Discussion -- June 2011 Challenge

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Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Exactly.

Stick a couple of 'E as

and 'E hasn't and your sorted:)
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Boneman said:
Oh, come on... you're half-way there: the theme's Nourishment!!
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It seems my subconscious is bleeding with the effort...:)

Gary Compton said:
Exactly.

Stick a couple of 'E as

and 'E hasn't and your sorted:)
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I was in my local library today searching for some Kipling to plagiar##.. ahem, I mean use as inspiration, and came away with the Jungle Book, "t'was all they 'ad."
So at least this challenge has meant my kids'll get a good bedtime story.
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Boneman said:
The simplest answer is to keep all discussion/clarification of the entry in the discussion thread.
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I agree with Gary and Boneman.

I have to comment on TJ's post however. When TJ says 'we were happy to accept' that isn't necessarily true. Perhaps there were some of us who didn't comment for fear of being thought of as trouble makers. :(

The fact we are discussing this means that the rules aren't entirely clear and Boneman's suggestion is a good one, although 'clarification' does go against the grain with me.
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

paranoid marvin said:
It's a good job Robert Louis Stevenson isn't alive to enter the Challenge.
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Or Charles Duff: especially his useful volume:

A Handbook on Hanging, Being a short introduction to the fine art of Execution, and containing much useful information on Neck-breaking, Throttling, Strangling, Asphyxiation, Decapitation and electrocution; as well as Data and Wrinkles for Hangmen, an account of the late Mr. Berry’s method of Killing and his working list of Drops; to which is added a Hangman’s Ready Reckoner and certain other items of interest, New edition enlarged diligently compared and revised in accordance with the most recent Developments. All Very Proper to be read and Kept in Every Family.

About 15 words over, I reckon...
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

pyan said:
All Very Proper to be read and Kept in Every Family.
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As part of a very early attempt to rope people into implementing what was then seen as an important aspect of the Big Society, perhaps?




* Expects that the proposal would have been dropped when the reaction of swing voters was taken into account. *
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

mosaix said:
I have to comment on TJ's post however. When TJ says 'we were happy to accept' that isn't necessarily true. Perhaps there were some of us who didn't comment for fear of being thought of as trouble makers.
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I believe by "we" TJ meant those who make the rules, moderate, and arbitrate the Challenge. In which case, it was certainly true.

Although we are open to suggestions and will consider making changes if there is enough support behind them.
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

It's a shame that all the interest has been in TJ's addendum , as the entry itself was very good.

Mosaix definately has my vote at the moment; even Kipling didn't think of that one. Very well done indeed.
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Agreed with Ursa's statement regarding titles. I don't think they have any bearing on any of our final decisions (although I'm sure that if anyone was trying to shoehorn extra information into the title that most of us would count that against the story).

Also agreed with PM - I've only read a handful of the entries so far but I'm loving the piece by Mosaix. I should stress though, that I haven't a clue as to what constitutes "in the style of Kipling" and I like the story just for what it is and not it's, er...Kiplingicity.

All of which leaves me in the same boat as several others, with no idea how to proceed beyond a basic idea (throwing in a few 'E's and archaisms just doesn't seem to qualify as a style and, alas, I know next to nowt of Mr. Kipling's work).

I'll try to hash something out, if only to keep my attendence record intact :)
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Only a comparatively small number of Kipling's verses were written in a cockney dialect, so that is by no means a requirement. And in addition to the verses, he also wrote plenty of prose, and not all using the same style.

Fortunately for Kipling, he was under no obligation to write like Kipling, and he was able to suit his style to the material. So, as Chris said in the beginning, there are many different styles to choose from in writing our stories. Some of his stories contain archaisms, yes, and the Just So Stories are meant to sound a bit childish, for which reason (I suppose) those who read them as children have fond memories of them. But there is a wide range of styles in his verses, as befits a man who was born around the middle of the 19th century and lived a fair bit into the 20th.
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

paranoid marvin said:
It's a shame that all the interest has been in TJ's addendum , as the entry itself was very good.

Mosaix definately has my vote at the moment; even Kipling didn't think of that one. Very well done indeed.
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Many thanks PM and No One.

Following on from Ursa's post about not considering the title I agree with him.

Several times it has been said, and rightly, that people's views will be expressed by how they vote. But we only ever see the vote and sometimes the reason for voting. Very, very rarely do we see the reason why people didn't vote for a story - why it came second or third.

For what it's worth I judge as follows:

1) Is it 75 words or less and a complete story in its own right?
2) The quality of the piece itself and how it appeals to me.
3) Its pertinence to the theme and genre.

After that I am often left with 4 or 5 top quality stories from which I have to choose a winner and this is so difficult that I make no apologies for taking into account spelling, punctuation and formatting of the piece.
 
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Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

For what its worth when I vote I follow, more or less, this set of criteria.

1: Does it follow the theme and genre or what I think the theme and genre pertains too.
2: Does it "resonate" with me. Sorry but no matter how well written or executed if it doesn't grab me and stick I can't vote for it.
3: There is no 3. I do not consider grammar or spelling unless its glaringly obvious. My reason for this is to quote one of my professors, "That's the editors job.", so while its nice to read it while polished its not critical to me. :)

Oh and I still can't seem to get a poem out. I may have to drop the poem idea and go for prose instead. :(
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

MstrTal said:
3: There is no 3. I do not consider grammar or spelling unless its glaringly obvious. My reason for this is to quote one of my professors, "That's the editors job.", so while its nice to read it while polished its not critical to me. :)
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Not that I'm trying to dispute your criteria, MstrTal, but surely what we submit to the challenge is a finished product - just as a novel we submit to an agent or publisher, or a short story that we submit to a magazine or competition, should be a finished product. We should each be author and editor, then, of our submission, and it should be as polished and error free as possible. That's my belief, anyway.

I think it's a bad habit to relegate the polishing to a nameless and possibly non-existant editor somewhere down the track. If we're serious about writing, we should be able to that kind of stuff ourselves. Especially over as little as seventy-five words.

Of course I'm sure some of our entrants are only partaking as a bit of fun, and have no desire to build a career as a writer, but still - there's no reason not to learn something new everyday!
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

Ignoring the grammar is OK as long as it wouldn't require extra words to make the grammar right.

Given my appalling lack of grammatical knowledge I find it heartening that MstrTal takes that view though.

Culhwch: A bit of Fun!!!!! Are you mad?

There are gambling syndicates in the sub continent that wager millions on the outcome of the monthly challenge. Spread betting on the outcome is rife.

Some people are even including the result in their 'disassociated betting'. Where they include things like the winner of the Boat Race, the Cup Final and the writing challenge, all in one bet. The odds are phenomenal.

Some have suggested the order of the entrants could become a new source of betting mania.

Karn: First post - 9-1 on (bet £9 pounds and win just £1, if you are right)

Etc.

The position of PM's first run down of the runners

2nd - 50 to 1
..
..
20th - Evens
21st - 6 to 5
22nd - 7 to 2
..

..

Last 40 to 1.


Culhwch has the last post - 9 to 1 on, again.

Culhwch, a none runner - 9 to 10.
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

You sometimes suggest that you may not have time to write an entry.

No offence intended :eek:
 
Re: DISCUSSION the 75 Word Challenge JUNE 2011

I usually have plenty of time to write an entry, it's inclination and inspiration that I run short on...
 
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