[Discussions] WOW #4 - June 2016

[|♚|KK|♚|]

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This is a discussion thread for WOW #4. Here you can ask questions, post comments, and even post your draft work for others to comment on. While you can edit your entry submission post and remake your entry as many times as you please before the deadline, if you think there's still something missing from your story, consider posting it here first if you'd like to ask advice from your fellow entrants.

The theme for WOW #4 is FRIENDSHIP.
Savour every moment, for what you take for granted could be someone else's lifetime desire.

The deadline is on 30 June 2016.
You MAY edit your entry submission post as many times as you please before the deadline.​

Please submit your entry before the deadline. If you're unsure about certain aspects of your draft entry, feel free to ask around in the discussion thread. You can have only ONE post in the entry submission thread, but you're not restricted from discussing the WoW as much as you want in the discussion thread. The deadline may be extended on our discretion if circumstances necessitate it, but it won't be shortened for no reason, so rest assured and don't rush. Take your time to make a masterpiece!

This thread is only for DISCUSSIONS!
To submit your entry, please go to this thread instead.​

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[Gamerguy]

Oh what a nice theme :D

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Oh what a nice theme :D

Thank you =) I don't know how but I have high expectations for this round~

 

[Gamerguy]

Thank you =) I don't know how but I have high expectations for this round~

i would love to take part in this round but then again my writing skills are Abysmal

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

i would love to take part in this round but then again my writing skills are Abysmal

Don't worry, you can enter if you want freely =) To be honest I'm really curious what kind of story or poem you may write ^-^

 

[Gamerguy]

Don't worry, you can enter if you want freely =) To be honest I'm really curious what kind of story or poem you may write ^-^

Hmm maybe i should write something then i kinda like the theme after all hehe. Well i have a lot of time to think about it :D

 

[Leggy]

Interesting theme. This go around, I'll have time to give it some thought.

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Interesting theme. This go around, I'll have time to give it some thought.

Hmm maybe i should write something then i kinda like the theme after all hehe. Well i have a lot of time to think about it :D

Glad you two liked the theme of this month =) It may sound ordinary but it's very inspiring subject when it comes to writing, and everyone has a whole month so no rushes. ^-^

 

[ancer_nyaa]

One of my goals here is to obtain as much book awards as I can.

Spoiler: Yeah....

(Disclaimer: That doesn't mean I am not aiming to win)

Yeah, I took the theme as "Taking things for granted" for the last WoW.
It's about a pirate that was so focused obtaining the gold, he forgot about his family. The pirate thought that his family would be there forever and the reality was a resounding NO.

Sorry, it got off track.

 

[Ignis]

Yeah, I took the theme as "Taking things for granted" for the last WoW.
It's about a pirate that was so focused obtaining the gold, he forgot about his family. The pirate thought that his family would be there forever and the reality was a resounding NO.

In what (fictional) stories I've read about pirates, it seems like one of their principles is that they should never have obligations on the land as they belong to the open seas. Which means that they also tend to stay away from having families who live on land (there was some story of a ship's mate who stopped sailing when he fell in love with a land-dwelling woman).

i would love to take part in this round but then again my writing skills are Abysmal

There's always a first time! Maybe nobody here writes like Lewis Carroll or Charles Dickens to compare your own work with, but in my experience, contests like this can greatly help you improve. Plus, it takes experience to get good at anything, so you gotta start somewhere :)

 

[Leggy]

Oh my! While sitting back, relaxing, I've had an intriguing idea for a friendship themed story!

It will take time to develop, but it's an interesting concept. Let's see what I can do with it.

 

[8Laelia8]

It's certainly a heart warming theme :3 not sure it's one I can participate in though since I've only really witnessed friendship and never truly obtained it myself T_T and I definitely don't wanna go off on one all dark and moody about not having a true friend cos that would just depress everyone xD Watching anime makes me sad when I see how close a lot of characters are, I just wish that that could be my life haha.

PS. Really surprised and grateful to have won the previous WOW so thank you very much for that! After reading the other entries I certainly didn't expect to go far, I personally thought others were way better than mine, but then I guess all that sorta stuff is down to opinion in the end. I would suck at judging anything... way too hard and I'd never be able to come to a decision!!

 

[Gamerguy]

To tell the truth i never experienced frienship that much either but for me that's makes this even more exciting i mean without knowing how it is i can let my fantasy go and come up with somekind of story about friendships

 

[Ignis]

Oh my! While sitting back, relaxing, I've had an intriguing idea for a friendship themed story!

It will take time to develop, but it's an interesting concept. Let's see what I can do with it.

Good to hear. Looking forward to your entry!

I kinda have one too, just not sure if I should carry on. Looking back, I kinda felt like I was a party pooper for writing stories with a dark slant despite the positive themes two times in a row. :P

To tell the truth i never experienced frienship that much either but for me that's makes this even more exciting i mean without knowing how it is i can let my fantasy go and come up with somekind of story about friendships

It's certainly a heart warming theme :3 not sure it's one I can participate in though since I've only really witnessed friendship and never truly obtained it myself T_T and I definitely don't wanna go off on one all dark and moody about not having a true friend cos that would just depress everyone xD Watching anime makes me sad when I see how close a lot of characters are, I just wish that that could be my life haha.

PS. Really surprised and grateful to have won the previous WOW so thank you very much for that! After reading the other entries I certainly didn't expect to go far, I personally thought others were way better than mine, but then I guess all that sorta stuff is down to opinion in the end. I would suck at judging anything... way too hard and I'd never be able to come to a decision!!

It doesn't have to be based on what you've had first-hand experience with, really (of course, I'm saying this as someone who likes fantasy stuff, so). How about something like the ideal friendship in your mind? The kind of friendship that you don't think you've ever truly obtained but is what you think how "friendship" should be defined? I think that'd make for a great plot, too. Just like what Gamerguy said.

With regards to the previous WOW, you're too modest :) Though yes, judging isn't easy either (and I'm actually glad KK is writing short posts for it instead of the TL;DR stuff I started the contest with). We were weighing our options between judging and having open votes... though in the end we still can't decide on the latter because we're afraid each entry may not get much attention due to writings naturally requiring more time to appraise properly.

 

[Leggy]

Good to hear. Looking forward to your entry!

I kinda have one too, just not sure if I should carry on. Looking back, I kinda felt like I was a party pooper for writing stories with a dark slant despite the positive themes two times in a row. :P

Thanks!

That's fine, actually. Exploring both the light and the dark sides of a concept is that writers do.

Two examples of this come from the writings of master novelist Steven R. Donaldson.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is a very dark series, even though the ultimate message is one of hope.

On the other hand, the Mordant's Need series is overall upbeat, showcasing the inner growth and ultimate triumph of the protagonist, even though it gets quite dark at times.

So I say go for it, Ignis. I'm sure you're interpretation of the theme will be an interesting read, like you're last one! :)

 

[Ignis]

Thanks!

That's fine, actually. Exploring both the light and the dark sides of a concept is that writers do.

Two examples of this come from the writings of master novelist Steven R. Donaldson.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is a very dark series, even though the ultimate message is one of hope.

On the other hand, the Mordant's Need series is overall upbeat, showcasing the inner growth and ultimate triumph of the protagonist, even though it gets quite dark at times.

So I say go for it, Ignis. I'm sure you're interpretation of the theme will be an interesting read, like you're last one! :)

Well said! Donaldson is sure a good example. I didn't really look at it that way when I wrote my entries, but it sure is an interesting angle: how would a person who normally is shunned by society (or, for that matter, themselves shuns society) see high values such as blessing, hope, friendship and the like in their pessimistic worldview?

Whether said person is inherently and wilfully pessimistic or is a 'victim' of society had done to them could perhaps both make for an interesting theme―the former resulting in constant antagonism and the latter possibly in their 'search' for what makes values valuable, what makes norms normal, what makes mores moral.

...If that makes sense, anyway. I probably went a bit off track in rambling there. Still, what you said is encouraging and sure enough made me think, so thanks!

 

[Leggy]

[MENTION=125617]Gamerguy[/MENTION]; A interesting story! Sacrifice is a classic take on the theme!

 

[Gamerguy]

[MENTION=125617]Gamerguy[/MENTION]; A interesting story! Sacrifice is a classic take on the theme!

Oh thank you for giving a read to my story :)
Well call me a bit childish or a big dreamer but i always imagined real friendships to be like in my story :D

 

[Ignis]

Oh thank you for giving a read to my story :)
Well call me a bit childish or a big dreamer but i always imagined real friendships to be like in my story :D

I find nothing childish in your story; as Leggy said, sacrifice is always a classic for this kind of theme. Whether a story with such a premise ends up becoming another tired and overdone trope or a bittersweet encouraging tale depends entirely on how it's conveyed, but here, I'd say you managed to nail the latter. Is it intentional that you didn't use double quotation marks (" ") for dialogues, though? In any case, it's a nice story―thanks for participating!

[MENTION=65000]ancer_nyaa[/MENTION]; Thanks for taking part again! This part also made me chuckle:

I don’t blame him for not going after me since I tackled him harder than an american football player.

It'll be up to KK to judge how much an entry fits with the theme, but to me, I personally find it a nice twist. A girl who after a failed confession (or, more accurately, what she one-sidedly perceived as a failed confession before she even actually confessed) explored the possibility of being the "significant other" of her best friend instead (also a girl) is just, well, nothing less than perfect. But that's just a matter of personal tastes, of course.

 

[Gamerguy]

I find nothing childish in your story; as Leggy said, sacrifice is always a classic for this kind of theme. Whether a story with such a premise ends up becoming another tired and overdone trope or a bittersweet encouraging tale depends entirely on how it's conveyed, but here, I'd say you managed to nail the latter. Is it intentional that you didn't use double quotation marks (" ") for dialogues, though? In any case, it's a nice story―thanks for participating!

Oh well to be honest i not wanted it to end up as a depressing story of self sacrifice so i'm glad to hear it not ended up as one :)
Well about double quotation marks i would say that it's my own lack of knowledge about writing that resulted in me not using them. i should pay more attention to things like that. Thank you for the heads up :)

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Wow 2 entries from the start! I'm glad I choosed this theme. Both entries are lovely and I liked reading them, it's going to be a hard decision choosing the winner~

 

[pandachuu19]

just wondering, is course language allowed?

I've written one but it has a few coarse words inside and also the consumption of a little alcohol.

wanted to ask before I posted it to see if it's okay.

 

[Ignis]

just wondering, is course language allowed?

I've written one but it has a few coarse words inside and also the consumption of a little alcohol.

wanted to ask before I posted it to see if it's okay.

I think it's okay if it's within reason and in a proper context. Like, for example, an event critical to the story features A drinking alcohol and then lashing out at person B with profanity and such in a drunken rage. Though, if person A is the kind that just inserts profanity everywhere between their words, probably nope. It'll be up to [MENTION=93850]|♚| KK |♚|[/MENTION]; to determine.

 

[Leggy]

Well, that was a fair bit of work!

The Legend of the Two Chairs is a fantasy story about the power of friendship.

As is my habit, I write something, let it sit for a time, and come back to it.

One problem I had was size. The original story was around 2000 words, that I could have easily doubled. However, the rules say max size is 1500.

It did give me a chance to streamline parts, and tighten my ideas, but some major cuts still had to be made. I finally got it to 1500 words exactly.

Any advice is appreciated. :)

Hope you like it!

 

[Ignis]

Well, that was a fair bit of work!

The Legend of the Two Chairs is a fantasy story about the power of friendship.

As is my habit, I write something, let it sit for a time, and come back to it.

One problem I had was size. The original story was around 2000 words, that I could have easily doubled. However, the rules say max size is 1500.

It did give me a chance to streamline parts, and tighten my ideas, but some major cuts still had to be made. I finally got it to 1500 words exactly.

Any advice is appreciated. :)

Hope you like it!

Awesome entry! It was pleasant to read. Most short stories, not excluding ones I've written myself, tend to focus on characters and build plots around them. Yours makes use of this certain style that from the outset defines the focus of the story, but then goes around and around, putting pieces that slowly form a cascade of events. In this case, the pieces aren't necessary part of a puzzle, but they line up together in an orderly manner nonetheless.

I guess I can see why this kind of writing style isn't very common in short stories; it's pretty much the recipe for a legend or a fairytale or any other "they say..." kind of story. I don't know if it was the generous use of line breaks, but I could feel the length in your story (not necessarily in a negative way―1500 words are nothing anyway, comparatively speaking).

I don't have any useful advice to offer at the moment, but I'd say you did well in streamlining your story and shortening parts of it. It has a nice integrity and didn't feel like something was excluded from it. Well done :)