Anon Challenge talk (not the discussion thread)

[mosaix]

Due to my incompetence and failing memory I completely forgot to start a 100 anonymous challenge in December and again at the start of February.

Many thanks to Farntfar for reminding me.

We have time in March before the next 300 to run a 100 but I thought we could just start one now and run it into March for about 6 weeks.

I thought something a little different this time. Instead of a theme the story should include the following eight words - specifically not in the title:

"Tampering with the machinery is punishable by law."
​

This sentence is take from the the science fiction short story Gleepsite by Joanna Russ, published in the Gollancz 1972 Annual World's Best SF.

The genre is any Speculative Fiction.

The word limit is increased to 108 to allow for the extra words.

I would appreciate a volunteer to host the challenge but if none is forthcoming in the next couple of days then I'll do it.

Any volunteers?

 

[Parson]

@mosaix --- Do you mean these 8 words or do you mean this 8 word phrase? There's a ton of difference between those two understandings. My first impression was this 8 word phrase, but that's not what the instructions say.

If by hosting you mean collecting the stories and posting them on the story thread, I could do that. But maybe there's more to it?

 

[farntfar]

Parson,
I understood the instuctions to mean that as well as the specified phrase or sentence, you had 100 morer words to complete the story. (So 108 in all.)

As for the hosting job, yeah it's pretty much that.
You set up the thread, and then receive the entries as PMs or conversations.
You check the word count, and if it's all ok, you post the story in the entries thread, under your name, so that no-one else knows who's story it is.
If the author has gone over the word count, I usually send it back to them, by PM and allow them to try again. (Only once )

After the close date you have to create a poll for the vote and also check people's guesses as to the authors of each story, so you can tell them how many they got right. (You'll need to post a list of the authors in random order, and including at least one extra name to confuse things.)

Otherwise, it's good to post encouraging posts in the discussion thread etc, but if you're intending to do reviews, as you often do, that can all be done at the same time.

Otherwise you can pretty well do anything else you want to make it more fun.

I'm sure you'll be great at it.
If you need any advice, I'm sure Mosaix or I can help, or indeed any of the others who have done it before.

 

[Danny McG]

Gleepsite by Joanna Russ

I've just downloaded and read it...I didn't care much for it, a bit too much PKD psychobabble for my tastes.

 

[mosaix]

I've just downloaded and read it...I didn't care much for it, a bit too much PKD psychobabble for my tastes.

Agree, Danny. I was just searching for an interesting phrase.

 

[mosaix]

@mosaix --- Do you mean these 8 words or do you mean this 8 word phrase? There's a ton of difference between those two understandings. My first impression was this 8 word phrase, but that's not what the instructions say.

If by hosting you mean collecting the stories and posting them on the story thread, I could do that. But maybe there's more to it?

It’s ptetty much as Farntfar described it, Parson. And of course you can enter yourself if you want - anonymously of course.

And it means a 108 word story that must include the sentence that I quoted starting ‘Tampering...’.

Sorry for the confusion.

If you want to host - many thanks. PM me and we can discuss start / end dates etc.