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Post by Injin on Feb 17, 2015 12:27:52 GMT -5
Wow...this is the first year I'm going to have a shot at the finals. I am amazed.
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Post by Jenny (Reffy) on Feb 17, 2015 12:32:39 GMT -5
Wow...this is the first year I'm going to have a shot at the finals. I am amazed. Well done :] Is great how far you have come. /bouncingback Suppose I shot myself in the ankle (or is it foot?) before we set off on this competition (race, marathon, whateveryouwanttocallit) by choosing The Mad City. It is difficult to describe and explain and it doesn't have any hard and fast rules; just one, don't fall asleep. Maybe Kaez was also being a bit nicer to me in the reviews too - since a few have pointed out it's relatively wateriness and waivering form. Ready for the next topic. Will do my best to make the city firmer. The premise is that people who have "Snapped" in the current world end up in The Mad City: an alternative universe, sort of. It's probably some sort of coma for the real person still in the real world but in their heads they've joined others in The Mad City. Going to sleep means giving up. Getting tired and stopping means giving up and dying. Going to sleep means the nightmares can get you in The Mad City. So over it. |
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Post by Matteo ((Taed)) on Feb 17, 2015 12:52:08 GMT -5
/bouncingback Suppose I shot myself in the ankle (or is it foot?) before we set off on this competition (race, marathon, whateveryouwanttocallit) by choosing The Mad City. It is difficult to describe and explain and it doesn't have any hard and fast rules; just one, don't fall asleep. Maybe Kaez was also being a bit nicer to me in the reviews too - since a few have pointed out it's relatively wateriness and waivering form. Ready for the next topic. Will do my best to make the city firmer. As your judge who is supposed to be disinterested, I shouldn't really say anything, but as your editor who would like to explain how he thinks the stories could be stronger, can I just say ... try to find a way to tell a story about Tick-Tock. Or Mother When. Or another "pillar of the community" that we haven't heard about yet. Your round 2 entry was far and away the strongest one (I really should have written you a review for it, but I didn't want to be unfair to everyone else who didn't get double feedback on their Kaez-reviewed entries), because you were operating with characters who were really part of the setting's internal logic. The Paper Boys had a clear theme and a well-rounded motivation. Their origins and mechanisms remained suitably mysterious, but who were they were made sense, and they didn't seem like they were half-asleep, just-going-through-the-motions, like your first round protagonist. The womble in round 3 came close to this as well, but you fudged the execution a bit. Mainly because of how his story resolved: the ending wasn't event-driven and proactive, it just sort of petered out. He decided, "I'm done now," and that was that. The beginning, however, was very promising, and I think you should follow that thread. Think about a character with a purpose. Tick-Tock runs the police. Mother When runs the hospital. X does Y. Jack does Jill. Whoops; that got rude. Write a story about that. The premise is that people who have "Snapped" in the current world end up in The Mad City: an alternative universe, sort of. It's probably some sort of coma for the real person still in the real world but in their heads they've joined others in The Mad City. Going to sleep means giving up. Getting tired and stopping means giving up and dying. Going to sleep means the nightmares can get you in The Mad City. And I actually sort of suspected something along those lines: the "immigrant" characters seemed to share a common traumatic origin. But then, like, we saw Stacie in round 2--a Sleeper--and she didn't seem all that different. There's definitely some incongruities that need straightening out. |
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Post by James on Feb 17, 2015 13:18:07 GMT -5
Taed! You're amazing. Thanks so much for taking over this thing. Seriously. That was a mammoth effort, Taed. Thanks so much. AWR's going to finish another major competition because of you, we haven't had a failure in a big competition since Pete and Tam limped to a final which never happened. And that was pre-Folly. Anyway. On my Round 2 story, I think what you said is sound. I feel like what Zovo said about me sometimes giving too much context maybe explains that letter from Ann's mother. I've got to try and allow things to build up, not to try and explain everything upfront. I'm doing that with the sci-fi novella I'm writing, so at some point I'll give it to people to see if I've done that (or gone too far the other way and left things too unexplained). On my Round 3 story, I didn't actually really think of the quote as a part of the story. It was just something I did for the competition, so if that's your main concern, I'm really happy with that. The name-swapping is also further confused, from a British perspective, by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, and swapping who was tall and who was short to the point that I got myself rather confused a couple of times. On Round 4, I'm just glad people liked it. I thought it might just appeal to the historian in me and nobody else. The only thing of Aidan's which I didn't come up with was saving the burning city with the wind (which was put down to an act of God, which once you make the real world a fantasy setting instantly becomes a suspect for magical intervention instead). The Ronald Weasley line was there for Pete-bait after he used it in the competition. So yeah. Silver. THUNDERDOME TIME. |
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Post by James on Feb 17, 2015 13:19:41 GMT -5
Wow...this is the first year I'm going to have a shot at the finals. I am amazed. You actually had an outside chance last year too. Going into the final round, anybody could have made the Top 4. So, this improvement isn't a one-off, Injin. Keep it up. |
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Post by James on Feb 17, 2015 15:02:14 GMT -5
So we're looking at a possible tie in both divisions. Let's come up with a gameplan for that. Two things: A: Yeah, we might need a game plan for ties. Last year, Zovo and I had planned a flash fiction round where you had to write an advert for a fictional product. Don't know if something similar could work with a world building round? A flash fiction round where you have to sell real estate or a eulogy for a famous person in your setting? Not sure. Alternatively, we can go for a sports method of in the event of a tie, look at who won the match between the two people tied. So, for example, if Silver wins, and Zovo and I lose, then we'll be in a tie for second place. Zovo beat me when we had our match. So Zovo goes through. It might be easier and quicker that way. Of course, in the event of a three-way tie in Group A, that would not work at all. B: Can I suggest something? Feel free to shoot me down people. At the moment, we have a prolonged final round with all of the final four playing each other. I'm not sure if Pete had something planned for that because I found it a little odd at the time. Anyway, this competition has now really dragged on. It was meant to be finished by now. I thought we might like to condense the next stage of the competition into a more traditional cup format. So: Match 1: A1 vs B2 Match 2: B1 vs A2 Final: Winner of Match 1 v Winner of Match 2 And we can probably have a third and fourth play-off as well for the two knocked out writers. It just cuts a round off and gives us a chance of having this competition not dragging onto mid-March. |
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Post by J.O.N ((Dragonwing)) on Feb 17, 2015 17:05:45 GMT -5
The way the cyborg was thinking was a response to Pete who mentioned it being too human when I first introduced them. I think I'm having trouble finding the sweet spot.
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Post by ASGetty ((Zovo)) on Feb 17, 2015 17:19:59 GMT -5
Wow...this is the first year I'm going to have a shot at the finals. I am amazed. Well done :] Is great how far you have come. /bouncingback Suppose I shot myself in the ankle (or is it foot?) before we set off on this competition (race, marathon, whateveryouwanttocallit) by choosing The Mad City. It is difficult to describe and explain and it doesn't have any hard and fast rules; just one, don't fall asleep. Maybe Kaez was also being a bit nicer to me in the reviews too - since a few have pointed out it's relatively wateriness and waivering form. Ready for the next topic. Will do my best to make the city firmer. The premise is that people who have "Snapped" in the current world end up in The Mad City: an alternative universe, sort of. It's probably some sort of coma for the real person still in the real world but in their heads they've joined others in The Mad City. Going to sleep means giving up. Getting tired and stopping means giving up and dying. Going to sleep means the nightmares can get you in The Mad City. So over it. Don't let me advance by default Ref... don't do that to me. Beat me! |
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Post by James on Feb 17, 2015 19:56:58 GMT -5
Got some topics lined up for the last round, Taed?
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Post by JMDavis ((Silver)) on Feb 17, 2015 23:03:56 GMT -5
Taed! You're amazing. Thanks so much for taking over this thing. Silver. THUNDERDOME TIME. WOO! YEAH! I AM GOING DOWN! YEEEEAAAAAAH! In all seriousness I'm excited and going to try my hardest. |
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Post by Matteo ((Taed)) on Feb 17, 2015 23:21:49 GMT -5
Got some topics lined up for the last round, Taed? Umm .... right .... crap, this is hard. Now that I know what all your stories are about, I want to tailor topic to round, but that's not easy to do. I can feel you judging me. .... Hey, what if I just used a random adjective-noun generator, thereby deferring responsibility!? Yes? That's great? Perfect! |
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Post by Matteo ((Taed)) on Feb 18, 2015 0:00:39 GMT -5
Iron Chef round.
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Post by James on Feb 18, 2015 0:18:01 GMT -5
Is there anyway you want the secret ingredient used? Is it just something that has to be part of the story, or does it have to be absolutely integral to the plot or part of a twist?
Man, oh man do I love that genre, though. Yes.
Also, Kwan vs Allya...
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Post by ASGetty ((Zovo)) on Feb 18, 2015 0:34:12 GMT -5
What the shit is slipstream?
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Post by James on Feb 18, 2015 0:36:22 GMT -5
What the shit is slipstream? |
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