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[Tangent]

Theme - "Energy"

Comments on the Theme: I just came back from a lecture with Jonathan Safran Foer. He shared his famous story about how his creative writing teacher at Princeton, Joyce Carol Oates, really took to his writing. And he didn't know there was such a thing as "his writing" before that. She said his writing had what she considered to be the most important quality to writing. This was not "voice," it was "energy." So, take that to mean what you will and run with it!

Word Limit: 2000

Submission Deadline: Friday, July 21st by 11:59 PM Pacific

Voting Deadline: Monday, July 24th at 11:59 PM Pacific.


Optional Secondary Objective: Give a darn. (I'm writing "darn" for those who mind the other word!) In other words, care about your story by the end of the first (or 20th draft if you're Mike M) draft as much as you did at the beginning of this first draft, if not loads more. Sustain your own attention.

Submission Guidelines:

- One entry per poster.
- All submissions must be written during the time of the challenge.
- Using the topic as the title of your piece is discouraged.
- Keep to the word count!

Voting Guidelines:

- Three votes per voter. Please denote in your voting your 1st (3 pts), 2nd (2 pts), and 3rd (1 pt) place votes.
- Please read all submissions before voting.
- You must vote in order to be eligible to win the challenge.
- When voting ends, the winner gets a collective pat on the back, and starts the new challenge.

Important side note: A lot of our regulars like to write out short critiques/comments for the stories, but you can always opt out by simply adding a note like "I'd prefer no critiques" in the post where you submit your story. We're an understanding group and respect that not everyone wants comments on their work. Above all, we just want to read your story.

NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge FAQ
Previous Challenge Threads and Themes

 

[FlowersisBritish]

I just came back from a lecture with Jonathan Safran Foer. He shared his famous story about how his creative writing teacher at Princeton, Joyce Carol Oates, really took to his writing. And he didn't know there was such a thing as "his writing" before that. She said his writing had what she considered to be the most important quality to writing. This was not "voice," it was "energy." So, take that to mean what you will and run with it!

Huh, I had a very similar experience once.

Anyways, new challenge looks great, it is literally everything I hope it would be because I'm feeling waaaaaaay too dramatic and sentimental right now. Call out to the other last minute peeps, let's try and get the first draft by end of this week

 

[Nezumi]

Huh, I had a very similar experience once.

Anyways, new challenge looks great, it is literally everything I hope it would be because I'm feeling waaaaaaay too dramatic and sentimental right now. Call out to the other last minute peeps, let's try and get the first draft by end of this week

I'm already brainstorming!!

 

[choodi]

Cool, nice open topic. Should mean we get a good variety in the stories.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

Cool, nice open topic. Should mean we get a good variety in the stories.

Not that the other challenge wasn't varied too, but was anyone else surprised at the amount of coincidental overlap? Seems like a lot of us are on similar wave lengths or something.

 

[MilkBeard]

Great, I've been waiting to start a new story. Will begin drafting today. Excite!

 

[Alucard]

Congrats again. I'm gonna try to put something together in two days and see how it works out.

 

[MilkBeard]

Already got something, let's see if I can pull it off. This is a pretty broad topic that should work with a lot of ideas.

 

[choodi]

Not that the other challenge wasn't varied too, but was anyone else surprised at the amount of coincidental overlap? Seems like a lot of us are on similar wave lengths or something.

There were a lot of similarities. I'm not surprised by the overlap in themes etc. We are all on GAF because we share a love of video games, so there must be some common influences/traits/inspirations that we all have in common.

 

[MilkBeard]

There were a lot of similarities. I'm not surprised by the overlap in themes etc. We are all on GAF because we share a love of video games, so there must be some common influences/traits/inspirations that we all have in common.

I'm guessing this is a big part of it; there also seems to be quite a number of fantasy/sci-fi inspired writers here, as opposed to those who write literary or realistic works.

 

[Cyan]

Optional Secondary Objective: Give a darn. (I'm writing "darn" for those who mind the other word!) In other words, care about your story by the end of the first (or 20th draft if you're Mike M) draft as much as you did at the beginning of this first draft, if not loads more. Sustain your own attention.

My greatest weakness!

 

[Tangent]

Thanks so much for the congratulations, pals! It's funny how this writing challenge isn't anything official, but it is so uplifting and encouraging to hear from you guys.

Who came up with this stupid prompt?! I feel like I shot myself in the foot!

I agree, it was very interesting how everyone had similar themes in their stories as last time around. Out of curiosity, does everyone in this forum play video games?

My greatest weakness!

What?! How can that be the case when you have a series of characters (and world's) that you've used for years?!

 

[Nezumi]

Who came up with this stupid prompt?! I feel like I shot myself in the foot!

I normally wait until the hangout before bitching about the theme... but yeah... for a seemingly easy theme this one turns out to be quite the doozy. I've narrowed it down to either meaning preservation or replenishing of energy, but apart from that, nothing wants to stick :/ And I so want to at least have 700 words written by Sunday...

Out of curiosity, does everyone in this forum play video games?

I do. Not sure if I represent the typical gaffer though... Basically, videogames (and funny pictures) are what brought me here. Creative writing and the DnD campaigns are what's keeping me around.

 

[weemadarthur]

This is neoGAF. We OWN video games, but not necessarily play them.

 

[Nezumi]

This is neoGAF. We OWN video games, but not necessarily play them.

Also this. So much this!

 

[Alucard]

This is neoGAF. We OWN video games, but not necessarily play them.

Yyyyyyep.

 

[Mike M]

I have shit I bought for PS2 I haven't played yet.

 

[Alucard]

I have shit I bought for PS2 I haven't played yet.

One day I will play Final Fantasy XII and Dragon Quest VIII. One day...

 

[Nezumi]

I have shit I bought for PS2 I haven't played yet.

Well if I count the games my husband brought into the marriage I can actually go back until the NES. If we go for stuff we got together... I think there are some PC engine games that will probably collect dust till the end of our days.

But yeah, PS2 is probably the worst offender when it comes to unplayed games.

Unless you count Steam... Let's not count Steam. That shit's depressing...

 

[Mike M]

Yes, let's not count Steam.

That way lies madness.

 

[Alucard]

I'm not sure I'll be able to participate in this one. :-( I have a few hundred words written but I don't totally love the story or know where it's going to go...and I'm going away on vacation to Mauritius for two weeks tomorrow. So might not get a chance to submit something barring a surge of creativity in the next few hours.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

This is neoGAF. We OWN video games, but not necessarily play them.

I just want to say I played a video game yesterday for a whopping TWO hours. Most I've played it in like a week in a half. At this brisk pace I'll have finished a whole video game by the end of the year.

 

[Alucard]

I just want to say I played a video game yesterday for a whopping TWO hours. Most I've played it in like a week in a half. At this brisk pace I'll have finished a whole video game by the end of the year.

You play video games every week? Damn. I've picked up one game in maybe the past eight months.

 

[weemadarthur]

I just want to say I played a video game yesterday for a whopping TWO hours. Most I've played it in like a week in a half. At this brisk pace I'll have finished a whole video game by the end of the year.

I played some hours last week, but not this week.
Didn't write though.

 

[Mike M]

I think I played my 3DS in January...

 

[choodi]

The Switch has been an absolute godsend for me as far as actually being able to play video games.

I played most of Zelda on my morning commute and can't wait to play online Splatoon while lying in bed.

As far as my worst system for unplayed games, I have more than 130 PS3 games and have probably played 40 of them. The rest were impulse purchases in 2 for 1 sales and the like.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

The Switch has been an absolute godsend for me as far as actually being able to play video games.

I played most of Zelda on my morning commute and can't wait to play online Splatoon while lying in bed.

As far as my worst system for unplayed games, I have more than 130 PS3 games and have probably played 40 of them. The rest were impulse purchases in 2 for 1 sales and the like.

So I used get a collect old and overlooked 360/PS3 era games that I missed out on and haven't touched a lot of the ones I've gotten. I've been meaning to play through Brutal Legens for like a year in a half and don't even get me started on Mass Effect 3.

 

[Cyan]

What is a "video game"

 

[Pattycakes]

How do you come up with topics for something like this? I've done a lot of writing in the past, but typically I'm writing inside of an already established universe. I suck at coming up with story ideas on my own. Any suggestions on how to brainstorm?

 

[choodi]

How do you come up with topics for something like this? I've done a lot of writing in the past, but typically I'm writing inside of an already established universe. I suck at coming up with story ideas on my own. Any suggestions on how to brainstorm?

Just use your established characters/universe and come up with something that is loosely related to the theme.

It doesn't need to be that closely linked to the theme anyway.

Failing that, try some visual inspiration. Look for a photo or picture that you like and use that to find your topic.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

How do you come up with topics for something like this? I've done a lot of writing in the past, but typically I'm writing inside of an already established universe. I suck at coming up with story ideas on my own. Any suggestions on how to brainstorm?

There are a thousand ways to brainstorm so it really just kind of depends on what works for you. Personally, I tend to dissect and take elements of thing I really like at the moment and try work around those (I do other things too, but this is me recently. Like I said, there's a thousand ways to brainstorm). For the last challenge, I ended up setting it in a world I came up with awhile back that heavily inspired by ideas in Bloodborne.

For this challenge, I am all about The Pillows (I recently rewatched FLCL in hype for season 2) and am writing a weird story about youth to a variety of their songs (Which might be too long for this challenge, but that's a whole'nother talk). My best advice is to take elements of stuff you've recently really enjoyed, then think about those and how you would handle it.

Come up with one image, or scene, or even idea you really like and just start writing. Try and use that initial excitement to carry you through that initial hurdle of coming up with the idea. You can try and think it through a bit more if you want, try and plan it out, but I find a lot of people tend to think more about writing their stories than actually writing, so be careful of that.

Alternate Approach(like I said, there are a thousand)

If you ever feel lost, the challenge theme exists for a reason, and that reason is to give you at the very least one jumping off point (Somewhat of a required jumping off point, but whatevs). Try writing in a word bubble every tangential thing you can think of with the word Energy, then in connecting bubbles, things that relate to, come from, counteract, or whatever with energy. And do it again, and just keep just do this until you feel something spark a little interest in your head. Then try and build off that interest in another couple bubbles, see where it leads. If it leads nowhere, go back to bubbling at some other point and just keep writing down your thoughts on the topic. Like the above approach, try and pounce on the first bit of excitement you find. Coming up with the idea can be the biggest hurdle so it's best to be over it as quick as you can.

Hope this helps and I hope to read your story in the challenge!

 

[Tangent]

Wow, cool to hear everyone's gaming experiences, on various interfaces. I'm impressed that people can play games, keep up with various threads on NeoGAF, write stories, read stories, edit stories, keep up with demanding work/school, maybe even take care of a kid or two, and sleep. Who the hell are you people?!?!

I commented to LaMagenta and Flowers in the last challenge's thread.

Flowers, I loved your brainstorming advice. I'm going to try it! I like the idea of a bubble map. I tend to type out a list in a document. But the visual format of a bubble map is probably helpful.

Another thing I'd say, is: steal. Is this OK to say? But basically, think about something you have seen, read, heard, or whatever... some music, art, video, book, or whatever... that reminds you of the word "energy" and see if you can try to explore the idea of what was conveyed and what captured your attention.

 

[MilkBeard]

How do you come up with topics for something like this? I've done a lot of writing in the past, but typically I'm writing inside of an already established universe. I suck at coming up with story ideas on my own. Any suggestions on how to brainstorm?

If the concept doesn't give me something right away, then I go into a brainstorming process.

I will set a timer for however long, and then start brainstorming (typing stream of consciousness style) about as many uses of "energy" I can think of. For example, A battery, lightning, motivation, gusto, or something more spiritual, like "inner energy" or the "energy in all things". This is like flowersisbritish's bubble idea, but I don't use bubbles, I just write the idea down as it comes to my brain in a chain of thoughts or images.

Then I take something out of that and try to build a concept around it, or if any other ideas had popped into my head, the associated images. Ideally, one thing should make you think of another, thus keeping the train of writing going for some time.

I had come up with two potential story concepts before I decided on one I liked. Occasionally some of these challenges line up with a story idea I already had written down some time ago and then I might choose that idea and develop it further.

I think it is important to experiment with what works best for you, and develop your method so you are used to it and can rely on it when the time comes so you aren't stuck with a blank page.

 

[Alucard]

Okay, I'm cutting two-thirds of my story and will be able to submit something after all. Going to flesh out and make a complete literary sketch of the first third of my story. Or try to, anyway. Not sure it'll totally capture the theme, but I hope you'll all enjoy it.

 

[CoffeeExpress]

After a bit of break from attempting to write for these threads, I have an idea for this topic which should be interesting.

 

[Song of Fire]

Interesting timing for this theme. I currently have no energy and very little time. But I've already shot down some ideas, and I may have pinpointed where I want to go with this, so at least I've gotten somewhere.

Call out to the other last minute peeps, let's try and get the first draft by end of this week

Nope. Not happening. I haven't even started my first sentence.

I'll still make sure to spend some number of hours on this greater than three, though, so I think that'll count as a victory in its own right.

How do you come up with topics for something like this? [...]Any suggestions on how to brainstorm?

I don't come up with topics; they line up and try to hold me for ransom. I'm just crazy, I suppose.

Really, though, I just latch onto ideas and throw them in a jar where they bounce around, waiting to be freed. They hold gladiator matches to see which gets used. Or they might play tic-tac-toe. I suppose you could write down everything you think of when you think of the word "energy," and look through it. See if anything stands out to you as particularly interesting and work from there.

Okay, I'm cutting two-thirds of my story and will be able to submit something after all. Going to flesh out and make a complete literary sketch of the first third of my story. Or try to, anyway. Not sure it'll totally capture the theme, but I hope you'll all enjoy it.

I shall be looking forward to it.

And since it's been a very important topic of discussion, my Daniel Jackson is currently trying to bring down an Eldritch Horror from the Depths. He cannot quite seem to grasp the concept of not timing out of his mission to kill a Gobul. But he might have sorted this out in the two weeks he's been doing nothing.

He needs to bring some energy to the fight.

 

[LaMagenta]

I used to play video games. Kingdom hearts was the last one I played. Yea, was ages ago. The only ones I buy now are for my husband. I like to stuff his xmas stocking with them.

 

[LaMagenta]

Btw don't hate me, but I'm done with my story. What can I say, I felt inspired. I wrote it in two hours. I'll sit on it for a couple days and see if it need more edits. Hint #pirates . I was in love with black sails and sad it's over. Read Treasure Island afterwards but it wasn't enough.

 

[Mike M]

Btw don't hate me, but I'm done with my story. What can I say, I felt inspired. I wrote it in two hours. I'll sit on it for a couple days and see if it need more edits. Hint #pirates . I was in love with black sails and sad it's over. Read Treasure Island afterwards but it wasn't enough.

I get done on Wednesday and have a third draft by Friday, or I die.

 

[Cyan]

Btw don't hate me, but I'm done with my story. What can I say, I felt inspired. I wrote it in two hours. I'll sit on it for a couple days and see if it need more edits. Hint #pirates . I was in love with black sails and sad it's over. Read Treasure Island afterwards but it wasn't enough.

Noooooooooooo

 

[MilkBeard]

I have been focusing more on the novel, but I have a general idea of the short story and how it will play out from beginning to end.

As for games, I am currently setting aside about an hour a day on weekdays to play Final Fantasy XII. Finding it quite fun. I don't have much time for games anymore, although I will set aside time every once in a while for a From Software game, or something else that is interesting.

 

[Alucard]

So, I'm in Mauritius! I think I might have time to put together a full story after all. Lots of downtime...used a couple of hours of the plane ride to write a thousand words or so of a new fantasy short story. Need to figure out the ending, but I'm halfway there with draft one! If I can't finish it, I'll post the story I initially wrote.

I also share Mike's response to thinking you're done after the first draft.

 

[LaMagenta]

So, I'm in Mauritius! I think I might have time to put together a full story after all. Lots of downtime...used a couple of hours of the plane ride to write a thousand words or so of a new fantasy short story. Need to figure out the ending, but I'm halfway there with draft one! If I can't finish it, I'll post the story I initially wrote.

I also share Mike's response to thinking you're done after the first draft.

Mauritius looks beautiful! Share some pics if u don't mind.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

Btw I won't be able to make the hangout (Again ) mostly due to a string of bad timing. My Sundays have been turning into busy days, and I'm hoping that is not a consistent trend.

 

[Cyan]

Boo! Well for anyone who does want to show, hangout will be in two hours.

 

[Nezumi]

Boo! Well for anyone who does want to show, hangout will be in two hours.

I'll be there. Fell asleep last time and only remembered the hangout the next morning :/

 

[LaMagenta]

Btw I won't be able to make the hangout (Again ) mostly due to a string of bad timing. My Sundays have been turning into busy days, and I'm hoping that is not a consistent trend.

Sorry I missed it. I haven't joined a hangout in years. Can you please add the link to the hangout on the next challenge? Thank you.

 

[Cyan]

Sorry I missed it. I haven't joined a hangout in years. Can you please add the link to the hangout on the next challenge? Thank you.

Oh sorry! Usually I post a link shortly before the hangout, but I forgot this time. I'm gonna be out for next time but I think Nezumi will do it. She's probably more likely to remember to post the link.

 

[Dongs Macabre]

I've been wanting to learn how to write a story for a while now, since it seems like a useful skill to have and I've had some ideas floating around in my head for a while. This challenge seemed like the perfect way to start.

Right now I think I have a passable first draft of my story. The dialogue definitely needs work and I'm not entirely sure how well I managed to convey the ideas I had, but at least there's something there.

I can't wait to read everyone's stories.

 

[LaMagenta]

The Albatross's Curse (1400)

#entry