WCT - The Writing Competition Thread [Short Story Results]

[thesim]

I kind of want to enter a stream of consciousness piece. Would that fit the current category? Also, can I use a piece I started earlier but never finished?

[HalcyonSpirit]

Freeform is basically "anything that has words." Of course, there are a few exceptions, but stream of consciousness definitely isn't one of them. Regarding a piece started earlier but never finished, Imagery would have a conclusive answer, though I think we try to discourage pieces that are finished or mostly finished prior to the start of the current competition. We tend not to disqualify them, though (mostly because there's really no way of knowing what was and wasn't done in the competition timeframe).

[Imagist]

From the official rules:

Instead of submitting old material, please write something new within the time frame of the submission stage. After all, the idea behind the competition is partially to promote creativity, and inherent in the idea of creativity is the act of creation.

Of course, as GA mentioned, there's no way of knowing whether you are following this rule unless you explicitly tell us you aren't, and the line becomes even fuzzier when you consider things like conceiving of a piece beforehand and only putting it to paper once the competition begins. Basically, use your discretion. Since the prize for the competition is an image file with your name on it I wouldn't get too worked up about it if you decide to finish something old, but as the rule suggests, you'll only be cheating yourself of the chance to create something fresh. Just... don't tell me, or I'd look kind of silly not punishing you for breaking a rule.

[thesim]

Right then, I can make something new for this. I really liked my title, but I'll find something better floating around my brain.

As a part of the thoughts can I include minor profanities?

[HalcyonSpirit]

This forum tolerates profanity to a certain degree, so yes, I'd say that as long as you're not using them just for the sake of using them, I don't see any reason why a few minor profanities shouldn't be allowed. Just don't go off the deep end with a lot of really harsh ones and you should be fine.

[Imagist]

My thoughts (not any sort of official ruling, as the contest maintains no rule about profanity beyond the rules of the forum):

I side with Orson Scott Card on the matter. He's Mormon, so you'd think he'd act against profanity like a five year-old boy treats girl-cooties, but instead he owns up to reality. For one thing, he's not the one speaking or thinking in his writing; his characters are, so he can hardly be held responsible. For another, he's a writer and is therefore duty-bound to be true to life, to these people he's writing through and about, so it would be much worse to pretend the world is something it's not. So basically, I support profanity in the context that it fits the nature of your subject, and is used with artistic purpose and tact. On the other hand, just because you want to write about a disgruntled wino with Tourrette's doesn't mean anyone wants to read about it, so you always have to consider your audience, just as Orson Scott Card writes his religious/historical fiction differently than the Ender's Game series.

[thesim]

Thank for answering the way you did. I have seen enough profanity throughout the various forums that I know it is fairly common, however I did not know the target audience of the pieces that are written for this thread. Also, I have striven for the past years to entirely eliminate profanity from my own speech, but thoughts are harder to control. Since I am writing from a stream of consciousness, I wanted to put down what I would feel in the same situation, but I also wanted to stay true to my ideals and not offend anybody.

[Manic Cinq]

We are the target audience.

[thesim]

Well, between my first post and now I completely wrote my piece. It's sort of a stream of consciousness narrative. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it before, so free form is a good category for it. The only thing missing is a title and several rounds of proofreading. I probably won't post it until somebody posts theirs first. Now I can work on making myself a sweet sig.

EDIT: Finished the sig

[SoulinEther]

Well, it has words, I wrote it tonight, tonight is before the first day of voting, it contains less than 3000 characters...

Hopefully there's no need for it to be game related... anywho, I call it "The Banister". What, you don't suspect the banister? ...it's like the butterfly, nobody ever suspects it.

The banister is collapsing again.

What am I thinking? Banisters don't collapse. They stand there, stolidly, without regard for the person beholding it or beholden to it.

But not this one. This one... it mocks me. It makes me feel insignificant. Somehow unworthy of its services. What services? It's an abomination – one of many horrendously hideous presences in this sad little dump we mournfully call our dwelling place; if anything, I should be glad that it's bowing down from its position as Useless Eye Sore #451. It's about time, too.

Oh, wait. There is that other service a banister performs... what is it...

Hold on. Why did the banister collapse? Think. No, don't think: look. It's time to snap out of your reverie.

“Oh my God.”

Why didn't I notice it sooner? Say, while it was happening? Something like this probably deserves my attention. You know, as it happens. Why was I so mortally consumed by that banister?

Right, because it was what I had observed first, preceding the screaming and the falling.

But that remains all it preceded. That, and an, “Oh my God.” Her body did a neat trick there, flipping over so sharply and smoothly... such swan-like grace... as her head collided with the 8th stair from the landing. That makes the fall 7 steps before that deafening thud. And then sweet, familiar, golden silence.

I imagine that would break my neck too.

And yet I'm still sitting here. I didn't call 911. I didn't scream, panic, ask if she's alright, check her pulse, call 911, perform CPR, her Last Rites.

In fact, not only did I not do anything for my girlfriend, I had a burning desire to watch it all over again. My mind and memory could never do proper justice to such a scene. I practically stood up and cheered, shouted “Encore, encore!” as her riveting performance came to a conclusion nearly half an hour ago. Honest.

And yet I am immune to that stench. I cannot remember what it is anymore. Something like rotting meat. That would make sense: there is that carcass sitting at the foot of the stairs. I find it quite satisfying. It feeds my hunger, relaxes my eyes, pleases my ears, and pleasures my fancy. Maybe I am not so immune to it after all. I need it.

Yes, I need it, now, then, just like I needed it last year, and the year before, and this whole decade, century, millennium. Beyond that, I have lost count of the years, but I have needed it for as long as I can remember. Every week, it is the same movie showing in all the theaters of the Cranium 18. The same scene. The same scream. The same indifference. “Oh my God.” The same thrill. The same illogical banister that I once upon a time beheld, to which I now find myself completely beholden.

It beats thinking about this eternally blazing abyss. Bliss.

Wraps up quickly... but I'd like to think it is for a reason other than the 3000 character limit (i.e., it has rhetorical value).

[Manic Cinq]

~10 days left to submit... I should get started.

[Imagist]

Well, it has words, I wrote it tonight, tonight is before the first day of voting, it contains less than 3000 characters...

Hopefully there's no need for it to be game related... anywho, I call it "The Banister". What, you don't suspect the banister? ...it's like the butterfly, nobody ever suspects it.

Welcome! Thanks for the submission. There is no need for anything we write in this competition to be game related (and, actually, more often than not fan-fiction and fan-poetry are disallowed, this particular competition being the exception). I do hope, however, you understand that the limit for this competition is 3000 words, not characters... a 3000 character limit would be a tad ridiculous. If you're not aware and feel like extending your piece, feel free to edit your post any time before the submission deadline.

[SoulinEther]

I do hope, however, you understand that the limit for this competition is 3000 words, not characters... a 3000 character limit would be a tad ridiculous. If you're not aware and feel like extending your piece, feel free to edit your post any time before the submission deadline.

Oh, indeed you are right. No, there's not much more on the subject that I care to write about.... yet. Probably won't. I don't want to walk down the path of what I was writing about any time soon.

(where the hell did i get characters from? lol)

[Random Hajile]

Here comes Hajile! Honing his craft in the wide webs. Have at you all!

Walk

I took a walk with Beauty today

Down Paths 3 and 2 and 1.

Each path snowflake unique,

And similarly slowly being undone

Path Three was a winding road

of scared and wavering indecision;

Given to brief bursts of clarity

under sunstruck floral visions.

And it was fading. Forever fading...

Path Two was a rocky azure shore

next to roaring waves of doubt.

Hammering home the truth of "alone"

I struck toward a land-kissed route.

That path too was fading. Crying, and fading away.

Path One was strikingly held

in the grasp of sublunary attraction.

The road clear, It beckoned and called

for me to become a man of action.

This path stood fast against the pull-

It stood fast! Bastion of some hope,

Some dream that refused to be deferred.

Last stand by some far flung fantasy fancy

created as the former paths converged.

Beauty and I took in the linking sites

as they swirled together, innately fleeting.

Transient companions, we parted soon after;

Only one party though, was leaving.

[thesim]

Ummmm . . . I have a kind of weird problem. My story is just under 3000 words, but when I tried to post it I got a message that said it's too long (over 15000 characters). what should I do?

[Imagist]

Seriously? You're averaging five characters a word?

Well, you can either find alternate hosting (such as fictionpress.com) and link us to your piece or split it across two posts. The first is preferable because I have limited space at the beginning of the thread to compile all the entries and if yours takes up a whole post and more I could be in trouble. But I'd also take one last look and make sure your piece doesn't read like a master's thesis, because five characters a word sounds troublesome to me.

[Manic Cinq]

Seriously? You're averaging five characters a word?

Well, you can either find alternate hosting (such as fictionpress.com) and link us to your piece or split it across two posts. The first is preferable because I have limited space at the beginning of the thread to compile all the entries and if yours takes up a whole post and more I could be in trouble. But I'd also take one last look and make sure your piece doesn't read like a master's thesis, because five characters a word sounds troublesome to me.

words: 91

characters w/o spaces: 417 (4.5 cpw)

characters w/ spaces: 511 (5.6 cpw)

[Imagist]

Spaces? We don't need no stinking spaces!

(My apologies.)

[Doulifée]

btw imagery, you should try to make zip archive of the competition, so i could host them (an old project i didn't even start). try to send me a zip of the previous contest (or this one) i'll try to work on something.

[thesim]

So now my crazy long story is online and should be accessible here:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfsk3bb4_1gm3b6hcp

I would like lots of feedback on both the story and the style.

[Darklink42]

Indecision

Me playing with literary concepts and written stream of consciousness style.

Thoughts are scattered. Drifting on a hurricane force wind localized in a small container. There is no escape. Mercury in a concave dish, they drift slowly towards the middle, coalescing into something not currently identifiable. A central idea so abstract that there is no prediction as to it’s meaning until it is finished. A swishpan of concept, left to imagination, but not without a price. Concrete in execution, it prevents the realizations of the everyday from continuing. Hope is lost, time is canned and processed into inedible portions. In murky haze is left a constant state of turmoil, an ineffable twilight maintaining selfish interests through convoluted reasoning. Resolution remains elusive, collared by external forces but not to be found by traditional means. A consistent urge pushes onwards towards it however, and sometimes releases a courteous bubble of reality. Motionless, it must be discovered by crawling, desperate focus. Hunger remains, for consumption does not stave the need for long. Clarity is the objective, whatever the means may be. The cost of peace of mind was not paid out in supposed monetary value. No, the true contract held fine print too drowned in pretty words to be understood. Rejection opened the door, and held it open for chaos. It was discontent for a given situation that led to conviction. The balance swings wildly, a conclusion not forthcoming. Careful silence is the only means of rebellion, but is lost on cretins who built a world of black and white noise. Reluctantly, an awakening begins and consciousness asserts its dominance. Does the fantasy end in calming rose ridden light? Or does it begin in carnivorous night, absorbed in eager shadow whence it sprang from?

[SoulinEther]

I like how everyone is writing in stream of conscoiusness fashion with the whole "freeform" thing.

[Mechasonic4ever]

yeah for the effort of random cause all a freeform contest is, is being random... well so i have two sorta thingys i made so i was just asking the general opinion of you all for ideas... one is a post apocalyptical satire... and the other is a skit/how to make your own and fight with your own boffering (swords that are covered in foam and dont hurt when your hit) weapons.

So let me all know with pms and ill do that but otherwise im probably going with the boffering thing... XD

----------------

Now playing: Koji Kondo - Legend of Zelda Medley

via FoxyTunes

[Washington Maverick]

Here's my submission, just under 3000 words.

It's one of a series of stories I'm thinking about putting together to try to describe the paranoia, death and horrible civil strife that encapsulated Northern Ireland for so long. Enjoy!

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfgmdpn2_0dghnppc5

(Gotta do it this way because of the character limit! )

[Washington Maverick]

PS: How does the voting go and such? When does that happen? Is that in the rules section and I just haven't read/found it?