Competition: Variations on a theme 2 (Jude)

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Mr E wrote: »

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

Well I'm not all that familiar with the fairytale, apart from the Synopsis I just read, but my version would've been filthy, that's for sure... Think 'The Brady Bunch' meets 'The Aristocrats' joke meets 'Cannibal Holocaust'...
And Samuel L. Jackson would've definitely made an appearance... "I'm sick of these motherf**king snakes in this motherf**king pit!!!"

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Oryx wrote: »

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?

Only problem there would be that then we'd know who's doing what story and what I love about the competition is not knowing who's writing what...
What if over the next few days we were to compile a shortlist of fairytales and for the competition we'll have to choose from 4 or 5 fairytales to write on - at least that way there's a choice, but it won't be too broad a choice and it means we'll more than likely get a couple of versions of different fairytales, which I think would be cool... Dunno... what do people think of that idea?

pickarooney

Oryx wrote: »

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?

I don't really want to mess with the anonymous format, but I could put up a list and cross them off as people claim them by PM.

Oryx

Doh... Never thought of the anonymity. Sounds good pickarooney, now to think of a story....

pickarooney

If anyone has a link to a good list of well-known fairy tales, put it up.
I must have made up at least a thousand of these in the last year or so and can no longer tell the 'real' ones from the invented ones.
I won't accept any bids on individual stories until voting closes on this month's one though.

Mr E

Cinderella
The Three Little Pigs
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
The Gingerbread Man
The Emperor's New Clothes
Sleeping Beauty
Little Red Riding Hood
The Ugly Duckling
Beauty and the Beast
Hansel and Gretel
Jack and the Beanstalk
Rumplestiltskin
Thumbelina
Rapunzel
The Frog Prince
The Little Mermaid
Tom Thumb
Puss In Boots
Three Billy Goats Gruff

Pickarooney - when the time comes, you can edit this post and grab the links.

Have I missed any?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Excellent Mr E - they're the best fairytales and the well known ones...

ToasterSparks

They're perfect Mr.E!

---

I'm loving all the great comments on the voting page. Feel like a bit of a comment slut - hanging around the voting page all day waiting for someone to say something about my story!

Mr E

ToasterSparks wrote: »

I'm loving all the great comments on the voting page. Feel like a bit of a comment slut - hanging around the voting page all day waiting for someone to say someone about my story!

Subscribe to the thread instead, and you'll get an instant email when someone adds a new post to the thread.

Just above the First Post, there is a thread tools menu. Drop that down, select "Subscribe to this thread", and "Instant Notification By Email" on the screen that comes up.

You'll only get one email until you've visited the site, so don't worry about getting floods of them if the thread gets busy.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

ToasterSparks wrote: »

I'm loving all the great comments on the voting page. Feel like a bit of a comment slut - hanging around the voting page all day waiting for someone to say something about my story!

Its a great thread - I'd love to see more people voting and leaving feedback... Can't wait to find out who wrote what...

ToasterSparks

Mr E wrote: »

Subscribe to the thread instead, and you'll get an instant email when someone adds a new post to the thread.

Just above the First Post, there is a thread tools menu. Drop that down, select "Subscribe to this thread", and "Instant Notification By Email" on the screen that comes up.

You'll only get one email until you've visited the site, so don't worry about getting floods of them if the thread gets busy.

Oh yeah, I know how to do all that stuff, thanks! I'm not refreshing the page every two minutes or anything, but I'm clicking onto Creative Writing all day to see what's new. There's a few new threads popping up too, so I think the Competition was good publicity for the forum!

Also Starring LeVar Burton

ToasterSparks wrote: »

Oh yeah, I know how to do all that stuff, thanks! I'm not refreshing the page every two minutes or anything, but I'm clicking onto Creative Writing all day to see what's new. There's a few new threads popping up too, so I think the Competition was good publicity for the forum!

I agree... I know I've shown more interest in the forum anyway... There's some good peeps floating around the Creative Writing Forum...

angelll

I think ye should pick snow white for the next competition

(And it's nothing to do with the fact that we did the rewritten fairytale idea in my creative writing class and that's the one i picked )

Antilles

Sounds good, I'd just be worried that the revamped fairytales thing has been done to death with Shrek, Hoodwinked, Princess & the Frog etc.

pickarooney

Mr E wrote: »

Just above the First Post, there is a thread tools menu. Drop that down, select "Subscribe to this thread", and "Instant Notification By Email" on the screen that comes up.

I read that as "instant gratification..." first time.

I don't know if fairytales have been done to death. It's not a completely original concept, but there's a lot of potential.

Mr E

Its up to the writers to elevate the story above the mundane.
After the last 2 challenges, I have little doubt that we're in for a treat.

davyjose

So we're giving up the original competition idea after 2 rounds?

pickarooney

davyjose wrote: »

So we're giving up the original competition idea after 2 rounds?

How do you mean?

davyjose

pickarooney wrote: »

How do you mean?

Well, the variations on a theme idea, gave us a skeleton for a story, which we could then treat however way we liked. We could vary the setting, the era, the style, the beginning, and the ending.

In rewriting another story, we're limited to that plot. It's not a terrible idea, but it's a departure from variations on a theme to variations on a plot.

I have it in my head that there are going to be 10-15 smartly presented, but ultimately similar, modern-day versions of fairytales. That doesn't excite me, I'm afraid.

It also strikes me as more of a writing exercise, than a challenging competition. I'll go with the flow on this, but I'm a small bit disappointed.

Oryx

davyjose, Im not used to writing challenges or exercises. and I didnt see a great deal of difference in the two types of idea. I only suggested it tho, and Im sure if we got together and threw in a few theme ideas as before and chose the one we agree on, that would work too. Its really up to pickarooney what way we do this.

pickarooney

davyjose wrote: »

Well, the variations on a theme idea, gave us a skeleton for a story, which we could then treat however way we liked. We could vary the setting, the era, the style, the beginning, and the ending.

In rewriting another story, we're limited to that plot. It's not a terrible idea, but it's a departure from variations on a theme to variations on a plot.

I really don't see how it's any different. There's nothing to stop you rewriting Rapunzel as a trance DJ or The Billy Goats Gruff as a series of haikus. In fact, it's almost expected.

The first thing that came to my mind was Rapunzel with dissociative personality disorder in a reality TV show of her own making where she desperately tries to vote herself out of the tower.

By all means (and this goes for Antilles and anyone else not keen on the idea) suggest something else, though. There's nothing written in stone yet.

Mr E

davyjose wrote: »

I have it in my head that there are going to be 10-15 smartly presented, but ultimately similar, modern-day versions of fairytales. That doesn't excite me, I'm afraid.

It's really only limited by your imagination. Snow White and the 7 Dwarves could be about an albino whore and 7 mexican midget wrestlers. Goldilocks and the 3 Bears could be about a blonde's adventures in the Playboy mansion. Hansel and Gretel could be about cannibal children.

The fairytale idea is is just a basic framework - you can twist it around completely to meet your own needs - you don't need to use the exact story.

dawvee

davyjose wrote: »

Well, the variations on a theme idea, gave us a skeleton for a story, which we could then treat however way we liked. We could vary the setting, the era, the style, the beginning, and the ending.

In rewriting another story, we're limited to that plot. It's not a terrible idea, but it's a departure from variations on a theme to variations on a plot.

I have it in my head that there are going to be 10-15 smartly presented, but ultimately similar, modern-day versions of fairytales. That doesn't excite me, I'm afraid.

It also strikes me as more of a writing exercise, than a challenging competition. I'll go with the flow on this, but I'm a small bit disappointed.

Yeah, I would agree. I'm hardly one to talk, seeing as I didn't get a story into this month's competition, but I find fairy tales to be tedious and overdone. I think Davyjose raises a good point as well, that limiting writers to a specific plot seems to make it more of a writing exercise than anything else.

Just throwing it out there, but would it be interesting to anyone to actually try variations on a *theme*? As in, "your theme is a journey of self-discovery, go to". Pick a specific theme and leave it open to the writers to interpret and express that theme, with votes based on how well the story captures it. I would find that more interesting, as it gets away from the specific, technical aspects of writing and more into the broader, 'soft' aspects that often get ignored in classes, workshops, etc. Any thoughts?

davyjose

it's no big deal, and in fact, the more i think about it, the more I like it.

I suppose the ending being pre-ordained, bugs me a tiny bit, but my think-outside-the-box capabilities aren't the best, admittedly.

Yeah, I'm definitely coming around to it.

My original post was a bit grumpy, I suppose - three hours sleep and all that

So we can pick any of the listed fairy stories to rework?

pickarooney

The idea, if it goes ahead in this guise, is a first-come, first-served approach. One story per entrant, and I'll tick them off as people claim them (via PM). Well, that's one idea - if you think it would be more interesting to potentially have 4 or 5 Cinderellas, there's no reason why that can't be the case.

pickarooney

A sitewide announcement has just gone up for the current competition so hopefully we'll get a few more punters in today.

davyjose

Mr E wrote: »

It's really only limited by your imagination. Snow White and the 7 Dwarves could be about an albino whore and 7 mexican midget wrestlers.

Puts a new slant on "who is the fairest of them all"

davyjose

pickarooney wrote: »

The idea, if it goes ahead in this guise, is a first-come, first-served approach. One story per entrant, and I'll tick them off as people claim them (via PM). Well, that's one idea - if you think it would be more interesting to potentially have 4 or 5 Cinderellas, there's no reason why that can't be the case.

Ah, but what if two people write the same story? You could spend a few hours/days, working on something, and see someone post their version of cinderella ahead of yours.

pickarooney

No, you wouldn't write Cinderella because it would be ticked off the list as someone else would have PMed to say "I'm writing Cinderella" and I'd have marked it taken.

It does assume that you don't suddenly get an idea on the last day and want to write Puss In Boots instead though, so it might not be ideal.

Mr E

davyjose wrote: »

Ah, but what if two people write the same story? You could spend a few hours/days, working on something, and see someone post their version of cinderella ahead of yours.

13 people just wrote a story about a person called Jude on an airplane, but I think you'll agree that the variety meant that no two stories were the same. Like I said earlier, the stories don't have to match the fairytale exactly and you can completely change the ending. They are just there as a template to focus your story a bit (much like Jude's life-changing piece of paper and the captain's announcement).

ToasterSparks

Glad to see there's at least one vote for every story that is posted!

pathway33

ToasterSparks wrote: »

Glad to see there's at least one vote for every story that is posted!

The vote for version 5 will have to be deleted as the voter did not post a comment. No sympathy

pickarooney

I'm sure she's in the middle of writing a really detailed feedback post right now.

davyjose

Mr E wrote: »

13 people just wrote a story about a person called Jude on an airplane, but I think you'll agree that the variety meant that no two stories were the same. Like I said earlier, the stories don't have to match the fairytale exactly and you can completely change the ending. They are just there as a template to focus your story a bit (much like Jude's life-changing piece of paper and the captain's announcement).

You missed my point: I was suggesting that by allocating 1 Fairytale per person, you were running into problems of two people wanting the same one.

Pickarooney, why can't we just choose whatever one we like? it's starting to feel like a bit of a land rush. I get your point about PM'ing you, but i don't want to start working on a retelling of the 3 bears, and find someone else has chosen it.

Maybe we could establish all prospective entrants, and pull names out of a hat? My point is, I don't want to get started on this (not even the bit where I ruminate ideas in my head driving home from work, long before I put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard), and have to abort. I get attached to my ideas, and i'd find the element of uncertainty stifling, tbh.

pathway33

Personally I'd like to see us writing on just 1 fairytale. How is it a competition if you are writing on things completely disconnected? Reading all the entries to the different takes on Jude was very interesting. Reading a whole bunch of takes on different stories would be mind-numbingly boring but then I'm quite hard to please . A competition is about comparing like with like. Let's have a poll on the list of fairytales and the top 1 is chosen for the competition. Then everybody knows where they stand. I say open the poll now

p.s i do have a bit of a neck making suggestions given the standard of my entry to the Jude competition

pathway33

pickarooney wrote: »

I'm sure she's in the middle of writing a really detailed feedback post right now.

well if she's not that person will have to be hunted down :cool:

Oryx

I would never have had a problem with many people using the one story. I also think using just the one fairy tale for all of us is pretty much the same principle as weve been using all along, and could be really interesting.

pickarooney

pathway33 wrote: »

Reading a whole bunch of takes on different stories would be mind-numbingly boring but then I'm quite hard to please .

That was one of the major complaints when everyone wrote on the same story - there really is no pleasing some people

There'll be nothing concrete put in place until Monday at any rate. It might end up as a dirty limerick contest yet.

pathway33

Lets have 2 competitions. One for the picky people and one for the easy going people like me

davyjose

pickarooney wrote: »

That was one of the major complaints when everyone wrote on the same story - there really is no pleasing some people

There'll be nothing concrete put in place until Monday at any rate. It might end up as a dirty limerick contest yet.

There once was a young girl named Ella,
Whose Fairy Godmother cast a spell-a
So she could go to the ball,
Glass slipper and all,
And bag herself a nice, charming fella.

pickarooney

pathway33 wrote: »

Reading a whole bunch of takes on different stories would be mind-numbingly boring but then I'm quite hard to please .

pathway33 wrote: »

Lets have 2 competitions. One for the picky people and one for the easy going people like me

You're taking this multiple personality suggestion to heart

Oryx

Rude limericks? Where??

There once was a mod who was picky
On rules and regs he was sticky
A competition debate
Made him very irate
So he went off and played with his...

Should I apologise now or go sit out my ban somewhere else?

pickarooney

Said young Jack in tones most defiant
"I shall climb up and tackle that giant!"
But the HSA man
Pulled the plug on this plan
Said "This beanstalk's not safety compliant"

ToasterSparks

I’m bored of this room with a view
That witch is a total bi*ch too
I’m not very fragrant
I look like a vagrant
And a haircut is long overdue

Oryx

This porridge is lumpy as stew
The beds got a lump or two too
I just broke a chair
Sh!t, here comes a bear
Would he look if I hide in the loo?

Mr E

Haiku(ish)

Ouch too hot! Yuck too
cold! Yum, just right. Ate all three
anyway. Fat bitch.

pathway33

pickarooney wrote: »

You're taking this multiple personality suggestion to heart

Yes it can get quite confusing for me sometimes but as long as I can remember my own name I'm happy enough with that

Blush_01

I have to say, I like the idea of everyone being given the same template and seeing what each person does with it. Take for example the original theme, which was fairly straightforward - look at the variety of things that came from it.

I don't mind the fairytale idea i.e. using a fairytale skeleton as the skeleton for the next competition, because there's scope to manipulate it a bit. Lets face it, if we were all without flesh we'd have different fractures in different places, and a story is no different. But I don't really like the idea of everyone taking a different fairytale, I think it goes against the idea of manipulating the story to get the most you can out of it as a competitor, and it takes away from the excitement of seeing how much magic people have in their own imaginations as a reader and voter.

Wow, did not realise I was so opinionated about this, sorry!

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Blush_01 wrote: »

I have to say, I like the idea of everyone being given the same template and seeing what each person does with it. Take for example the original theme, which was fairly straightforward - look at the variety of things that came from it.

I don't mind the fairytale idea i.e. using a fairytale skeleton as the skeleton for the next competition, because there's scope to manipulate it a bit. Lets face it, if we were all without flesh we'd have different fractures in different places, and a story is no different. But I don't really like the idea of everyone taking a different fairytale, I think it goes against the idea of manipulating the story to get the most you can out of it as a competitor, and it takes away from the excitement of seeing how much magic people have in their own imaginations as a reader and voter.

Wow, did not realise I was so opinionated about this, sorry!

Good point. I'd also be in favour of everyone doing the same fairytale, if we're going ahead with the fairytale idea...

Oryx

Yup, Id go with that too. Next question. Which fairytale?