DISCUSSION THREAD -- November 2021 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge

[JS Wiig]

I would imagine my not-story was pretty clear. I wrote it because I feel my writing journey would have quickly fallen into the “something I’ve tried” basket had I not found this wonderful spot on the interwebs, especially the Challenges. I’ve learned so much participating in them.

 

[The Judge]

My story was 3 moons for blurred eyes (tears) and one moon when the POV had stopped crying because he/she/they’d honoured their mother with the Candle Vigil.

Ah! Your prose is always so full of imagery and there was a real haunting sense of regret in this one, but I totally missed the relevance of the "Blur" title, so I couldn't fathom what was happening. I wish I'd been smart enough to pick it up.

I know I write awkward stuff but I think it’s important to write for oneself (votes are great but who’d want to win with having written a bag-o-crap?).

You never write awkward stuff! You do, however, perform some grand jetés at times which the poor plodders can't always follow!

 

[Mon0Zer0]

I voted for @Hugh in the end as it seemed like a continuation to another story he'd written a few challenges ago and I liked the poetic imagery and word choice.

Been busy this month working on teh novuhl so not had much time for challenges. I found gratitude quite a hard topic to wring much out. Not my wheel house.

Very interesting to read people's interpretations.

In the end I was influenced by two sources: No-hiding theorem (The no-hiding theorem states that if information is lost from a system ... then it moves to ... the environment) and Neuro-philosopher Thomas Metzinger's Being No-one (The self as an illusion / process), which I think, combined, hints at a beautiful way of looking at interconnectedness. Or something, I dunno.

 

[Starbeast]

Congratulations to The Judge
@The Judge


​

My story was a simple future/past tale about a grateful dragon, which was originally titled, "The Grateful Dragon". But my title didn't sit well with me and I wanted something different than an old fairy tale type of label. While at work, I heard the wonderful song by Jackie DeShannon, "Put a Little Love in Your Heart." At that moment I thought about my story. I envisioned the dragon returning the kindness that was given to him. I got misty eyed and said quietly to myself, "I got my title."

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

My story was 3 moons for blurred eyes

D'oh -missed that, not sure why but I straight away figured it was a literary reference I didn't know; nice to see the explanation even if you're not keen on them.

My effort was just a variation of a spoof on artificial intelligence ...if we create it in our likeness then from time to time it must do stupid things. The last line was a dud as I ran outta road but the plan was to have the machine be so proud of itself it was oblivious to Jemima calling it a fool.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Congratulations, TJ! We don't seem to have many resounding victories these days, so the quality of your story, and the margin of victory, were both outstanding. I had thought from the first reading that the cadence of words in your entry was like that of a show tune, and I wondered if there'd been a particular song you were inspired by. It really had the feel of a Broadway show stopper.

Enjoying reading the creation-stories from the folks who are posting them. My entries just pop in my head in their entirety, after a single idea first comes (well, their entirety plus about 50-75 extra words; I'm honestly lucky that editing down is where almost all of my time is spent on any Challenge). This time I thought of synesthesia as related to androids, and there the story was. I often find that my entries are dark in nature, but sometimes something with hope in it comes out, and that's always a nice surprise. But I don't try for any type of feel or any type of emotion or really anything at all... it honestly all just pops out fully grown, like Athena springing from Zeus's head (but without the majesty). And I agree with Phyrebrat on writing for yourself... I never try for votes, but when they or listings come, they're cherished.
Well, enough of me.

I'm so happy another Challenge happens in under two days. See you all there, CC

edit to add: I forgot to thank you, @The Judge, for the kind words on my story! They made me very happy, and kind comments are also cherished.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Btw. This painting is what inspired my story. It’s one of my favourite pieces of artwork. It’s called ‘Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast’ by Albert Bierstadt

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Now that's majestic!

 

[The Judge]

I've never even heard of that artist. A very dramatic scene.

 

[Betok_Haney]

Congratulations @The Judge!

 

[Phyrebrat]

Oh I forgot to say congratulations to Her Hon.

Congratulations

 

[Venusian Broon]

Congrats to TJ and also high fives to the five that voted for me: @mosaix, @Starbeast, @Phyrebrat, @Abernovo and @JS Wiig, as well as all those that mentioned my story in short lists. I view them as practically a vote and just as pleasant to recieve!

 

[Ursa major]

perform some grand jetés at times which the poor plodders can't always follow

There's no need to give us (flic) flac, whether or not in a fit of piqué, just because not all of us can leap to the right conclusions (or leap at all).

 

[Ursa major]

A very dramatic scene.

If you visit his Wikipedia page, there are many examples of this style.

I noticed that one of the paintings (at whose Wiki article I looked) was sold for $25,000... in 1865.

 

[The Judge]

I had an enjoyable 10 mins or so reading about the painting itself, which was interesting -- apparently it's not a depiction of the place it mentions, and although he'd done some travelling he'd probably not gone as far as Pugent Sound itself, and this was an imaginary scene. Mentioning flac/flak as we were, he got some at the time for the liberties he took in scenes which were based on reality, as the pines were always taller, the mountains more mountainous and so on. But he was apparently a great publicist and effectively gave the public what they wanted with these scenes of nature in the raw.

Not something I'd want on my living room wall, though, even if I could afford it!

 

[Phyrebrat]

Well, I’m chuffed you looked it up @The Judge

I love it. It’s so moody.

Re grand jetes… you give me too much credit — I’ve never had to do anything like that. Maybe a grand battement or two when doing S.African/Zulu styles.

In Afrobeats, trad African, and hip hop the dancer’s relationship is with the Earth/ground, so we’re usually low, in deep plié. A ballet dancer’s relationship is with the sky, so the spine is stacked, the chest open, and lots of springy weeeeee moves

So, basically you so called ‘plodders’ are nearer me than you think, probably just a bit higher

 

[Parson]

My origin story for my story is almost embarrassing. When I was thinking about what kind of story I'd write I had given some thought about a line I (and probably about 100,000 other parsons) have heard and used "An attitude of gratitude" when preaching the annual Thanksgiving sermon, or other sermon on giving God praise for our blessings. And one morning in the dim half awake- half dreaming state. I found myself thinking about a "one finger salute." (My subconscious is a weird place) From there it was just filling in the details.

*I'd be so shocked if anyone hadn't been able to follow my story. My stories are usually simple to the extreme and "unencumbered" by nuance. Proving the my writing skills are pretty limited.

 

[Bowler1]

Yay, Judge wins, and well done.

Would ya look at this mess, pitchforks left lying around all over, it's a H&S nightmare. I'll tidy them away, and... ahem, go hide.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Congratulations to The Judge; doing 'the Double' , and quite comfortably so.

Really pleased to have received a last day vote, thankyou PM. And thankyou also for the shortlisting StarBeast. My entry didn't seem to hit the target generally speaking, but I'm happy in myself that I managed 2 poetical entries in successive months, after having really struggled recently.

I'm with the Judge in that there were an unusually large number of entries which I didn't understand. Not because they were poorly written, but because I didn't click with the references embedded into their stories.

I did like the imagery in your entry Parson, but there's some reference I'm not getting. It's like Planet of the Apes, but with dogs.

And Victoria, for the life of me I couldn't grasp who the three gentlemen were (the 'untidy mop of hair' kept me coming back to Stan Laurel). But I think now that it's the Marx Brothers?

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Well done @The Judge

As for my attempt, well, when it comes to voting time I look for stories that have a three act structure.
You all know what I'm on about:
Act 1 The Setup
Act 2 The Conflict
Act 3 The Resolution

With that in mind, I thought I'd better try writing something that fulfils my own voting criteria. And I do like a good pulp-fiction sword-and-sorcery type story. So, here's the story as told in summary:
The Duke has a quarrel with the Wizard, who turns the Duke into an ogre. This ogre then terrorises the town by demanding human sacrifices. Into this town strolls our Barbarian hero, who takes pity on the townsfolk and agrees to end the reign of terror. He does so by disguising himself as a maiden so that the ogre does not suspect anything. Naturally the hero wins, and by killing the ogre, he breaks the wizard's spell. This returns the Duke to his human form, who is grateful for being killed because of all the nasty things he did as an ogre.

Yes, cliche ridden, and I think my entry suffered from editing horrors. I'm going to post it in the Improving thread to see if anyone else can tell this story

See you on the other side.