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J-HardyCarroll View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote J-HardyCarroll Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Post-submission lounge
    Posted: 10 Apr 2019 at 8:59pm
For round one, I spent most of the week deciding on the idea I wanted to go with. The writing was pretty quick, and I had the benefit of reading the story to my wife and daughter, both of whom are excellent critics. I then spent a couple days tweaking and polishing. The resulting story was 2500 words and won first place in its heat, so that method worked.

This time there were only three days. I tried an abbreviated version of the same process, but I wasn't able to to get feedback from my impromptu reading group. Overall, I think the story is not nearly as strong as it could be. That said, it's satire, so the main point is to try and be absurd and funny, not to necessarily have emotional tension. 

Since on the heat winners advance this time, the competition is about to get really fierce. In my heat there's another heat winner as well as a few who took third and fourth places. Since sharing the stories is voluntary, I probably won't get a chance to read all the other stories. Last time I was super interactive for the first week or so, but then I pretty much forgot all about it. Distracted by other stuff. Later, rinse, repeat.

One interesting thing, though: when the judges offered feedback on my last story, they all liked the same things but their opinions about what they would improve conflicted with one another. There's always so much to learn!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BooksbyBJThompson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2019 at 3:23pm
Hey, someone's 5-year old tale could be another's Fitzgerald wonder... hold that thought and grab an appletini.Cool
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BooksbyBJThompson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2019 at 3:20pm
I rather collapsed into a mini coma after submitting. For me, R2 was a severe challenge as genre was well out of my wheelhouse. I had to double-down on the focus and get out my machete to kill the babble.

I'll take that appletini off your hands... no, not the glass. Hand me the pitcher. Thanks.Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GaleGirl Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2019 at 8:15pm
Originally posted by Seacore Seacore wrote:

Originally posted by GaleGirl GaleGirl wrote:

My title came to me right away, and I kinda love it.

I did see two things I would change in an edit so far, but I couldn't see them before I submitted.

I submitted around 6 p.m. Sunday, but didn't have the fortitude or clarity to reread my work. I spent at least 23 waking hours on this piece in three days.

For those of you who can keep your head in the game when most others can't reconnect with their piece after a point, how do you do it?

What is your palliative?

Usually it's walking away from it and coming back later, but that's less an option with these time frames.

Beta readers are essential for me, because they can read it fresh, whereas I see all the versions at once.

But another trick that works for me is reading it for different purposes.

As in 
a) read through and see whether the words are a pleasure to read, just the phonetics of them. Force myself not to care about the story.
b) read through with a focus on individual characters. What have I communicated about this other character? Ignore everything else that's going on.
c) read through purely for a timeline, how long has the story actually taken.

Different kinds of stories have different options, but the point is to try and stop reading the story that I think I'm writing and actually read what's on the page.

Very thoughtful, helpful response. Thanks for taking the time to share that framework. Clap
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Scribbles Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2019 at 11:39am
Same. I was so worried about not "getting" the genre I almost didn't finish. But baby's out in the world and now comes the waitingOuch
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Angara Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2019 at 8:34am
Originally posted by redhart redhart wrote:


Genre mash-ups, imho, seem to do well with the judges. So there’s that. I think they have a point of difference that make them stand out among the other stories. I threw in a bit of comedy but don’t know how that will be accepted in a suspense LOL
It was great just to get to the second round.


 
incorporating comedy in with suspense is a stroke of genius. Usually I associate suspense with danger, gravity, impending doom etc. etc. but it occurred to me hours after submitting that I could have tried comedy. Suspense has its place in comedy and vice versa; a lot of comedy sitcoms use suspense to heighten anticipation of a joke's resolution.  

...Then again, I'm terrible at comedy, so I don't know why I thought trying my hand at it would improve my submission.

The fact that you've incorporated comedy in your piece makes me want to read all the more, imho.


Edited by Angara - 09 Apr 2019 at 8:35am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BarbaraFL Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2019 at 8:30am
I just re-read my first paragraph, and it reads as if a five-year-old wrote it. Shocked

I have a firm belief in what a former teacher called the "zero draft" - get it all on the page and then fix it - but yeah my zero draft shouldn't have been what I submitted to this contest.

Welp, screenwriting starts this weekend!


Edited by BarbaraFL - 09 Apr 2019 at 8:31am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote redhart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2019 at 7:32am
[QUOTE


At the end I buckled and wrote something vaguely sci-fi because I was still riding high on inspiration from round one (which was sci-fi). Didn't have time to go back on it because by the time I started writing it was noon on the day of the due date.

Tbh, the real suspense of the evening was whether or not I'd get it submitted on time LOL

If I don't make it to the final round, that's fine. Coming up with something and submitting it is already a win for me.
[/QUOTE]

Genre mash-ups, imho, seem to do well with the judges. So there’s that. I think they have a point of difference that make them stand out among the other stories. I threw in a bit of comedy but don’t know how that will be accepted in a suspense LOL
It was great just to get to the second round.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Heartstart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2019 at 7:01am
Yeah, I definitely felt like my Round 2 story was nowhere near my best. I just couldn't really get into my prompts (and it didn't help that I got the dreaded 'spy' genre)! 

On the plus side, it feels great to have achieved something, to have finished something. 

Can't wait to start reading the Round 2 stories that are posted! 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Angara Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2019 at 7:01am
Originally posted by Evil Tomato Evil Tomato wrote:

Originally posted by Briana Una Briana Una wrote:

Originally posted by Evil Tomato Evil Tomato wrote:

Originally posted by redhart redhart wrote:

What suspense group are you in?
I’m in 1, and I sort of threw in a bit of comedy in the first half.
Now if I’d have been assigned comedy, I would have freaked out.

I'm in group 26 - Suspense / an author / an inspection.

I feel like suspense is like deliberately not advancing the plot to create an emotional effect... My instincts were sabotaging me a bit, I think.

I've got a lot of respect for anyone who can write a really good suspense short story, but I don't think I'm one of them yet.

I'm in your heat, and I feel you on being sabotaged by your instincts! Writing this, I felt like on my first pass through I refused to foreshadow anything, because I'm so used to cutting out bad, false suspense from my usual writing. What ended up working was just writing the whole story without regard to dread, anxiety, etc., and then going back once it was done to add foreshadowing statements here and there. 

It felt like being naughty -- you know, in a writerly way. Doing a thing you have been trained out of doing and, better still, doing it because the situation demands it for your success.

Heh, that sounds way more mature and effective than my approach. I just decided that there had to be foreshadowing and it was going to feel forced so I hung a lampshade the size of Tasmania on it and then wrote OBVIOUS FORESHADOWING on the lampshade, and then hung another lampshade on the lampshade.

Metaphorically speaking.

I'm in heat one (suspense / a diet / a professional wrestler) and it was "suspense" that I struggled with the most. What I couldn't get around the fact was the idea of suspense as its own genre; sure, suspense is a component of mystery, thriller, crime capers, spy...but on its own? I was having a lot of difficulty with it. I think I need to go out and read more.

At the end I buckled and wrote something vaguely sci-fi because I was still riding high on inspiration from round one (which was sci-fi). Didn't have time to go back on it because by the time I started writing it was noon on the day of the due date.

Tbh, the real suspense of the evening was whether or not I'd get it submitted on time LOL

If I don't make it to the final round, that's fine. Coming up with something and submitting it is already a win for me.


Edited by Angara - 09 Apr 2019 at 7:03am
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