Discussing the Writing Challenges -- November and December 2010

[StormFeather]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I rarely get the hidden meanings - but appreciate seemingly blank areas of text which I hope will give me a clue (btw Ursa - to me it all looks the same colour )

The only thing about my story is that I tried to work in some references - not particularly hidden though as the first line clearly alludes to two of them.

Thank you PC for making my brain hurt less!

 

[Parson]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Large gaps hint at hidden text (I checked too) and perhaps people who want to be enigmatic, or at least bear-den-some.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Parson:

Look this is getting serious.

If we're going to start using big words like "enigmatic" etc. then it's not the hidden message that we need to worry about.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I'd just like to remind all of you that when the voting starts this month, it will be my birthday (at least here where I live), and early in the evening, which is a very good time for a party and presents.

Not, of course, that I would want that to influence any of you. Not at all. No, no, no. I just wanted to mention it in passing. In case, you know, it was of any interest to anyone.

But I would like to remind those of you who hold on to your stories until practically the last minute ... there are less than six days left to post your stories.









On my birthday.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Oh, that reminds me, TE-I won't be able to vote this month at all. On Thursday-or Friday, I don't know which yet-I'm going to be camping for a week.


Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if that will affect my being able to vote or not. Chances are I won't be able to, though....

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Voting ends on the 29th this month, a Sunday. We have that extra day, because August has 31 days. (If we're still going in February, there will be a slight problem, but best to cross that bridge when we come to it.) So don't worry, Karn, you can still vote. I'm glad to hear that you are feeling well enough to go camping.

Hey, I had an idea a little while ago! We could start footnoting our stories in hidden text for those who don't want spoilers: cultural references, clues, translations of technical terms or foreign words, etc.

Or put them in the titles:

"A meditation on Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum as depicted in popular media."

"Reflections on the circumstances leading up to the Trojan War, as described in Homer's Illiad — together with some brief thoughts on the transmigration of deific entities into animal bodies, and an examination of lust as exemplified by the gods of Olympus."

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Um....


Let's keep it as is, shall we? It's complicated enough as it is. And I don't go through any cultural reference for my stories anyway, hehehe. I don't like to write anything that has anything to do with the real world at any point in its history.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

So would we have a 75-word limit on the footnotes as well? That last one is getting up there....

And should that be a 75-word limit on total footnotes, or on each one individually? Because it might be necessary to note more than one cultural reference, as well as a number of clues, and that's not even getting into the translations or commentary on foreign words.

It should definitely be footnoted if one has a birthday during the voting period, just in case that should be of interest to anyone.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I'm with Karn I'm afraid. If the story doesn't stand up without being explained then the explanation should be in the story. Otherwise they'll be a danger of :-

TIME​

And then it ended.​

It should be pointed out that time as a physical force doesn't exist although all the known forces from atomic particle cohesion to gravitation, electromagnetism etc. rely on time for their existence. For without time nothing would actually exist in the sense that without the ability to discern a difference at whatever level their could be no way of distinguishing this from that: let alone have an observer capable of observing the difference.

There are even those who are considered authorities on the subject, that argue that without time, birthdays would have little chance of being celebrated.​

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I don't understand.

Please note: we already have a thread about feet: http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/527995-what-shape-are-your-feet-serious-question.html.

 

[Challah Rajni]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Resident lurker and writing challenge newbie, Challah Rajni, here.

I've added my short. After reading most of the entries, I feel small indeed. I have no idea how any of can fit stories into so few words. They read like full stories. I had to cut mine down from over 600 words

I tried to make sense of this thread and will continue doing so until judging ends. But so far, I've stopped about ten pages in because that was the point where someone played hero and tried to get the thread back on track again, and also because I was reading backwards. I returned to the end of the thread and now find that someone has recommended a thread about feet.

If I could tell this experience in seventy-five words, I might have a better entry than the one I just posted.

Question: Does [***] count as a word when used to divide sections? MS Word seems to believe so. I disagree...

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Word's word count function counts them, but its grammar checker doesn't. Both ignore M-dashes, which is why I used them to separate the three scenes.



(I'm not recommending that thread about feet, just suggesting - without putting my foot down or boot in, or giving anyone a tongue-lashing** - that with the sole exception of the title, the upper limit of 75 words should apply to the whole post.)



** - Because I'm no heel.

 

[chopper]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Hey, I had an idea a little while ago! We could start footnoting our stories in hidden text for those who don't want spoilers: cultural references, clues, translations of technical terms or foreign words, etc.

but most yogurts have more culture than my stories....

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Cultured feet put in in mind of... er... "athleticism".



Eeewwww.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I'm glad you decided to join in Challah Rajni.

Whatever Word does, the moderators here are not going to count asterisks as words (unless somebody uses asterisks for dialogue, which I suppose someone might try to do, just to be a smart a— to be clever), so you need have no fear.

As for starting out with hundreds of words and facing the daunting task of cutting them down, that's a pretty common experience for the first time. But we've all been learning as we go along.

 

[The Judge]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Hello, Challah. It's good to see another new face in the Challenge (we must be aiming at some kind of record for newbie entrants this month -- oldies where have you gone??). A very beautiful story, too, even if it was cut down to nearly one-tenth of the original. I didn't understand it, but that's par for the course for this challenge it seems!

Yes, Word does count *** as a word -- and in fact if you'd spaced them as * * * it would have counted them as three -- but fortunately we run on finger power here, refusing to submit to the diktats of mindless machinery, and since the asterisks were obviously scene changes you're fine.

I wouldn't try to make sense of the discussion thread if I were you -- frankly sense and this place do not cohabit easily and there are only a very, very few of us who can be guaranteed to give intelligent and intelligible responses. Sic transit gloria mundi and all that. As for that Ursa, he's always talking a load of cobblers, but we have to hope that it doesn't last...




PS Teresa sneaked in first to reassure you -- I was delayed in having to retype this when the blasted connection when down just as I posted. Grrrr.

 

[Boneman]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I wouldn't try to make sense of the discussion thread if I were you -- frankly sense and this place do not cohabit easily and there are only a very, very few of us who can be guaranteed to give intelligent and intelligible responses. Sic transit gloria mundi and all that. As for that Ursa, he's always talking a load of cobblers, but we have to hope that it doesn't last...
QUOTE]

I resent that remark! Frankincense and this place go together extremely well... So Gloria's been sick in the back of the Van two days ago - what's new?

 

[The Judge]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Frankincense and this place go together extremely well...

Especially when we're being myrrh-thful, presumably...


PS Challah -- you see what I mean?

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Well, there's also the fact that the program that Chronicles uses censors naughty words with asterisks, so I think that would also go towards a word count.


Or if used too often, result in an automatic disqualification for the story? I know it not, for I be not a moderator. One would have to ask Culhwch or the glorious fantasy author Mrs. Edgerton about the deal. I only supply my end of the stick.


Which works out for the best, really. The only time I've ever been in a position of authority in any kind of forum, the place died. I wonder if there's a connection....?

 

[Mouse]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Weird. I'm actually understanding Ursa's puns today.