Discussing the Writing Challenges -- November and December 2010

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

In other months there have been twenty-four hour periods early in the Challenge when nobody posted stories. I think longer than that. Then a flurry of them would come in.

All but a handful of stories had come in by the tenth day in previous months, so I figure that's when we'll know if the contest is losing momentum, and how much.

 

[Sephiroth]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

I wasn't sure if the first draft of my first version would be considered fantasy by all, so I had to rethink it.


I hope to get my entry in by Wednesday, before we go away. If it comes to it, though, we'll have an internet connection in France, and I would be able to post it from there.

 

[mygoditsraining]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

You could post one in French, Seph!

In retrospect, I should have mulled over writing my entry for this month a bit more. It feels almost slapdash considering how much effort has gone into others so far (and is being put into those unsubmitted thus far), but I did enjoy the workshop feeling of just pouring out the words and seeing where it took me.

Enjoying the entries so far. Teresa's is great! Really enjoyed that one.

 

[Sephiroth]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Hmm. I could post one in French. But Chrispy would be on to me in a flash, and you know what his dissections are like. Besides, I'm not sure how to fit "What colour is your pencil?", or, "When do the fireworks start?", into meaningful dialogue.


This is the first month I haven't just written one off the cuff, spent an hour or two refining it, and then posted it. I think that's just because I've found inspiration more difficult to come by, this time. And the only idea I do have is stubbornly resisting my attempts to turn it into a story I'm happy with.

 

[chrispenycate]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

C'est un défi, M. Seph? Et mon crayon est rouge, comme tout le monde ici sait très bien.

But I don't get to red pencil challenges. Just a tick on my spreadsheet 'grammar inadequate'.

Sauf, évidement, si c'est la poésie. Les regles du grammaire ne tiennent pas pour les poémes.

A fête equivalent to death.​

“A quelle heure sont des feux ? ”
The questioner didn’t look old enough to be up this late, certainly not in clothes revealing every scrap of her almost-attained figure.
“Aussitôt qu’il fait sombre – vous les entenderez”
She waved to her squeaky-hammer wielding pack. “Bientôt, faut faire vite.”
I didn’t see how they chose their victim, but as the mortars fired the first stars into the sky, blood ran across sandals, unnoticed in the celebration.

 

[nixie]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

C'est un défi, M. Seph? Et mon crayon est rouge, comme tout le monde ici sait très bien.

But I don't get to red pencil challenges. Just a tick on my spreadsheet 'grammar inadequate'.

Sauf, évidement, si c'est la poésie. Lesregles du grammaire nr tiennent pas pour les poémes

.I take it I'm top of list

 

[Parson]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

We may be losing a little steam from the previous months. I'm not quite ready to concede that point. But I am sure that when we started this challenge 20 entries would have been considered a roaring success.

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

But the question, "When do the pencils start?" intrugues me. (For one thing: Will they lead someone astray? For another, HB could be a character**.)



I suspect my entry will probably arrive after the 10th, given the lack of progress I'm making.




** - Or would that be too King/Dark Tower?

 

[Sephiroth]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Chris -- red, of course. I shouldn't have had to ask.

There are challenges, and then there's the impossible. 'Inadequate' is a generous description of my French grammar.

But you've given me the solution: French poetry! I'll write something so abstract and confusing that the French will surely adopt it as a modern classic. It'll be tout à fait dans vos cordes.


(Which will make up for it getting no votes in the challenge.)

 

[Boneman]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Eh up, then, some of us have very annoying (well, no, I love it really) and stupidly longer things to write. There's a part of my brain, though, even as it writes in a completely different format, whirring away trying to make up something short and Disguise-y.

Ditto...

 

[Erin99]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Ditto...

Ditto here, too, although my longer piece isn't uni work; it's my novel, like most writers here. Luckily I found something to write about this month, though. It's weird to write more than one story of varying length at a time, however. Not done that before! These challenges are helping me grow and develop my skills.

 

[Sephiroth]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

A fête equivalent to death.​

“A quelle heure sont des feux ? ”
The questioner didn’t look old enough to be up this late, certainly not in clothes revealing every scrap of her almost-attained figure.
“Aussitôt qu’il fait sombre – vous les entenderez”
She waved to her squeaky-hammer wielding pack. “Bientôt, faut faire vite.”
I didn’t see how they chose their victim, but as the mortars fired the first stars into the sky, blood ran across sandals, unnoticed in the celebration.

Genius. If this had been your entry this month, it'd certainly have got my vote.

I'm going to be looking over my shoulder if I'm at next year's frairie.

 

[chrispenycate]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Well, I didn't manage to get the pencils in, and it's not particularly SFF, but it is a bit disguisy.

And took considerably less time than my actual entry.

Perhaps the extra challenge of incorporating a word or phrase wasn't that daft after all…

 

[Sephiroth]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Well, I can forgive you the pencils. I suppose a busload of French holidaymakers touring the Lake District could have combined the two. An evening celebration in Keswick, home to the world's longest pencil.




Well, if we go ahead with it for next month, I'd like to suggest 'tickle my goose' as our first mandatory phrase.

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

* Wonders what Pâté de Foie Grassmere would taste like. *

 

[Sephiroth]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Wordsworth would have called it 'the loveliest pâté that man hath ever made'.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Thank you, MGIR. I actually love yours, and it doesn't feel rushed at all. I know that it has nothing to do with the actual story, but my first thought when I read it was that it sound liked the Beast in some of the vintage illustrations I've seen for "Beauty and the Beast."

I agree, Parson, that 20 entries at the beginning would have been regarded as a roaring success. The first three months may have set up unreasonable expectations.

But it looks like one reason why things are slower this month is because a lot of people are taking more time over their entries.

 

[mosaix]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Well, if we go ahead with it for next month, I'd like to suggest 'tickle my goose' as our first mandatory phrase.

I used to work for a small software house where each of us had to submit a written report on our activities for the week to the M.D. After he'd read them they were all circulated to the staff.

After a few months this got a little boring and three of us ran a random number generator that generated page and line number for a dictionary look-up. We each had three words that we had to incorporate into our report for points and the subsequent league table.

One of us had no shame and always used all his words including, I seem to remember, trews.

My most difficult was sapling - there was no way I could use this but I did manage to incorporate refrigerator and sausage.

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

But a SAPling is someone devoted to the implementation of a Strategic Action Plan.

The word is a shoo-in for a progress report.

 

[Sephiroth]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

That sounds like a great laugh, Mosaix. Although, on my first read of your post, I thought you implied that the M.D. read them out loud, which would have been hilarious. (Until someone got into trouble for giggling during the reports, at least.)