm... SEph and Mouse, MGIR, Judge & Digs. and that's being really mean-spirited, to name just 5....

 

[Mouse]

Wow, thanks for mentioning me, Chopper, Teresa and Cul. That's cheered me up!

I'll read them all again a few times nearer the end too. I'm the forum dunce and don't understand half of the stories so far! At the mo, I'm liking The Judge's one...

 

[Parson]

Teresa,

Thanks for the mention. It made my day.

Mouse,

Forum dunce? I doubt it severely!! You were after all just a whisker (mouse whisker of course) short of winning the first challenge. One of the problems with a 75 word limit is that you have to do a lot of presupposing to make both the story and the limit. Some of us (I'm looking at you Robin G.) need far fewer.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Hmmm... tough one. Unlike many, I actually had an easy vote last time. But now....

So far, I guess the stories that struck a chord with me* are the ones by Leisha, mosaix and mondieuitsraining.

I'm the forum dunce and don't understand half of the stories so far!

Trust me - as long as I'm around, you're not the thickest person here. I didn't understand half the stories last time, either. Including, by the way, yours.


* You know... other than mine...

 

[The Judge]

Thanks for the mentions, chopper and Mouse. Now, if only I can stop the mini-rodent reading anyone else's before polling...

I have to confess, one or two of the entries both this and last time left me wondering if I was being supremely thick in failing to understand what was going on! I'm glad it isn't just me.

I am looking at the entries as they come in, since I lack the self-discipline to stay away, and usually I'll read each one several times immediately so as to fix it properly in my head. First time around I actually wrote out a list and gave marks out of 5 as I read each one, adding to the list as more entries trickled in, then when polling came I went through them again, which resulted in a few changes but no major upheavals -- so either I'm pretty consistent in my judgements, or I'm not amenable to changing my mind...

It makes you wonder how the judges of something like the Booker prize manage.

 

[Mouse]

Cheers guys, I feel less of a doofus now!

Trust me - as long as I'm around, you're not the thickest person here. I didn't understand half the stories last time, either. Including, by the way, yours.

Really? Mine was a bit autobiographical. Sort of. Was about a woman who's seeing this guy that she's not all that into. But he's really into her. She asked for the world, and he literally gave it to her all packaged up in a (not so) nice little box. She then starts feeling guilty as she doesn't really want to be with him, so she ponders jumping into the box to escape/visit the other world. She decides it's a horrible box anyway (her reasoning for leaving) and off she goes.

 

[The Judge]

Autobiographical???

 

[Mouse]

Well not exactly! I had a guy buy me flowers recently and I felt really bad about it as he was very sweet but I just didn't like him at all. Sort of similar... Sort of.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Shame on you! A guy would never turn down a bouquet a sweet girl gave him!

Well, okay, maybe we would. Or rather, we would diplomatically accept it and express gratitude, before tossing it in the bin once your back is turned because... well, what the hell am I supposed to do with a bunch of flowers??

A PlayStation would be better, frankly...

 

[Mouse]

Oh I didn't refuse the flowers. Kept those!

 

[digs]

I'm sure I'm guilty of causing some of that confusion...I have this habit of assuming that everyone else knows what's going on in my brain, so my descriptions are usually quite vague.

 

[Parson]

Cheers guys, I feel less of a doofus now!



Really? Mine was a bit autobiographical. Sort of. Was about a woman who's seeing this guy that she's not all that into. But he's really into her. She asked for the world, and he literally gave it to her all packaged up in a (not so) nice little box. She then starts feeling guilty as she doesn't really want to be with him, so she ponders jumping into the box to escape/visit the other world. She decides it's a horrible box anyway (her reasoning for leaving) and off she goes.

Well so much for understanding your story. I was going down an alternate creation tale, trail. With the "goddess" jumping into this world to get away from the "OVERBEARING GOD." You make me wonder how many of the other stories I completely missed.