Discussion -- March 2015 75-word Writing Challenge

[High Eight]

Well done Cat's - I think that is about the first time that a story I voted for actually won the 75 word challenge!

 

[alchemist]

Thanks to everbody who mentioned/shortlisted mine (I think I liked them all) and huge thanks to crystal haven, Hex, mosaix, springs and willwallace for the votes!

And most of all, congratulations to CC!!

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Thanks Ashleyne! I like your new icon!
Thank you High Eight! Happy to be your first voted-on-then-wins!
Oh, thank you alchemist! Your story was wonderful! CC

 

[Dan Jones]

Congrats to the Cats!

Life must taste very sweet right now

Looking forward to your choice for next month!

 

[Culhwch]

Congratulations, CC!

And thanks to those who mentioned my story. Not a particularly successful month for me, but I was pleased to get a couple of listings!

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Thank you, DG! Thank you Culhwch! Best of luck next month, Cul. I hope my theme/genre choices work really well for you. CC

 

[Phyrebrat]

Congrats Cat's Cradle! I was too busy scrapping with Alc to notice you were already miles ahead

Thanks Ursa for the no 5!

pH

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I think we've reached the point where we explain things, so I'll give it a shot. Apparently I confused nearly everyone with my story, which confused me because it was so clear in my head. My head is, nonetheless, a murky place, so I should clarify it for everyone else.

My story was a mashup of Star Wars and Hitchhiker's Guide, notwithstanding the quote that TJ insists was from Hamlet but I really meant to be from Buffy (the movie). Hey, she voted for me, so she can attribute it to whatever she feels is best.

The idea was that a Vogon was on his way to a poetry contest, and his companion was attempting to secure passage from Han Solo, as the fastest transportation available. I suppose it complicated things when I kept seeing his companion as C3PO. Anyway, Han agrees to take the Vogon despite his spouting poetry, because after all Chewbacca's poetry is worse, but when he hears it he decides to just shoot the Vogon and shut him up for the trip. So the rest of the poem will be silence, which will undoubtedly wow the contest judges with its brilliance, and incidentally guarantees a peaceful trip for the others.

I can't see why that should be so difficult -- it had 75 words, after all.

 

[Luiglin]

One of the definitions I read described space opera as a play on soap opera. Taking that a step on, every soap opera I've ever seen always has some point where a pizza is ordered which ends up late and thereby free. Of course the Minion could have ordered from Sloppy Joe's down in the local village but they don't do urgent deliveries, the delivery lad is quick on his toes and they only do abyssal anchovies

 

[Culhwch]

I struggled this month, but in the end I cobbled something together that was inspired by Star Wars and The Incredibles. Then I couldn't work out how to end it, so I threw in a CSI joke.

My other idea involved Rebel soldiers on Endor catapulting ewoks at Imperial walkers. Couldn't work out how to make it work though.

 

[holland]

For those who didn't want to bother trying to read my story: http://textmechanic.com/Reverse-Text-Generator.html

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Um, I watched my kid doing one of the little dances they do... At first I wanted something about women/men's plumbing but it was too complex for 75 words.

@TheDustyZebra , learn from me you must, young Jedi...

 

[Cascade]

I was not particularly happy with my story this month. In past challenges, I've generally been happy with what I had created, and satisfied that regardless of what the reader thought, I managed to achieve what I wanted to achieve. Not so much this time and i think there were a few reasons for that:

Space opera, strikes me as big stories, planet or galaxy sized themes and confrontations, and this is generally outside my comfort zone. I tend to write little stories, about little people doing little things.

When I write Comedy, it tends to be verbal, and takes a lot of words, so 75 words I found a 'challenge' (as it should be).

I wanted to avoid parody. I am certainly not too proud to claim those extra few words in the title to make the story make sense, but I wanted to create my own space. That is no criticism on those who did, the image of the Death Star Mirror Ball, is going to stay with me for a long time, but I wanted to twist things around a little.

My idea was to avoid trying to make the story funny per se (not wise in a Comic genre), but to try and make the universe it inhabited comicly absurd.

In the end I think I came up with a story that was space-opera for 68 words and then tacked on a vaguely amusing 'pay off', and it never actually meshed as Comic Space-Opera, the way I really wanted. Thanks again to everyone who liked it enough to mention it though.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

What, I wasn't confusing enough?

 

[Cat's Cradle]

It's wonderful hearing the story-behind-the-story from everyone! It's really hard to hit on all cylinders each and every month. I do not mean this at all in a confrontational way...but I really enjoyed the pastiches. It was a lot of fun trying to work out the connections to other works, and I think it added to the fun of the challenge; it was a very fun challenge.

I hope we're--a month from today--saying that the challenge I came up with for April was fun!
(Wow, Dusty, you fit so many references into your story!)

edit--I'm very tired, and must ask myself--is it possible to have squeezed 'fun' any more times into a post..oy!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Wow, Dusty, you fit so many references into your story!

You say that like it's a good thing.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Okay, I got the Hitchhiker and SW references in yours TDZ - and the profound artiness of a silent poem ending tick number one for pH

Cascade, I really liked yours, actually, and I wouldn't put your efforts down as non-comedic space opera; apart from the fact it was funny, we all have our own definitions of space opera (as with most genres - apart from Tudorpunk...). I did think the glitterball idea was a good one, but by that point I had already pictured it as a multi-coloured Death Star because of the previous line. There's a funny episode of Rebels where one of the crew paint a TIE-fighter.

A couple years ago I wrote an entry about Schrodinger's wife being a pain in the proverbial, always messing with his lab, and I really wanted to visit it again from her perspective. Although this time it was a cat -and his son - and not a procompsognathus. I was hoping that readers would understand that the cat had already been dead and when he came back and it had been miraculously resurrected, he was ... shocked... and thereby making his theory rather rubbish...

pH

 

[Moonbat]

Firstly, let me say congrats to Cats Cradle for his win.
I had three stories this month, my second(see below) felt like it was more cyberpunk than space opera and when I re-read it I thought it was mostly toilet humour. It came to me one morning whilst walking Avalon and listening to a podcast about computer security - the names they give to these programs made me chuckle.
My first was never completed, but it hinged around the idea of a gravity hill (the opposite of a gravity well) speeding up time and therefore giving some urgency to the proceedings - as you can see from the snippet it was a silly idea without any jokes.
My actual entry which was somehow gained a couple of votes (thanks to Johnnyjet for the stealth vote) and had a review from Perp where he just decided I must have been smoking something, it was a spin off from my WIP, I think it lacked urgency but Space Opera to me is anything set in space with multiple planets, races or technology, technically I only had one star but it suggested aliens and people from around the galaxy (I hope)
Anyway, see below for my non entered entries.

Simon was late for work, the superhighway router 66 was especially blocked today, he paused outside his office, voices could be heard from within.


'Its the Hack, sir'

'Enable the firewall!'

'They are war orbiting already'

'what are they using?'

'Butt sniffers, dump tasters, excretion snorters!'

'they're snorting already, god help us.'


Simon turned and ran, they'd found him, the invasion was imminent. He had to get back to his eletcro-fish before their memories were wiped.

He manoeuvred his ship up the gravity hill, with every gravimetric inch time sped up, he was going to make it. The days rushed past, exhaustion ** into hunger. He watched them below; living out their slow sedentary lives. He was joyous to be free but jealous of their slow lives. One last push to the summit then he'd drift down the other side, he strained, giving it everything.


Then his pants fell down.

As you can see they weren't really finished, but I enjoyed writing them none-the-less.

 

[Bowler1]

Well done Cat, good job.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Thank you, Moonbat--the other stories were interesting. I always write just one, and then post it right away. It's interesting to see the different techniques employed here.

Thank you Bowler! Thanks again for voting for my story.

I read your story, holland. I was surprised at how difficult it was, as a reading exercise. The story, and the concept, I thought were very good. (And thank you again for the vote!)

Cascade, I think you've written terrific stories since you joined...I really love your first story, for this past January's 75 worder. Your story this month was good. I wrote one a few months ago that I think is horrible. But every month I try to do better. Oy, not very deep stuff, but just a note of encouragement--you'll be fine.