DISCUSSION -- July 2014 300-word Writing Challenge (#14)

[alchemist]

Big congratulations to TJ on a hard fought and deserved win!

I'm on my phone and data roaming, so can't elucidate which of my voters I've thanked and not thanked, so thank you all! They were very much appreciated, as were the mentions/shortlistings.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Congrats, TJ! Loved the story! And well done to everyone this month, that was fun!

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Congratulations to The Judge. Loved that story, but there were so many good entries.

 

[Abernovo]

Congratulations, TJ! A well-deserved win.

As Kerry says, so many good entries.

 

[ratsy]

Congrats TJ, and close call Teresa, alc and springs...all valiant efforts

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Heh, I fell back early and enjoyed cheering everyone on!

 

[ratsy]

Well, 8 votes is pretty pretty good...ooh and mosaic too..with nine. Well done gang.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I was delighted. And astonished. Mostly delighted. I didn't expect anything like that.

 

[Bowler1]

Well done Judge.

 

[Rafellin]

Congrats to TJ; thankee kindly TDZ for the mention - good to see my words doing their thing (for once)

 

[Perpetual Man]

Thanks for any mentions I might have received (I know there was one or two) and I do believe one of them was from TJ, so I can thank her and congratulate her at the same time!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

If I haven't thanked everyone individually for the votes and mentions (and I think I lost track there at the end) thank you very much indeed.

Since I am going through a period where I feel very insecure about my writing, it was reassuring that so many people liked my story.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

With the exception of TDZ's very unique (and very cool) post, I believe I pulled an oh-fer this month. No mentions, no votes. Perhaps I should have made it more clear that the spiel was intended to be from the messenger of a sentient race of machines which had initially been created by man sometime in the far future, who have come to the conclusion that the universe is better off without their creators. Perhaps I should stick to writing a more traditional story, as opposed to 300 words of some person/entity/thing ranting and raving. Perhaps I need to stop bringing up God/religion/faith. Have a few months til the next 300 to think about it, anyways.

Ah, well. Live and learn.

I thought yours was quite interesting, actually. I wouldn't worry too much about the oh-fer; I've had those, myself! Some things work better than others, and usually the things we think are going to work the best are the ones that bomb completely.

I believe I owe thanks to johnnyjet and Ursa for the shortlisting and the runner-up, respectively. Thanks!

 

[nixie]

Congratulations TJ

 

[The Judge]

Thanks again, folks!


On Friday night I was going to add my twopennyworth to the how-did-you-get-to-that-story? that was going the rounds, but my then post was quite long enough, and then yesterday morning I didn't have time, and in the afternoon/evening I got tied up in the stats for the Challenges I'd spent all day Friday working on.

For me, the story-birth was quite convoluted. I'd come up with no feasible ideas, so asked the Judicial Helpmeet what he thought, and he said the blue-green glow was the entrance to the underworld, but that didn't take me very far. I was sitting working in the garden at the time, and the idea of hounds popped into my mind, probably because the dogs at the farm down the road were barking (as usual...). That reminded me of a piece in Critiques by ventanamist from years back where dogs were chasing a frilly-flouncy-dressed woman through a forest, and she had to jump to safety through a portal she somehow made. So I started writing a chase, with the hounds hunting someone who would escape through the green glow, but obviously I needed to differentiate my story from ventanamist's, and I needed an proper ending. Since I do so love trying to blind-side my readers with twists-in-the-tail, I eventually came up with the hounds and their masters being the good guys, not the evil ones.

With the exception of TDZ's very unique (and very cool) post, I believe I pulled an oh-fer this month. No mentions, no votes. Perhaps I should have made it more clear that the spiel was intended to be from the messenger of a sentient race of machines which had initially been created by man sometime in the far future, who have come to the conclusion that the universe is better off without their creators. Perhaps I should stick to writing a more traditional story, as opposed to 300 words of some person/entity/thing ranting and raving.

As TDZ says, sometimes it happens that no one gets the story you post -- I certainly didn't understand the narrator was a man-made machine, which does explain certain aspects which confused me. It might help if you put the piece up in our Improving... thread and see what feedback you get to it.

 

[Starbeast]

Congratulations The Judge​

And a big "WELL DONE" to everyone!

I popped in from my busy project of home repairs to applaud everyone who entered this month.

The new look of the site startled me a bit with it's bright white look. I thought at first something was wrong with the upload.

 

[mosaix]

Congratulations to The Judge and commiserations to Alc.

Many thanks for the votes, Victoria, Springs, Martin, Alc, Bowler and UM. I know I should thank three more people but the new forum format doesn't show me who they are.

Thanks for the mentions / short lists to Telford, Farntfar, Ratsy, Phyrebrat, Boneman, Abernovo and TJ.

 

[The Judge]

mosaix -- just to check re the votes (and in case anyone else has problems). Have you tried hovering over the no of votes? Not the line, but the actual wording (for you ) "9 vote(s)". It should result in a line appearing underneath the words, then you should be able to click on that and see who voted for you.

I say "should" because I'm aware there were problems with the test site -- I ended up able to see the results of 2 polls in the Staff Room, but not in a third -- so if there are continuing problems we need to tell Brian.

Anyway, in case you can't see, the votes for you came from: Ursa, Starbeast, alchemist, springs, Bowler, martin321, BigJ, Victoria, and Kerrybuchanan. (And it looks like it shows them in the order of voting, not alphabetically now, so that will help people with thanks in future!**)


EDIT: ** scrub that. It's not in order of voting if my votes are anything to go by. Possibly by membership number order??

 

[mosaix]

Thanks TJ just returned here after having discovered the extra three to find your post.

I see I've timed out on a possible edit (seems a bit short) so can I thank Starbeast, BigJ and Kerrybuchanan as well.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

The order of membership sounds right from that list, I think, TJ. I joined after Alc and just before Bowler.