Re: Discussion thread -- Three Hundred Word Writing Challenge #3
Glen - there is a strong feeling of loss and reflection in this piece, almost a study of what it means to live and die in a single individual, walking through a graveyard stumbling upon a statue that really makes him stop and think. It really catches stillness of a graveyard, the feelings of a lost soul. To begin with I could not really see how this is in keeping with the genre. But upon second reading and as I got further through the story I began to feel the weight upon the protagonists shoulders and probably picked up on things I missed the first time through. This is not just a man who is struggling with the loss of a loved one. This is a man who is struggling with being the only one left alive when everyone else is gone and the whole world has become a graveyard.
Rain - another really wonderful emotive piece, and it really seems to be a true talent and pulling on the emotions in the writings this time round, a really good choice of photo obviously. There is another feeling of loss in its attempt, I don't know why but in reading I felt like the character who waited was a child, but the story itself lends itself to being a wife gone, probably before her time. The moment when the ghost cleans the grave and finds her own name, I presume, is incredibly well done presented fantastically. There is almost something comforting in the thought that when the realisation comes there is someone or something waiting to take the lost soul to a better place.
phoenixthewriter - completely out of the blue came the story, compared to what has gone before something totally different, a full-blown action adventure filled with all the special effects you'd expect to see a massive blockbuster movie. The story doesn't suffer because of it, so far in this tales it is unique really making it stand out. It reminded me in many ways of some of the old arcade games, two larger-than-life superpowered being doing their best to kick the living daylights out of each other. But the real punch comes at the end of the story when we realise that it is in fact a hollow victory, the damage has already been done. As good as the action is the transformation into stone is even better, a solid and a strong story.
The Spurring Platty - and here we go: the story. The world is being invaded and his take on the form of spiders. It's just as well they don't really know how the spiders work or we could be in real trouble, although by the end of the story it looks like we might be anyway. I was rather grateful they only went into common spiders – it could have been a lot worse and they got into something really dangerous like a black widow. That being said and putting aside my own arachnophobia, I thought it was a great welcome constructed, and in places humorous tale it certainly made me smile throughout. Apart from the spider bit anyway. There are plenty of spiders out and about in my garden at the moment and I shall be doing my best to study them and make sure they are not studying me.
Aun Doorback - there was a feel almost of history mixed with legend in this wonderful attempt. Something so valuable is worth the lives of those who do their best to save it. Carry it across the world despite great injury, to bring it to somewhere safe. They can hopefully wait until it is needed again. What really makes the story work in this case, is the amount of detail that is squeezed into the 300 words giving it a feel of reality, and depth that I would not have expected to see such a detailed little piece.
PM - oh my! Even though I guess what was going to happen before the end of the story of so much in it to sell it that it did not really matter. The story itself was a solid, strong and humorous one, the whole idea of predatory dating was put together so well that it should have grated when took a turn into the fantastical. The fact that it didn't just flows so nicely is really a great credit to the writer. Throughout there is some wonderful wordplay, and the ending is satisfying to say the least. I'm not sure that the main character got what he deserved, but somehow it seemed rather poetic.
southron sword - what a wonderful little piece this turned out to be. It is often easy to look back into the past and see things in a golden light, an idealised version of how the past must be so much better. That is what seems to be at the heart of the story, in a future where everything has been turned on its head in shame that the reality of their now is so bad the only thing they have to fight for are stories of yesteryear, for the hope to liberate and regain all that has been lost. Of course they're looking back at the past through rose tinted spectacles and the idealised, the paradise that they want it to been nothing more than a fantasy brought into being by the passage of time and the need for something better than that now.
