Ratsy's 100 word challenge (by springs...)

Jo Zebedee

Jo Zebedee

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The anonymous one...

The challenge is to write a story in 100 words or less. Challenge entries should not be posted in this thread, but PMed (I, too, refuse to use Conversed) to me directly. This thread is for discussion - I'll put up an entry thread later and post them as I receive them, and then a poll.

I'm expecting the same rules as in the challenges - you may not expand on your story in the discussion but may comment on any others. No likes for individual stories, but discussion posts can be liked. Remember, I'm watching.... :D

I've run it to a different timescale to the 75 to give a bit of time.

Theme: That Old Chestnut
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy or speculative.

Entries are to be filed by 24:00 GMT on the 19th September. Voting will be until 24:00 GMT on 22nd september.
 
I will forever be remembered now. Now if we all can't write a hundred words about 'That Old Chestnut', what can we do...wait did that say That Old Chestnut???? I will be honest, after a few head scratching minutes, I'm still scratching my head.

Cheers, Springs for taking this one under your proverbial wing
 
Aha, I see -- springs just wanted to choose the theme, that's why she volunteered to run the thing.

<--prepares to take notes on who is commenting on which stories....
 
I suppose I could post it.... :p

Oh, wait, I don't have to guess who wrote the stories, do I? Whew!


ETA: Note, everyone is expected to keep up their usual quota of stories for the actual Challenges during this experiment. No getting distracted from regular business, here! (springs is watching.)
 
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Oh God, these are wonderful! I'll definitely be in. I think we'll all want to write a dozen entries!! :) And there's a month of this left!! Great concept, terrific them!! Well done, all!

ps--perhaps, if this works out as well as we all hope, we could do this montly...bi-monthly? With volunteer overseers?
 
I have a thought...first, this challenge is clearly for fun. I don't mean to over-think this, but on the odd chance someone goes over 100 words (as happens occasionally in the other challenges)...well, it always seemed brutal to me that that person's story would be banned from the challenge.
We want every possible story to be included in the Ratsy 100, so what if instead of banishment, a person incurred, say, a 5 word penalty if they go over? They would have X number of hours to resubmit the whittled-down story. (They'd have to go from 100+ words to 95.)
I think a lot of times stories aren't read by the majority of people who will eventually vote until well after they are initially posted, so really there would be very little of the unfair advantage aspect of having an extra word or two by mistake, when the story is first posted.
This may seem like a bit of extra work for the challenge moderator (sorry springs!), but it would also take the worry over counting words for our stories away from the moderator, when they initially receive them (is that how it works, btw? Does a moderator count the posted challenge stories, to make sure they don't go over the allotted count?).
Okay, sorry this was so long! If my idea is crazy, please feel free to flame me as needed! :) CC
 
At the moment, I'm doing a count before posting them up. If I find any over, I'll notify the person and give one window for editing (because I think the mods do that if they catch it before the editing window.)

I think the 100 word limit stands, though, on those posted, otherwise it's not fair to those who've honed it down.
 
Well Karn, you should take part. The more the better. If we can get everyone involved it makes it a lot more fun. I hope to come up with something but I'm leaving on holidays soon and might not get something in for a bit.

So TDZ might not be the only one who doesnt have her Sekrit Santa ready for Sept 1st either! Someone has to drag behind, right?

On a side note, won't we know who the last few people are in this ? I mean, the ones that wait till last minute to post?> Maybe they will have to change it up this time to trick us
 
Oh dear, sorry about that, Karn. I'd hoped the nice, open genre would have made the tricky theme more doable.

Next time, I'll ask Chrispy to choose instead. :D

Edit - I can't access conversations at the moment to reply but am able to copy and paste from my emailed copy, so send away but let me know if your entry doesn't appear in the thread.

To the person who asked if that was the way to send - yes, just copy it into the conversation. :)
 
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Karn if you write, then I will attempt to...
(it doesn't have to literally be about chestnuts, does it?... though i do have a nice marrons glace intructions somewheres...)
 
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