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NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge #174 - “Get 'im”

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M

Mike M

Nick N
687474703a2f2f6d6163726f626974732e70696e65747265656361706974616c2e636f6d2f77702d636f6e74656e742f75706c6f6164732f616e6772792d6d6f622e6a706567


Theme - Get 'im (or alternately "Get 'er" or "Get 'em")

Alright, I may have snaked a win from the last challenge with some dirty pool. Let's channel that fuming rage into something productive, take it all out on the page instead of me : )

Word Limit: 2,000

Submission Deadline: Friday, September 11 by 11:59 PM Pacific.

Voting begins Saturday, September 12, and goes until Monday, September 14 at 11:59 PM Pacific.

Optional Secondary Objective: Old setting, new characters

Let's revisit the setting of a previous entry, but do so through the eyes of entirely new characters. Has this been done? I feel like it's been done. IDGAF, we're doing it anyway.

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.

NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge FAQ
Previous Challenge Threads and Themes
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Nice, at least two of the ideas that have been floating around my head lately would somehow fit theme. Not sure if I can put them in a setting I have used before though.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Mike M said:
Optional Secondary Objective: Old setting, new characters

Let's revisit the setting of a previous entry, but do so through the eyes of entirely new characters. Has this been done? I feel like it's been done. IDGAF, we're doing it anyway.
Click to expand...

Ooooh. Now that's interesting.

There are a few settings I could pick between. Well, a lot, but a few I'd be specifically interested in revisiting. There's the ongoing space opera type setting where I've done a few stories featuring Georgie and Emmir, where Georgie talks about dumb philosophical shit while Emmir gets things done (but now with new characters!). Or the "Stream" setting, also a space opera type setting, but one that I've done slightly different stories with. Or the modern day fantasy setting with grad students in magic running around volcanoes. Or maybe something I'm not even mentioning here...
 
N

Neeener

Neo Member
oooh, I love that secondary... i may need to revisit my chlorophyll-people dystopian future place.
Plus, the theme itself is great! :)
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Let the records show that I too have something resembling a first draft finished already. I swore to myself that this week I will not wait until the last moment to start writing!
 
T

Tangent

Member
Cyan said:
Ooooh. Now that's interesting.

There's the ongoing space opera type setting where I've done a few stories featuring Georgie and Emmir, where Georgie talks about dumb philosophical shit while Emmir gets things done (but now with new characters!).
Click to expand...

Maybe you could replace Georgie and Emmir with Pinkie and the Brain!

Nezumi said:
Let the records show that I too have something resembling a first draft finished already. I swore to myself that this week I will not wait until the last moment to start writing!
Click to expand...
Slam dunk!
 
C

Cyan

Banned
We'll be doing our regular Sunday hangout starting in about fifteen minutes. For anyone not familiar, this is where we get together and have a write-in on Google Hangouts. We have ten minutes of chat, then thirty minutes of writing with mics turned off. Repeated three times, giving a total of two hours.

Anyone is free to join in if you want to get some writing done (or revision, since it seems like everyone's done a Mike M and gotten drafts done already!). If you join in during one of the writing periods we will all be quietly writing, but we will say hello to you once the writing period is over.

No webcam is required, and while mics are preferred they're not required either, since there's also text chat. Hope to see some folks there! (I might be a minute or two late.)

Quote to see hangout link:
 
J

Jack Remington

Banned
I have not written a single word. Hangout sounds fun, but I can't make this one. I'll definitely try to keep Sunday afternoon open for the next challenge.
 
N

Nezumi

Member
I was sure I wasn't going to do the secondary, because I was really happy that the theme fit an idea I had a few weeks ago so perfectly well. But then I realized that my evil minions stranded in a world of peace setting also fits the theme perfectly...
Screw it, I wanted to use those characters again for a long time anyway.
Sadly this means I'm back to zero drafts... Oh well, Saturday morning writing here I come.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Nezumi said:
I was sure I wasn't going to do the secondary, because I was really happy that the theme fit an idea I had a few weeks ago so perfectly well. But then I realized that my evil minions stranded in a world of peace setting also fits the theme perfectly...
Screw it, I wanted to use those characters again for a long time anyway.
Sadly this means I'm back to zero drafts... Oh well, Saturday morning writing here I come.
Click to expand...

I dumped everything I wrote on Sunday and am starting afresh, so I'm right there with you!
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Cyan said:
I dumped everything I wrote on Sunday and am starting afresh, so I'm right there with you!
Click to expand...

Oh, but I was looking forward to that boring story of yours ;)
And for the record, my decision to switch stories wasn't motivated by my failure to think up a design for my made-up creature at all...
 
F

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
Ah shit, I just noticed the "new characters" part of the secondary. Oh well, back to the drawing board? Or maybe fuck it? I have a thing and I think it's pretty alright. Would it be considered cheating if I submitted two things?
 
A

Ashes

Banned
I'm writing the third instalment to Butterflies in the Hurricane Season. I'm going to post it in the thread as is. Just because the previous two were posted as is too.

Right now it is at a thousand words. But it doesn't need more than two to three hundred.
Sometimes people ask whether it - whatever story I happen to write that week - has anything at all to do with current geopolitical events. The answer is usually no. This time it very much is.

Even if the story belongs to its own universe. I think it is quite difficult to not think about a different child with a completely different dilemma being photographed dead on a Turkish beach.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
I have a little over half a draft, but it sucks so I'm tossing the whole thing for a second time. Fun fun fun.
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Funny enough the thought of getting up early tomorrow and writing my story is somewhat comforting. It's been a while since I could celebrate some peaceful hours of Saturday morning writing :)
 
T

Tangent

Member
"Safety First" (965 words)

I think I have to say this submission is a DNQ. It's an hour late. Boo! But I'm submitting it anyway for my own sense of routine!

Ashes said:
I think it is quite difficult to not think about a different child with a completely different dilemma being photographed dead on a Turkish beach.
Click to expand...
Oh my !$#%$%^&!! Man that image has been haunting me ever since I first saw it and it practically makes me choke up. What is worse is that I saw a video of the waves ebbing and flowing over that little boy's lifeless body. Aaaaah I hate even writing about it.
Uh...just a forewarning, Ashes: my story is about people on the extreme opposite end of the spectrum of life-experience.......
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
Shannon is eating the DQ by going over the word count, but would still appreciate feedback: not at all disqualified because she chopped it down to the word limit, hence it is called Part One.

I wouldn't try and eliminate her from consideration to better my odds because I am the gatekeeper of her contributions and could manipulate them as I see fit. That would be... Wrong.

Part One
 
A

Ashes

Banned
Butterflies in the Hurricane Season III
by Ashes1396


They have electric rickshaws in Sylhet now. I was so looking forward to riding on one. Got to try everything once. At least.

But last summer, my most memorable ride on a rickshaw, happened near the end of my trip.

I hailed a rickshaw. A child turned up. Half my height. And as thin and bony as you ever saw.

My brother climbed aboard.

'No,' I said. In English.

'You're joking,' my brother said. He stepped down.

'He's nine, Dev.'

'He's not. He's malnourished. I bet he's fourteen or fifteen. Aren't you lad?'

The boy shrugged. 'No engrazie boss,' he tried.

'Still,' I said. Child labour. & all that.

My brother shook his head. 'Jesus.'

I took my wallet out. And offered a hundred taka. Probably an afternoon's work. Or one long ride right across the town. And back.

The boy looked at the cash. Bemused.

'Lelo,' I said. Take. In Hindi. He'll have watched Bollywood films. He'll understand Hindi.

My brother voiced the boy's thoughts on cue. 'He's not a beggar you know. Not that he can say no to free money.'

We hailed another rickshaw. One with an electric motor.

'This isn't Manchester you know. No Social Services to take care of him.'

I shrugged. 'I'm not going to indulge in child labour practises. He should be in school.'

'Whatever. Boy's got to be a man. And feed his family.'

'Still,' I said. 'I'm not going to feed into the system.'

'Needs must bro,' my brother said. 'Needs must.'

As the rains came, I knew, in my gut, that I was right, though I could not come up with an argument to render my brother's thoughts on it weak and invalid.

'Short term pains for long term ideals,' I muttered under my breath.

'What?'

'Nothing,' I said.
 
N

Nezumi

Member
No need to wait for me. As happy as I was that fall has finally arrived, it appears my immune system wasn't quite ready yet and so a cold and headache ruined my Saturday morning writing :(

Looking forward to reading what you guys came up with anyway :)
 
F

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
I swear, our numbers fluctuate so much, one challenge will have like twenty, the next little less than a dozen, and a quarter of these are just Mike in different wigs.
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
Guy Incognito's Shannon's totally legit and unaltered votes:

1. Witch Hunt
2. Best Laid Plans
3. Gray Horns and Red Snow
 
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