[Writing Contest] - THE ARENA

me-skywalker

pickarooney wrote: »

He's thrown the belt in the bin!

haha Ill retire gracefull with my 100% record thank you very much ;-)

Ah no.. I'm heading off for 2 weeks holidays on Sunday so will be bsuy al lthsi week getting stuff ready for it and new book out tomorrow Ill be reading all week so unfortunatley I wont have the time.

Hopefully will still be running in 2/3 weeks and I'll try get my belt back from whoever the Champ may be.

me-skywalker

Since I vacated the belt while on my sabbatical and nobody has taken up the task I shall return for a Battle Royal for the Title. All Challengers 1 Theme, 1 winner.

Anyone still interested in this?

furzebush

me-skywalker wrote: »

Since I vacated the belt while on my sabbatical and nobody has taken up the task I shall return for a Battle Royal for the Title. All Challengers 1 Theme, 1 winner.

Anyone still interested in this?

I'm new to this. How do you read the entries? All I see is your chat, challenging in itself. Has a new theme been decided? Still 300 words? And do you put your entry in a reply like this?

me-skywalker

Hello furzebrush. You write your entry in here in this thread as a normal post. IT can be 300-600 words(as far as I know). The challenger propses the theme to the current holder. Once the holder accepts the challenge the 24hours starts, once both entries are submitted people vote for their favourite by 'Thanking' that post, and after the 24hours from when challenge accepted the person with the most 'Thanks' wins. You can 'Thank' a post after you have post 10 times on boards.ie as I see you have posted under 10 times Im not sure you have this functionality yet.

[Writing Contest] - THE ARENA

---

In an effort to provide an outlet and a little side entertainment during the down periods between (rounds of) the bigger writing contests, this is an experiment in a new format of one on one writing battles. My idea is to give this a shot in a fairly rough format and to tweak the rules as it goes on. Here's how it works:

We start off with the first two contestants to throw their hats in the wring. A theme is given and the two have 24 hours to write around 300 words on that theme. Voting then begins, using the thanks button, and runs for 24 hours. The winner then stays on and faces the next challenger.

angelll

I'd be interested in the title holder v everyone else

furzebush

Thanks for quick explanation. I'll keep watching and reading, and maybe by the time I've ten posts I'll have the courage to take part. Looking forward to reading the next two challengers

partnership

Thanks for the explanation - not sure how many posts I have but will try to get them up in order to be able to vote. Well done to all participants to date - keep it going!

slavetothegrind

in a fit of madness i'll have a go.

no writing history and very much in admiration of the standard here, antilles really writes well if you are published point me to it and i'll buy it!!!!

if nothing else it will restart the thread.

i can't check back here untill late tonight but i will do so then

thanks for the pointer in your sig pickarooney!

mari2222

The Disappeared

Slavetothegrind.

The End

slavetothegrind

????

is that a title or a remark?

i was waiting for the last winner to post

i'm game if you are?

FewFew

slavetothegrind wrote: »

????

is that a title or a remark?

i was waiting for the last winner to post

i'm game if you are?

Nah, think it was just a comment on you restarting the thread and then disappearing.

If you're the challenger, then you pick the theme. Then the champ has 24 hrs to accept, then you've 24hrs to post up your pieces from the time he/she accepts. Then there's 24hrs of voting. Rinse and repeat.

me-skywalker

slavetothegrind wrote: »

????


i was waiting for the last winner to post

sorry about the delay havnt had much time recently.

slavetothegrind wrote:

hi,

you up for it?

Lets get the ball rolling on this!! Theme please?

smcgiff

me-skywalker wrote: »

Lets get the ball rolling on this!! Theme please?

Procrastination

me-skywalker Vs slavetothegrind

slavetothegrind

procrastination it is!

i am regretting this now having read all of the previous posts again...but what the hey....

me-skywalker

I was closer now than I had ever been since the dance began, since I began to dance. I had felt this fever build in me every week now. The wave coursing its way through my body, relentlessly gathering momentum, my pulse raced, my fingers itched. I skipped around another challenger. My ankle was on fire it was bruised and gashed, it ached with every footfall. I persisted through the agonizing pain. I had no choice, I was blind to it. My eyes set, hawking the line. Victory was closer. I was pursued by another challenger, dumb to my determination. Underestimating my steel.

My empire, I graced year on year, in the blistering heat and the skin starching freeze. My grass, my concrete, my steel, my people, my birds; each of it all built to recognize my presence. My name echoed through its halls, around its walls and onto its fields and out of his doors. My soldiers, my slaves and my masters; all took seat to watch my dance, my spectacle, my glorious victory. Week in week out I was the man they came to see. The man they feared and longed to be.

The lights gleamed and seemed to converge on my figure. The rain meshed above my arena and dripped, each like crystal with my reflection. The baying voices screamed at me in support. They blurred into one voice, I could feel their boom vibrating through my pain, pushing me on, willing me to succeed. With my people all throbbing and singing in a religious unison, I felt like a giant. I could skip over water, through mountains and through fire, with this passion how could I fail? I never had. This was bigger; this was the pinnacle of every man’s dream. I felt electricity charging in my veins, pulsing from every corner of my body, my brain, my heart, my mind. Concentrating my body to follow its instincts. My will to succeed was etched into my eyes you could see the grimace brushed off. The rain had made a slick glimmer on the grass; it splashed and sprayed as I took a drop of the shoulder to the right and rounded my final foe.


I was looking out the window. The panes fogged up form my warm stale breath. It hadn’t been washed in at least 3years, as long as I had been in this morgue. The great tree in the garden had been feeling the winter. I turned oaken limbs to the sink two feet from the edge of my bed. I washed the cobwebs from mind and the gut leaden feeling I had let myself fall asleep with. I watched that tape at least once every 2 months. I could never watch the last 5seconds. The other residents would sometimes insist I had done the right thing. I had to turn it off and sleep. How things could’ve been.


I had worked so hard, committed so much time to honing my skills, been resolute in my methods and mentally have never switched off from the price. I could almost reach out and touch it. My face was shining back at me on the trophy. My name was going to be in the annals. I could tell I was already a hero, now I would be legend. Now I would be the man that led his team to glory. This was the moment I had waited for, I could hear the cheers already before I unleashed my final blow, I breathed in, I arched and pulled my trigger back, my eyes saw the lights, my name in billboards, on screens in magazines, the masses in awe of my arrival. I came back the now and my eyes glazed in the arena lights, I took an extra step, I could feel the flare of agony rise in my ankle as I slipped and my foot timidly connected with the ball…. It rolled dead to a stop on the line as I lay on my back blinded by the lights. The glory, faded.

I had given up that future of glory and revelry for a moment of pure procrastination. However small it was I had been needlessly distracted and careless. Like a river when it reaches the sea, it meanders, afraid to enter that vast ocean of wonder, delaying its inevitable consumption until it is consumed unto itself by itself.

slavetothegrind

His hands rested gently on the new strings of his choice guitar, just enough to ground the slight hum reverberating through the speakers. He waited.
Slowly his fingers flexed to individual positions on the fretboard as his muse relaxed his mind and slowly opened the tap to bleed his soul.
The first chord was a plea in A minor, answered tentatively with a questioning phrase then reinforced assertively and authoritatively all the time rising.
.
Eyes closed now he moved into that easy rhythmic flow that had gotten him so far, and in so deep.
It was the moment, and he wanted it to last.
He became aware of the others as they joined in, he didn’t need to look at them he knew they would be in sync, they always were.
They were building now and he was becoming aware of the crowd breaking into his serenity with their fickle cries.

He opened his eyes and let them fall on the audience.
As his pupils adjusted to the rainbow glare he saw them in the front row.
Wide eyed and skull smiling they shimmered in his vision.
Moving with the music now and glancing off one of the others he noticed the floor was melting
“not yet!” he cried as the room pulsed arhythmically.
The gutar slipped from is grasp and he was powerless to catch it, the audience roared like a waterfall in his ears and he felt the by now familiar slide.
The cold hit him. Then, worst of all, despair gripped him in a heightened panic he coud not tolerate. Eyes wide open and silently screaming he lands on the cold wet concrete.

“**** this! No more” he roared as he pulled the needle from his arm tossing it at the bin across the alley. .
He thought of the band and of all the success he had, though of the many ways he could get it all back, just kick this and do it.
But then more pressing thoughts overcame him, as they always did.

slavetothegrind

me-skywalker yours is excellent, unsurprisingly

i posted because i said i would, not because i believe i could hold a candle to your talent.:o

smcgiff

Succint, slave. me-skywalker, accomplished writing, but in this instance the lily was truly gilded.

Carter P Fly

Skywalkers was excellent but some lines I just couldn't make out what was being painted with the words.

While to short I found slaves to be more straightforward and it just worked well as a short piece.

Oryx

There was a tendency towards trying too hard in skywalkers. I got fed up reading the description and wanted to get to the point of the story.

In sttg, some of the phrasing is a little overblown, theres too much effort and description, you can see the mechanics of the writing. But I liked it best.

me-skywalker

Looks like you win Slave. I liked your piece it was direct and articulated your point more definitive than mine.

I probably should should have kept mine for a larger piece of work rather than a shorter format. I feel due to the character's cocky arrogance people would have become unhinged and didn't car what happened, hence just wanting it to end.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll take them all on board regardless subjectively.

pickarooney

I wanted to prefer me-skywalker's but jsut couldn't make any sense of it.

Mr E

sttg's drew me in more, so I went for that.

me-skywalker - you have good style and a definite way with words.
Looking forward to reading more from you here in the future.

slavetothegrind

thanks very much for the comments.

i take it onboard and thanks for the experience, have never done that before and probably should have put more time into it.

In this case the pleasure for me was definitely participation, actually posting that took me a few moments of debate. That was the only winning for me!:)

pickarooney

Well, you have to defend it now, so...

Carter P Fly

I'd be up for a challange as I havent written in ages but I have no spare time until saturday

slavetothegrind

sound carter i'll check in then!

Carter P Fly

Ok, topic,

blue eyes

slavetothegrind

Blue eyes eh?

Bugger. Hmmmmm.

much head scratching to be done, i'll be back later, much later.:)

Antilles

slavetothegrind wrote: »

Blue eyes eh?

Bugger. Hmmmmm.

much head scratching to be done, i'll be back later, much later.:)

Time for a Dune fan fic!