Discussing the Writing Challenges -- November and December 2010

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re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Although I am sure, captive audience or not, that Parson's sermons are always brilliant.

At least, the only one of his that I've read was, and until I know otherwise I will stick with that opinion.

But as for our stories, here, I know I'm not the only one who has wished, one month or the other, that it was possible to take a story back after it's posted and add or change just a few little words. Just one or two or three. Maybe our friends who tend to post later in the month have the right idea.

And while I haven't, so far, worried at the time that I might have posted the wrong story, I've come close. In retrospect, I have wondered, though.
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Teresa Edgerton said:
But as for our stories, here, I know I'm not the only one who has wished, one month or the other, that it was possible to take a story back after it's posted and add or change just a few little words. Just one or two or three. Maybe our friends who tend to post later in the month have the right idea.

And while I haven't, so far, worried at the time that I might have posted the wrong story, I've come close. In retrospect, I have wondered, though.
Click to expand...

Ah but isn't that the gamble; wait and see if you can improve it or risk someone else coming up with the same idea and posting before you :rolleyes:
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Vertigo said:
Ah but isn't that the gamble; wait and see if you can improve it or risk someone else coming up with the same idea and posting before you :rolleyes:
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Yes, it's always a gamble. In fact, people have posted stories based on similar ideas to mine, just before I was about to post my entry, three times.
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Karn Maeshalanadae said:
Perhaps true enough, but it does not work very well with the general population.....
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The people in the pews in my church on Sunday morning look a lot like the "general population." In fact I would wager that if anything they might well be more discerning of what is good and what is bad because they have experienced so much of both.

Dusty Zebra said:
Plus, Parson, you have the advantage of a captive audience! Well, not to say that they couldn't get up and leave if it really stunk, but they aren't terribly likely to, and anyway they all show up with no regard for whether you had a good idea or not. :D

(And I dare say most all of them will still tell you "good sermon" either way...not that I'm trying to keep you awake nights wondering.)
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Surely many of the people come out of habit or other compulsion. But I can tell you that most of the people feel that they have a choice every Sunday. I know for sure that they find it very easy to decide to spend Sunday camping, or at the lake, or recovering from Saturday night instead of joining in worship.

I have been at the same parish for 18 years now and I can tell you that for me I get a "Good Sermon" from less than 1 in 20 people who shake my hand, regardless if I "hit it out of the ball park" or "stunk it up." ---- Unless I preach in another church as I did a few weeks back and then the number was about 1 in 8. One over exuberant man said "If we didn't have a pastor right now I'd call you right now!"

Familiarity might not breed contempt, but it surely breeds indifference.


Teresa Edgerton said:
Although I am sure, captive audience or not, that Parson's sermons are always brilliant.

At least, the only one of his that I've read was, and until I know otherwise I will stick with that opinion.
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Thank you for your kind words. I only wish I felt they were true.
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Not indifference, Parson. You set the bar too high for yourself, evidently. After all, if one is used to cordon bleu cooking, it takes something really superlative to elicit compliments! What you should do is swap parishes with the other pastor for a couple of months -- that way your parishioners will realise what they have been taking for granted.

I'm coming a little late to the Mouse's Story Appreciation Society -- but yes, it's a wonderful creation, Mouse, especially as the site rips out formatting so I can't work out how you did the tail! I'm sure I've seen poems in the form of a cross (a literal chiasmus) and other fairly standard shapes, but nothing as inventive as this.
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

you
get a
very chubby
mouse with only
seventy five words.
Hardly sleek, wee,
maybe timorous
and I , poor copier,
can't even manage ears, or paws.
Bilateral symmetry
makes the starfish
a difficult problem
but, with some working out
an idea crystalises to
appreciate the basic long
and tragic
tale
of
a
c
l
e
v
e
r
p
o
y

​
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Ah, yes. Not as easy to spot stacked vertically. But I was merely trying to duplicate the effect, anyway. And, as I remember the Caroll original (not all that well, Alice is far in my past) I should have used rhyming couplets -- Hmm, not throughout. "Fury said to a Mouse that he met in the house "Let us both go to law, I will prosecute you..."

And even copying I haven't managed a tail as wiggly as on the preview post.
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Oh Lord, Mouse - you might have started a new fashion :D.

Excellent idea and story by the way.
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

The Judge said:
I'm coming a little late to the Mouse's Story Appreciation Society -- but yes, it's a wonderful creation, Mouse, especially as the site rips out formatting so I can't work out how you did the tail! I'm sure I've seen poems in the form of a cross (a literal chiasmus) and other fairly standard shapes, but nothing as inventive as this.
Click to expand...

Ta! Ah... I'm not going to reveal how I formatted it. Tis a secret! :D

chrispenycate said:
you
get a
very chubby
mouse with only
seventy five words.
Hardly sleek, wee,
maybe timorous
and I , poor copier,
can't even manage ears, or paws.
Bilateral symmetry
makes the starfish
a difficult problem
but, with some working out
an idea crystalises to
appreciate the basic long
and tragic
tale
of
a
c
l
e
v
e
r
p
o
y

​
Click to expand...

That's so awesome it looks like it's been run over!

Vertigo said:
Oh Lord, Mouse - you might have started a new fashion :D.

Excellent idea and story by the way.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yeah, next month stories must be in the shape of your username... :p


I still reckon I'm on for no points this month though, people'll get sick of it before voting!
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Teresa Edgerton said:
Yes, it's always a gamble. In fact, people have posted stories based on similar ideas to mine, just before I was about to post my entry, three times.
Click to expand...

I bet you dropped your good writer's English at that point and degenerated into Anglo Saxon briefly :D
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Mouse said:
Ta! Ah... I'm not going to reveal how I formatted it. Tis a secret! :D
Click to expand...
Something thike this, I guess:



V
|
an
asp
coils
around
hands
feet
.and
...other
.......places
..........where
...............it can
..................trying
................to get
.............a grip
.........on its
....prey, a
mouse
perhaps..
though....
anything......
scrumptious........
would do for...........
the asp, which............
is able to capture..........
creatures far, far........
larger than itself.....
as its stomach is..
able to distend
..and its jaws to
....widen enough
.....to swallow
.......anything
........to pass
........through
.........and be
........eaten
......whole
.....and in
....one
...gu
...l
....p
.....!​


(The choice of meal was based entirely on word length. ;):) As was the choice of asp, which may or may behave as suggested. :eek: )​
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Alright, alright, don't make it look too easy! :p
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Well, slither my timbers... I know this is Aspiring Writers, but this is ridiculous... :rolleyes: :D
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Missed your comments, Ursa! Yes, exactly like that! I have been outfoxed.
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Ahh, Ursa, your asp had room for a snack or dessert in there as well as the randomly chosen mouse!

I'm dreading Mouse's win this month, as I can't imagine how I'm going to make a zebra-shaped story in 75 words.

Sorry, Parson, I was not at all trying to imply that you would write a sermon that stunk--as Teresa says, based on what I've seen here, I'm sure that they are no less than brilliant. I was just yanking your chain. I think Judge is right, you should probably trade churches so they'll come to appreciate you at home! :)
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Well, we're at 38 stories so far, a trifle behind where we were the last couple of months, so it doesn't look as if we'll beat July's record number of entries. But there's still Ursa, HJ, Sephiroth, Leisha and Culhwch to come, so we should get to the magic 42.

I don't know about anyone else, but the field is wide open at the moment as far as I'm concerned, with no one being a front runner.

And, ahem, speaking of concerned, it occurs to me that in my ignorance I may be marking some people down as being not SFF because the stories are too clever and I'm missing the point. So I'll apologise now to all of you who will perforce be so tragically eliminated from my short list. But, you know, if you want to tip me off as to what your stories are about...
 
re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

so, there's a benefit in not being too abstruse, obtuse, or just plain subtle?

:D
 
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