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NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge #220 - "Alive"

Dongs Macabre

aka Daedalos42
Theme - "Alive"

Word Limit: 2500

Submission Deadline: Friday, September 15th, 2017 by 11:59 PM Pacific.

Voting Deadline: Monday,September 18th at 11:59 PM Pacific.

Optional Secondary Objective: Non-sense. Take away one (or more!) of the five senses from a character and use the other four to describe their environment. Vision seems like it's the easiest to use so you should probably take that one away.

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
 

Alucard

Banned
Nice! Thanks for the quick turnaround on this one. Gonna get going on it right away.

As an aside, anyone else wish the word limit would go back to 2,000 for more of these? :p
 

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
Gonna be a lot of blind people this challenge. I'd recommend reading Raymond Carver's Cathedral as it would have basically won this challenge.

As an aside, anyone else wish the word limit would go back to 2,000 for more of these? :p

I may or may not have a special something in mind for my next challenge and part of it is 2,000 words....
 

Alucard

Banned
Gonna be a lot of blind people this challenge. I'd recommend reading Raymond Carver's Cathedral as it would have basically won this challenge.

I may or may not have a special something in mind for my next challenge and part of it is 2,000 words....

I'm gonna try to stick to under 2,000 for this one. Self-imposed limit to keep trying to make my writing as lean as possible.
 

Nezumi

Member
That would be quite the fitting theme to finally get out of my slump, huh? Pretty sure I'm not going to go with blind for the secondary though. I just like working with colors too much.
 

Alucard

Banned
That would be quite the fitting theme to finally get out of my slump, huh? Pretty sure I'm not going to go with blind for the secondary though. I just like working with colors too much.

Get your butt back in the game, Nezumi. We need you.
 

Alucard

Banned
I've got a super basic idea/outline done that took 15 minutes or so. Just gonna run with it. My writing style inspiration for this is...

51J1X2RV7GL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Not the story, but the economy of Gaiman's writing.
 

Plum

Member
Holy shit, this theme fits perfectly with the story I was trying to write for the last one. Sub-objective a bit less so but I'll see if I can shoehorn it in. Having to stick to the 5 primary senses to throw away is going to be quite difficult.
 

Alucard

Banned
Holy shit, this theme fits perfectly with the story I was trying to write for the last one. Sub-objective a bit less so but I'll see if I can shoehorn it in. Having to stick to the 5 primary senses to throw away is going to be quite difficult.

There's a "story must be written in the timeframe of the challenge" rule that might prevent you from being able to do this, especially if you already started this other story.

Judges?
 

Plum

Member
There's a "story must be written in the timeframe of the challenge" rule that might prevent you from being able to do this, especially if you already started this other story.

Judges?

Ah, well if it helps I only got around 300 words in and I can easily scrap it. Only the idea will be carried over, not really any of the writing.
 

Alucard

Banned
Ah, well if it helps I only got around 300 words in and I can easily scrap it. Only the idea will be carried over, not really any of the writing.

I'm good with that. I only mention it because I got called on the same thing 3-4 months back. Anyone else want to chime in?
 

Nezumi

Member
I'm good with that. I only mention it because I got called on the same thing 3-4 months back. Anyone else want to chime in?

Personally I have no problem with people using stuff they have written earlier. I honestly don't think someone would join the challenges with a huge backlog of stories since they are more a tool to get people to actually write (or at least try). And if someone has written something and wants to use a challenge to maybe get some feedback I don't actually see that as a problem, even less so when it is something that wasn't even finished yet.
 

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
I'm not a stickler, but I'd prefer people have stories close to the time frame of the story. Within like five days of the new challenge and you only put like 200 words in is fine with me, but a completed 2,000 plus story you wrote six months prior that only has the loosest connection to the challenge I'm a little more iffy about. Buuuut I won't say if I am or am not guilty of breaking this personal rule :p

But again, not a stickler, I tend to go with a "don't ask don't tell" with this exact sort of thing, but in specific regards to you Plum, I think you're fine. I started a story and put in a 1,000 words last night that if it could fit into the theme (and word count) I was tempted to put into this challenge
andI wouldn't have told any of you about it! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Edit: Also in regards to that specific moment for you Alucard, I was also fine with you using your original story, but if a member has a legitimate problem with it, I tend to side with them on the technicalities of rules. I think these challenges need a modicum of enforcement, which we usually enforce in regards to WC and I think that's enough most of the time.
 
Argh, I'd join but I'm hopelessly behind on everything as I'm coming out of a nasty summer bug (my, that was a fun way to watch my Labor Day weekend burn to ashes).

Ludicrouspeed to the contestants. And may your infinitives be ever not split. Wait. . .
 

Plum

Member
Thanks for the advice! I'll start over anyway as I want to go in a bit of a different direction to what I originally had.
 

Ashes

Banned
The thread is self policed. You're only doing yourself a disservice by allocating more time than the schedule allows for.

Sure, I can forgive one or two discretions over the years, but you ought to be able to muster enough energy to override the temptations.

Some of my stories require months of going over in my head; I just have to be patient for the right theme and things to go click. Then I can go about the business of writing 2000 words and editing to about half that.
 

Charade

Member
Congrats Dongs!

Neat secondary. It's got me down the wikipedia rabbit hole of non-traditional senses, lol.

Argh, I'd join but I'm hopelessly behind on everything as I'm coming out of a nasty summer bug (my, that was a fun way to watch my Labor Day weekend burn to ashes).

Ludicrouspeed to the contestants. And may your infinitives be ever not split. Wait. . .

Flash fiction it!
Or there's always next time :D
 

Alucard

Banned
Started my first draft tonight. As always, the challenge is consistency and making sure I write again tomorrow.

Check in. Who wrote something today?
 

WaffleTaco

Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
Started my first draft tonight. As always, the challenge is consistency and making sure I write again tomorrow.

Check in. Who wrote something today?
I have like around 400 words already. Like within an hour of my post yesterday and was quite surprised at myself.
 

Alucard

Banned
I'm around the 300-400 mark myself. Goal is to get at least 300 words per day. I'm a slow writer and this amount takes me around 45 mins to hit at the moment.
 

LaMagenta

Member
looks like i missed some good stories on the last round. I will try to join this week, but not sure how much time I'll have afterwards, as I'm starting school.
 

Alucard

Banned
Well, I was going to write today until garbage day, dishes, and general kitchen cleanup got in the way this evening. :-/
 

Alucard

Banned
And another day where I did an hour of work for something else instead of write. :-/ At least it was for something that makes me money I guess, but I really need to get my butt in the chair this weekend. Still sitting at 300-400 words.

How's everyone else doing?
 

WaffleTaco

Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
I wouldn't say I am stuck, but I am not sure how I would write a satisfying conclusion and the more I write the less interesting it is getting.
 
It is somewhat a "I have no idea what I'm doing" writer move that you see in slasher movies a lot (usually because there's too many characters and the main ones don't have a real arc). And it's companion "preservation of emotion" that out the window when people start dying too often or too stupidly. It's the reason slashers are fun, despite violence.

Wubba lubba dub dub!
 
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Alucard

Banned
About to enter the final dungeon in Final Fantasy II, but I think there's a bonus one I need to seek out somewhere first.

This game is pretty rad overall. I like how much more grounded the story is despite the main cast being super boring for the most part and just being avatars for the plot.
 

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
Finished my first draft. 1,800 words or so. Gonna look at it again early in the workweek to see if I like it.

My other story project is taking much more time than I thought it would (which is nice, l sometimes like long melancholic projects) but I only just came up with a possible angle for the challenge from an off hand glance at an article. I think my story this challenge will be neat.
 

Alucard

Banned
My other story project is taking much more time than I thought it would (which is nice, l sometimes like long melancholic projects) but I only just came up with a possible angle for the challenge from an off hand glance at an article. I think my story this challenge will be neat.

Yeah, it's cool how story ideas just come from anywhere.

Thinking back to mine, it's kind of dialogue-heavy, which I usually try to avoid, but ah well.
 

Nezumi

Member
How are we doing the hangout today. I think I actually would like it to be in the old time slot since I still have some stuff to do.
 

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
How are we doing the hangout today. I think I actually would like it to be in the old time slot since I still have some stuff to do.

Im cool with old time slot again this time. Do your things. It gives me time to eat.

Oh btdubs, hangout today via discord and 5pm est so be there or be... Well somewhere else.
 

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
Hangout in tenish minutes just click this link if you have any troubles, give me a message and I'll fix it for you.

For those of you not familiar, its a good time to do some writing! We rotate between 10 minutes of casual chatting (great time to bounce some ideas off people if you want, or just tell us about your day) into half an hour of silent writing. We do this for two hours, but if you need to leave early or show up late no worries. We typically use mics, but if can't/don't want to reveal yourself like that you are more than welcome to use the text chat. If you've got time, drop on by!
 
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