Competition: Variations on a theme 6 (The Box)

pickarooney

After a brief hiatus, we're bringing back the Variations on a Theme
short story competition. is now underway. For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, you'll find details of previous competitions by searching for threads in this forum with "theme" in the title. The last one we ran can be seen here .

The theme this time is as follows:

Ann sees a mysterious box on her desk. Just then her phone rings.

The word limit for the competition is 1500.

The closing date for competition entries is midnight GMT on the 30th of November. I'll be accepting submissions via PM as of today. Voting will run from the 1st to the 9th of December.

As is the rule, all votes must be accompanied by a post on the thread giving feedback to at least one of the stories, although obviously the more time you take to give your impressions the more the writers will benefit.

Please post in here with any queries on the competition itself.
Please do not post pieces directly in the thread.

Best of luck!

Phantasos

I guess we're going to have to think outside the box for this one.


There. I said what everyone was thinking.

pickarooney

What a first post!

Oryx

You should not to contain yourselves, box clever, but dont box yourself in, and be sure to wrap it all up by the deadline. C'mon, dont be square!

Turtyturd

Just wondering if this is open to everyone? Used to read these when they were running a few months ago but never had the courage to enter. Would like to give it a go now though if its possible?

pickarooney

Of course, anyone with a boards account can enter at any stage up to the closing date.

Phantasos

This is deceivingly hard to brainstorm an idea for. It's finding a balance between a good theme and a non-obvious theme. I'll be damned if there's gonna be a key in that box!!

Oryx

Hadnt thought of a key.. but now that you mention it..

Insect Overlord

pickarooney

Marcellus Wallace's soul is not in the box.

Phantasos

Insect Overlord wrote: »

< cute cat in a box pic >

Awww!

Antilles

pickarooney wrote: »

Marcellus Wallace's soul is not in the box.

:mad:

Time to rework my plot

angelll

Just marking the thread,still haven't written a word. It is really hard to pick something...i mean it's a box! And now my idea for having a quantum cat in there is ruined :mad:

pickarooney

How are people getting on with this? Just the two submissions so far...

Insect Overlord

I'll get started into my story this evening.

Turtyturd

Hope to have one in tomorrow...working on this and a philosophy essay simultaneously.

Odaise Gaelach

I... have an idea, I just need to write it.

Mr E

I've written about 500 words. Still working on it.

angelll

Nothing written yet,will do it tonight.

Phantasos

It's all this snow... I can't get to my laptop in this weather!

Seriously though, I have ~500 words of a poorly thought out story written. Deadline rapidly approaching! But I will get something submitted.

Blush_01

300 words and counting. That's major lack of procrastination for me, normally I'm panicing as midnight approaches!

Hrududu

Wait is it midnight tonight? Oh noes!

Mr E

Midnight on the 30th is midnight tomorrow, no?

Hrududu

Would midnight tonight not technically be the 30th?

Anyone know if its definitely tonight or tomorrow?

pickarooney

When Tuesday is gone so is the deadline

dawvee

Only saw this yesterday, yikes! 500 words now, hopefully I'll make the deadline.

Phantasos

Phew, submitted! That deadline really creeps up on you, doesn't it?

dawvee

Ah, done! 1570 words though, combing through to see if I can pare it down a touch before submitting.

pickarooney

I completely forgot I had to go to the UK on business for three days.... It'll be Friday before I can post these up.

Mr E

Does that translate to "I completely forgot I had to go to the UK on business for three days.... anyone who is horribly behind and probably wouldn't have got it in by tonight has some extra leeway."

??

RoodBoi

Mr E wrote: »

Does that translate to "I completely forgot I had to go to the UK on business for three days.... anyone who is horribly behind and probably wouldn't have got it in by tonight has some extra leeway."

??

double that. I'd love an extra day, everything thought out and ready to go, it's just the actual writing bit...

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Completely forgot about this, so an extension until friday would be fantastic.

dawvee

Just submitted mine, but I had to break it up into two since it was over the 8000-whatever character limit. Still over the word count, but you won't begrudge me 26 words, will you? :pac:

Mr E

Its only fair that anyone who has submitted theirs (possibly rushed and unedited) can have a few days to resubmit too if they want?

Up to Pickarooney though... I'll stand by his decision.

Phantasos

I'm thankful I submitted mine before the possibility of further procrastination was discussed!

Mr E

Not going to get this finished tonight.
If the deadline is set in stone, then so be it.
I'll post it separately when its done.

Antilles

No extensions.

Its 22:28. I've just finished a bottle of whiskey, and my wordcount is zero.

Time to get writing.

Oryx

It would set a dodgy precedent to shift the deadline. Makes creating a cut off pretty pointless in the first place. Of course thats easy for me to say, Im not currently sweating in front of a keyboard. Think of it as flash fiction.

Antilles

1059 words down, 441 to go!

Insect Overlord

I can't see myself getting another 782 decent words in the next hour. We'll see how it goes.

Blush_01

Antilles wrote: »

No extensions.

Its 22:28. I've just finished a bottle of whiskey, and my wordcount is zero.

Time to get writing.

Jealous!

Yes, still procrastinating. Close to the 1,000 mark. No editing this month either - shocker! Am going to try to finish anyway, otherwise unadulterated, unedited rubbish it is.

Hrududu

This was a tough one. I kept putting it off thinking that it wouldn't take long to do. Bad idea. Just as I sent it I got a Server error so hopefully it got through after all that.

Antilles

Its 23:28. I've written 1,463 words and the story is done. Half an hour editing now, and two minutes for submission

Blush_01

Show off!

Submitted, but I was too tired to read it. Apologies in advance, it'll probably be glaringly obvious which is mine.

Bizzare, how we get so much notice and yet so few of us use it! I thought I was the only one with time management issues!

pickarooney

I'm rejecting anything submitted in the first 6 days. I'm on GMT here; it's like real live VOAT instead of slightly in the future VOAT.

Antilles

Submitted, though I too had to break it into two parts.

Pickarooney - rejecting the first six days why?

Insect Overlord

I'll PM mine at ten o'clock tomorrow morning.

If it's accepted for VOAT, then I'll be most gracious.

If it's not? I'll still be happy. It's been years since I even tried to write a short story, and I like what I've put into this one so far.

pickarooney

Sure... if you're in Honolulu

Oryx

Is it just me or is pickarooney being very cryptic? Cos I dont get it.

Insect Overlord

It's still Tuesday in Honolulu until 10:00 a.m.

Phantasos

I have no idea what's going on in this thread since yesterday afternoon! Reading the stories in a few days' time should be interesting! :P