DISCUSSION THREAD -- 300 Word Writing Challenge #49 (April 2023)

[Parson]

See, I have learned through experience that evidently I don't know how to write a winner, so I try not to concern myself with that.

To those who believe that they will never win a challenge, I offer myself as an example of the unlikely happening eventually. This challenge started April 2010 (that's right 13 years ago) and if memory serves me right I entered every 75 save 4 or 5 and in 2 of those cases I was eliminated for faulty word count. I went more than 10 years before I won a contest. (I had one tie fairly early on, but lost the tie breaker in decisive fashion receiving only one more vote in the tie breaker than I had in the contest.) But over the years either my writing has gotten better or something, and now I've won two in the last three years. I believe that anyone who continues to write stories and listens to criticism and tries to apply it has a good chance of winning eventually. I believe the key thing for me was when @Bren G said he thought I needed to punch up the endings. He thought my stories were good but that the endings lacked that certain something. That may not have been the reason but the two times I won I had what many people thought were strong endings.

 

[Parson]

@BigJ .... Til Death Do Us Part .... A story which demonstrates that love conquers even the unexpected.

@The Judge .... The Door .... A story which takes a common thing and makes it anything but common.

 

[Abernovo]

And, I'm in. I thought I was going to miss the boat on this one, not through absence of an idea, but an absence of time.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Judge opens the door to measure and countermeasure.

Abernovo opens the door to the Circumlocution Office.

 

[Ursa major]

​

The Challenge is now closed to new entries...

...and the voting is NOW open.

To cast your THREE votes, use the link below.

Please vote for your top THREE choices; note that all three votes must be cast AT THE SAME TIME to count.​

​

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Ursa major opens the door to a cure worse than the disease.

____________________________________________________________________

Votes go to:

Christine Wheelwright

Jo Zebedee

Peter V

 

[Rafellin]

A very focussed group of tales this quarter. Not as diverse as I expected.

Anyway -

Top o' the stack: @Yozh
Second: @Jo Zebedee
Third: @Peter V

With honourable mentions to @M. Robert Gibson and @Astro Pen

 

[THX1138]

Votes got to:
@Yozh
@M. Robert Gibson
@Jo Zebedee

Others I liked as well: (long list?)
@JS Wiig
@Guttersnipe
@Victoria Silverwolf
@paranoid marvin
@Appello
@Elckerlyc

 

[paranoid marvin]

Many thanks for the vote Yozh, and also to THX1138 for the shortlisting.

Good to see we have exceeded 30 stories, now time to read through them.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

What a fantastic bunch of words! I found it difficult to whittle it down. My long list could so very easily been every story

So, for whatever reasons here's a short runner up list
The Door - @The Judge
Stone Snitch - @Phyrebrat l
To sport as of kings - @Luiglin

and the votes
Be Careful What is Wished For - @Ursa major
Endings... - @Perpetual Man
Natural Light - @Yozh

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Quite a few on my shortlist this month:

@Victoria Silverwolf
@Bren G
@Yozh
@therapist
@Cat's Cradle
@The Judge

But in the end I went for a trio of supernatural tales for the votes:

@paranoid marvin
@emrosenagel
@Phyrebrat

 

[Ursa major]

Many, many thanks for the vote, MRG.

 

[emrosenagel]

My votes went to Natural light by @Yozh, A crime of the flesh by @Christine Wheelwright and Stone snitch by @Phyrebrat. Honorable mentions to @Dan Jones and @Starbeast, because I have a soft spot for sensible nonsense.

Thanks for the vote, @Christine Wheelwright!

 

[JS Wiig]

One thing is certain in this matter: the story that is not entered will never win.

 

[JS Wiig]

Too many great stories as always. Makes my job of whittling it down to three seem rather arbitrary. But I’d rather pull three titles out of a hat than end up in the ‘Participatory Non-voter’ column on The Judge’s spreadsheet, so here goes nothing:

@THX1138 - loved the darkness of the setting

@AnRoinnUltra - self-induced hallucinations can be a good thing but…

@therapist - beautifully crafted mythology

@Luiglin - hunter becomes the hunted

@mosaix - leave it to a bleeping computer to make someone do bad things

 

[Yozh]

midlist:
@THX1138
@JS Wiig
@Guttersnipe
@Christine Wheelwright
@Luiglin
@Astro Pen
@mosaix
@Abernovo (as a former immigration attorney, I found this a bit on the nose)

Votes to::
@paranoid marvin (I almost did not post mine, b/c I read this and thought oh no, someone just did a really good take on the same concept! BUt I was already done and seems like the audience likes both.)
@Appello So many of us this month saw the light as soemting ominous or threatening, I like a story where the light instead is hope/salvation.
@The Judge Clever protagonist there! I want to read the novel.


Thanks for the votes, @Rafellin, @M. Robert Gibson, @emrosenagel, @THX1138

 

[paranoid marvin]

Thanks again for your vote Yozh. I'm glad you still posted your story; there are bound to be some similarities when we are all drawing our inspiration from the same picture, and I'm also glad that your story is (deservedly) doing well.

Thankyou also Christine Wheelwright for your vote.

 

[Parson]

@Abernovo ...,. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose .... An alien SF story that rings very true to life.

@Ursa major .... Be Careful What is Wished For .... A Fantasy story that has a really unexpected punch at the end.

----------

Shortlisted --- Because

To Turn or Not to Turn by @Guttersnipe .... Because the story didn't follow one of the classic rules of vampires, and it had a memorable ending.

Room 27 by @paranoid marvin .... Because the story created an emotional atmosphere perfect for the kind of story it was.

Natural Light by @Yozh .... Because the story is so unique and yet so relatable.

A Blunder of Dodos by @Cat's Cradle .... Because it takes a deadly serious philosophical question, hints at an unsatisfactory answer and still leaves me smiling. --- *Special prize for the very best title.

Office Politics by @mosaix .... Because it is absolutely Machiavellian in a way that could just be true.

The Door by @The Judge .... Because I loved its clever twist that completely destroyed evil intentions.

Once again there were all manner of good stories. I wound up voting for

Room 27 by @paranoid marvin
A Blunder of Dodos by @Cat's Cradle
The Door by @The Judge

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Thanks kindly to @Christine Wheelwright for the listing, and huge thanks to @Parson for the kind words on my story (and for mentioning the title!). I was hoping for exactly your reaction to the piece, and I'm very pleased to have received a vote from you.

Just a side note, my wife and I have guests coming today from far across an ocean, for a long stay, so it'll be a while before I can do a read-through and vote. Best of luck to all in the voting, CC

 

[paranoid marvin]

Thankyou so much Parson for your vote.

And here are mine.

Shortlist:

Yozh for some ingenious ideas - one day we should all have penguin walls with anglerfish lighting!

M.Robert Gibson - a charming, well written fairytale

The Judge - if I had 4 votes, yours would have got one. Full of imagination and great storytelling.



Votes

Phyrebat - A horror story that really delivers. As a cat lover it doesn't make for pleasant reading, but the very fact that a piece of fiction can elicit emotion from the reader means that it has succeeded. Really well done.

PM - brilliantly written and inventive story

Ursa - I really enjoyed this story, and imagine it being just the kind of thing Robin Williams would have come up; in fact it was his voice I read it in. Pure genie-ous.