Competition: Variations on a theme 2 (Jude)

pickarooney

11 now and just over an hour to go...

Antilles

Um, you mean 26 hours to go, right?

pickarooney

Is it midnight tomorrow? Whatever, I won't be putting them up until Monday in any case.

DingosAteMyBaby

aww i only found this now:( I look forward to reading the entries anyway:) Will definitely enter the next competition!

Antilles

DingosAteMyBaby wrote: »

aww i only found this now:( I look forward to reading the entries anyway:) Will definitely enter the next competition!

You fool, this is the perfect opportunity for a speed written piece!

pickarooney

Yeah, if you spend more than 37 minutes writing a 1000 word story, you're doing it wrong!

DingosAteMyBaby

Antilles wrote: »

You fool, this is the perfect opportunity for a speed written piece!

You think I haven't toyed with the idea?! I'm sitting here studying contract law but really daydreaming about Jude and that oh-so-important piece of paper:( the possibilities are endless...

Oryx

pickarooney wrote: »

Yeah, if you spend more than 37 minutes writing a 1000 word story, you're doing it wrong!

Thats been my secret all along.

DingosAteMyBaby

pickarooney wrote: »

Yeah, if you spend more than 37 minutes writing a 1000 word story, you're doing it wrong!

True, but I lack discipline. Once I start writing I will it's the equivalent of written diarrhea . I'd probably knock out around 5 pages and have to spend ages editing:(

pickarooney

Just delete everything after word 1000, give it a real "to be continued..." feel.

angelll

Mine is going to have a real 'crap it's saturday and i still have nothing written yet' feel Will pm it tonight (i hope)

Miranda7

Me too.

ToasterSparks

Cool. There's gonna be a flurry of late entries then? Look forward to reading them!

Antilles

DingosAteMyBaby wrote: »

True, but I lack discipline. Once I start writing I will it's the equivalent of written diarrhea . I'd probably knock out around 5 pages and have to spend ages editing:(

...*whispers* nobody tell DingosAteMyBaby about James Joyce!

pickarooney

12 now. Excellent stuff.

Antilles

pickarooney wrote: »

12 now. Excellent stuff.

Not that I'm complaining, but I thought you weren't going to be around to post them today

pickarooney

I haven't had more than 5 minutes consecutive peace since 6 this morning so it would have surely been an ungodly mess if I'd posted them up. Besides, tonight is the cutoff, right?

Antilles

True that. Take your time, pickarooney. We all appreciate the work you've put into organising these competitions

Blush_01

angelll wrote: »

Mine is going to have a real 'crap it's saturday and i still have nothing written yet' feel Will pm it tonight (i hope)

+1

Unfortunately mine's an uninspiring first draft that made it through at 23:58 but I've entered one now, so roll on next time when I'll actually get the finger out.

pickarooney

13 at the table... how long do we let voting run for, do you reckon?

Mr E

A week? Then if the next story is started next weekend, we'll have 3 weeks to work at it. A 3 week / 1 week cycle sounds good to me.

Oryx

A week for voting sounds good. Long as everyone votes.. I wonder if its out of place to ask amadeus to choose the next outline? Seeing as I stole that priviledge on him last time? It would also mean were all set to go on number 3 next week?

pickarooney

I had a couple of ideas. I suppose this thread is good a place as any to discus them.

If everyone proposes something we can go with a show of hands.

A week for voting seems fine, if we can get people to look at the thread in time.

Toastersparks - I really don't know how twitter works; can you spread the word somehow with that, maybe ask #boards.ie to tweet it?

Mr E

pickarooney wrote: »

Toastersparks - I really don't know how twitter works; can you spread the word somehow with that, maybe ask #boards.ie to tweet it?

That'd be @boards_ie
(No, I don't get twitter either)

ToasterSparks

Sent a message there!

(And trust me, I don't get Twitter either, but any publicity is good publicity, right?)

pickarooney

Voting is open HERE.

Please remember to keep any posts which do not contain feedback on the stories themselves to this thread and to PM me with anything urgent (e.g. I've chopped off half your story). Stories were again added in random order but they seem more varied and hopefully there will be no advantage or disadvantage to being near the top or bottom of the list.

Best of luck everyone!

davyjose

Again, as with the kim story, both sexes covered. I thought Jude was unambiguously a guys name.
Never even thought of nicknames/abbreviated names.

This comp really is a brilliant idea. A real shot in the arm for this forum, when I think of how lifeless it once seemed.

pickarooney

I'm going to read them all through again after lunch, but after the first time there was one that stood out and five more running it very close. I wasn't overly surprised to see so much death and terror this time, you sick little puppies!

Mr E

I've read half of them. I'll read the other half later this morning. Really high standard again, that's for sure. Fantastic variety too.

Pickarooney - the sticky title still says Competition 1.

Blush_01

Y'know, the more I look at the entries, the more I cringe at my own. Even with the fairly narrow outline there was still a variety of approaches and some really good short stories!

I can't wait for the next one now, this whole thing has been an excellent idea!

pickarooney

Eleven votes already. Hopefully this will keep up and we'll get a big turnout this time.

If you've any suggestions for next month's competition (and it's looking like a monthly event at this stage ), let fly. It doesn't have to be along the same lines; anything that will get people writing, and enjoying it, is good.

Mr E

I've added a link to my sig.
Can the Arts cmods make a cat-wide announcement? Is that possible?

Blush_01

I'd love to see an image used - be it a sepia photograph or a painting or whatever. If anyone else likes that as an idea we could look for one over the next few days maybe?

ToasterSparks

As I've said in my voting message, the standard is brilliant. I love the variety of entries (even if a lot of the entries have unhappy endings). I think everyone's efforts have really rejuvenated the forum (especially Pickarooney's, thanks!).

And as we all know - writing lots is the best way to improve your writing. I'm glad I have a reason to hone my skills every month, and the feedback is brilliant for all of us to help us improve.

Looking forward to reading everyone's takes on the entries and where they went right or wrong. Great way to help me improve. We're pretty much an online writing group now!

Oryx

I havent cast my vote yet, Im waiting till I not on m.boards. I suggested this theme, and I got to say Im surprised that people found it narrow, and that so many stuck to terrorism and turbulence. No mile high club, no club med groups. Jude wasnt ever captain or crew. That said, there was a lot of variety in the stories, even though yet again we love to kill people off all the time
Ill leave it to another to suggest next months theme, I really love these competitions, as both an entrant and voter.

Antilles

There certainly seems to be more/faster voting for this one than last time! My entry is not going to win, but to be honest I didn't think it would be a "crowd pleaser," and was more concerned with being happy with it myself -- which I am. I can't wait for next month's one now!

I like Blush_01's idea of using an image as the next story prompt, but how about a selection of photos?

The brief could be: "Write a story story of approximimately 1,000 words, inspired by a photograph from http://www.time.com/time/yip/2005/"

pickarooney

Anyone else want to sig the voting thread?

I think a selection of photos is a bit too vague and there might as well be no constraint. And some wiseacre would just post a photo which is mathematically equivalent to 1000 words anyway.

I was thinking of giving the first and last lines of a story and getting everyone to fill in the blanks. It's kind of a cruel idea though, giving a sort of false liberty to the writer.

Another idea was a story on anything you like but mentioning all the colours of the rainbow in the body of the text.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

I've added the link for the competition to my signature - hopefully it'll draw some people over here...

Antilles

Added it to my sig

pickarooney

If anyone notices that their votes are not being tallied and are getting a message saying they have already voted, can they let me know by PM and maybe hit the HelpDesk?

Thanks.

pickarooney

It's extremely close at this stage with a very interesting pattern emerging, which I won't go into detail about now. For info, there was a problem with Bungy Girl's vote not registering so there are five stories who each have one extra vote than is currently displaying. If it's not sorted out I'll add these by hand at the close of voting.

Oryx

I know I said I wouldnt, but I got to share something that popped into my head on the way to work. Youre looking for ideas, and I wondered if this might springboard someones imagination onto a plan for next month.

I thought about a reworking of nursery rhymes/fairytales. Hey diddle diddle, three pigs, little red riding hood, beauty and the beast etc. You give the story the traditional title, but do your own tale, be that a modern story or a skewed version of the original. Not a perfect plan, but an idea that might get yall thinking.

pickarooney

That's not bad at all... at all.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

I like the sounds of that... what are the odds there'll be a lot more sex in the fairytales than ever before, should we go with that idea?

Mr E

That's brilliant. Lots of scope for variety.

Just looking down through the list, there is a every chance that all stories will be based on different tales.
(Don't just look at English - most famous fairy tales were German, Greek, Norwegian and others.....)

ToasterSparks

I like that idea! Should we maybe pick a selection of nursery rhymes/fairytales to choose from, or leave it entirely up to the writer?

If we were to go with this, I'd prefer to have nursery rhymes/fairytales that were recognisable rather than some obscure ones I'd never heard of. Otherwise I'll be off searching for the story online for ages, read that, then come back to read the entries!

Mr E

ToasterSparks wrote: »

I'd prefer to have nursery rhymes/fairytales that were recognisable rather than some obscure ones I'd never heard of....

Awww... I wanted to see what CaptainNegative does with Bushy Bride.

You're probably right though.

DingosAteMyBaby

Definitely kickstarted my imagination anyway. It's been 2 minutes and I already have a rapunzel-esque idea:)

pickarooney

I think this is a winner. We'll give it a few days to get more feedback and then sort out the details. We might do something to ensure everyone does a different story, e.g. P.M. the story you want to do and I'll OK it if it hasn't already been picked?

Oryx

I feel a little guilty for yet again being the one to suggest, but I did think it was too good an idea to waste. How about you put up a list of stories we can use, and if someone picks one, they cross it out, or put their name next it or something? Like people post on the challenge lists in a/r/t. I dont see a problem with having a story chosen more than once, but if its visible on a list youd tend to avoid it anyway if its already chosen?