Discussion -- April 2015 75-word Writing Challenge

[ratsy]

I have posted something. I felt like just getting it in right away.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Hey, you guys. Just a reminder that this is a family friendly site. Please work within those boundaries when you write and post your stories.

I'm glad this was posted. I feel it is something that needs clarified however, in terms of themes/ where the line is (sorry, mods, it might not be what you need.) For me, there has been a slippery slope and I won't be letting my kids read the entries this month - sometimes we chat and toss up votes as a family.

 

[jastius]

Hey, you guys. Just a reminder that this is a family friendly site. Please work within those boundaries when you write and post your stories.

I guess that rules out my story about the hilarious hijinks of rowdy randy robots in post Apocalyptic neo feudal japan, then.. (Puts away samurai sword and Japanese English dictionary..)

 

[Juliana]

Eeep! I just saw the theme!! *glares at CC*

Just kidding, it will be nice have a really challenging challenge (not that they usually aren't, but metafiction??!!). I'll have to have a good think about this.

Jastius missed one of my favorite metafiction works, The Princess Bride (the novel, for those who've only seen the movie). The French Lieutenant's Woman is another excellent example.

 

[Starbeast]

It's April Fool's Day here in the US.

Conflict with Metafiction. I wasn't sure if Cat's Cradle was serious. But he is. I definately gotta do some research for this one.

I was worried my genre/theme pairing might be unpopular, or seem excessively difficult. I was being selfish...we have such terrific writers here in the challenges, and I honestly wanted to read the stories that could be written from these choices--I hoped everyone would be thrilled with the results inspired by this imagination-expanding genre. I hope people will give this a shot. I think this could turn out to be a very good month for stories. I'll have mine posted later today, I think. But again, wonderful start, Cul!

Interesting challange my feline friend. And once again, there are stories posted early, even by you. Well done. Hmm. What shall I cook up this month?

Hey, you guys. Just a ******* reminder that this is a ******* family friendly site. Please work within those ******* boundaries when you write and post your ******-**stories.

(and just to be ******* clear, if we think your ****** story is pushing the family friendliness boundaries, we'll send you a ******* message directly, not leave you to worry if the ******* message in the thread is aimed at you -- I didn't mean to alarm people. Sorry!

As you were. ******)

Yes Lady Hex. Anything you say.



Anyone have a Thesaurus I could borrow? I need another word for ****.

 

[jastius]

Had the princess bride but spell check was insistent that it was spelt 'Thad Pinches nice Bread'
...

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

I'll take a consideration.


I think it'll be a while before things settle back down...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

. I feel it is something that needs clarified however, in terms of themes/ where the line is (sorry, mods, it might not be what you need.) For me, there has been a slippery slope

Well, that's the problem. There are so many things that could end up crossing the line, depending on how they are written, how are we to think of them all? But we urge people to use common sense, and think about what they would consider appropriate for a (possibly rhetorical) child of theirs to read. And if anyone is in doubt about whether something in their story would be appropriate to a family friendly site, please contact the mods before posting the story.

Most of all, we don't want things to escalate. If something gets by because it's right there on the line, if people start trying to top it in gore or shock value, stories may be removed and we'll be a lot stricter next month.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Just what has been going on now?

Three weeks and this happens...

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Welcome back, Karn!

You haven't missed anything -- it was just a warning.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Well, being gone so long...


I'm hoping to get into this one...

 

[Juliana]

Had the princess bride but spell check was insistent that it was spelt 'Thad Pinches nice Bread'
...

Ooh, that Thad!! @thaddeus6th

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Seems I'll have a couple things to look at, hehe. I forgot this was the 300 month. Glad I didn't miss that.

I don't know about Metafiction though.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

When I first saw the theme and genre, I thought there's no chance I'd manage a story this month. What was metafiction anyway?

However, a thought occurred to me this morning while I was in the smallest room and I typed it out quickly before anyone else had the same idea (I haven't read all the other entries, so fingers crossed I'm right about that).

Phew.

Just the 300 worder to do now....

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

The three hundred shouldn't be too difficult.


Metafiction, I will have to look up... *sigh* I remember days of more speculative genres, hehe. Or at least, clearer genres.


I also have my own story problems otherwise, besides...

 

[holland]

Well, that's the problem. There are so many things that could end up crossing the line, depending on how they are written, how are we to think of them all? But we urge people to use common sense, and think about what they would consider appropriate for a (possibly rhetorical) child of theirs to read. And if anyone is in doubt about whether something in their story would be appropriate to a family friendly site, please contact the mods before posting the story.

Most of all, we don't want things to escalate. If something gets by because it's right there on the line, if people start trying to top it in gore or shock value, stories may be removed and we'll be a lot stricter next month.

What does "child-friendly" actually mean here? PG-13? I think anything stricter than that doesn't make much sense for a science fiction and fantasy forum.

 

[Hex]

Yikes. I'm not sure I know what PG-13 is. Do we have it here? Is that what a 12 would be...?

In general, I think it does come down to people using their common sense as Teresa said (with mod support if you're not sure -- we are really always happy to help). If your story is designed to shock, uses horror or lots of swear words, explicit violence or sex, best to check.

(and can I right now say thank you to the people who have checked when they haven't been sure!)

 

[Juliana]

Hex, PG-13 is a US movie classification. It means kids under 13 may watch if parents say it's okay. Marvel movies are all PG-13, for instance. Some violence and mild swearing but pretty much ixnay on the sex.

 

[Perpetual Man]

When it comes to the issue of bad language I always go the comic book route - replace the word with a few interesting punctuation marks: #*$!! - but as a whole I try not to use them at all, I mean profanity is pretty much a wasted word.

I've sort of started mine, written it four times, basically the same story but different words and each time it has come out at 88 words. Unless we change the challenge to the 88 word challenge this month I might have to seriously re-think things. As it stands it's totally twisting my mind up just thinking about it, so goodness knows what it is going to do to people reading it!

 

[Hex]

PG-13 sounds about right then, for a rule of thumb.

Though I always remember when the UK introduced a 12 so that little kids didn't need to watch someone in a Batman film being melted with acid, also The Mummy, which was a 12 -- the scarabs gave me nightmares for months.

It's kind of tone too, though, so if you have (to take the scarab example) a loving description of a beetle eating someone's squishy bits, that's not the same as "Darkness fell. There was a scurrying of tiny feet."

Just to be absolutely clear, as well, when a story is posted that feels borderline, we don't like to remove it because we never like to remove people's stories. That doesn't mean we think it's okay -- it just means we're faced with the choice between leaving something questionable, and taking it away completely. We don't have -- can't have -- hard and fast rules about tone and content in the same way as we can have them about word count. But I think this position of not removing stories may need to change and I'd really, really rather it didn't, so -- sorry to repeat myself -- it would be great if you could check with the mods if you're using sex/ drugs/ rock and roll(*)/ horror/ bad swear words etc. or if you feel these could be inferred from your story.

Also, if you see a story that you reckon is inappropriate, please tell us. You can report the post or message a moderator, even if it's just to say "This seems a bit questionable. What do you think?"

(*) Not this one.