Discussing the Writing Challenges -- November and December 2010

[No One]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Hmm, I realise that mine may not seem like SFF unless people actually know what it's all about (may have messed up this month...damn my enthusiasm in trying to get my oh-so-clever thing in).

Anyway, the reference is to a very famous Shakespeare speech, the one that pretty much everyone knows the first line to (although it's the bit towards the end I was more concerned with). Aging may well play a part.

My hidden thing is kinda anti-The-Judge-Technique from the...er...transformation month, I think.

Two tendencies that I feel pretty sure exists in most, if not all, writers - professional or aspiring - are 1) to often look down on their own work and 2) to think something is blatantly obvious when it's anything but.

I'd have never figured out your hidden points Hoops, but for you pointing them out to me. That said, there's still room for ambiguity in there, which only makes it more difficult, at least in this case.

Or, you know, maybe that's just me.

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

...I can't quite tell the subtleties this late at night, especially not the ones that people seem to be weaving into a meagre 75 words these days...

Perhaps you should think of a 75-word story full of "subtleties" as a short program that makes numerous calls (allusions) to preexisting common routines (relatively well-known references).



Now if only I could manage to write one of these programs full of calls....

* Takes off Mouse suit. *

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Ursa:

Perhaps you should think of a 75-word story full of "subtleties" as a short program that makes numerous calls (allusions) to preexisting common routines (relatively well-known references).

Inadvertently you have raised an issue and I think it needs addressing.

Numbers - Are they words and do they count as as individuals or as a whole

127 could be seen as three words especially if the meaning of the words had a specific reference, as in 911, where the digits are pronounce individually and should technically be written 9,11, or even 9,1,1 but really as nine eleven (and we'll have none of that highfalutin hyphenation here neither)

How would "those that count" look upon such controversy.

It is, after all, minor issues such as this over which wars have been fought and I think it should at least be discussed in preparation for the time, soon to come, when all stories are reviewed by the ultimate critic.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Until that great critic in the sky does intervene (perhaps with claps of thunder and rumblings beneath the earth) that question has already been addressed.

Anything that might reasonably be joined together with spaces at either end and no spaces intervening counts as one word. This rule will be reviewed only if people start abusing it.

If someone were to slip in an extra ten words, for instance, by the simple ploy of hyphenating nine of them, then moderators would have to hand down a judgement, and I can promise that judgement would not be a favorable one.

 

[Boneman]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

'Kay, I will remove all doubt... am I the only one who reads the stories at a - dare I say? - superficial level? I never look for hidden meanings, and have to go back later if someone tells me there is one...

For me it's the 'simple' pleasure of a good story, a surprise ending, a chuckle, whatever.

P'raps a second vote for the best hidden meaning...?

Favourites this month? Do me a favour, there are too many to choose from!! I need more votes.

 

[Mouse]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Perhaps you should think of a 75-word story full of "subtleties" as a short program that makes numerous calls (allusions) to preexisting common routines (relatively well-known references).



Now if only I could manage to write one of these programs full of calls....

* Takes off Mouse suit. *

*nods wisely. Strokes chin*

'Kay, I will remove all doubt... am I the only one who reads the stories at a - dare I say? - superficial level? I never look for hidden meanings, and have to go back later if someone tells me there is one...

For me it's the 'simple' pleasure of a good story, a surprise ending, a chuckle, whatever.

Nope. I'm entirely superficial.

 

[nixie]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Snap, I never look for hidden messages

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Notwithstanding the aforementioned topic of interest I also am a what you see is what you read type.

I find it hard enough to get the story on topic without dreaming up another, hidden meaning, insofar as the limited time available to ]us heretofore.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I'm one who looks for hidden things, for several reasons. First, I just like puzzles and tend to suspect their existence in odd word combinations or unusual sequences, so if something feels "off" to me, I look for what's hiding. Second, if I can't understand the surface story (which happens frequently), I keep looking to see if I'm missing something that would make it more understandable. And last, I sometimes hide things and figure other people do, too!

For the record, I didn't hide anything this month.

I haven't found anything that anyone else claims to have hidden, either...except for PC's, which I didn't have to search for, so I'm not sure if that counts as being hidden or not.

 

[The Procrastinator]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Also a superficial reader.

 

[Vertigo]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Another superficial reader - don't think I smart enough to do otherwise. Also I find looking for stuff like that kind of spoils my enjoyment of reading, though I guess for these short 75 worders that's no so much of an issue.

 

[Moonbat]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I don't think I've ever seen a hidden message, I didn't even get Mouse's camouflage, even when the hints were slapping me in the face.
And due to my lack of literary education I'm totally lost when it comes to the classics. I had no idea what Judge's Swan poem was about (Zeus indeed!), let alone the shakespearian references.
I did get the nursery rhymes though.

 

[Precise Calibre]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I'll just put a nail in my story's coffin since people seem to be thinking I'm more ingenius than I, in fact, am. It's not particularly clever, so I don't know if people are reading too much into it after getting the initial idea, maybe because I've made it seem like it's more than it is.

So if you've thought of the below phrase, you can stop further deliberation.



"Killing Time"

 

[TheDustyZebra]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

So is it better to remain silent and be thought ingenious, or to open your mouth and remove all doubt?

I think yours is quite clever! I thought of doing something with killing time, but I wouldn't have come up with anything like that.

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Best to be enigmatic...









...if you know what I mean.

 

[HareBrain]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Best to be enigmatic...









...if you know what I mean.

Is it just me that now checks for hidden text whenever there are large gaps like this?

(Especially when I don't understand the non-hidden text.)

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Some things are better hidden than others.

(And that's what I meant. )

 

[Deathfrommassive]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

*Raise hand*

I checked for a hidden message

 

[Vertigo]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Is it just me that now checks for hidden text whenever there are large gaps like this?

(Especially when I don't understand the non-hidden text.)

Me too and then felt a complete fool.

It's all your fault Ursa!

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

You can generally tell when there's some hidden text, as none of the available colours (particularly the one the [ spoiler][/ spoiler] uses) are the same as the background colour.

At least, that's how I see it.