Discussion Thread - 100 Word Anon Writing Challenge - Nov 2014

[willwallace]

Congratulations to Robert, and well done ☺

 

[Zoe Mackay]

Gosh. Oh dear. Thanks, everyone. And so many good stories. And thanks Mosaix for running it!

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Congratulations, Robert! You're becoming a juggernaut here! Well done everyone, it was a terrific challenge. I loved your story, TDZ! There were so many really nice tales. Thank you to our host, too...merci mosaix!

I think I guessed one correctly! I wonder if more people would guess if, after the entry deadline passes, we were given a list of the folks who participated? Guessing would of course be easier if we knew who'd entered, but it might also be more interesting, for the guessers. Just a thought.

3 - Cat's Cradle (for use of italics)

I laughed at this, springs! I do have a number of tells! Odd punctuation is a second--I use '...' a lot; and if you ever see a story with a character yelling, and it looks like this: "I am angry!", that's likely me (bolded AND italicized!). Wow, the competition seemed to pass really quickly! I like the shorter time-frame for this challenge..the turnaround time is appreciated. See you all next 100 worder! CC

 

[Jo Zebedee]

My guessing was atrocious! Well done, Robert. You are the Masked Guru.

 

[Zoe Mackay]

You guessed me, though!

 

[mosaix]

Thanks for the votes Chris and Willwallace.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Thank you jastius, for the vote! I'm sorry, I meant to thank you earlier! CC

 

[Phyrebrat]

Well that was a short window for voting, wasn't it? I haven't been able to get on till this weekend. Congratulations Robert!

pH

 

[willwallace]

And I have to thank Victoria for her vote, it's very much appreciated.

 

[mosaix]

Thanks for the votes Chris and Willwallace.

And thanks for the short lists to Darkchrome and TDZ.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Looks for votes...

I think mine only worked with the hand written version (and even then barely worked, my ideas locker was bare).

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Thanks to ratsy and johnnyjet for honoring my entry with votes.

It's interesting to note that nobody correctly guessed my authorship.

For whatever it might be worth, I might offer a little background on my thoughts during the creation of my story. As soon as I saw the theme, I wanted to deal with the extinction of a species. But which one? The dodo has been done (notably in the award-winning story "The Ugly Chickens" by Howard Waldrop.) I then thought of the passenger pigeon, probably the second most famous extinction in historic time. A little research gave me the facts which I supply in the story. I noted that Martha died in 1914, which immediately made me think of the Great War. This naturally led me to link humanity's destruction of other creatures with its destruction of itself. This gave me my punchline. To build up to this without giving too much away at the start, I came up with the "lecture" structure. The chronoscope was to clue the reader that this was the future; the phrase "a few centuries" combined with the reference to the passenger pigeon was to make it clear that this was not extremely far in the future. I chose the bland name "Professor Brown" as one that might be a translation of an alien name, since it's a color, instead of something like "Jones," which would have been cheating the reader (instead of fairly misleading the reader, if you see what I mean.) Since the story consisted entirely of one character's dialogue alternating with narration, I decided to make it all one paragraph, a decision I am still not sure about.

 

[farntfar]

Congratulations Robert. It was a magnificent idea.

Also tons of thanks for my vote.
For I hold the distinction of having been voted for by the winner. Something I am very proud of. ))

As to my inspiration, it's pretty simple.
Lot's of people at work call me a dinosaur, because I support a set of kit which is going out of date. (Don't tell my customer's that. I keep telling them it's still state of the art and will run for years.) I couldn't write about the kit, so it had to be the dinosaur

 

[johnnyjet]

Congratulations, Robert!

I wish I had come up with something for this challenge. I loved the theme. However, the last few weeks became very busy for me -- life, you know. It was a nice surprise to have your story attributed to me, Victoria! (Thanks, Chrispen!) Especially since I voted for it.

 

[Remedy]

Well done Robert! Go for the hat-trick!

I was all geared up to enter this one with a sci-fi idea, then Springs must have sent round the "Frizzlers", because I completely forgot. My apologies for not voting either.

 

[Juliana]

Congratulations Robert! I ended up not taking part, but I did mean to vote (and didn't), so huge apologies.

 

[ratsy]

Congrats Robert! Thank you to @Ashleyne. B. Watts for the vote!

I don't think any one guessed me again

These things sure are hard to guess hey?

 

[johnnyjet]

It is really hard to guess, even though everyone does have their own unique style. Strange but true ...

 

[mosaix]

Guessing would of course be easier if we knew who'd entered, but it might also be more interesting, for the guessers. Just a thought.

Okay we move on...

So regarding the next 100 worder:

1) We need a volunteer to run it. First come, first served. If no one volunteers then maybe the previous winner has to do it. (Fit punishment for back-to-back wins)
2) Robert has been prompted for a theme / genre.
3) Suggested time span: 26th Nov to 19th Dec, voting 20th to 22nd Dec.
4) List of authors (in alphabetical order) to be posted at the start of voting. This month was more difficult because of new authors.
5) No 100 worder in Jan (because of the 300), competition after next in Feb 2015.
6) Every entry to carry a title.

 

[Juliana]

Sounds good, Mosaix. This time I'm determined to take part!