Discussing the Writing Challenges -- November and December 2010

[Erin99]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Wow. I've 11 stories open and I can't pick....

May as well mention them: Talysia, Chel, Chrispy, HareBrain, Teresa, Price Calibre, revier33, Hoopy, chopper, Hilarious Joke, and Sephiroth.



[later]



.............

..........................



[even later]



YES! I'm down to 4!!! (Talysia, HareBrain, reiver33, and HJ.)




[even even later]





I love Taly's story because of its wistful tone (she has a way of writing beautiful stories, don't you think?), and for a long while that was my top pick. But the more I read HareBrain's, the more I love it too, for its sadness and theme of redemption. I also love reiver33's tale, and his use of language ("grey job, grey desk, grey man, colourful world"). However, it very loosely fits my definition of a fantasy - reads more like historical fiction, IMO, like GRRM - and so doesn't fit the theme, for me. But it's just so good, and is definitely worth a mention! Anyway, there's also HJ, whose piece also has a sad feel to it, and it's beautifully written. He's another writer you can always spot from his tone.

So, after a long and careful consideration..... my winner is............

HJ!

Phew! Done!


Honourable mention goes to Precise Calibre for nearly making my shortlist. The only thing stopping it was because I didn't know whose POV it was in (my own fault probably), because Yuhlin wouldn't refer to himself as "the scribe" or "the clerk". But I loved the idea!

 

[Sephiroth]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

There were plenty of stories I really liked out of the 48 entries, this month. After much deliberation, I ended up with the following shortlist (in the order they were posted):

Talysia -- Extreme Measures
HareBrain -- Fúath
Teresa Edgerton -- The Fountain of Fair-Seeming
Precise Calibre -- Clerical Duties
Sleepless -- Found
Chopper -- Oranges and Lemons
Hilarious Joke -- The End of the World

Out of these, honourable mentions go to Precise Calibre, Sleepless and Chopper.

An especially honourable mention goes to HJ. I found it very difficult to leave his story out of my top three. I think his writing has been consistently great; it has a lovely, poetic quality.

Which leaves my top three as Taly, HareBrain and Teresa. Taly's story is a great idea with a killer first line, complete with sci-fi twist. HareBrain has written a tale that is both quirky, with an element of his trademark humour, and hauntingly sad. Teresa's story is beautifully written, and with concise elegance it tells us much about the two characters and their differences (I can well imagine how Rosabella ends up looking).

And, after further consideration, my vote goes to Teresa, for the combination of poetic prose and depth of characterisation I mentioned above.



And thanks to those who voted for my story -- and to everyone who mentioned it as being among their favourites. It's nice to know it had an effect on people, since I wasn't at all sure about it before posting.

Now to get back to the new short story I started today, which already represents the most (and best) writing I've done this year. This contest has certainly played a role in helping me get back to work after the problems I've had, so thanks again to everyone for making it happen.

 

[Culhwch]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

And for anyone who hasn't yet noticed, we have had another tie! With a late surge, Teresa pulled level with The Judge, resulting in:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/528337-july-writing-challenge-tiebreaker-poll.html

 

[TheDustyZebra]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Woohoo! I guess I happened along at just the right time, as I just managed the first vote of the tiebreaker! Not sure how I got there before Cul, but there you go. It is indeed an extremely tough decision between those two stories, but since I'd already made it once I figured that there was no sense changing horses in midstream.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

It would have been hard for anybody else to vote in the tie-breaker with the thread locked.

I'm not sure which of us did that or how it happened. Anyway, it's open again now.

 

[Culhwch]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Oops, I think I did that - I must have checked both the sticky this thread and lock this thread buttons accidentally...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Well, it's a good thing I noticed the thread was locked, because it would have looked highly suspicious.

I want to think everyone who mentioned my story or voted for it. It was an honor to get any votes in such a distinguished company and to tie with The Judge's gorgeous poem is amazing.

I'm afraid I can't match Mouse's bribe of three month's ago and offer to meet you all in Prague if you vote for me. On the other hand, there is Disneyland ...


... in five or six years when the price of gas goes down.

 

[Culhwch]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Well, it's a good thing I noticed the thread was locked, because it would have looked highly suspicious.

All I can say is that it's a good thing I got no votes, or folks might be levelling accusations of foul play from the moderating team, with two mods tied for the win this month...

(Just quietly, I did understand you correctly in the moderator's lounge when you said it would be my turn in August, yeah?)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

(I think you'll have to talk to the guy who sets up the polls.)

 

[TheDustyZebra]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Uh oh, so did my vote count, or do I need to go try again?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

You must have slipped in your vote between the time Cul created the thread and when he locked it, because otherwise there wouldn't have been anything for you to click on.

You must have been really quick, though.

I was happy to see that we had as many votes as we had stories this month. So that was a record number of stories and a record number of votes, which is exciting.

 

[Boneman]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

... in five or six years when the price of gas goes down.

Teresa, come to England - we're paying $10 a gallon...

Congrats to Both Teresa and The Judge. It's no surprise to me that it's a tie-breaker, I'm only surprised we haven't had a five or six-way tie yet! As far as I'm concerned you should both be declared the winner and choose the next title between you, the way Mouse and I planned before Harebain's coin decided it. If the tie-breaker is a tie-breaker, then we declare you both joint winners, right?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

. If the tie-breaker is a tie-breaker, then we declare you both joint winners, right?

If the tiebreaker is a tie, I don't think anyone wants to go through a third round of voting! We would have to decide on a theme together.

But it's too early to worry about that.

 

[The Procrastinator]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Well well, just voted (for Teresa again) and its 7 to 8. Neck and neck. The tension!

 

[The Judge]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Well, I'm glad the voting Chonners had the good sense to shove someone else into the top spot, even if they had collective bouts of insanity where my piece was concerned. (But again, thanks to everyone who voted for me and/or mentioned me as runners up -- in a field of this quality it was very ego-boosting indeed.)

I can't do anything now about the quality of my poem viz-a-viz Teresa's, but if it's down to bribery and corruption, that I can do, yes indeed! No expense account trips, but for very good cakes and desserts you're looking in the right place... espresso cake, fudgy nut, pear and hazelnut, tunisian orange, mississippi mud pie... and did I mention ice cream...?

 

[No One]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Now there's an interesting conundrum, seeing as Teresa and Judge were my final two and the coin voted Judge.

I think in the interest of fairness then, I ought to now go with Teresa!

Sorry Judge (strange that I've apologized now to both finalists as well as picked both to win). At least there's a nice symmetry.

 

[Mouse]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

Heh. I wrote more than one story this month, got a second opinion, and actually spent more than five minutes on it, and I do the worst yet! Trying too hard = fail.

Anyhoo, I voted for Teresa in the tiebreaker. Both very good poems, fantastically written, but I don't really understand either of them. I've voted for The Judge previously, so Teresa it is!

 

[HareBrain]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

I just repeated my vote from the main contest -- so nice to have an easy decision, and not have to toss a coin and risk having someone shaking their fist at me in three months time.

And I thought it was time to conduct some statistical analysis of the performance of my four entries so far, to see if any trends emerge.

Average votes for stories ending in synonyms for underwear: 5.5

Average votes for stories not ending in synonyms for underwear: 1.0

Now, where's my thesaurus?

 

[Parson]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

I would just like to note that when this challenge began we had the instruction that prose and poetry would both be accepted, but prose was preferred. Now IF the Judge's wins we'll have had two poems win in three contests when they comprised (by memory) 5 out of 173 entries.

YO HO,
poetry is the way to go.

Anyway, good going Judge and Teresa

A Parson is loyal (if not a good author) and continues his voting for Teresa.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- July & August

The first contest I said prose was preferred to poetry because, given the length, I was afraid that only poets would enter and it would end up being a poetry contest, which was not my intention. But April and May convinced me that there were plenty of people who were willing to tackle the Challenge in prose, so I changed that part.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if after this we see a lot of poetry based on Classical mythology -- with references to underwear mysteriously worked in.