Other May 2013 Challenge--Voting is Over!

[Alexandra]

I have an idea about the structure of these monthly challenges that may give us more time to work on them. By my count, we had twelve days to get the submission in, and I don't think that's quite enough; occasionally life gets in the way, and in this month's case there were lots of people doing exams.


If, just as an example, if we had it structured so from the 1st to 7th of each month we voted on the submissions from the last month, and at the same time posted new themes; roll them into one to maximise time. Then from the 8th to the end of the month we would work on and submit our pieces. Having the voting and posting new themes each take up their own week eats into the time too much, I reckon. This way would leave us with between 20 and 23 days to create things.


Thoughts?


I would love to still see the challenges go ahead, because it is oh so important to give people as many excuses as possible to be creative

 

[HumanPlus]

Another way could be that every three months, we do a gathering of themes like this and simply use the ones not used the next couple of months. That way we could start from the first of the month.

 

[Grey]

This challenge just dropped over the bulk of my exam dates, but if submissions are still good for another couple of hours I'm working on something as we speak.


And I second Alexandra's suggestion.

 

[Grey]

I'm not very happy with it for a lot of reasons, but time is short. Enjoy!

Spoiler

A Season of Plague


Godsday, Afternoon


The docks heave and steam in the Summer heat, a stinking riot of sailors, animals, dockworkers, spices, blood, shit, and salt. The sun glitters on the waves of Gilded Bay, but rainclouds over the Sleeping Sea drift toward the city, and the work doubles in intensity.


“No rest for the wicked,” Garmin murmurs to Lazlo, hauling a cart heavy with crab and seaweed, moving quickly to avoid the grumbling workers. He’s a tall man, strong, weathered - but sailors can be at a port far from the Watch’s reach in no time, and are rarely men of even temper. And they might hurt Lazlo. The crabs are for merchants, mostly - the nobles think them too dirty, and the poor won’t pay enough, but those Southside coves with their fancy livery and townhouses - aye, they’ll pay.


“For more than these, too,” he mutters, pausing to let a cage of some foreign monster by, holding Lazlo to keep the dog from doing more than growl at the shrieking, shit-flinging beasts. Ain’t right for the merchants to carry on how they do, in his mind. The Lord put a king on the throne for a reason. And sent good men South for another.


He stops again at the slave pens, waiting for Lucas. He hopes won’t be long - it’s a damned disgrace, all those poor bastards locked up together... There’s no crying, really, or screaming, or much of anything. The journey took all the fight out of most. Only the stench of despair, the hollow stares. Accusing, for him. A god-fearing man who won’t help.


Mercifully, Lucas does not take long, a rare smile on his broad face. Garmin envies him that kind of strength, coming up from slavery as he did to still be able to smile.


“Garmin, my friend! You have them for me?” He says, even as he looks at the bundles of still-damp seaweed. He’s already taken a few coins from the pocket of his patchwork coat - though it is patched from other expensive coats. The money changes hands, the seaweed. Garmin throws in a few crabs to ease his conscience.


He turns into an alleyway, a shortcut to the market, when Lazlo stops. Garmin stares as the shaggy dog’s hackles rise, hair on end, teeth bared, a low growl in his throat as he keeps his eyes on a corpse against the wall of a warehouse. “‘tis just a dead man, Lazlo,” Garmin says, moving to touch the dog, but Lazlo pulls away. “What?” Garmin’s brows knit in confusion, and he turns back to the corpse - Gods, did it move?


No. No. Nonsense. Still, he needs to pass by... He tries to give the body a wide berth, but the alley is narrow. The clouds are beginning to roll in. Lazlo continues to growl, barely moving.


The body shudders as he nears. Frozen in terror, he watches as the bare, fly-blown belly splits and a rat damn near the size of Lazlo chews itself free. He doesn’t notice the other rats until the narrow jaws latch around his ankles.


Woldsday, Morning


“Can’t you help?” She cried, face streaked with tears and blood, eyes pleading.


Sister Sanctimonia shakes her head, sympathetic but firm. “No. I’m sorry. This is beyond the Good Doctor.”


She sets her lips in a grim line as the woman clutches the body of her child - limp and feverish - and wails in anguish. Sanctimonia cannot remain here now, but seals the door as she leaves the house, her palm splitting to release a thick, gelid coagulant around the frame. The infection cannot spread.


Renday, Noon


“This was a terrible idea, Alexei,” he mutters to himself, running his hands over the peasant’s body, eyes closed, trying to sense the infection. There’s a grisly irony to the scene; a butchershop, abandoned due to plague, and here he is with a patient on the cutting slab. He doesn’t know the man’s name, but in a way that is best. He can’t afford to get this wrong. The infection is wrong - he can feel the magic, yet it is unfamiliar. No real biology for him to manipulate, only something akin to tiny shards of metal or crystal that nonetheless feel alive.


And here he is, in the sealed-off docks, desperately trying to fight it. If he can’t cure it directly...


He swallows hard, stares into space. To let the plague run its course, or risk changing everything?


Alexei the Kind shakes his head. “If I must do a single thing with my power, it is this.” He says aloud, and places his hands on the patient again. His awareness expands outwards, pushes through the veil into the raw and roiling flux of Magic. Sweat beads on his brow as he takes hold of the power, draws it into himself and wills it, commands it to reshape this man. He’s tired, and hungry, but by the gods it works. His cells shift and change, the iron in his blood rises, and one by one the bright, hot points of the strange sickness are blotted out. But the strain is too much, and Alexei’s eyes snap open, he collapses in agony, a pain felt in the soul rather than the flesh.


But it worked, and now it can spread to the others. He can go home.


He is awoken from satisfied reverie by the door splintering. The sound of armour scraping and rattling, swords drawn. “No, please!” He cries as the knights and militia pour into the room - flagellants serving a ‘holy mission’. “I’m trying to save them!”


He doesn’t have the strength to change shape, to blight them - nor the cruelty. The most he can do is shut off the pain when the blades strike him.


Solday, Midnight


There is no sound in the chamber but the scratching of a quill. The walls are dry, dressed stone, the furniture sparse save for bookcases and medical tools. The safest and most secret place in the sewers. Brother Patientia waits for the sound to stop. He averts his eyes from the Good Doctor, a habit he cannot shake from his years in slavery. The Doctor has been a good master - much better than he would ever have expected, and the price really is so little. He has taught him well, of many things, and keeps him fed and warm. Even the power and vitality are second to that, really. All he asks is the healing, and a little blood from time to time.


Besides, the black lenses of the Doctor’s plague mask are always disconcerting.


The quill stops. The plague-doctor mask is turned to him.


“Alexei is dead, master.”


Silence.


“The... the Geraltine knights slew him, blamed the sickness on him. His head hangs above their gates.”


The silence threatens to swallow him up, but with his senses so attuned he notices a tightening of his employer’s fist. Has the master ever shown such emotion?


“But he must have done something, for even now the sickly recover and no others have been changed.”


He rises. The news is given. There are still mules with broken legs and children with cracked ribs to be treated. The quill begins to scratch again - faster, now.


Kingsday, Midnight


“You are diverting me from vital work,” the monster hisses, tracing Ser Oswald’s cheek with a talon like a dirk. “There was far more exciting prey in the city tonight, and I expect they might slip through my talons. But you had to kill the Mage, didn’t you?” The Ace laughs, forked-tongue flickering. “I’ll admit, I don’t resent this excuse to kill you. And the rest of your pretender-knights. I’ve watched you run the good name of St. Geralt into the dirt for a hundred years, now.”


Oswald tries to cry out, but no sooner is his mouth open than the beast rests a knife on his tongue.


“Oh, no, ‘knight’. There will be no screaming. I pride myself on that. No one will even know until they come inside tomorrow and find everyone you dead in your beds. I might even make an example, you know. I loathe impiety.”


Oswald reels. And now the serpentine thing would lecture him on piety? He tries to laugh, a manic sound, but succeeds only in cutting his tongue.


“Now you want to mock me? If you cannot keep a civil tongue in your head I shall have to cut it out...”


Almsday, Afternoon


Soren Videme gazes out across the city from the balcony at Goldcross. His city, now, with Thiah all but dead, the Inquisition returned home, and the Order dead. Perhaps now a more pragmatic tack might be taken with the mutants. Mayhap he could even take credit for that - no one knows who hired the Ace of Blades. Fortuitous too that something should end the plague, save him the trouble of negotiating with cultists any further. Winter is coming, they had said, handing over the cage of rats. Despite the heat of the day, a shudder wracks him. Perhaps they were right.

 

[Grey]

Voting doc is unavailable.

 

[DreamingofRoses]

Should be fixed. Try again.

 

[Grey]

It worked! Cheers.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

And I second Alexandra's suggestion.

And Wolf thirds Alexandra's idea *bark*


My submission for the next contest:


Wayward Wolf


post scriptum: How come mine and Grey's submissions are only linked in the first post, while Anon gets a quote of his full work on the spot? And is there a reason my name is spelled "Wulf" on the voting site?

 

[DreamingofRoses]

[QUOTE="Wolf Rawrrr]And Wolf thirds Alexandra's idea *bark*
My submission for the next contest:


Wayward Wolf


post scriptum: How come mine and Grey's submissions are only linked in the first post, while Anon gets a quote of his full work on the spot? And is there a reason my name is spelled "Wulf" on the voting site?

[/QUOTE]
Anon gets full quote because he/she PMed me their entry, while your entries are clearly visible with the links. And just me being lazy when I redid the voting sheet, I'll fix it.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Oh, well that explains it lol *woof*

 

[DreamingofRoses]

Guys, I'm implementing Alex's plan for June. When June 1st rolls around we'll have the three themes and you'll have 3 weeks to complete your entries. If there are any new themes you want to see entered in the draw, let me know, otherwise themes will be from the past few threads.

 

[Ignitedstar]

Submissions for next month? I'm going to submit some general motifs.


A Children's Story


Under A Bridge


Confess The Truth


Trial And Error


I could probably whip up a story in a few hours. If you want me to. Do I have to have the title of my story the same as the entry of the theme I'm entering in? It seems like that is what everyone is doing so far.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

@Ignited - It is simple and logical, but I do not think the names need to be the same *bark*


I shall repeat my submission just in case it got lost: Wayward Wolf

 

[Grey]

Themes:


Angels in the Architecture


Devil in the Details


Ghost in the Machine


Or that could be all one theme, if it's not too lengthy.

 

[Ignitedstar]

Uugh... These prompts. I think you guys should give suggestions that people would want to write something about that would be at maximum 8 pages. I understand that these ideas are room for more than just writing, but most of us are here because we are writers. I'm not gonna lie... These ideas aren't very good for straight-forward narratives. "Shadow and Thought" almost makes no sense. I was up half the night last night thinking of about six stories around this theme and none of them were any good. Half of them were stretching what could be considered in the boundaries of the theme.


"Season of Plague" makes me think of an entire novel. "Glass Houses"... I don't even know what this is supposed to be. I cannot think about a functioning story about a house made of glass or even a metaphor for the term unless I had at least 20-something pages to write about it. Even then, who's going to read all of that? We can have all of the novel ideas we want about any of these prompts, but no one will take them because they're too... out there. Geez, and I like writing "out there" stuff, too.


I guess that's where the "Challenge" comes from, huh?


I guess I won't participate, after all. I can't think of anything that's any good.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Ignited, don't take this the wrong way but a proper writer is supposed to be able to write a story about anything. For example, to take a random book, open a random page, look at a random line in a random paragraph and choose the first couple words and write a foolproof story around it.


Like you said, it can be a challenge, but it's only impossible if you don't try at all. I often waste a night trying to come up with something, and in the end I fail completely. It's part of being a writer. And as for difficult themes like "Shadow and Thought": abstract, undefined titles grant you incredible freedom and leisure to write something. Ironically, to find this restricting... It indicates a lack of imagination and original thought. I would advice you to experiment with it for that reason exactly To face your fears is to defeat them.

 

[DreamingofRoses]

Uugh... These prompts. I think you guys should give suggestions that people would want to write something about that would be at maximum 8 pages. I understand that these ideas are room for more than just writing, but most of us are here because we are writers. I'm not gonna lie... These ideas aren't very good for straight-forward narratives. "Shadow and Thought" almost makes no sense. I was up half the night last night thinking of about six stories around this theme and none of them were any good. Half of them were stretching what could be considered in the boundaries of the theme.
"Season of Plague" makes me think of an entire novel. "Glass Houses"... I don't even know what this is supposed to be. I cannot think about a functioning story about a house made of glass or even a metaphor for the term unless I had at least 20-something pages to write about it. Even then, who's going to read all of that? We can have all of the novel ideas we want about any of these prompts, but no one will take them because they're too... out there. Geez, and I like writing "out there" stuff, too.


I guess that's where the "Challenge" comes from, huh?


I guess I won't participate, after all. I can't think of anything that's any good.

Sometimes the best stories come from, not what we as artists think of as 'good', but from ideas that seem crappy but just kind of grow. Submit something even if you think it's horrible, it can be done anonymously. You might surprise yourself.

 

[Feantari]

Or submit themes you would want to write about. :-P

 

[Ignitedstar]

[QUOTE="Wolf Rawrrr]Ignited, don't take this the wrong way but a proper writer is supposed to be able to write a story about anything. For example, to take a random book, open a random page, look at a random line in a random paragraph and choose the first couple words and write a foolproof story around it.
Like you said, it can be a challenge, but it's only impossible if you don't try at all. I often waste a night trying to come up with something, and in the end I fail completely. It's part of being a writer. And as for difficult themes like "Shadow and Thought": abstract, undefined titles grant you incredible freedom and leisure to write something. Ironically, to find this restricting... It indicates a lack of imagination and original thought. I would advice you to experiment with it for that reason exactly To face your fears is to defeat them.

[/QUOTE]
No offense taken. As in matter of fact, I thank you for being considerate about my feelings. And double thank you for discussing this as civil people. Unlike some people...


Yes, I could write a story about anything if you give me anything. I don't stop there, though. The real question for me is, "Will that story be any good?" And again, second paragraph, I will say the same thing. I thought of many stories that fit the theme "Shadow and Thought" but none of them are up to my standards. I have come up with many stories on the spot, but I give myself time to think on those stories for some time before I kick the bucket and consider it a bad idea. In this case, the due date is Friday. I don't have time to think too hard about it. The more time you invest in something, the better it's going to come out.


Roses, I believe you are right. Ideas that seem like crap need time grow into something usable. It's what I wrote up there: "I give myself time to think on that story for some time before I kick the bucket and consider it a bad idea". I'll say this again: The due date is tomorrow. The first time I looked at this thread was Wednesday night, after I got home from classes.

 

[DreamingofRoses]

No offense taken. As in matter of fact, I thank you for being considerate about my feelings. And double thank you for discussing this as civil people. Unlike some people...
Yes, I could write a story about anything if you give me anything. I don't stop there, though. The real question for me is, "Will that story be any good?" And again, second paragraph, I will say the same thing. I thought of many stories that fit the theme "Shadow and Thought" but none of them are up to my standards. I have come up with many stories on the spot, but I give myself time to think on those stories for some time before I kick the bucket and consider it a bad idea. In this case, the due date is Friday. I don't have time to think too hard about it. The more time you invest in something, the better it's going to come out.


Roses, I believe you are right. Ideas that seem like crap need time grow into something usable. It's what I wrote up there: "I give myself time to think on that story for some time before I kick the bucket and consider it a bad idea". I'll say this again: The due date is tomorrow. The first time I looked at this thread was Wednesday night, after I got home from classes.

The due date for voting and theme submission is tomorrow. Three new themes will be up on the 1st.

 

[Ignitedstar]

I have finals in two weeks, so I'm afraid I'll have to go back to studying before I can get a story out. Doesn't mean I won't have time to think of something. After that, I'm basically free and will be in summer doldrums.


There are many times when I want to submit excerpts of stories that I have right now... but you know, then I feel like I'm danglnig a rod with a carrot you really, really want. That's kind of mean... but if I can't think of anything else, I'll probably do it anyway. >_>