Discussion -- August 2014 75-Word Writing Challenge

[TheDustyZebra]

OK, the title was Interview with the Countess du Carla which I hoped would make everyone think of Interview with the Vampire, if only subconsciously. She is, I hope you did get, a vampire herself, discussing her family's blood like wine. (I actually used real wine-tasting descriptions, and at one point was going to call it Interview with a Haemophile, being a play on oenophile -- a lover or connoisseur of wine -- but thought better of it!) Anyway, who is the most famous vampire -- Count...? Now look at her name and rearrange the letters...

Urgh. Bang head here. Ok, I got the Interview with... part, and the vampire part that was really the whole, but even looking for something I missed the du Carla. No idea how. That's the sort of thing that usually jumps right out at me!

T.E. a couple of months ago I did a fantasy story and the lead character was a dragon named Nogard. I thought surely someone would notice that Nogard was dragon spelled backwards, but no such. I guess we need to hint about such things.

Hmm. That's the sort of thing that usually jumps right out at me! (There's a theme developing, here.) I honestly don't remember noticing Nogard, Parson, so I probably didn't. Urgh again. I really do need to have my brain cleaned, waxed and detailed.

Then again, I was insanely pleased with myself and my cleverness in the 300, and nobody mentioned how insanely clever I was, either.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I never see these clever uses of word play.

Phyrebrat -- The author creates a complex and imaginative future with just a few words, while simultaneously telling a very human story.

StilLearning -- This seemingly spare {tale manages the very difficult trick of creating empathy for a character very much unlike ourselves.

Perpetual Man -- A subtle use of the meanings of words creates a profound psychological study.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Thank you Victoria

 

[HoopyFrood]

Well, as pointed out, first time in over two years and not much other writing in all that time, but gave it a go.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Yay!!! More, more!

(Good story. )

 

[Azzagorn]

The third set of reviews is on the way… Now!

Johnnyjet: Innocence can be corrupted when we are unborn. A scary notion put forth here by the author.

Juliana: The writer makes this reader feel sorry for a stars ship. Innocence can manage to survive longer without distractions.

WordSpinner: In this cautionary tale of drink (oil) and drinking; the writer raises the issues of the consequences of ones actions on the innocent. And it had robots!

Groot: Ignorance is the down fall of innocence here, as the writer paints a picture of a child playing touching something it does not understand with dire consequences.

Tywin: A dark tale of the manipulation of innocence. You can feel the fear as the writer gets down to the nitty gritty of the implied situation.

Boneman: A tale of performing evil acts to protect people from evil. This tale of hope ends ambiguously with the imminent awaking of a nefarious king.

Flyerman11: Merciless killing with its own philosophy in this tale of massacre. The writer does a grand job of making the antagonist seem driven by his belief that innocence only deserves death.

Phyrebrat: This story of broken trust works wonderfully in a noire setting.

StilLearning: A touching story of someone willing to destroy the innocence he had created to save his child.

Perpetual Man: Plays on the idea that innocence is relative, I really liked the twisted ended. After all it isn’t the fall that kills you indeed.

HoopyFood: We’ve all had problems with CAPTCHAs in the past I am sure. The writer makes this frustration seem very real.

Dirona: This story of restoring innocence after seeing and doing terrible things. The idea of a company restoring innocence is both charming and chilling in equal measure.

Martin321: We’ve all been blamed for something we didn’t do, I just wish I had a robo-dog.

 

[Azzagorn]

I have been wondering how everyone approaches the 75ers every month? Do you sit and plan it out or is it just something that smacks you in the face (figuratively)?

For me it seems to be something that sits in my head for a few days or something weeks once the theme is announced. For example; this month’s theme I couldn’t get Soylent out of my head and I was constantly telling myself the story in my head for about a week.
So I was wondering what every one else’s approaches were.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I sit down and write and see what comes out. Occasionally I doddle ideas first, but mostly I just write. Some arrive here, some don't.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Sometimes an idea will come to me and I will sit down and write the whole story at once, although then I will fuss over it and add or subtract words over the course of a couple of days. Sometimes the necessity of cutting out or changing some parts to bring it down to the word limit changes the nature of the story quite a bit. Sometimes it doesn't.

At other times, a phrase will come into my mind and it will stick with me for a few days until it starts turning into a story. And then I will write down the story and edit and revise that one obsessively.

In the early days, I would sometimes experiment writing two or three stories before I wrote one that I wanted to enter. For the Seven Deadly Sins, I hoped to write seven different stories and then decide. We used to post all our unused stories in the discussion threads after the voting, so I figured I could show off by demonstrating that I could write seven different stories to the same theme. I didn't manage that many, so so much for my personal vanity!

These days, I feel lucky if I can write even one story.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I usually come up with a single notion suggested by the theme. Sometimes this turns out to be the start of the story. (I'll use an example from a previous contest. The theme was "dance" so the notion I got was to have the Muses show up at a 1970's disco.) I then have to work up to the resolution. Other times the notion is the resolution -- the "punchline," if you will -- and I work up to it. (As an example, when the theme was "legacy" the notion I got was what seemed to be a planet actually being an ancient machine.) In either case, once I have the resolution in mind, I try to add details that will make the story more than just the summary of an idea.

I find that I usually wind up with slightly more than 75 words, so I cut out what isn't needed and wind up with a tighter story.

________________________________________________________________________________________

HoopyFrood -- This provocative tale reminds us that we can often be mysteries to ourselves.

Dirona -- The author poignantly shows us how our memories may be the source of our pain.

martin321 -- By showing us the unintended consequences of simple actions, this story points out that the world is full of Pandora's boxes.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Once I start thinking about the theme, which sometimes isn't until close to the deadline these days, I just kind of push it around in my mind and then when I'm out walking I poke at it until something falls out. Sometimes I take the theme or some related words to Thesaurus.com and follow their tracks to see if an idea pops up. Sometimes the thesaurus work doesn't become necessary until I'm working on a title.

I have hardly ever written more than one story, mostly because I can't sit on one long enough to think of another one. The only times I come up with a spare are when the first one just doesn't quite want to gel. But once it comes together, it's all I can do to wait overnight to make sure I don't think of a better word or phrase. And lately, I don't have any overnights to wait.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I never thought about using the Thesaurus. I wonder if that would work for me during those months when I can't think of anything at all. There have been so many months now when I haven't written a story, and I'd like to get out of that slump.

For titles, I like to use literary allusions when I can (but those come after the story is written). No one ever seems to get them -- either they are too obscure or I'm not doing it right -- but it amuses me even if it doesn't amuse anyone else, so I continue to do it.

 

[Juliana]

Thanks for the comment, Azzagorn.

Cool reading all the different approaches. As for me, sometimes I roll the theme around in my head for days, sometimes I just sit down and write. This month, I came up with an amazing (I think!) story when I was falling asleep and of course I'd forgotten it by the next morning. So I sat down in a fit of rage and decided to be as literal as possible with the theme.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I never thought about using the Thesaurus. I wonder if that would work for me during those months when I can't think of anything at all. There have been so many months now when I haven't written a story, and I'd like to get out of that slump.

Oh, yes, I like to wander through all the different paths of meanings in the thesaurus, to bring new ideas to mind. I'll see a word that I hadn't thought of being related, and that will spark a new train of thought. Many times I just let all those words stir around, to see what they bring.

 

[Parson]

Thesaurus, I'd never thought of that either. My usual pattern is that I keep thinking about the theme and to a lesser degree, the genre, and let the stones rumble around in that empty cavern at the top of skeleton until something smooth appears --- Unfortunately it almost always only seems smooth to me.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

The benevolent brobdingnagian cladistically designated as the Thesaurus (Polysylablus Rex) was exanimated when an asteroid the size of Manhattan excoriated the cthonian depths of Chicxulub, and fragmentalised the landscape, forevermore obliterating the hegemony of the Dinosaurs...

Only 39 more words to go...


Oh...wait...this is the discussion thread...

 

[Perpetual Man]

Thanks for the comment Azzagorn.

Great reply DEO!

For me there is no set pattern or plan. Sometimes I will see the challenge and a story will pop fully formed in my head and with a few tweaks it is ready to go.

Other times I will walk around with a blank face (nothing really new there) for a month, until the last min ute when I know I have to get something down and will either be struck be relative inspiration or put any old tosh down.

Sometimes I will get a vague idea, jot it down and work on it through the month, think I have a masterpiece go with it then get no mentions

Finally way back when I started first writing the challenges I used to have three, four maybe even six different stories jotted down and then decide which one I was going to run with. Oddly this does not happen any more which makes me wonder whether I am falling into a pattern with the challenges, or have I lost some level of creativity?

 

[johnnyjet]

Thanks for the nice comments, Azzagorn.

For me it can be a different experience every time. Sometimes an idea hits me right away and I run with it. Sometimes I come up with several ideas and discard several until I decide to go with one. Once I was ready to submit something when a better (in my mind) idea hit me. Sometimes I mull over the theme a long time before I settle on something. And in the end, sometimes I'm happy with the final result and sometimes I'm just okay with it. The one thing I never do is read any of the entries until after I submit my entry. Of course, there is the danger that my idea might be similar to someone else's.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Lenny -- This strikingly imaginative and original tale offers a fresh look at new technology.

 

[Lenny]

Thanks, Victoria!

---

I have been wondering how everyone approaches the 75ers every month? Do you sit and plan it out or is it just something that smacks you in the face (figuratively)?

I'll have a look at the theme at the start of the month, and then wait for something to hit me - it tends to be a silly little twist on the theme that makes me giggle, inspired by what I'm watching or reading at the time. When I've got my idea, I beat and bash and butcher until it fits the genre. I'll think it over for a day or two, spend an hour writing and tweaking until I'm happy I've squashed as much meaning as I can into the 75 words. Like others, I stay away from the entries thread until I've got something. When my entry is ready, I'll give the other entries a quick scan through to make sure I've not come up with the same as someone else (pretty unlikely, but you never know), then post.

If I can't come up with anything, I just miss the month - I found with the last few I entered that having to force an idea in the dying moments of the entry period just isn't satisfying. If I'm straining to come up with something last minute, then I'd much rather just miss the month than put out something I'm not happy with.