Writing Challenge Discussion -- FEBRUARY 2011

[Evelinn]

J riff, Talysia, mosaix, river33, gwynnever, nixie: Great stories, and for those I haven`t mentioned it doesn`t mean that they weren`t great too, I had to narrow it down. But in the end my vote whent to: Les moulins de mon core. This was a lot of fun, can`t wait till the next challange

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I'm voting for DustyZebra this time; a very touching story that captures both the dreamstate and the infuriating moments just after waking up when desperately trying to remember the dream. Bravo!

Thanks, Chel! Now I have twice as many votes as I've ever had before!

It's funny, the original idea was very different, and I thought of it after I had gone to bed and had to get up and make a note so that I would still remember the idea in the morning. I hadn't even made the connection, somehow, that I wrote down the idea from in bed and then the story ended up that way, until a friend read it and said something about keeping a notepad by the bed. Even then, it took quite a while before the light went on, and suddenly I said, "oh! You mean the guy in the story!"

Thanks to PM, mosaix and Brev for the mentions, as well!

Well, I got my lists sorted out, and I can still edit this post, so I'll just tack onto it.

I have my usual long short-list and shorter list -- at least it wasn't three levels this time! I'm not sure why it does that sometimes.

My lists consist of: Harebrain, Bookstop, Boneman, Brev, Ursa, Greenkidx, Precise Calibre, Chrispenycate, digs, mosaix, Reiver33, Teresa, Karn, J-Wo, TEIN, Moonbat, and HoopyFrood, and eventually I had to go with Harebrain for the win. A most excellent month, and congratulations to everyone for a job well done!

 

[J-WO]

Much thankings to whoever voted for me.

 

[HareBrain]

Thanks for the vote, TDZ, and Chel and Brev for the mentions.

I had a real job getting it down to a short-list this month. In the end I got down to several that kept my interest after several readings. In no particular order:

Boneman. Starts off as a good straight story, perhaps even threatening sentimentality, which is then brilliantly undermined as, with perfect comic timing, it moves into a truly groanworthy pun. I don't doubt the pun has been used before, but I doubt it's been used better.

TDZ. Very clever, thought-provoking story -- and in a three-act structure no less!

The Judge. Would have been an effective and moving poem even in blank verse, but the subtle rhyming pattern enhances it.

Chrispy. Stupidly, the first couple of times I read it, I translated the title but didn't think to apply the tune! Loved it even more once I realised.

J-WO. A great imaginative shift into an entirely different reality, with its own weird and disturbing beauty.

Procrastinator. Wonderful, as usual. A glimpse into a world that feels much bigger than the story itself.

For different reasons these all deserve a vote, and the fact that they are so different makes it impossible to arrive at a decision just by comparing one against the other. Without applying any real logic, my heart has gone with Procrastinator's.

 

[Mouse]

I voted Boneman. For the reasons HareBrain noted above. And the fact that it even made me smile on the second read too.

Don't have a shortlist really. Some very good ones this month, but a lot which gave me tumbleweed moments too. I don't know any popular songs or music, really, so anything with song lyrics in went right over my head.

I did really like Teresa's though, and I was choosing between hers and Boneman's.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Chrispy. Stupidly, the first couple of times I read it, I translated the title but didn't think to apply the tune! Loved it even more once I realised.

Wow, I hadn't realized that Chrispy's was actually a song (as opposed to the one that it appeared to be, that is) -- after tracking down the song, I have to say that's even more impressive than I thought!

And thanks for the kind words, HB!

 

[No One]

This was really hard - yada yada yada . But really, it was. Lots of triffic entries besides the ones shortlisted, and all the shortlisted ones were voteworthy:

The pit - Brev
Fate - Harebrain
Follow the Bluebirds - J Riff
The Song Is Life - Mosaix
From Death to Life — John Newton - Parson
Encore - Reiver33
Behind Blue Eyes - Stormfeather
iPod People - Hoopy
Mikhail's Divas - J-Wo
Fell top, July, 7.30 am. - Pyan
alt.history.de - Alchemist
Toughest Man in the Galaxy - Challah Rajni
Mothersong - Cul
Snow White She-Devil - Mouse

Some merciless hacking later, and there were six:

Les moulins de mon core - Chrispenycate
And The Band Plays On - Oxman
Musica Universalis - Precise Calibre
The angel and the demon (2.0) - Cornelius
AZARIAH - Teresa E
Freedom’s Air - The Judge

And my vote's just about gonna go to AZARIAH, which is another way of saying it topped other marvelous stories by being that little bit more marvelouser.

 

[mosaix]

Teresa also gets my vote this month.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Wow, thank you, both of you. With over half of the votes in and none of them for me, I was thinking it was going to be a no-votes-for-me month for sure ... and then suddenly there were two. That was a nice surprise.


****

OK, you slackers who haven't voted yet. Yes I mean you. (And ... er, I mean me, too. Must get around to it.) There are less than twenty-four hours left. Yes, less than a day. I'd say don't be fooled by the short month, but we did stick to the twenty-eighth, which will always be the day from now on, so no excuses. (Remember, somebody here, naming no names, managed to vote with a broken bone in her arm. While it was still swelling. Let that be an example to you.)

So here is my short list, and the long list was ... well, very long indeed. If you aren't on the short list, it's about even money you were on the long one and maybe just missed the short one. (And this includes some first-timers.)

Short list:

Mouse
HareBrain
Bookstop
GreenKidx
Precise Calibre
chrispenycate
reiver33
No One
Perpetual Man
The Judge
J-WO

Do I even know who I am going to vote for as yet? Not at all. Seven of those names have check marks beside them right now, which means they are on my even shorter list, but those marks keep moving around, so that the shorter list keeps changing, which is why I'm not posting it.

I may even end up voting for one of the stories that barely missed the short list, because I plan to read through everything again one last time before I cast my vote. That's how unsure I am. So many good stories.

 

[The Procrastinator]

Initial short list: 20 entries. Very, very hard to trim. Must force self to concentrate. (Some time later) There. That's the best, and harshest, job I can manage.
Standouts:
Chrispenycate - clever, whimsical, cute and always loved that tune.
mosaix - almost voted for this. Talk about setting up lines to read between.
Parson - so human. Very evocative. Makes it personal.
Hilarious Joke - ditto.
Moonbat - ditto again.
J-Wo - reminding us that music is not only a human attribute. Lest we forget.

The Judge - this is the one I voted for. Some music is timeless and eternal.


Congratulations to all posters on a fine effort, incredible quality. Exhausting job to winnow. Any incoherencies in this post are due to the flu (recovering just in time to vote!).

PS thanks for voting, whoever my two voters were! What a lovely surprise!
PPS if i had read this page properly before I would have seen that one of the perps was HareBrain. Thanks, HB!

 

[Parson]

My what a task voting was. Story after story the least among them at least average in my convoluted thinking. This of course is showing in the voting. At this point within a day of the end absolutely anyone could win. Even those of us without votes.

I'm not sure about my process. All of my short list came within a few posts of each other. (I'm sure it was a sun spot of brilliance.)

Short list:

Mosaix -- "The Song Is Life"
The End Is Nigh -- "Noise canceling Head phones With the Day."
No One -- "End of the Trial"
Perpetual Man -- "Perfection Building"
Storm Feather -- "Behind Blue Eyes"


Very Short list

The Dusty Zebra -- Songwriting on the Wall
Teresa Edgerton -- Azariah

In the end I went for a beautiful and insightful story. One that rings true to human nature which I will remember, Azariah by Teresa Edgerton.


-----

Procrastinator thanks for the kind words.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Well, I finally managed to get a vote in, after a week of being offline.


I voted for StormFeather after rereading and remembering that hers had been the one that was in the forerunning for me. And not just because of the title.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Thanks, Parson! It's an honor to be nominated next to TE!

I had that same sunspot of short-list myself -- I started wondering how long the list was going to end up, if I just kept writing down each one in line.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

OK, we all know it's been tough and something needs to be done because 75 is too easy if we are going to get this quality of story from so many people. Maybe we have to be more restrictive on the topics.

SONGS
but your Story must include the word
"Mushroom"
​

Kind of thing
​

My ultimate shortlist shortlist camme down to this bunch:-

HB:
Sloweye:
Boneman:
Allanon:
Perp:
StormFeather:
Moonbat:
Hoopy:
TJ:
J_WO:

They either rang a chord, made me think, or chuckle.

My vote went to Mouse for that last line.

 

[Allanon]

What is strange is that we had over 50 entries yet we have only 40 votes!!! and some were from people who haven't entered a story I believe. Come on people, there is still time, I won't who the front runners are because I wouldn't wish to sway any potential voters but it would be nice to get some more votes up. There were so many fantastic stories this month and I think most of them deserved votes. I hope the calibre and count continue to rise, but not the word count, which should remain 75. I like the idea of trying to fit a particular word in, but it shoulad have to read right.

You couldn't, for example, just be writing your text and mushroom add a word to hit the parameters of the challenge.

But you could be writing about the most amazing portobello mushrooms. The first real vegetable grown in a pod on denarin 7 after Earth had ceased to exist, making it believable that now we could seriously populate this barren planet, and they go well fried with garlic.

So kudos to the idea of adding a twist to the challenge. I'd use the idea but alas I fear I shall never cultivate another single vote, let alone win an entire month with the calibre of stories here. Well, back to the mushrooms.

And YOU! yeeeeesss you, back to the voting!!

 

[Boneman]

Well, I voted. Only took me three read-throughs of all the stories and I say, in complete seriousness, that there isn't a bad story in there - this thread is amazing.

Firstly: thank you for all the mentions and the two votes! It made my monday morning start really well.

Secondly: it was incredibly hard to leave anyone off the shortlist, but my list (Liszt?) went like this...

Mouse
Harebrain
Brev
Greenkidx
Chrispenycate
digs
Cornelius
Mosaix
Tein
Parson
Reiver 33
Teresa
Perpetual Man
HoopyFrood
The Judge
J-Wo
Alchemist

After re-reading a couple of times, my short shortlist was:

Mouse - brilliant last line, which I didn't see coming, but made the rest of the story perfect.

GreenKidx - this one was really touching, stayed with me a long time.

Teresa - Again, a brilliant last line, and a wonderful comment on a materialistic society... much like our own?

Perpetual Man - marvellous take on song and the singer, I can see this used in sermons!

J-Wo - About the most original of all the stories, and an almost frightening idea, which would seem to be too close to the truth.

Alchemist - made me laugh out when I first read it, and still makes me smile each time I re-read it. 'All in all it's just another brick in the wall' came to mind...

So this month I want six votes. But we only get one (boo!). And it went to Teresa.

 

[cornelius]

Thanks for the mentions, Perpetual man and Boneman. I voted a while back for Brev. I could try to explain but I can't, there were just so many good entries that my poor brain overheated. My "shortlist" was about 30 entries long, so I can only say: Good job to everyone, I'm really growing to love this thread, hope March will kick in soon after the announcement of the (no doubt well-deserved) winner.

 

[The Judge]

Still pondering my shortlists here and yelling at me ain't gonna make the pondering easier, y'know. Anyway, I work best under time pressure. OK, that's just an excuse. I'm procrastinating again...

And speaking of which -- many thanks for the vote, Procrastinator! I'd resigned myself to having none this month so your post was lovely to see. In fact I'd even resigned myself to having no honourable mentions and then in the space of 24 hours I get 4, which is very heartening. So thanks, also, HareBrain, No One, Teresa and TEiN.

EDIT: Boneman crept in ahead while I was procrastinating again, so thanks for the mention B!

 

[Boneman]

Actually, strictly speaking, you have until the 28th feruary to vote, and I believe that comes just after the 12th of never...

 

[Culhwch]

There were many, many good entries this month. My honourable mentions go to Taly and TJ, but my vote went with mosaix's simple yet moving distillation of an entire life, and in just seventy-five words (or less - I didn't stop to count them...).