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NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge #85 - "Lurking"

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Tangent

Member
Hedgewood Manor – Bakemono: I really liked the lively dialog. And, I liked the premise of the whole story. It reminded me of the style I read once: a snippet of a Lemony Snicket story from A Series of Unfortunate Events. On that note though, I think this would work well as a longer novel because of its complexity. Oh and I also liked how you went back and forth from narration to dialog; good balance.

Dagenham Market or In a blaze of glory – Ashes: Very good job evoking a scene. Some small typos but they didn’t take away from the story. Some of the accent writing seemed a little funky, in terms of the phonetic possibility of them being said that way, but you would know more about hearing those accents and typing them out than me!

Duck with a Basket – John Dunbar: TOTALLY AWESOME! I liked “foul fowl.” This is just my style I guess. I very much liked how you described the duck’s response to situations: quacking away, flapping wings, but a masked face that didn’t show expression. This story cracked me up and was light, but also had a meaningful ending.

A chance – FairyD: This is an awesome story premise that I think you could turn into a longer piece. It also reminded me a tiny bit of the Percy Jackson series, but I liked the perspective of yours – from the gods, and getting the opinion of one god – more than the Percy Jackson series that was based on the viewpoint of the main character human boy.

Witness Protection – Sober: I liked the concept of this story – very creative, and fitting to the prompt and secondary objective. I’m wondering how you could have had the main character, and the witness protection officer, have either (a) more depth to their personality or (b) more mystery to their personality like Andrea had. I’m not quite sure how though so this isn’t very helpful…. :p

I Do Not Find the Hanged Man – Puddles: I loved this! This is great! I’m excited about your novel! Very captivating, good flow, great story. One thing though that you may want to tinker with: I felt like in the beginning, the dialog felt awkward. I think it would have felt more natural if some of the narration you had after the initial dialog about waking up in the middle of the night actually came before the initial dialog. Not a big deal though. Way to go!

Like a horse in a cave – AnkitT: I liked the choice of using the 1st person voice in this. This was so awesome – fun to read and well-described. Though, at points, it felt a little rushed.

Rifle – Bootaaay: This reminded me of the Hunger Games series. But, I liked your edition of goblins. The beginning was a bit slow – I think if you truncate that part, this piece would have been more consistently captivating, at least, for me. But great descriptions and use of adjectives and adverbs.

That Repute is Not Dead, Which Can Eternal Lie – Cyan: Haha, I thought this was a brilliant way of providing commentary. I liked your idea and I feel like it would also work well in another medium, like a speech, or something with visuals, etc. I liked the style, and loved the little asides about the coffee. I felt that they were well-placed too.

The Tinkerbell Effect – DumbNameD: I thought this was a really creative idea with good dialog. Very believable characters. Great idea. This is the kind of thing I sometimes think about trying to write about but then I think I can’t pull it off.

Army Men – Mully: Sorry I haven’t read this yet – I actually printed out the stories this time around but before yours was posted. It’ll be hard to read on my phone but will try to read it later tonight and provide feedback!


Votes:

1. JohnDunbar
2. Puddles
3. DumbNamed
HM: Ashes
 

Sober

Member
1. Puddles
2. John Dunbar
3. Ashes1396

These challenges are fun, wish I got into them sooner. Also it might help my economy with words and pacing, I always did go overboard with 4.5k word count essays with 2.5k limits.
 

Puddles

Banned
I'm working on a last-minute assignment for an online course I'm taking that's due at midnight (3 hours from now), so I won't have time to do my critiques until after that. I'll post my votes though.
 

Puddles

Banned
bakemono - I was really absorbed by this piece. I felt that the location descriptions could have been a little better (though they were still pretty good) to really make the reader see the manor. I didn't quite understand the rules of the world, but I suppose the characters didn't either. The actual ghostbusting scene was pretty intense and well-done. I thought you were going to go for an Inception-style "They're still in the dream world!" ending, but it seemed pretty straightforward, unless I'm reading it wrong.

Ashes - Good stuff. Things really got out of hand over some dogshit. You really captured the feel of the place.

John Dunbar - Really liked this one. The writing was very good throughout. The owl's dialogue at the end was rather preachy and abrupt, but I have no doubt that with a second or third draft, this could be a damn fine children's story.

FairyD - I'd like to see this idea fleshed out a little more, because it has the makings of something good. The concept is really great. Did Thoth really rip off Anubis' head in one of the myths?

Sober - Even though I saw the ending coming (really, where else could this story go?), the build-up was excellent. I think I'm going to use my first-place vote on this one.

Tangent - Nico's internal monologue was very well done, and his actions made complete sense. I could really get into the mind of a dyslexic kid. This could be the beginning of a longer children's book if you wanted to pursue it.

AnkitT - Really good. Feels like a first draft of something Philip K. Dick would have written. I thought this was going to turn out to be the dying thoughts of the guy who got killed by ED-209 in the movie. Anyway, was he in a coma, or had he gone into a heart-attack? I wasn't really sure. But the way you described his "virtual" dream world was quite fantastic.

Bootaaay - Short, but sweet. So basically, they're battling body-snatching goblins, then having to deal with hugely negative public opinion from the families of the possessed victims they had to put down? That was my interpretation anyway. Unless they were all just insane. Anyway, if my interpretation was correct, they might have had to fire on an angry mob at the end? Pretty dark work altogether, but a great idea that could be worked into a longer piece.

Cyan - This concept was brilliant. I didn't understand why Cthulu would reject all the ideas if he was already going with a marketing company in the first place, but it was pretty funny.

DnD - Interesting absurdist piece. I found myself chuckling a few times reading it. The descriptions were great, and so was the dialogue.


1) Sober
2) Tangent
3) AnkitT
HM) Bootaaay, Cyan, bakemono
 

starsky

Member
AnkitT - woops, somehow my feedback was eaten by some internetcreaturething.

I really liked the premise. Evocative and surreal like a painting. The strangeness and looping rhythms worked well for me. It's a piece that stayed with me long after I read it. The image of the horse and the cave are somehow very vivid for me.
 

Cyan

Banned
Tangent - "Danny’s Dad’s Deep Dark Secret" - Awesome, I love that book! And man, that's really rough for Nico. Really good job on evoking that fear of not belonging, of no one understanding your problems. Reads a little rough though, could've maybe used a wee bit more editing.

Puddles - "I Do Not Find the Hanged Man" - This is some damn fine writing, sir. Everything comes together nicely--the subplot with the stepdaughter, the fear of the rest of the group, the bit of action, the ending shift from introspection and examination to external threats. Very nicely done. My only complaints are the zombie setting, which I've read altogether too much of lately, and the fact that it does feel like a small piece of a larger story. A bit incomplete. That's not necessarily a bad thing in general, and I may have only noticed because you mentioned it yourself.

AnkitT - "Like a horse in a cave"
- This was crazy and all over the place, in a good way. I really enjoyed the surrealism of the whole thing. The only real problem was that it was a bit hard to follow, and figure out what was going on, because of that surrealism. I like the use of Plato's Cave, and the ending fits nicely.

Bootaaay - "Rifle" - I think you may have done yourself a disservice by keeping it so short. The central plot/theme is a good one, and it's well-executed, but there's just not enough breathing room for the reader to take it in before we're told the ending. It's too bad, because the writing is pretty nice.

DumbNameD - "The Tinkerbell Effect" - Gosh. This had all the DND hallmarks--quirky characters that feel real and solid, sparkling dialogue, effective prose. And then the whole thing went sideways with that crazy left turn. I don't want to say you made the wrong choice by making it real... but it just didn't work for me. I felt I was promised an ordinary, real-world-tethered DND story, and I didn't get it. I was left unsatisfied.

Mully - "Army Men" - First things first--don't quote your whole story! Italics are a pain to read for so long. Anyway. A good premise to start with, and good work getting into the guy's head. But your tense is loose--swapping between past and present on several occasions. And the story itself isn't quite a story. It's a description of events, but where's the conflict? Where's the movement? What does Cadet want that having Randy around is preventing him from getting?
 

Cyan

Banned
Man, votes were kind of a struggle.

1. Puddles - "I Do Not Find the Hanged Man"
2. bakemono - "Hedgewood Manor"
3. Ashes1396 - “Dagenham Market” or “In a blaze of glory”
HM: Bootaaay, FairyD, Sober
 

Puddles

Banned
Cyan said:
Puddles - "I Do Not Find the Hanged Man" - This is some damn fine writing, sir. Everything comes together nicely--the subplot with the stepdaughter, the fear of the rest of the group, the bit of action, the ending shift from introspection and examination to external threats. Very nicely done. My only complaints are the zombie setting, which I've read altogether too much of lately, and the fact that it does feel like a small piece of a larger story. A bit incomplete. That's not necessarily a bad thing in general, and I may have only noticed because you mentioned it yourself.

Thanks for the input!

It does feel a bit rushed IMO. I compressed character development that's spread out over several chapters of a book into one short story.

Last thing: they're more aliens than zombies; this is more of "The Thing: the Novel" than "Dawn of the Dead: the Novel" (although there is the problem of bites that I've left in since the first draft; might figure out a way to eliminate that), but body-snatching fiction is body-snatching fiction, and it is getting overdone these days. I actually noted with dismay just how many works utilizing this trope have come out in the five years since I first got the idea, and thought about dropping it entirely in favor of another project, but since I've never actually completed a novel, I decided to finish this one.

Anyway, one of the things I'm doing now is trying to make it much less zombie-like. We'll see how that goes.

Tangent said:
I Do Not Find the Hanged Man – Puddles: I loved this! This is great! I’m excited about your novel! Very captivating, good flow, great story. One thing though that you may want to tinker with: I felt like in the beginning, the dialog felt awkward. I think it would have felt more natural if some of the narration you had after the initial dialog about waking up in the middle of the night actually came before the initial dialog. Not a big deal though. Way to go!

Thanks! I might need feedback when it's near completion, so I'll send you a PM about that in a few months.
 

Ashes

Banned
Sober - I think I missed the point. was the story just a witness protection guy who gets caught in a honey trap? You can rewrite the story in half the amount of words if you had more exposition.

Tangent - there was something missing... don't know exactly what it is... I didn't connect with this... It kinda dragged on, and then just told us the important stuff, perhaps you told more than showed...

Puddles - you don't really 'speak sign language', as much as communicate in asl or whatever the standard you were trying to suggest. Separately, there was quite a bit of redundant speech. And the resolution scene was cliche and preachy. Maybe I'm talking about the lacklustre dialogue. Some lovely prose sprinkled amongst all that though.

AnkitT - Serendipitously, my nanowrimo topic is similar to this story. I thought it was more convoluted than necessary, but enjoyed it all the same.

Bootaaay - some nice work; the piece was dragged down with verbiage though. When prose is too much like verse, it attracts unnecessary attention. Some people like that; but in prose, its not my thing. Funny having said that, I wish the piece were longer. It was far too short.

Cyan - I think you have to be in the right mood for this. I tried to find the funny, but when you have to try... :/

Dnd -You mix in dialogue, plot and prose so well, but I just didn't connect with it

votes

1.Jd
2.AnkitT
3.Puddle
 

Ashes

Banned
Cyan said:
O R'LYEH?

;)

Criticism is supposed get through to people. Otherwise it's idle chatter....

stole that line, and waited all week to use it. Even if it doesn't fit... :p
 

Puddles

Banned
Looks like Kevin Costner takes this one.

Ashes1396 said:
Puddles - you don't really 'speak sign language', as much as communicate in asl or whatever the standard you were trying to suggest. Separately, there was quite a bit of redundant speech. And the resolution scene was cliche and preachy. Maybe I'm talking about the lacklustre dialogue. Some lovely prose sprinkled amongst all that though.

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the dialogue?

Thanks for the tip on ASL.
 

Ashes

Banned
Puddles said:
Looks like Kevin Costner takes this one.



Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the dialogue?

Thanks for the tip on ASL.


On sign language?

You wouldn't really say: Do you know sign language?

You can learn to sign.

In ASL you would move your hands to express: Sign. you? or you - sign?

Its not English as you and I know it. Its more blocks of expressions.

I got told off about it, and if you are going to be selling a book, its better for you to research more deeply into the matter your self.

-
Dialogue in general...? you're better off asking people who excell at that...
 

Ashes

Banned
bakemono said:
Ashes - Dramatic opening, a little untidy in the middle, but came together very well towards the end.

cheers. I think I agree with this almost too much. Well, I the jump to the last paragraph could have been better I guess.

Tangent said:
Dagenham Market or In a blaze of glory – Ashes: Very good job evoking a scene. Some small typos but they didn’t take away from the story. Some of the accent writing seemed a little funky, in terms of the phonetic possibility of them being said that way, but you would know more about hearing those accents and typing them out than me!

I tried to explain that sometimes speech is a way we communicate who we are, as much as the clothes we were, sometimes its an active concious choice.

Funky is a good way to put it, even if I personally don't adhere to the deficit model... Here's an example, of the exaggeration in effect:

http://youtu.be/4-L7Cadb-c0


Cyan said:
Ashes1396 - “Dagenham Market” or “In a blaze of glory” - Nice sort of slice of life do. The dialogue sometimes rang a little false as far as word choices and such, but I guess you'd know better than I on those. ;) I like the decision to have an outside observer who can kind of take in the events as we do. As with mono's, I found the large cast hard to digest--I kept losing track of who was who, which sort of disrupted my taking in the events of the story.


They're from the same place. One of them is more in tune with the local dialect than the other ones. And then you add American influences, cockney slang, and estuary English and you very quickly realise that you are perhaps out of your depth in terms of authenticity. Cold blooded murder of the English tongue indeed. :eek:
 

Puddles

Banned
It's very likely that I would never have caught that sign language mistake had I not entered this challenge. That might have been an issue (most likely a minor one, but still an issue) down the road.

So thanks for that.
 

Ashes

Banned
Results

  • 1. John Dunbar - 17*****
  • 2. Puddles - 14 ***
  • 3. Ashes1396 - 8
  • 4. dnd - 6 *
  • 4. bakemono - 6
  • 5 sober - 4 *
  • 6. AnkitT - 3
  • 7. Tangent - 2

Congrats John Dunbar!

Thank you everyone who entered, read, voted, etc. Cause It's J.D I think, we're gonna let him keep the crown for a month and a bit... Who knows though...

Feel free to jump to the poetry thread, or the NaNoWriMo thread.

I'll paste the link in after the jump....

_____________________________________


Thread links:

GAF Book Club (Oct 2011) - "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

What are you reading? (October 2011)

Amazon Kindle |OT|

COMICS - October 2011

The NeoGAF Poetry Corner - Challenge #37: Chained

NANOWRIMO- OT -
Cyan said:
 

John Dunbar

correct about everything
thanks a lot everyone. i guess regular programming shall resume in december?

And I agree with everyone who thought Exposition Owl was totally cheap. I was even aware of that while writing. Not having much experience with children's literature, I guess I tried to justify it by thinking that hammering in the point is more acceptable when your target audience eats its own snot.
 

AnkitT

Member
Puddles said:
AnkitT - Really good. Feels like a first draft of something Philip K. Dick would have written. I thought this was going to turn out to be the dying thoughts of the guy who got killed by ED-209 in the movie. Anyway, was he in a coma, or had he gone into a heart-attack? I wasn't really sure. But the way you described his "virtual" dream world was quite fantastic.

He was in a coma at first, the heart attack comes when he "wakes up" and sees the real/virtual world.
 

Tangent

Member
John Dunbar said:
And I agree with everyone who thought Exposition Owl was totally cheap. I was even aware of that while writing. Not having much experience with children's literature, I guess I tried to justify it by thinking that hammering in the point is more acceptable when your target audience eats its own snot.

Congrats JD!! Your story was awesome. But one thing: even though the audience eats their own snot, from what I've seen, kids just want to be entertained when they're reading and they don't want to be given a formal didactic lecture. If a lesson comes along, that's great too though. Just a thought, in case you consider wanting to refine your story. Nevertheless, it was a unique story and I feel like the lesson was somewhat unique too, so maybe spelling it out is a-ok.

Puddles said:
Tangent - Nico's internal monologue was very well done, and his actions made complete sense. I could really get into the mind of a dyslexic kid. This could be the beginning of a longer children's book if you wanted to pursue it.

Wow thank you, that's what I'm hoping to do one day, a longer children's book, or more hopefully, YA. But IDK, I'm too stuck into the mindset of short stories now and it's hard to think about longer stuff. I hope I can wrap my head around a longer story line soon.

Ashes1396 said:
Tangent - there was something missing... don't know exactly what it is... I didn't connect with this... It kinda dragged on, and then just told us the important stuff, perhaps you told more than showed...

Hmm, good pt, thanks for the crit. I'll continue to work on that. Slow & steady...

Puddles said:
Thanks! I might need feedback when it's near completion, so I'll send you a PM about that in a few months.

Awesome!
 

Cyan

Banned
Grats, JD! I recommend starting the new thread ~Dec 3-4, and then following the standard schedule.

bakemono said:
......... and now i have no more excuse to procrastinate my nano planning...
Indeed. Curses!
 
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