@thea
Active 4 months, 1 week ago-
Seagreen started the topic Monthly comp – October 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years ago
If you don’t mind, I’m going to steer away from the typical Halloween-type thing. Instead, I’d like you to get in touch with your negative emotions – hate, fear, despair – whatever you like and however you like.
I’m setting the word limit at 350 words to keep it intense. -
Seagreen replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years ago
Eek! Sorry about this, but I’ve been caught on the hop. Loved ALL of your stories and wasn’t expecting to be anywhere near the podium this month.
Thanks to Janette for hauling me out of a particularly deep rut with the theme for this comp, and thanks to all of you for challenging me to be better.
I think I have a idea for October… -
John S Alty replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years ago
Well done, @seagreen, excellent story.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years ago
Great stuff @seagreen. Super story.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years ago
Red Sun
Sunsets are very different here. Everything is different, but it was the sunset that I was staring at last night. Or rather, the absence of a sunset.
OK. No sunset. Tell you what, there aren’t any asthmatics here on Grissom’s planet either. I’m not blaming anybody; when a 300-mile-wide asteroid drew a bead on Earth at twenty-five miles…[Read more]
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Barny replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 6 years agoOh ok then Believer. Justin time 😉
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Barny replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 6 years agoHome, Belieber, Spoon
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Athelstone posted an update 6 years ago
OK – at the risk of badgering people, three and a bit days left to enter “Things that go bump”. Also – 18 members at present, but only 16 sets of choices. If you’re intending to take part, don’t forget!
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years ago
The marking of a life, or two.
This the second funeral in six days and the mourning very different.
Last week’s was of a mother. Not his, not biologically, but one who had nevertheless mothered him. Had generously included him, enabled him to share in the love she gave her natural sons. Much needed when his own family had been hard and spiky, s…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 6 years ago
“I don’t care where you’ve been, You ain’t been nowhere till you’ve been in – the Things that go Bump writing challenge.”
Find the group. Join. Enjoy.
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JaneShuff posted an update 6 years, 1 month ago
Just wondering how you are all dealing with the Covid pandemic within your writing. I’m in the planning stages of a new novel and can’t decide. Do I set my novel pre-pandemic? Which feels like a bit of a cop-out. Do I ignore it completely? Same comment. Or do I try to set it in the current situation with the problems and concerns of the pandemic…[Read more]
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I think it depends how optimistic or pessimistic you are about the pandemic. Considering how long it takes between drafting a novel and seeing it in print (if it gets that far), if you take the optimistic view the whole thing will be over by then, it’ll no longer be a part of contemporary life, and nobody will worry much whether you’ve included it…[Read more]
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Not answering your question, exactly, but I’ve read a number of short stories which include reference to Covid and in general I find them offputting, a bit bandwagon, which might be because we’re in the middle of it. I think if your novel is set at the time, a passing reference to its restrictions might be enough. But the same (to include or…[Read more]
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Personally, I’d leave it out. So many people now must be writing pandemic stories, that the mention of it alone might put readers on guard. Also, optimistically speaking, by the time your novel comes out, life may have returned to normal and your story would be dated.
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Interesting. I wasn’t planning on writing a story about the pandemic but was thinking about whether the story I had planned to write should acknowledge the pandemic. For example there is quite a lot of travel in it and it feels weird to have someone just hop on a plane given what’s going on. Have to think a bit more.
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Best of luck!
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Yes, best of luck, Jane. FWIW, I don’t think ignoring the pandemic is anything of a cop-out. I’m choosing to ignore it in my next one for similar reasons to some remarks above, that a) it risks becoming band-wagon and, if it does (hopefully) pass, Covid might age the novel by the time it comes to print. Mostly b) that books are commonly escapism,…[Read more]
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I agree there’s a risk of bandwagon. I think it can be hard, too, to think of something interesting to say about a situation when we’re still in it. Hard for me, anyway.
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Yeah, its a tricky one isn’t it? To ignore it completely, or assume that a book based two years from now can still ignore it completely seems a bit unbelievable to me. This is a world changing event, ignoring it for present/near-future settings would be odd imo. BUT I have absolutely zero interest in novels *about* it. I do think the shifting,…[Read more]
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Thanks @raine. You expressed my quandary much better than I could. Still not sure which way to go!!
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I’m veering towards thinking that a contemporary book which ignores covid is going to date far faster than one which has it/its aftershocks in the background.
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I think I agree and, in any case, I’m finding hard to impossible to plan without the realities of Covid19 informing the action. It is the current reality.
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Now there’s a coincidence. Neither am I.
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Nor me! Although I am not good with those pictures!
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I sometimes think a robot would be better at identifying the traffic lights than I am. Hang on, maybe that’s the point…
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Those blasted traffic lights. I’m always relieved to get the fire hydrants. I think I’m becoming a fire hydrant fan.
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Good to mix things up with the occasional bit of fire hydrant. But where’s the other street furniture? Why can’t we identify some litter bins for a change, or bike stands or something?
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Dogs. I want to identify all the dalmatians in a field full of friesan cows.
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I once saw a dalmatian in a field full of daisies.
Re street furniture, it could be the tables and chairs a coffee shop blocks the pavement with in a town near me.
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Sandra replied to the topic Cloudie short story challenge publication in the forum Podium 6 years, 1 month ago
You’re really on a roll, Raine … proving it’s not just buses. Brilliant news.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 1 month ago
390 words.
Prison? Or exile?
My senses woke – to unfamiliar birdsong and the whisper of wind through long grasses; to the brush of warm air across my skin and the scent of lemon lavender and rose petals spiced with cinnamon; to the taste of salt-tinged air on honeyed lips. I stretched, easing joints taut with inactivity, then opened my mind t…[Read more]
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John S Alty replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 1 month ago
Excuse the bizarre formatting, this had indents when I wrote it.
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John S Alty replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 1 month ago
Sunset
The sun melted into the horizon like a knob of butter in a frying pan and behind it the sky was on fire, it’s flames dancing on the restless sea. Soon, for this was the tropics where sunset and darkness are never far apart, a million stars would come out to play. Frank and his sister, Sarah, sat shoulder to shoulder, their feet half b…[Read more] -
KazG replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 6 years, 1 month agoHome
unbeliever
necklace -
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Knicks replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 6 years, 1 month agoHome
Unbeliever
Ring - Load More
