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NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge #125 - "Performance Anxiety"

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T

Tangent

Member
Mike M, congrats!

Sorry all, for not voting or critiquing last time around. I will totally be more on top of it. My brain was in complete-vacation mode in Kauai.
Man I fell in love with that place. Felt like Jurassic Park.

SquiddyCracker said:
I have been slacking the last couple of contests, so I'm just gonna chill a bit with this one.

I might go comedy, but I've never done comedy successfully.
Click to expand...

Do it! Maybe you'll do it successfully this time! And if not, claim that you're a humorist -- where you're trying to convey a concept in a way that might make someone laugh. :)

multivac said:
All you people submitting entries and finishing drafts already, I just don't understand it. You know you don't have to start writing until next Thursday or Friday, right?!
Deadline Club back me up
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As a club member, I entirely have your back, comrade.

Cyan said:
Ok, to answer Ashes' earlier question :)P). So the short story workshop incorporated a number of different techniques and ideas, basically all of which I want to keep working on. We did a number of exercises, interspersed with relatively brief lectures and some critiques all round the group.
Click to expand...

Dude. This is totally awesome stuff. Sounds like it was fun! Thanks for sharing!
 
K

krrrt

Member
Is there someone willing to read through my story once it's finished, but before I submit it to correct any possible mistakes?

Just to be clear: I'm not looking for feedback about the story at this point, just the mistakes due to English not being my first language. Someone who would be able and willing to not only correct but also explain so I can improve my written English would be ideal, but just proofreading would suffice.

PM's welcome.
 
K

kehs

Banned
I'm gonna Do an experimental writing method, I'm gonna put a google docs link and write my story in "realtime". You get to see my process and all the stupid shit I write before I finish my final product. If your lucky you can catch me typing on the spot.


How much more personal can you get? Assuming I actually write something....
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
kaepernickehs said:
I'm gonna Do an experimental writing method, I'm gonna put a google docs link and write my story in "realtime". You get to see my process and all the stupid shit I write before I finish my final product. If your lucky you can catch me typing on the spot.


How much more personal can you get? Assuming I actually write something....
Click to expand...

Well you could write it in the second person, if you've ever read If On a Winter's Night a Traveler it could be something like that. It could be like an event happening to the reader in real time.
 
A

Ashes

Banned
What's with all the anxiety in the thread? Tis only writing. Keep your chin up. Give it your best shot. Whatever the end result, at worst it's only a marker to improve upon.
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Stupid reality is keeping me from coming up with anything. It's like someone has shut down my door to Narnia and intercepted my letter to Hogwarts. I just have no means of going ( in my head) to the place I normally go to build my stories. This sucks!
 
R

ronito

Member
Cursor blinks on. Cursor blinks off. Cursor blinks on.

I'd say the cursor was mocking me, challenging me to write something. Anything. But that's a trite cliche that's been done to death.
And yet, here I am with an empty document.

Cursor blinks off.

They say when in times of doubt look at what you've done in the past and push yourself out your comfort zone. I think of my characters for the challenges. They span a wide spectrum. From the serious examples of a sexually repressed religious mother coming to terms with the lost opportunities of explored sexuality, or a charcoal burner's daughter and the lawyer's son intent on seducing her, or of painfully personal stories of people I loved, and lovers I didn't. To the ludicrous: a drugged up ultra-violent superman, or an afro kung-fu fighter fighting for his fast food kingdom, or an Al Roker that would snap James Bond's neck like a twig, and of course the transsexual and the donkey. They tell you to push the envelop, explore the unexplored, embrace the new. They don't tell you that if you do that too much you'll end up with no envelop to push and no surprises left to offer. "What will Ronito do? Something unexpected, that's his 'thing'." In striving to avoid cliche I've become one. Someone that once had surprises. Someone that once held promise.

I think of my guitar. Sitting on its stand. Its strings old and worn. Its body lighted with thin film of grey dust. That guitar is part of my cliche. As well it should be. With that guitar I did incredible things. I sat with world's best as near equals. I filled concert halls with beautiful music and brought people to their feet. And in small private rooms I taught students to view the world in a more vibrant way. And now my beloved guitar sits in a corner. A magical tome of long gone potential.

I look in the mirror. A balding head of sort cropped hair has replaced the long hair of my youth. My eyes are careworn and tired. A beard of dark brown hair runs along the line of my jaw intermingled with an ever increasing number of white hairs, the same color as the dust on my guitar.

Cursor blinks on.
 
R

ronito

Member
toddhunter said:
What version of windows are you running? You can change the cursor blink speed pretty easily. For example: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-vista/change-keyboard-settings

That would probably help.
Click to expand...

6BiJI.jpg
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Whew, got a draft done. One of those "like pulling teeth" days, but at least it's finished a bit early. Leaves me some time to fix the broken last scene. Also took me way longer than it should've for me to realize I had to cut the first scene. That was really dragging things down.

toddhunter said:
What version of windows are you running? You can change the cursor blink speed pretty easily. For example: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-vista/change-keyboard-settings

That would probably help.
Click to expand...

*rimshot*

I know the feeling, ronito, but seriously, you can write whatever and I won't be disappoint. :p
P.S. Assuming you're still in the neighborhood, we should hang out with Tangent sometime soon!
 
T

toddhunter

Member
Ok here is my entry, coming in at the full 3000 words:

The Rising Saga

As usual, tried to do something a bit different. Hopefully not as embarrassingly bad as the last attempt. Password is as per usual (quote to see)
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Finally! After lying awake till half past three in the moring I finally managed to come up with an idea. Just a little research left and I can start writing. maybe I even finish it a day or two before the deadline for a change.
 
K

kehs

Banned
Thanks to ______ who chatted with me. I wont call you out by name cause google and their real name thing, but I really appreciated the brief chat.
 
R

ronito

Member
Cyan said:
I know the feeling, ronito, but seriously, you can write whatever and I won't be disappoint. :p
P.S. Assuming you're still in the neighborhood, we should hang out with Tangent sometime soon!
Click to expand...

Well mainly I want to surprise myself. That's a bigger thing I think.
Also, yeah still here mondays - thursdays or mon-weds we should get together again.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Me too. Stories should be kid-friendly. Ideally, they should be like ronito's, featuring bunnies and leprechauns and donkeys.
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Chainsawkitten said:
I assume an NSFW story will be fine?
Click to expand...

I don't mind NSFW stuff as long as male genitalia aren't refered to as "love-sticks" or "love-wands" or any of that silly stuff. But judging from your previous entries I guess it is save to assume that this won't happen.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Nezumi said:
I don't mind NSFW stuff as long as male genitalia aren't refered to as "love-sticks" or "love-wands" or any of that silly stuff. But judging from your previous entries I guess it is save to assume that this won't happen.
Click to expand...

How do you feel about "throbbing rod"?
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Nezumi said:
I don't mind NSFW stuff as long as male genitalia aren't refered to as "love-sticks" or "love-wands" or any of that silly stuff. But judging from your previous entries I guess it is save to assume that this won't happen.
Click to expand...

They should be referred to that exclusively. It's goddamn hilarious.
 
C

Chainsawkitten

Member
Nezumi said:
I don't mind NSFW stuff as long as male genitalia aren't refered to as "love-sticks" or "love-wands" or any of that silly stuff. But judging from your previous entries I guess it is save to assume that this won't happen.
Click to expand...

It might have been a safe assumption to make, but not anymore. I guess I can always check the dicktionary for alternatives. (My story doesn't involve any penises... unless...)

To clarify, it's not really erotic, just more explicit than what I've previously written. Or I think so. We'll see where it goes.
 
H

hey_monkey

Banned
Nezumi said:
I don't mind NSFW stuff as long as male genitalia aren't refered to as "love-sticks" or "love-wands" or any of that silly stuff. But judging from your previous entries I guess it is save to assume that this won't happen.
Click to expand...

Now I want to enter.
 
R

ronito

Member
Nezumi said:
I don't mind NSFW stuff as long as male genitalia aren't refered to as "love-sticks" or "love-wands" or any of that silly stuff. But judging from your previous entries I guess it is save to assume that this won't happen.
Click to expand...

For clarification. Do you mean all males or human males.
This is important.
 
T

Tangent

Member
Chainsawkitten said:
I guess referring to a phasmatodea as a love-stick is fine, but not particularly erotic.
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I guess this wouldn't be the best time to mention how I'm trying to decide whether to get a stick bug or a praying mantis as a pet.

ronito said:
For clarification. Do you mean all males or human males.
This is important.
Click to expand...

Well-played. :)


Nezumi said:
Finally! After lying awake till half past three in the moring I finally managed to come up with an idea. Just a little research left and I can start writing. maybe I even finish it a day or two before the deadline for a change.
Click to expand...
Wow that's dedication. I tend to write down 10 - 15 ideas the day the prompt is announced, am "meh" about all of them, and then just sit there for the next 2 weeks idly, waiting for something to interest me. "Announce yourself, story!" is basically what I say to the thin air. Or I just try to bang out one of the "meh" ideas. I like your idea of being so much more intentional about it all -- but not the idea of losing sleep.
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Tangent said:
Wow that's dedication. I tend to write down 10 - 15 ideas the day the prompt is announced, am "meh" about all of them, and then just sit there for the next 2 weeks idly, waiting for something to interest me. "Announce yourself, story!" is basically what I say to the thin air. Or I just try to bang out one of the "meh" ideas. I like your idea of being so much more intentional about it all -- but not the idea of losing sleep.
Click to expand...

To be fair I would have lost that sleep even if I had not thought about what to write. I was just able to shift my focus from worrying about real-life stuff to more pleasant thoughts :) Normally I come up with something two or three days after the theme is announcend, ponder it around in my head for the rest of the two weeks and then write it down hastily in the last hours before the deadline.
But like I wrote a few posts above this week I had a hard time concentrating on everything other than all the stuff that needs to be done, so from my point of view it wasn't so much about loosing sleep but about winning back my happy place.

Edit: Oh and you should definitly go with the praying mantis. They look so much more cool.

ronito said:
For clarification. Do you mean all males or human males.
This is important.
Click to expand...

... I can't believe I just spent ten minutes trying to decide if I would mind animal penises being refered to as love-sticks... I guess that would depend on the story.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Oh cool, I saw you mention you were thinking of sharing a Google Doc, but didn't realize you'd actually done it. Looks like I missed the writing of it.
 
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