Discussing the Writing Challenges -- November and December 2010

[Parson]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Grrrrrrrr!

 

[Parson]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

...wait a minute, Alias is a show about a spy!

No, Alias is a show about a conflicted young woman, who just happens to be gorgeous, and who kick the snot out of anyone, except maybe her mother, and whose Father is a stone killer.


Hey--- Maybe the August challenge should be SFF send ups of TV shows, sort of a "Red Dwarf" gone "Nova?"

 

[chrispenycate]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

No, Alias is a show about a conflicted young woman, who just happens to be gorgeous, and who kick the snot out of anyone, except maybe her mother, and whose Father is a stone killer.


Hey--- Maybe the August challenge should be SFF send ups of TV shows, sort of a "Red Dwarf" gone "Nova?"

Well, if you win, I suppose nobody can prevent you.

But it's a bit unfair towards those of us without televisions, or whose programming is a decade behind those fortunates in the untied kingdom or our transatlantic bretheren.

Now, if I wrote a takeoff of "The Quatermass experiment" who could be expected to recognise it?

 

[digs]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

But it's a bit unfair towards those of us without televisions...

For those withhoozle wazza wha? Is...but...the...

...TV!

 

[Parson]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

I know I wouldn't recognize it! Is the "Quatermass Experiment" some sort of meta physics experiment with sub atomic particles being done with the Large Hadron Collider?

 

[chrispenycate]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Not at all. But we are clubbing together to get Chris a new pair of glasses.

And I'm also pleased you've posted in the Challenge, thwilli, and such a neat little story at that.

I see that a strangely familiar piece from that adora-bell Mr St Clements gives us 41 stories altogether. Shall we break the magic 42 this month? Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we shall!

And while we wait for the late-posters, has anyone got the disguised thingummy in Mouse's story yet? Can we have a clue or two here, please, because I'm flummoxed.

Do you have any idea how much a new pair of glasses for me would cost? Progressive focus and, being a troglodyte , I need theme to go opaque when I crawl out of my lair in daylight.

No, a new brain to go behind them would be preferable, and probably cheaper.

Most dense on this site anyway. That's cos you're all geniuses here!

"Genius" and "engineering" are almost the same word in French (Mind you, so are "Christian" and "cretin". It pays to be careful.) But I've not managed anything clever in any of my stories so far; unless shutting up after seventy-five words can be considered smart.

I know I wouldn't recognize it! Is the "Quatermass Experiment" some sort of meta physics experiment with sub atomic particles being done with the Large Hadron Collider?

It dates to before CERN, bach when the goggle box, even black and white, was an unknown luxury, and entertainment (when it did not consist of diving under the blankets with a book and a torch (flashlight – the non-electric version would have been messy) often involved the Home Service or Light program on the wireless set.

For those withhoozle wazza wha? Is...but...the...

...TV!

With the changeover of the studio at the end of last year the TV plug stopped producing signal. I suppose I should complain to the cable operator, but I haven't missed it. I can always play a DVD, and I was nicely insulated from the football.

 

[Mouse]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Yes, we cannot deny it, we are all geniuses. Genii actually. We all came out of bottles - mine was Lagavulin (in my dreams).

I hereby dub the Mouse an also-Genii.

Awesome. Can I have a hat?

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

* Hopes Mouse hasn't peaked too soon. *

 

[digs]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

With the changeover of the studio at the end of last year the TV plug stopped producing signal. I suppose I should complain to the cable operator, but I haven't missed it. I can always play a DVD, and I was nicely insulated from the football.

I can respect that. For it is in the rich darkness hidden from the ghastly glow of glass screens that the human mind unfettered unfurls annnd I'm gonna go watch TV!

 

[nixie]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

You better not DA! I heard if someone posts a story under an alias Cul's going to fly us all to the Netherworld, where he will employ demons to torture us by reading Stephanie Meyer until our ears bleed. Or something.

Or else fed to Wally, not a good idea cause I clean his teeth

 

[chopper]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

You better not DA! I heard if someone posts a story under an alias Cul's going to fly us all to the Netherworld, where he will employ demons to torture us by reading Stephanie Meyer until our ears bleed. Or something.

Milton Keynes? Been there, done that...except last time it was Dan Brown.


The horror, the horror....

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Most dense on this site anyway. That's cos you're all geniuses here!

Well gee, Mouse, imagine how that makes ME feel. You're smarter than I am, so after all, if you feel that you're outclassed here, what chance does the storm elemental have?

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

There is a solution (not one I'd recommend, mind you) that many writers have been tempted by: searching for their genius at the bottom of a bottle.


Most of us manage to get by without being geniuses, while some geniuses struggle to get by.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Uh, yeah, Ursa-that would quite possibly kill me, considering the fact that I take Oxycodone every night.


And some geniuses struggle to get by because they're overqualified for any jobs out there.....

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

I knew that there was a reason why I wouldn't recommend it.


What I want to know - ignoramus that I am - is what genius has got to do, specifically, with the writing of fiction. Yes, it's good to have a creative spark, but as with most art (save for the conceptual sort) craft is at least as important.

A wonderful idea badly expressed is of little use (perhaps none whatsoever). And in a 100+K novel, there's an awful lot of expressing required.

 

[chrispenycate]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

But seventy-five words? That's impressing, and compressing, very little ex at all.

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

I agree that there's little opportunity to milk an idea in 75 words, Chris.



*cough*

 

[chrispenycate]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Ah, so it's condensing and evaporating, too.

It's a wonder it's not an ex-story.

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

And yet every month, the cream comes to the top.




(Isn't that just the way of things....)

 

[chrispenycate]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Indeed, how it's always occurred. Quite ornidary, really.

Straight past yer eyes

Although one thing these tales aren't is homogenous.