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

[Mouse]

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.

It could be that too, of course. In fact, your take on it is far more imaginative!

Also I'm with the judge "autobiographical?" You might have the makings of an interesting story to sell.

Heh heh! I don't know about that.

 

[Parson]

Mouse, I am caught. You responded to my post before I edited it. I hadn't read to the end to the current posts before I responded. (Something I've done to my consternation a few other times!)

No, to make that into a story that sells, you might have to (ahem) embellish it a bit.

 

[Mouse]

Just a tad! Although without embellishments it would probably be chick-lit.

 

[Parson]

And of course, chick-lit doesn't sell at all.

 

[chrispenycate]

It might well sell; but would you want to be accused of writing it?

Such as I have perused (not, admittedly, a representative sample) seems a good reason for noms de plume.

 

[Mouse]

Nope I would not! I try my best to avoid chick-lit.

 

[Parson]

Ahhh! If only my wife and daughter felt the same way!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

You make me wonder how many of the other stories I completely missed.

I think most of us probably wonder that -- when we aren't wondering if anyone understood our stories.

After I give my story for this month to my husband to read, and he had read it, I asked him at what point he had figured out that it was really about _____. My fear was that I had been so clumsy as to give it away in the first couple of sentences. By the blank look on his face I realized that was not my problem.

Which is worse? To write something that is too obvious? To write something so obscure that people are left scratching their heads and thinking, "So what's the point ... if any"? Or something that everyone takes at face value and misses the deeper levels that were, for you, the whole point of the story?

 

[Parson]

Which is worse? To write something that is too obvious? To write something so obscure that people are left scratching their heads and thinking, "So what's the point ... if any"? Or something that everyone takes at face value and misses the deeper levels that were, for you, the whole point of the story?

I suppose the answer depends on your objective. If your objective is to write something that is completely understandable (like directions to software SHOULD be) you would want to write something too obvious. Anything less would be bad (or should I say normal given my illustration?)

If your objective is to write something that will stand the test of time you would want to write something that is easily understood, but has a reflective depth that seems impossible to plumb (i.e. the Bible).

It seems the worst of all worlds would be your second alternative that when people read (and if they finish) scratch their heads and ask "So what's the point ... if any?" This might be where chick-lit fits.

 

[The Judge]

After I give my story for this month to my husband to read, and he had read it, I asked him at what point he had figured out that it was really about _____. My fear was that I had been so clumsy as to give it away in the first couple of sentences. By the blank look on his face I realized that was not my problem.

At which point we all rush across to Teresa's story in the knowledge that her husband is not alone in looking blank...

... er... er... do we get any more clues here? (And there was me congratulating myself on getting Parson's Dives and Sephiroth's Pandora...)

Perhaps we need a kind of signalling system. In Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons uses "the method perfected by the late Herr Baedecker" of one, two and three stars to mark "the finer passages" so as to help those "who are not always sure whether a sentence is Literature or whether it is sheer flapdoodle". So to signify hidden depths we should append one, two or three exclamation marks at the side of the piece.

 

[chrispenycate]

Hidden depths? She gives me seventy five words and I'm supposed to write three dimensional?

Besides, I'm knon for incomprehensibility at the best of times; in bonsai writing KISS (keep it simple, stupid) is my indicated byword.

 

[Ursa major]

Our stories have to have hidden depths?!

A vague idea of what to write is evading me at the moment. (Although perhaps I should just write anything** and let the readers impose a story on it, or assume what I've written is over their heads***.)



** - with a suitably enigmatic title.

*** - which it won't be.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

If ever I write a story about brooding laborers tilling the black earth in the pride of their manhood as the rabbit screams its agony amidst the rows of corn, Judge, I'll be sure to provide the asterisks. (And throw in a branch of sukebind for good measure.)

No, I don't think stories of 75 words will have hidden depths, but going by some of the comments here there is a certain fear of missing out on things that other readers are picking up on a first reading.

Which is likely to be true in many cases. With 75 words, we don't have a lot of time to get our ideas across. Which is why I gave up on my first story and posted the one that I did.

 

[Ursa major]

Thank heavens for that**.









** - The non-mandatory hidden depths, that is.

 

[The Judge]

Sukebind! Oh yes! And in the fullness of the summer when the sukebind hangs heavy... and the dumb, dark, dull, bitter belly-tension... oops, getting carried away here.

...perhaps I should just write anything** and let the readers impose a story on it...

Well, Garbo gets away with it at the end of Queen Christina - a wholly blank face and whatever emotion the viewer wants to find can be seen in her eyes -- whether it's there or not!

Come on, Ursa. There must be some pun to be made out of escape.

 

[Ursa major]

But I'm determined** to avoid an obvious pun this month.



(Although I have thought of one, obviously. )





** - As determined as I ever can be, that is.

 

[Culhwch]

Come on, Ursa. There must be some pun to be made out of escape.

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this month's theme was that scene in Finding Nemo, where Dory wonders at the word 'escarpay' being spelt exactly the same as 'escape'...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

and the dumb, dark, dull, bitter belly-tension...

I know this is supposed to have something to do with sex, but I've always ascribed it to poor diet.

Ursa, don't forget that the Challenge ends three days earlier this time. You have a mere ten days left (more or less).

 

[chopper]

eek. hidden meanings? i'm kinda all surface i'm afraid...

i can do tangents though.

 

[Faraway]

"Weigh anchor, Muttley; there's a medal in it for you."

I don't have the slightest idea what that story is, but it made me laugh!