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SEHBicycle
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 26 Jan 2015 Location: Westerville, OH Status: Offline Points: 813 |
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Posted: 19 May 2019 at 10:34am |
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Probably a rhetorical questions, but I think part of the answer is the right friends to beta read, plus a prompt that hits your sweet spot. I like my story, but as others have said above, I don't feel I have the depth yet that I see in those winning stories. My betas (drafts 2 and 4) asked questions, poked at the character, and said when I'd failed to give them the payoff, and left a plot thread dangling. On my own, I'd have figured out some of that, but certainly not in the constraint of the contest. |
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SEHBicycle
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 26 Jan 2015 Location: Westerville, OH Status: Offline Points: 813 |
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I'm swimming that lake of terror with you. I did the heavy-handed "call this out as side effects, cuz its your character's point of view" at the start and end of the piece. |
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SEHBicycle
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 26 Jan 2015 Location: Westerville, OH Status: Offline Points: 813 |
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Stories from the heart resonate when we pour our emotion into it. It's helped me advance with stories last year and this year. Good job with this round. I concur, lots of good titles and loglines in that other thread. |
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SEHBicycle
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 26 Jan 2015 Location: Westerville, OH Status: Offline Points: 813 |
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Hah! My side effect of writing all day: tunnel vision. Though I took breaks to run, water plants, I had tunnel vision on whatever "break task" I had. This morning I looked out the kitchen window, next to the garden where I watered the plants, and thought, "well, iris, you clearly opened yesterday. Aren't you beautiful." |
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Cosima
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 13 Jul 2018 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 638 |
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I basically had no time this weekend, and am not that happy with what I turned in. But I did the best I could. It is what it is.
*Breathes big sigh of relief that it's over.*
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SLK43
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 30 Jan 2017 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 3803 |
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I concur.
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Holdo
NYC Midnight Groupie Joined: 27 Jan 2019 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 216 |
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I mean, I don't HATE mine. I just know it won't win. It's not 'neat' enough, not clever enough, not surprising enough by half. It's entirely predictable, in fact, from the very first sentence. So I will downgrade my expectations dramatically and hope to maybe somehow just get on the leaderboard. But probably not. Having experienced the 24-hour limit now, I really marvel at some of the winning stories from previous years. A couple of them are so neat and so polished. How?
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SLK43
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 30 Jan 2017 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 3803 |
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I feel like when I post mine I should add a caveat. This story comes with no illusions and no expectations. I've decided I'm never going to read it again
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jdadams1
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 13 Jul 2018 Status: Offline Points: 4559 |
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Submitted! Wow, that was weird.
Idea #1: Had an idea I loved. Got about 250 words in. Still loved the idea, but wasn't sure I could fit it in 1,500 words, and the prompts, though usable, could be easily excised. Idea #2: Came up with another idea. Abandoned after one sentence. Idea #3: Came up with a third idea, inspired slightly by the second idea. (Though oddly, very different use of the prompts.) Wrote diligently for a few hours. Took a nap. Woke to found out I somehow hadn't saved it. Struggled. Panicked. Finally found what I'd written (*phew*!). Finished it. Didn't love it. Sent it out to beta. Back to Idea #1: Meanwhile, went back to idea #1, and got to about 1,000 words. Still not sure it \would fit in 1,500 words but still liked it better than idea #3. Hooray, betas: But my betas who'd been reading #3 like it and gave some great feedback that made me like it quite a bit more. So, I rolled with that one. And now, I have #3 submitted and a good start on #1 if I want to use it for anything else. (Hello, betas?) Thanks, all! :D Edited by jdadams1 - 19 May 2019 at 12:13am |
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JBone3000
NYC Midnight Newbie Joined: 03 Feb 2018 Status: Offline Points: 42 |
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Honestly, I liked mine. Not perfect, but it is what it is, and I'm happy with the effort. I'm sure everyone second-guessing their own stories in post-writing delirium will feel better about them tomorrow.
Edited by JBone3000 - 19 May 2019 at 12:11am |
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2019 - R3 After the Masquerade |
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