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[Cheat Code]

Cartoon Pilkington is a false prophet.

I am the true savior.

 

[Cyan]

Hangout will be in a bit over an hour.

 

[Cyan]

Go in fifteen minutes, same link as usual:

I'm going to have to leave a little bit early today, got a crit group meeting to attend. But I'll be there for the first two writing periods.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

whoops, wrong thread. Sorry!

 

[marimorimo]

My best advice is start as soon as you can. If you have an idea, strike while the iron is hot, it's alright if it's not fully fleshed out, the key here is you've got to put the effort in, and the longer you wait the harder it's gonna be. Maybe join the writing hangout we have Sunday? Those are a good time to actually get some work done.



HaHA! let the ruses commence!

Cyan gave me the best tip ever when I started... just always submit something, no matter what.
It takes a lot of the uncertainty and overwhelm out when you see it as an assignment that must be done even if it's not your best work ever. This is not about being judged or impressing anyone, it's really about writing consistently so you improve consistently... Plus it's fun!
So this is my approach... go to the hangout, turn something in.

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately time zone differences prevent me from participating in the Sunday hangout, but I'll definitely try to bust my ass writing *something* this week!

On the other hand--Ugh. Why do all ideas I come up either soap opera-esque or just plain lame? -_-;

 

[Mike M]

OMFG, why did I decide to try and format everything as uniformly as possible? D :

Please try and be timely with your submissions folks. I won't have much time to format them on Saturday morning, so the plainer the text the faster I will go.

 

[Neeener]

OMFG, why did I decide to try and format everything as uniformly as possible? D :

Please try and be timely with your submissions folks. I won't have much time to format them on Saturday morning, so the plainer the text the faster I will go.

What's easiest for you? Just putting the text direct into the PM?

 

[Mike M]

What's easiest for you? Just putting the text direct into the PM?

That or linking to a Word or Google Docs file.

Basically anything other than PDFs would be the preference. Word parses the line breaks of a C&P job from a PDF in a way that requires a lot of tidying up.

EDIT: For those of you who already sent me a copy in PDF format, I've already got you covered, don't sweat it.

 

[Nezumi]

On second thought why shoud I give up on Saturday morning writing, when I have a bluetooth keyboard, a smart phone with a word editor and my husband is gonna be the one driving...?

 

[Neeener]

On second thought why shoud I give up on Saturday morning writing, when I have a bluetooth keyboard, a smart phone with a word editor and my husband is gonna be the one driving...?

haha... i just sat down to start. Trying to actually be ontime this round!

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

six more hours hours remain though, right?

 

[Mike M]

six more hours hours remain though, right?

Closer to 8.

You can do it!

 

[Cyan]

Who came up with this wordcount, anyway. ;_;

 

[Mike M]

Who came up with this wordcount, anyway. ;_;

Spoiler

Why did I do this to myself

 

[FairyD]

Family Stories - 1171 words

I took a stab at it. I treated this more like a gaf post and sort of just rambled on.

Edit: My bad the password is

Spoiler

gaf

I think I missed something major in terms of submission and fucked up.

 

[Nezumi]

Balancing a keyboard and a smartphone on my knees while sitting in a driving car isn't as easy as I thought, but I'm still confident that I can pm my story to Mike before he wakes up

 

[Cyan]

It is done. The pact is sealed.

 

[Cheat Code]

I can't wait to read my story when I'm not half-asleep and discover how stupid it is.

 

[Tangent]

I can't wait to read my story when I'm not half-asleep and discover how stupid it is.

That happens to me all the time!

Hey so how do we send word docs in PMs?

Edit: oops lost track of time. n/m!

 

[Cyan]

That happens to me all the time!

Hey so how do we send word docs in PMs?

Edit: oops lost track of time. n/m!

Put the doc on Dropbox and then send Mike M the link.

 

[Mike M]

FairyD: Family Stories

And here are the anonymous entries. They all have the usual password on them. I put them in manuscript format, but quelled my inner editor and otherwise left them untouched. If there are any misspellings, typos, grammatical errors, etc., I am 95% certain it wasn’t me!

Above the Canals
Abyss
Broken
Burial at Sea
Day After
Digging Up the Past
For she whose name I never caught
Gozu's Special
Help
Mosquito Story
Oh, What Fun
The Chapel on Harefield Hill
The Downside
The Fall
The Leading Horse is White
Three Words
To the Bone
Underneath
Wanting What's Mine

And for those of you trying to figure out who wrote what, here’s a list of participants (We have some new and newish faces in the mix, so this might be harder than you think!):

Spoiler

NickN
NickN
____Nick N____
Nick N_
__Nick N__
Nick N_
NikN
_____Nick N_____
_Nick N__
__Nick N___
_Nick N_
__Nick N__
Nick N
Nick N_
Nick N
NickN
Nick N_
Nick N_
NikN

 

[Neeener]

Family Stories - 1171 words

I took a stab at it. I treated this more like a gaf post and sort of just rambled on.

I can't get this one to open... did you use a different password?

 

[Chainsawkitten]

I can't get this one to open... did you use a different password?

Quote me.

 

[Ashes]

Jokes on you mike. One of either Cyan, Nezumi, or Crowphoenix posted on my behalf. So let's not pretend you know who posted what.

Spoiler

I was too busy this week. Good luck to people who actually entered.

 

[Blargonaut]

No time for Blargo, no submission yet again

Placing a 4th IOU on my tab!

 

[Cyan]

And for those of you trying to figure out who wrote what, here’s a list of participants (We have some new and newish faces in the mix, so this might be harder than you think!):

Spoiler

NickN
NickN
____Nick N____
Nick N_
__Nick N__
Nick N_
NikN
_____Nick N_____
_Nick N__
__Nick N___
_Nick N_
__Nick N__
Nick N
Nick N_
Nick N
NickN
Nick N_
Nick N_
NikN

Mike you trolling bas--oh.

 

[Nezumi]

Holy... When I was writing the story I was cursing the low wordlimit, but seeing how we have 20 entries I'm actually glad.

 

[FairyD]

I can't get this one to open... did you use a different password?

My bad the password is

Spoiler

gaf

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

yeah, I didn't want to enter with a half-drunk, complete bullshit entry, but I will read the entries and

Spoiler

brutally slaughter all of them

make some guesses on who wrote them. And some comments I guess.

Spoiler

about murder

Spoiler

of filthy monkeys!

 

[Mike M]

The benefit of formatting all the entries is that I got a good head start on reading them all.

Votes now, critiques maybe Monday.

1. The Leading Horse is White
2. The Chapel on Harefield Hill
3. Underneath

 

[Tangent]

Wow, there are a lot of entries! I was thinking of trying to read last week's stories... ha!

Put the doc on Dropbox and then send Mike M the link.

Oh right, duh! Dropbox! Haha. Thanks!

 

[Ainsz]

Great stories, was fun to read through them. My votes go to:

1. Underneath - Just really enjoyed the premise and protagonist. Then the twist was really satisfying.

2. Day After - Maybe intentional, I wanted to know more about the day before. Enjoyed reading it though, but wanted to know more about the protagonist.

3. To The Bone - Nice idea, the setting didn't feel forced but still had enough there to show a slightly different world. If you had been able to expand on it, it could have been akin to a Black Mirror episode which I'd enjoy reading.

 

[Nezumi]

Lots of good stories. And it's really hard to tell who wrote what. I'm gonna start on writing critcs later but for now my votes are:

1.) Day After
2.) Gozu's Special
3.) Oh, What Fun

 

[Mike M]

Lots of good stories. And it's really hard to tell who wrote what.

I didn't think it was that hard.

Also, votes from one of our anonymous contributors!

1. The Leading Horse is White.
2. To the Bone.
3. Gozu's Special.

Nick N is cleaning up!

 

[Ashes]

Wait... did I participate or not? Can't tell anymore. Mike M voted for me. But why would he do that?

Or did he? vote for me I mean.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

Damn it, all these jokes are making all this more confusing. There are more participants than people who posted, there's a hidden list of participant, the formatting makes everyone sound like Mike. This has all gotten so confusing.

 

[Mike M]

Nice to know my writing style and voice can be reduced to the fact I do it in manuscript format.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

Nice to know my writing style and voice can be reduced to the fact I do it in manuscript format.

Call me a jerk when I don't guess which story was yours.

 

[Ashes]

Call me a jerk when I don't guess which story was yours.

I'm 99% sure I know which one is Mike M's.

About 1% sure which one's is Fairy D's.

Scratch that. Reverse it.

 

[John Dunbar]

at the moment i wrote The Leading Horse is White, but that might change as more votes come in.

 

[Cyan]

I'm 90% sure I wrote Day After but I'm no longer totally certain of that.

 

[Ashes]

I bet there's some people here who have never posted a story before, which makes the game impossible.
There are 19 unknowns. I can't think of 19 people. Sorry. ;(

1. cyan
2. JD
3. flowerisbritish
4. Mike M alt
5. Nezumi
6. Ainsz
7. Tangent
8. Mike M
9. Freezer
10. blaganaut
11. Chainsawkitten
12. Neener
13. cheatcode
14. marimorimo
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20. Fairy D

 

[Cyan]

I bet there's some people here who have never posted a story before, which makes the game impossible.
There are 19 unknowns. I can't think of 19 people. Sorry. ;(

It's a secret to everybody:

 

[Ashes]

Don't quote him. There's nothing there.

Spoiler

or is there?

 

[FlowersisBritish]

Wait is that your votes or guess? Because I didn't write Broken, I wrote For She Whose name I never caught. I thought it was obvious since I'm the only person that does poetry.

 

[Mike M]

This whole thing is a mess, let's just declare me the winner and move on.

 

[Keleesto]

Here are my votes and feedback.

Votes:
1. Gozu's Special
2. To the Bone
3. Burial at Sea


Feedback is short since there were so many entries.


Above the canals.
Descriptions were great. I especially like the teardrop with stilts. Nice read with solid writing.
I thought it read more as a vignette than short story.

Abyss.
Grisly! My feedback would be to watch your tenses- you switch from past to present in the same sentence. Perhaps third person would have worked good with this storyline. It is sometimes hard to have action take place as the narrator speaking directly to the reader.

Broken.
More of a vignette the short story. I think you did a good job of describing awkward teenagers. I would refrain from name dropping characters we don't know- i.e. Christina.

Burial at sea
Really interesting story and visuals. I did get a bit lost with the pace at times and I think you can leave off some of your dialogue tags. I thought the ending needed a bit more description but overall I liked it!

Day after
Interesting take on murder with the ghosts. I didn't think his ghost would be remorseful however if his mortal self wasn't.

Digging up the past.
The story had no ending. It just kind of left off. I did like the telling of the Civil War through a grave robbers eyes. Very interesting.

For she whose name I never caught.
I don't normally like portrait, but I did like this, especially like the ending. Good job! It was dark and gross but well done.

Gozu's special
#1
It was a complete short story that had you wondering what would happen next. Really enjoyed it!

Help
It read a bit like bullet points at times. Perhaps practice sentence structure unless that's what you were going for. I understand he was going mad but I got a bit lost sometimes. It seemed to end out of nowhere.

Mosquito
Really dark stuff and it was interesting. I thought the sentence structure could use more flow though.

Oh what fun
Monsters! Spooky and fun to read. I enjoyed it.

The chapel on Harefield Hill
This was a solid story and entertaining to read. I feel like something was missing with the ending, since all those on the glass were accidents, how did he die and get put into glass?

The downside
Who doesn't love dystopian? Very interesting world building.

The fall
I like the journal entry style. Keeps you reading till the end.

The leading horse is white
I liked this story. Good descriptions. I thought the dialogue needed a bit of work. What is said at the end missed me - but some need more what?

To the bone
Great story and concept. Not sure I completely believe the transformation from 14 year old girl to killer, but still a good solid short story.
Three words
Seemed to end just as the story was beginning but interesting concept of NW pirates.

Underneath
Cute story with good pacing. Really enjoyed it

Wanting what's mine
Seemed like a good screenplay to me. Well done.

 

[Ashes]

Wait is that your votes or guess? Because I didn't write Broken, I wrote For She Whose name I never caught. I thought it was obvious since I'm the only person that does poetry.

Well, according to my list you would be wrong. You wrote whatever it is I put you down as.
Maybe next time don't use Nick N as an alias [and that goes to the rest of you] and we wouldn't have this mess.

 

[Charade]

I caught your drift, Cyan.

 

[Mike M]

Another anonymous vote:

1. Gozu's Special
2. Burial at Sea
3. The Leading Horse is White

Don't know if I've ever seen this many votes cast before the 11th hour...