@libby
Active 2 days, 21 hours ago-
Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 10 months agoPlease don’t feel you have to emphasise the differentness. It was a throw-away comment about making me happy. The following remark that making me happy is not a condition of entry to the challenge was intended to say that. What should probably have put is that emphasis on difference will be great, but not emphasising it will also be…[Read more]
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Daedalus replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 10 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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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.
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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]
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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]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 10 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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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 10 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, 11 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, 11 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, 11 months agoHope so!!
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Daedalus replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 11 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, 11 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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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 11 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, 11 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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Athelstone started the topic Q&A in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 11 months agoIf you have to ask…
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Athelstone started the topic Voting in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 11 months agoOn the face of it, what you have to do is quite simple. However, those of you have been through this before in previous challenges will know that in fact it is extraordinarily tough.
When the writing stage of the challenge closes on 2 February 2025 at 22:00 UK time, the voting stage begins. No doubt most of you will have read many of the entries…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Rules in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 11 months agoSome Basic Story Rules and Guidelines
The challenge is to produce a short story. In the way that the term is usually understood, what is needed is a work of fiction. By all means stretch this definition as you like, to include, for example, an imaginative account of true events, but please avoid essays, reportage, political polemic,…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Welcome PLEASE READ THIS FIRST in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 11 months agoWelcome all.
This year, I have borrowed from the method often used in the monthly competition. The theme of the challenge, A Different Time, is a prompt. That is to say, look at the phrase and use it in any of the multitude of possible ways that occur. You might choose to write an historical piece, or a recollection of something that happened in…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 11 months ago
Well, it’s September. Something is usually afoot by now, but I’ve been tied up with finishing a draft and editing, amongst other things. Is the formula too tired? Anybody up for another spot of winter writing?
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I’m up for it, Ath. I find the comp helpful and reading other people’s stories helps my writing too. What about setting a choice of three general topics but without the choices about objects – would that make your and Jules’ lives easier? So, I don’t know, a story concerning either love, crime or war. Maybe too a longer deadline for joining the…[Read more]
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I’m up for winter writing, Ath. I haven’t been around here much because I’ve been busy with both book two (currently being typeset by Leigh Forbes) and three (less than halfway through first draft) as well as trying to promote and sell book one. Several book fairs and talks about using my own epilepsy in fiction lined up in the near future. But I…[Read more]
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Jolly good! I shall put my thinking-cap on.
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Brilliant!
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