Discussion Thread - 100 Word Anonymous Writing Challenge Feb 2015

[Cat's Cradle]

CONGRATULATIONS, mosaix!!! Your story was so beautifully crafted, and marvelously interesting, mosaix, well done! And well done all! It was a really solid challenge, top to bottom. Crystal haven, wow, what a month you're having, with the results here and in the 75 worder! And I'm going to make one final authorship guess ..my second guess on Precipitate is Hex... ?

My authorship of The Cloud (Starring Montgomery Forke) was guessed twice, thank you to those folks.
Thanks all for the listings, and thank you Starbeast for the vote! I will mention that each time I checked the poll, and saw a vote for The Cloud, my heart danced a beat or two..and then I realized the vote was actually cast for Cascade's wonderful story, and the dancing stuttered out (though it does pain me to have to publicly label Cascade an obfuscator, RE:voting!).

Not to look forward too soon, but a couple of thoughts for the next anonymous challenge...it seems our little event was pushed aside in the wake of the 75 worder juggernaut, once voting started there on the 24th (I think we actually had fewer votes than stories this time)...perhaps we could conclude voting in our event by the 22nd of each month? Finally, the guessing is fun, but it must seem daunting to many folks. I wonder if we made it clear enough at the beginning that guessing is completely optional? I think we had a number of folks enter the anonymous challenge for the first time this month, and I hope no one felt pressured to guess...guessing surely must be the hardest part of this event (though again, it is great fun seeing the lists we create versus the actual master list the event's moderator publishes post voting). Well, enough of my ramblings. Thanks to everyone involved! This was great fun, CC

ps--I think we all would like to see a Starbeast story in the next challenge!!!

 

[johnnyjet]

One person did match the correct story to me. However, I will leave it at that for now. Just keeping the mystery going for a little while longer.

 

[farntfar]

Congratulation Mosaix. I loved the story.
Great stories everyone though; lots of interesting uses of the theme.
(La Farovna has been having loads of problems with the cloud connection on her phone this month too. )

I didn't get the chance to vote or guess this month. I've been very busy. So that's where you're probably right about the count, Cat's.
I might have more time next month but it's not looking good.

Oh. I think I was guessed once.

 

[Hex]

I never know how to deal with my own story in these @Cascade, because not mentioning it seems like giving the game away. I really liked your story (and was flattered that two people thought it was mine -- people actually attributed lots of good stories to me, which was excellent).

Just to come clean, I was the added extra this month -- I'm afraid I didn't have time to write a story (and I didn't even manage any guesses except The Cloud (with tractor), and I got that wrong!).

@Cat's Cradle -- I think it makes sense to fit 100 Word Challenge voting into the period at the end of the 75 worder where most people have written their stories and are waiting for voting to start. It might help to make it clear that people don't have to guess?

 

[Remedy]

I might mention here that nobody correctly identified my story, which is unusual.

I was actually the author of "Dissolution."

Many thanks to Cascade for a vote, and to all who thought it worth a mention.

I usually get yours, Victoria. I was looking out for it, but your name ended up being the last on my list to assign a story to. Congratulations on befuddling us all!

I short listed your story (thought it was Ashleyne)

--------------------

CONGRATULATIONS MOSAIX - what a brilliant tale. I'm chuffed to have guessed you correctly!

I'm looking forward to comparing our other guesses to the full list

I won't reveal mine just yet.

 

[Tywin]

Had a lot of fun with the challenge this month. Didn't see anyone who attributed my story to me, but I saw some of my favorite authors on here (objectively far better writers than me) get blamed for it, which is great.

Also had a couple votes, which is always a bonus

 

[willwallace]

Surprisingly someone correctly guessed my story. Wish I had had more time this month to make a stab at guessing myself.

 

[Darkchrome]

Congratulations, mosaix! I'm always a teeny bit happier when the story I voted for wins

As we haven't all gone for the full reveal yet (and lets face it, at this time of year who would want to?) I would just like to thank CC for the Honorable Mention and johhnyjet for attributing the eventual winner to me - sadly not the case!

No-one guessed my story but interesting that two people listed me for the same (wrong) one - Invasion - which I would have been very happy with!
And a final repeat apology for not entering into the guessing thing. When the voting isn't near a weekend, it has to be a flying visit

 

[chrispenycate]

Yes. I'm sorry about not voting, or getting enough guesses aligned to make it worth posting. It's the treatment, I think - though it only takes up a couple of hours a day I can't seem to get my concentration to hold. Oh well, less than three weeks left.

 

[johnnyjet]

Congratulations. Mosaix, for 2 reasons: (1) for winning the challenge; and (2) for being the only one to guess correctly that I wrote "Clouded Judgments in the Dark Skies of War." Well done!

 

[mosaix]

I'm a little concerned by J.L.'s absence, hope every thing's okay. Thanks for running the February challenge.

Time moves on apace and we're now into March. Don't think there's a 300 this month so do we have a volunteer to run the March 100? I'd be prepared to do it again, if no one else can manage it, although I am away for a few days towards the end of this week.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Hey mosaix! I've been hoping everything is okay with J.L.. I'd be glad to give hosting a shot, if we don't hear from J.L. today (he'd mentioned he'd like to run the 100 worders for an extended period, at the beginning of this challenge). If it seems like a good idea, and if everyone is fine with me at least starting the next challenge, I could create a March Challenge thread here, to get things going. I can then either finish out the month as moderator, or if J.L. wants to take over, that's cool too. Anyone, please let me know what you think. (I'm looking forward to seeing your theme for the next challenge, mosaix!) CC

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

One day in the future I wouldn't mind having a go at running it, if someone like Mosaix or CC wouldn't mind holding my hand as I've never set up a poll or anything before.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Go for it, Cat's Cradle.

 

[farntfar]

Cat's is quite right that J.L. gave me the impression too, that he hoped to run it for an extended period although Cat's had actually offered first, with the sole proviso that he wouldn't do it in January.

I'm happy to help out or to run it again myself if needed, but I expect to be pretty busy again this month.

It's not hard work. You just have to be available to react reasonably quickly for the postings although I always thought a bit of a delay between receiving and posting adds to the anonymity a bit.
J.L.'s idea of closing at midday GMT rather than midnight must have made it easier for a European too. I didn't think it was allowed.

I think he vanished for a few days at the end of last month too. So hopefully it's nothing drastic.

Kerry. Yo'll remember that both J.L. and I rather co'ed up the voter visibility on the poll for the same reason. I think whoever does it should ask for the advice of Mosaix or someone who knows on that one.

 

[farntfar]

If J.L. doesn't appear tomorrow I think we'll need to all claim our own stories as well.
Mine was Reporting on Case 572/B-7, and I think only Ashleyne guessed.

 

[Zoe Mackay]

Mine was You Have Signed Out of Chat. And I voted for Silver Lining, because I thought it was sweet.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I'm more than happy to wait as long as necessary, and CC definitely asked ages ago. I fact if he does a good job (no pressure, CC!) maybe he'll get the job for life.

 

[mosaix]

I think CC should go ahead. I quite like the idea of it being hosted by a volunteer every month. Perhaps J.L. could be our standby in case a volunteer doesn't show up any time (holidays etc.)

Anyway, the 75 seems to be slow getting off the mark so perhaps we should get the 100 under way but give the 'official' 75 our priority when it shows up. I'll PM CC my idea for the month in the next few minutes.

Also, maybe this month, we should all put our heads together and come up with an official set of rules for the 100. I know TDZ missed out contributing last month because she made an incorrect assumption about the closing time. I think we need to standardise things like that. Perhaps we should start a thread to discuss it. We could also include instructions on starting a poll.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Good evening, all! I have received the official genre/theme choices from mosaix, and I will start the new threads for March's challenge within the next 2-3 hours. I think mosaix's choices will please everyone! (I promise I am not using this extra time to get a leg-up on writing a story!! ) See you all soon, CC

ps--no worries about the voting, chris! Hope the remaining treatments go well!

pps--a life sentence, eh Kerry? Not a bad way to go, I think!