2020 Summer Solstice Sekret Sequel Something Speedround

Kjbartolotta

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koqR1Sw

Here's a gif of those Firey guys everyone hates, if you want better memes you'll have to post them yourself

Ok, let's do this thing. I will try to be Jay unless Jay shows up or until we vote on a different Jay.

IT IS TIME FOR SUMMER SEKRET SUMMER SOMETHING 2020: THE SUMMER THAT SEKRET FORGOT, BUT WE'RE STILL THINKING OF A BETTER NAME.

What is SSSS2020:STSF,BWSTOABN; heretofore shortened to Summer Sisyphus?Summer Sisyphus is the smaller, looser cousin of AW's yearly winter Sisyphus event, started two years ago by JA Rama. It's a fun way to stretch your writing muscles in mid-summer and generally pal around and have a righteous time.

HOW IT WORKS

1.​ All participants will choose three prompts

2. At the end of the submission period, we will vote on said prompts.

3.The top three prompts will be revealed and we will write stories.

4. Typical writing fun followed by deadline glum and then guessing fun.

5. Stories will be shared and disseminated in some manner, via the magic of the Interwebz.

RULE STUFF

Mostly just Jay's rules from last year, we can discuss finer points but I think things like 'Please Communicate' and 'We're All Adults But Please No Bigotry' are good rules. Also, if you beta for someone, please don't guess their story. Some joker did this last year and he ended up winning the Guessination, but his reputation was in tatters and he got dragged mercilessly for it.

1. To sign up, you must post in this thread during the sign-up period with your prompts. You may post up to 3 prompts. If you wish to serve as a beta for this challenge, please include that. You must also rep me with your email and some form of 'word is bond' that you agree to these rules, and at some point I will get myself organized and make a list of the participants.

2. Please do not submit overly long, specific, or detailed prompts. Different people work differently, so it is courteous to leave wiggle room to allow for differences of genre and style.

3. You can only vote on a prompt if you are a participant.

4. Signing up with a prompt and a rep with your email, and then voting on a prompt, is a commitment to participate. [Kevin] Will [impotently sulk at you] For Voting And Then Not Participating.

5. You may only vote once. To vote, rep [Kevin] with up to 3 favorite prompts. The top 3 will be selected for the competition. You may only vote for up to (1) of your own prompts. Please do not use all 3 of your votes on your own prompts.

5b. Each participant will have a total of five votes to allocate between the three prompts, so that if you have one (or two) prompts you particularly like you can weigh it using additional points.

6. You may write your story using any combination of the Three Chosen Prompts that you want. Bonus, if any of the other prompts catches your eye, you are welcome to throw them in as well! LET THE CHAOS REIGN!

7. PLEASE COMMUNICATE if something comes up. I realize that life gets busy/crazy/stressful. I am certainly willing to work with you in that case, but please don't make me hunt you down. If you ghost without a word, it delays the guessing thread for everyone, and we don't want that, do we?

8. You must submit your story by emailing it to me in .PDF, .DOC, or .DOCX format OR a Google Docs link. All content will still belong to you. Along with your story, please provide an excerpt of about 200 words for the Guessing Thread. You can format your doc however you'd like, but please be sure you include any content or trigger warnings at the top of your story as necessary.

9. Once every story has been guessed, you may request to read other people's stories or share your own. You can share in the formats mentioned above (usually those are easiest for everyone) or a Google Docs link. Sharing a link means that people can download your doc to their Kindle or other e-reader to read offline, which is allowed for ease of reading, especially for those without constant internet access. However, all content belongs​ to the original writer! No sharing with anyone outside of this group without the written permission of the author. If a lurker wants to read someone's story and emails them, it's up to that individual whether they want to share with someone who isn't playing. If you are not comfortable sharing your story, you absolutely do not have to.

10. If you beta a story, or are otherwise aware of who wrote what story before the guessing opens, you are not allowed to guess that story in the Guessing Thread.

11. We know you guys are all Mature Adults (TM), but please play nice. Hatred, flaming, bigotry, and intolerance will not be tolerated.

12. Special Request: Please include any appropriate content or trigger warnings for violence, explicit sex, any other phobias, etc. Thank you.

12b. It is a *really* difficult time in many people's lives right now. I have total, unyielding trust in this community's ability to respect each other's sensitivities. I also love writing about gross, pessimistic, horrifying stuff, and plan to this year. But I am going to humbly suggest that if you are covering certain subjects [eg. plague, generational trauma, the collapse of civilization] then that's a good thing to mention in your content warning.


Schedule

July 17: Close date for sign-ups.
September 25th: Story deadline followed by Guessination

Personal note: Both Sisyphus and its newer summer cousin are super-special to me. They've been endlessly fun, challenging, and a great way to make friends. Every time I do one I feel like I level up my writing and find new ways to experiment with ideas I've had. It might be a small one this year and I'm going by the seat of my pants, but I hope everyone can have a great time & PLEASE let me know if you have any suggestions/idea/opinions on how this should be run.

Participants of Glory

1) Woollybear
2) Kinokonoronin
3) Sue77
4) Eyeblink
5) Brightdreamer
6) Shortstorymachinist
7) Ajaye
8) Jaymz Connelly
9) Friendly Frog
10) SarahSciTops
11) Albedo
12) Norman Mjadwesch
13) Coddiwomple
14) AnnieColleen
15) Armgrab
16) Blinkk
17) Dredd Pirate Rabbits
18) Kjbartolotta

*plz let me know if I miss anyone, the site can be laggy when editing and I distracc easily.

Betas

Kjbartolotta
SciSarahTops- No violence/gore
 
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Kjbartolotta

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Aaaand, we have our first sign-up.

1. Gritty superheroes.
2. Story featuring a cool form of FTL.
3. Story set in a sealed city of some kind.
 
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Woollybear

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I'll try and also try to not incur the wrath of failing-to-complete.

1. A parallel universe
2. A weapon that 'costs' the user as much as the victim
3. A subsurface setting
 

kinokonoronin

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1. Elaborate clothing/costuming
2. Shared dreams
3. Isolation
 

Sue77

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Woo hoo!

1. A Jack-in-the-box with a secret
2. A hidden passage that leads - where?
3. UFOs and aliens
 

eyeblink

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With some trepidation, I'm in. The trepidation is because I've been very blank for inspiration recently, but then I did get the Winter Sisyphus done, for the eighth year in a row.

So, here are three prompt suggestions:

1. Premonitory dreams
2. A story set in either World War (given the significant anniversaries upcoming or recently) though not necessarily on the battlefield - a story set on the Home Front will do just as well.
3. An encounter with your doppelgänger
 
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Albedo

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(I feel like I need to make my prompts "finish your damn 2019 sequel and 2020 sisyphus stories already", and "give feedback on all the other cool stories I haven't had a chance to read yet". But my brain is going START NEW STORY START NEW STORY START NEW STORY NOW.)
 

shortstorymachinist

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I'm in! Thanks to Kevin for being our surrogate Jay. I dub him the Jay-Kevin, or JK for short. Prompts are:

1) A story about the discovery of something once thought extinct. Could be anything, including something that we currently have but is extinct in a future setting.

2) We found life on Europa! What is it?

3) A story about the first political marriage between humans and aliens. Why would we 'marry' an alien? How would that even work? Hey this isn't 12th century England, why are 'political marriages' still a thing? I dunno! Surprise me!
 

Kjbartolotta

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(I feel like I need to make my prompts "finish your damn 2019 sequel and 2020 sisyphus stories already", and "give feedback on all the other cool stories I haven't had a chance to read yet". But my brain is going START NEW STORY START NEW STORY START NEW STORY NOW.)

WHN5Tb7.jpg


I'm in! Thanks to Kevin for being our surrogate Jay. I dub him the Jay-Kevin, or JK for short.

It turn out the real Jay was inside of us all along, we just had to believe in ourselves! (I'd love it if either of the Jays showed up, tho in a year like this it's totes understandable if they got other stuff on their plate)
 
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Brightdreamer

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Eh, what the hey, I'll take a crack at it.

1 - A coin from a place that doesn't seem to exist.
2 - A large publisher's downsizing leads characters to seek jobs in alternate genres/books.
3 - The ancient tree from which wizards harvest their wands has been plotting against them since the beginning...
 

Kjbartolotta

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Ok, I'm gonna need to start listing everyone and this has already gone from four people to full Sisyphus. :Hoorary:

A few things:

1) If you haven't repped me with your email plz do, I wasn't going to bug but I realize I'll need them for the Guessination. And I assume we're all clear that saying you'll participate = verbal agreement to abide by rules. Since most of us have done this already I'm taking that as a given. I'll send you all confirmation once I start listing everyone.

2) I listed tentative deadlines and I hope we all know not to take them seriously. If anyone has suggestions for firmer dates please say so.

3) Getting the stories to each other. We can either do it how we did it the first year with the Google Doc, or like the second year where we just more traditionally rep and share with each other. The Doc gives easy access, rep & share can be better for people who might not be totally comfortable sharing their story at the moment, plus repping is fun. I'm personally leaning towards the second option, but will go with the prevailing opinion.

*EDIT- I put in an special addendum to Jay's Rule 12 that I felt was worth mentioning but is pretty common sense.
 
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ajaye

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1. fun at the fairy fair
2. purple pawprints
3. that dusty piano accordion in the second hand shop holds a secret
 

Jaymz Connelly

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*strolls in* Oh, hi guys. :hi: Kev, you're a gentleman and a scholar for taking on the silly summer sisyfus thang.

So, how much writing have I done since sisyfus? None.
How much reading have I done of all the stories I asked for at sisyfus? Again, none.
I'm buggered if I know what I've been doing for the past I don't know how many months.

2020 has been a tad distracting, eh?

So... Prompts... :idea:

Can I play without giving a prompt? No? Okay. *thinks more*

1. the emperor penguins are on the move. Where are they going, and why?
2. elves in the big city
3. blow something up
 

Friendly Frog

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Thanks very much, Kevin, for being so speedy and noble to take this on. :e2flowersYou will let us know if there is anything we can help with, right?

prompts:
* A time machine that works in an unconventional way
* dinosaur rehabiliation center
* a mythical creature with a secret vice: gardening

Tentatively, let's say we keep sign-ups open till July 17th and after we vote we'll shoot for a mid-September submission date?
Sounds excellent to me.
(I feel like I need to make my prompts "finish your damn 2019 sequel and 2020 sisyphus stories already", and "give feedback on all the other cool stories I haven't had a chance to read yet". But my brain is going START NEW STORY START NEW STORY START NEW STORY NOW.)
Get out of my head, Albedo!

I don't feel targetted at all. Nuh-uh. Nothing to see here, moving along. Ooh shiny thing, look over there!

3) Getting the stories to each other. We can either do it how we did it the first year with the Google Doc, or like the second year where we just more traditionally rep and share with each other. The Doc gives easy access, rep & share can be better for people who might not be totally comfortable sharing their story at the moment, plus repping is fun. I'm personally leaning towards the second option, but will go with the prevailing opinion.
I like the second option too, especially now since I've gotten better at requesting. (Now, only need to learn to read and reply in a more acceptable timeframe.)

But it might be something we ought to decide on sooner, rather than later, as it may be that determines for some whether they'll want to join us this year or not.
 

Kjbartolotta

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w00t! Three people I am always excited to see join us. We are now up to eleven super-cool participants, happy to have more but this is already a nice, goodly number to make for a rollicking Sisyphus.

Unless there are any objections, I think I'll stick to July 17th as the close date for sign-ups, we can probably let late-comers in if it comes up, although they won't get to submit a prompt. We shall see.

As for the Doc vs. requesting, I'll probably stick with requesting as the go-to method. Save me the headache of learning how to do the Google Doc, although if anyone is strongly in favor of it speak now.
 

Albedo

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It turn out the real Jay was inside of us all along, we just had to believe in ourselves! (I'd love it if either of the Jays showed up, tho in a year like this it's totes understandable if they got other stuff on their plate)
A personalised galaxy brain meme? You've left me with no choice, sir. I am COMPELLED to participate now.


1) Your story is about a musical. Or it IS a musical.
2) Earth's opening to alien tourists. But are we their Louvre or Las Vegas? Costa del Sol or Chernobyl?
3) A massive magical disaster story.
 

Kjbartolotta

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You are in, my fine vulture friend. You're lucky you signed up when you did, because I was darn near close to putting you on the list as a pressure tactic.

Let's talk betas: Since I will not be guessing, I offer myself as the first beta sacrifice. You get what you pay for with me, but at least I'm fast. Any other takers?
 

Norman Mjadwesch

vacuous eyes, will bark at shadows
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Holy shit Kevin I am in! You rock for stepping up during a particularly sucky time that I thought would result in NO Sisyphus this solstice. Thanks, dog-bro!

Plus it’s going to be totally awesome that you aren’t allowed to guess me because you’re the puppetmeister now and that would be worse cheating participating than the cheating participating you alluded to earlier. BUT. I’m still going to try to nail you to the wall when the guessinating commences!

My prompts this time are going to be Narnia inspired but I might decide to change one of them if a particular dumb horse fails in the prompting department (you know who I mean).

So here goes:

1) The Lion, the Witch and the Bicycle

2) Prince Capsicum

3) The Voyeur of the Don Treader (please don’t necessarily take this to mean that I hate a particular president with every fibre of my being, or that I want something bad to happen to him, or that I’d like him to get stomped all over – NO, I did all of that last time. Was it a year ago already?).
 
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Coddiwomple

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KEVIN OMG You’rewonderfulthankyousomuchfordoingthisyesyesyesI'min

Oh

Gotta think of some prompts

Be right back
 

Kjbartolotta

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Plus it’s going to be totally awesome that you aren’t allowed to guess me because you’re the puppetmeister now and that would be worse cheating participating than the cheating participating you alluded to earlier.

It works out because running the guessination is a good way to penalize myself (heh) for last years and at the same time dodge the massive smoke you and Coddi are going to come at me with. Putting youse guys on the list, and may God help us all.
 

Norman Mjadwesch

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It works out because running the guessination is a good way to penalize myself (heh) for last years and at the same time dodge the massive smoke you and Coddi are going to come at me with. Putting youse guys on the list, and may God help us all.

Smoke? Moi?

Whatever do you mean?

Dear chap, you and I are brothers of the fang! I cannot begin to imagine where your suspicions are spawned. I am but a humble and friendly doggie with a waggy tail and an adorable floppy ear. :)
 

Kjbartolotta

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Norman mentioned this suggestion from last time, and I'm considering changing the voting system so that we can still only vote for three prompts, but have five votes to allocate between them. This might make the collection of prompts we get slightly less random and avoid annoying run-off situations.

Anyone have any objections? I'll probably change it in the rules but want to be nice but I want to get the feelings of the group before I do.
 

ajaye

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Sounds good to me, kjb.