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Daedalus replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 9 months agoRe absence of choices and surprises. I’m not sure really. Sometimes they’ve helped me push myself to do something dramatically different, or have at least significantly shaped what I’ve written. Other times they just made slight complications to writing the story I would have written anyway. Generally it’s the overall theme I have the biggest…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 9 months agoYeah. Thanks. Still pondering …
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 9 months agoHow many words would it be? That said, it isn’t against the rules, and this is a challenge to produce a short story in any way you see fit as long as it fits with the theme.
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Sandra replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 9 months agoInitially, absence of choices left me teetering, unsupported. lacking a direction pointer (as did the lack of a ‘final twist’ in previous years.) But it didn’t take long to seize on an idea (and even less time to feel that a mistake and subsequently suffer an alternative uncertainty of direction) Still ongoing, but that’s the nature of a ch…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 9 months agoI’m interested in how people feel about the different approach this year, i.e. the absence of choices and surprises. It was something suggested to me by a group member and I thought I’d give it a go.
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I have always loved the choices and surprises – they’ve taken me out of my comfort zone and challenged me in ways I didn’t expect. It was always fun in the run up to the reveal and, ultimately, to see who made what of the same (or similar) choices. Last year, however, I didn’t enter the comp because one of the elements completely threw me (can’t…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 9 months ago
Fabulous competition! Hooray for all of us, especially Knicks. Thank you Sandra.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 9 months agoAll sounds promising so far.
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Daedalus replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 9 months agoHope so!!
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 9 months ago
@ Richard, glad to hear you were inspired, and hope it becomes a (good) habit. I did try to make sure I’d the time-line correct for Rebecca, but whichever, it worked as far as impact was concerned.
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 9 months ago
I should’ve known better than to panic – what I took for drought was silent fermentation which resulted in an uncorking and a fizzing cascade of sparkling wines. Knick’s violently vivid tale of betrayal dangerously intoxicating with an awe-inspiring detonation of language.
Richard B’s continuation of his ‘Whodunnit’ tale and Rebecca’s stoi…[Read more]
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Daedalus replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 9 months agoI’ve an idea. Whether it’s a workable idea or not is another matter. Recently my life has taken a slight turn reminiscent of the film Stand By Me, and it’s kind of demanding to be written about. On the other hand, it doesn’t have an obvious narrative shape or all the checkbox things you’re supposed to include to make a story these days, and…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 9 months ago
What becomes of the broken hearted?
Tomorrow, if I make it through the night, I celebrate my one hundred and ninth birthday. I hate my birthdays. Life’s punctuation. People wander about pretending it’s a secret that there will be a party for me in the day room. The press may attend. The staff will say things such as, “Well done”, as though…[Read more]
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John T replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 10 months agoYou might get a riff on my current series of novels out of this. There is one character who is hardly affected by the passage of time, and it would be fun to explore her POV. Although how to write it, I haven’t a clue… yet.
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Sandra replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 10 months agoSurprise, surprise, this will be another gallon into pint pot exercise; the story I want to tell one I’ve already written – 50000+ words and more – from letters, postcards, photos. meetings (in New Zealand) and anecdotes. But the slant of this challenge requires a different telling and is one I’ll aim to fulfil.
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 10 months ago
Winter is a-drawing in. Throw another log on the cat and pull up your writing gear. Time to turn your attention to matters of ancient tradition. Yonder peasant is freezing to death looking for Wenceslas’s famously warm footprints, the Daddy Longlegs are queuing up to die on your carpet, and the Winter Short Story Challenge is here! This is a…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 10 months agoPost wherever the fancy takes you – the activity stream is fine. If you want to start something, in the nicest possible way, that will be easily accessible and not scroll out of sight, here’s a good place.
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Gosh, I had to read that last sentence twice! I’m astounded that only one of your excellent challenge stories has been accepted. Really sorry to hear that.
Thanks Thea. In part I’m sure it’s my own fault for not being persistent enough. That said, I can’t help worrying that there’s something indefinably dated or just offputting in my writing. I should add that since I wrote the above, another story based on one of the Den challenge pieces was accepted for an anthology, but for various reasons that…[Read more]
Congratulations on having another story accepted. You say the anthology might be “up in the air”, so I really hope it all goes through alright.
I honestly don’t think there’s anything “dated” or “off-putting” in your stories. I’ve read several in the challenges over the years and they have all been excellent. I’m sure that if you look back at the…[Read more]