- Joined
- Feb 13, 2005
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We should have a thread that we can confer amongst eachother in. Let's face it, we all have our work cut out for us. Most, if not all of us, have day jobs and other writing activities and projects and now we have one week to produce a new unpublished work on a certain theme. One week to go from someone else's theme to a tightly realised piece of writing, I think we all can agree, is a challenge.
Add to that that we are all clearly good at what we do and ar in competition with one another. Pressure.
JDKIGGANS made an insightful remark in another thread about the number of views with no entries. None of us are stupid. Why enter early when we can have extra time to polish our craft? Why enter early if we might gain insight or inspiration from reading others works ahead of time? It makes sense to me and I'm sure I'm not the only one of us aware of that advantage.
So here's what I'm propossing. First and foremost I hope we can all support one another and treat this more as the opportunity that it is rather than a competition. Second, the readers are the voters, we're writing for them and should do our best work for them.
Along those lines, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to admit that I finished one possible entry last night, and I'm also going to tell you all other ideas I had for entries to maybe help you churn out some ideas of your own. You don't have to share your own thouhts on the theme, but you're welcome to read, comment, or even use mine.
"Crossroads" is pretty much the extent of our theme. I toiled with it in my mind for several days before it occurred to me how open that theme was. In any genre and in any form we need to show someone faced with a "major decsiion". It could be a carreer choice, it could be a choice of mates, it could be a first home purchase etc.
My first idea was based on a recent experience. Someone is faced with the decision of placing an elderly parent in a new home because that parent can no longer care for themselves. Its easy to relate to and has all kinds of opportunity for sentimentality and emmotional draw strings. I may return to that idea but for the moment have doubts about my ability to effectively and convincingly execute such an emmotional piece.
There are a number of "crossroads" in our local media, Terri Shivo or abortion for instance, but as a writer we're more likely to offend more people than we please, and it would be difficult to execute without coming off as heavy handed and moralistic, which readers often resent.
Horror, Sci-Fi, and fantasy have numerous possibilities for decisions with dire results, but because of length restrictions it would be difficult, i think, to invent a proper setting and host of characters while still having enough space left for the decision. Horror would be the most accesible of these three I believe, but its not the right theme for me, personally, to delve into horror at.
In daily life settings we could compose any number of scenarios with strange or coincidental or prolific consequences. the decision to not drive with your drunken friend at the wheel, or let them drive for instance. Many of these ideas are so common though that you have to strain your brain to avoid being cliche and actually surprise the reader. If I told you my piece was about almost deciding to drive drunk, would it come as any surprise to anyone in the free world that the ending of the piece will have some moralistic lesson about the dangers of drunk driving and possibly some emmotional experience of almost dying or losing a friend? (Don't get me wrong, it's a powerful and worthy message, but everyone says and knows it)
So I settled, (at this point in time) on a decision so simple it is almost unconcious for those that make it, with a main character so deluded he doesn't realise how obvious (to the rest of the world) the extreme and bizarre consequences will be that follow (consequences which are, themselves surreal if such a decision would or could be made).
I may return to the elderly parent idea. It touches me and I think it could make for good reading. But Im so tired and so busy this week I may stay with what I have. It's 2300 words waiting for a little more polishing before I hit submit.
How are you guys coming? I'm interested in your thoughts...
Add to that that we are all clearly good at what we do and ar in competition with one another. Pressure.
JDKIGGANS made an insightful remark in another thread about the number of views with no entries. None of us are stupid. Why enter early when we can have extra time to polish our craft? Why enter early if we might gain insight or inspiration from reading others works ahead of time? It makes sense to me and I'm sure I'm not the only one of us aware of that advantage.
So here's what I'm propossing. First and foremost I hope we can all support one another and treat this more as the opportunity that it is rather than a competition. Second, the readers are the voters, we're writing for them and should do our best work for them.
Along those lines, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to admit that I finished one possible entry last night, and I'm also going to tell you all other ideas I had for entries to maybe help you churn out some ideas of your own. You don't have to share your own thouhts on the theme, but you're welcome to read, comment, or even use mine.
"Crossroads" is pretty much the extent of our theme. I toiled with it in my mind for several days before it occurred to me how open that theme was. In any genre and in any form we need to show someone faced with a "major decsiion". It could be a carreer choice, it could be a choice of mates, it could be a first home purchase etc.
My first idea was based on a recent experience. Someone is faced with the decision of placing an elderly parent in a new home because that parent can no longer care for themselves. Its easy to relate to and has all kinds of opportunity for sentimentality and emmotional draw strings. I may return to that idea but for the moment have doubts about my ability to effectively and convincingly execute such an emmotional piece.
There are a number of "crossroads" in our local media, Terri Shivo or abortion for instance, but as a writer we're more likely to offend more people than we please, and it would be difficult to execute without coming off as heavy handed and moralistic, which readers often resent.
Horror, Sci-Fi, and fantasy have numerous possibilities for decisions with dire results, but because of length restrictions it would be difficult, i think, to invent a proper setting and host of characters while still having enough space left for the decision. Horror would be the most accesible of these three I believe, but its not the right theme for me, personally, to delve into horror at.
In daily life settings we could compose any number of scenarios with strange or coincidental or prolific consequences. the decision to not drive with your drunken friend at the wheel, or let them drive for instance. Many of these ideas are so common though that you have to strain your brain to avoid being cliche and actually surprise the reader. If I told you my piece was about almost deciding to drive drunk, would it come as any surprise to anyone in the free world that the ending of the piece will have some moralistic lesson about the dangers of drunk driving and possibly some emmotional experience of almost dying or losing a friend? (Don't get me wrong, it's a powerful and worthy message, but everyone says and knows it)
So I settled, (at this point in time) on a decision so simple it is almost unconcious for those that make it, with a main character so deluded he doesn't realise how obvious (to the rest of the world) the extreme and bizarre consequences will be that follow (consequences which are, themselves surreal if such a decision would or could be made).
I may return to the elderly parent idea. It touches me and I think it could make for good reading. But Im so tired and so busy this week I may stay with what I have. It's 2300 words waiting for a little more polishing before I hit submit.
How are you guys coming? I'm interested in your thoughts...