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I should probably have mentioned earlier that I registered under the name "Kanakkas".
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Sep 5, 2013 11:31
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Baudolino posted:I should probably have mentioned earlier that I registered under the name "Kanakkas". You are registered already  Walamor posted:Does it need to be a modern day soldier or is just the idea of a soldier (or someone dressed as if they were a soldier/official person) enough? It doesn't need to be any of those, but it can be. The idea of a writing prompt is to prompt you, not to define for you. Just remember that whatever you take from both the scenario and the image have to be in the story in an obvious way, meaning your story includes what looks to be (or what might be, or what is) a military type person in the woods searching for something. That's got to fit in also with the scenario that something has escaped--but how closely these two things relate is up to you. If people are worried about their story being too much like another, take into consideration that the guy in the woods could be anyone: a main character, a particular scene, an incidental aside that fits into a bigger picture. Or that what escapes is pretty broad--could be anything, really.
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Sep 5, 2013 15:21
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Free associating from the picture actually led me to an idea for what "it" is that I don't think I can resist.
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Sep 6, 2013 01:28
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The only logical conclusion from the picture is that "it" is the Happening, as we are all supposed to write Happening origin stories! To come up with ideas, I made a chart with each clause in the scenario and each element of the picture, then just listed what each could independently be (i.e., "knocked out" could mean the scientist slipped and hit his head, or that "it" hit him, or that the "soldier" hit him, or that someone else hit him (a rival scientist?), or maybe it was a lab chemical released from a bad experiment, or maybe someone drugged him, etc.). The problem is that now I look at my chart and see too many possible stories.
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Sep 6, 2013 02:57
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I tried to "brute force" a story idea by dwelling on the prompts but I just found everything that came out of it to be really lame and dull, so in the end I stopped thinking about the contest for a day. Now I'm working on an idea that pretty much came out of the blue and is also constantly blossoming a whole bunch of cool things that I want to put in my entry. I guess the point of this story is that you might not find that great idea at first but eventually it'll come to you when you least expect it.
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Sep 6, 2013 03:14
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I have registered under the name Soulex. Looking forward to having the motivation to actually start writing.
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Sep 6, 2013 07:45
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Just registered, using my forums name. Woooo spooky story time!
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Sep 6, 2013 08:47
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I just registered using my forums username. 
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Sep 6, 2013 17:34
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Just registered using this name, it's a good excuse to write.
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Sep 7, 2013 20:21
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I just registered under this name, thanks for the heads up in GBS! I've never written horror before, it'll be an interesting challenge.
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Sep 8, 2013 04:46
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I registered under this name, but with a lowercase i because I suddenly was too lazy to press the shift key.
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Sep 8, 2013 05:38
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Registered under this name. Never written a short story or really any creative writing before, so this should be a weird experience.
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Sep 8, 2013 17:30
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Registered under this name.
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Sep 12, 2013 16:18
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Hey guys. Sorry haven't been that active lately. We just finished a romance novel and submitted on Goonreads. It's racy but not erotica, by the way. Out of 55,000 words, it only has two sex scenes.
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Sep 15, 2013 05:43
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I just registered under this username. I'm excited, I never even knew Goonreads existed!
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Sep 17, 2013 15:37
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I am post in thread, for register this name. I would write, and you can too!
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Sep 18, 2013 14:36
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I hope the stories are going well! I had a crazy start to this semester, but am trying to write something just to be listed along with other stories (after the vote), and not to be voted on (since I came up with the prompts!). One short story was submitted early, but remember that you can submit it any time and make changes up until the deadline on October 5. I strongly recommend not using our submission form as a place to write though because you'll want to have your own copy of the short story on your computer. Also, though the site has almost 100% up-time, there is a tiny bit of downtime during upgrades/maintenance. Also, there's a possibility that, if the stories are mostly well-written, we could create an anthology e-book. There's a checkbox for interest when you submit your story and something to talk about later.
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Sep 21, 2013 00:13
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So I've completely forgotten about Goonreads between moving, school stuff and trying to work on my college murder mystery. I'll see if I can get anything up for the contest still. Is there anything else helpful I can do?
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Sep 27, 2013 01:41
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I've played pretty fast and loose with the prompts, when all is said and done. I might not even qualify. But I'm still gonna submit, and I had a fun time writing this story. So that's all right.
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Sep 28, 2013 02:10
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Cross-posted in the GBS thread: Just want to remind you all that this contest ends 11 PM EST on October 5! That's this coming Saturday night. I'll be working throughout the evening to get the stories posted into a format that everyone can just click them and read them. If you think you might have trouble figuring out the submission form, please email me: hume (at) goonreads (dot) com before the deadline. Whenever the stories are all posted, I'll make let you know, and then voting will begin.
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Sep 30, 2013 05:42
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My story for the contest ended up being just over 2,700 words after I typed it up from longhand, so it's way off the word count guidelines. Balls. I don't think I've got another 2,300 words worth of story to tell for this one, so I'll use it for something else. Best of luck to everyone else though!
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Oct 1, 2013 22:50
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I just registered under this username. I never even knew Goonreads existed! I'm not a writer, but I'm a heck of a reader. Can't wait! I see that you're looking for editors? I have a lot of spare time lately, I would love to help with this!
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Oct 2, 2013 11:28
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I've just registered under my username. Hopefully this will give me the kick in the rear end I need to attempt self-publishing. If not, I can at least help critique other people's writing and help other goons self-publish.
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Oct 4, 2013 06:22
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Whelp, I've submitted my story for the contest. I think mine wound up being more really dark fantasy than horror. Those two are next door neighbors on the genre shelves and I tried to push things a bit more toward horror, but I think I didn't get the atmosphere right. My concept is a bit out there and my pass to try to darken things wound up normalizing it a bit instead. I'm looking forward to seeing the submissions from other goons!
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Oct 5, 2013 02:30
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Joined up. I've been toying (or toiling) with an idea. Not sure if my enthusiasm for it is adequate to reach the other 50% of the wordcount target, however, and it seems a bit late in the game to be half-way done and wishy washy. edit: In! This is cool and I enjoyed the exercise. I look forward to reading others' stories. xenocratic fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Oct 6, 2013 |
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Oct 5, 2013 04:12
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Random Stranger posted:Whelp, I've submitted my story for the contest. I think mine wound up being more really dark fantasy than horror. Those two are next door neighbors on the genre shelves and I tried to push things a bit more toward horror, but I think I didn't get the atmosphere right. My concept is a bit out there and my pass to try to darken things wound up normalizing it a bit instead. I wrote a story to be included after the voting, and I'm kind of in the same boat. It doesn't seem too horror-like. My husband read it and thought it was good but kinda serious or something. Anyway, I should get all the submissions posted by Sunday evening and will announce when the voting starts. Depending on how many more submissions come in, I might give a longer time for voting, but the winner will be announced no later than October 30, in time for Halloween.
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Oct 5, 2013 04:37
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I'm kinda sad that I had to sit this one out. Waaaay too much regular life stuff came up this month to do much of anything else. Barely even did anything toward the writing that I need to be doing. Oh well, looking forward to the next contest!
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Oct 5, 2013 06:25
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I've got 350 words to put in somewhere before I can give this a final go over, and get it in before the deadline. Mine turned out to be more of A Weird Thing that happened, rather then a real-rear end horror story.
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Oct 5, 2013 07:08
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Desmond posted:I wrote a story to be included after the voting, and I'm kind of in the same boat. It doesn't seem too horror-like. My husband read it and thought it was good but kinda serious or something. When I started out I dug out King's Danse Macabre and went over his guidelines for a horror story since I figured he was an expert. His commends on what a horror story consisted of made me throw out my first concept because it wouldn't be fit. I tried to hit the notes that King highlighted, but I suspect they aren't emphasized enough. My current story probably needs another 3000 words or so if I want to really push it solidly into horror since it needs a couple more scenes to raise the tension and stakes with. I'd chop to make room for expanding that way, but my premise isn't straightforward and I need the room to let premise develop naturally. As it is I had to add a paragraph of exposition to help bridge some of the initial confusion. Or I could be overthinking it and people will find the concept as creepy and troubling as I originally did and I've just had a month to let everything settle. 
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Oct 5, 2013 13:41
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We have 11 stories in a few hours ahead of time, so I will probably extend the voting time to closer to Halloween (currently it would end the 16th or so, but I didn't expect more than 5 or so stories). That way people can have a little more time to get through all the stories. Someone had questions about the formatting. Goonreads has a consistent justified alignment that we coded in since people always submit their own book forms, and we wanted to establish some consistency. If you want to properly edit your short story after submitting it (before the deadline), rather than going in through the form, go to your Goonreads dashboard and edit your post. I think it's probably a better way of viewing how things look. I'll close the submission form promptly at 11:00 pm tonight (EST). Jenny of Oldstones fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Oct 5, 2013 |
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Oct 5, 2013 21:48
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Desmond posted:We have 11 stories in a few hours ahead of time, so I will probably extend the voting time to closer to Halloween (currently it would end the 16th or so, but I didn't expect more than 5 or so stories). I guess people really want that Amazon gift card! But seriously, I'm really glad that quite a few writers have taken part. I had a lot of fun writing my thing, and I'm really looking foward to what everyone else came up with.
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Oct 6, 2013 02:56
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This has been a lot of fun. Read and vote!
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Oct 6, 2013 07:13
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A shame I didn't get to try for the contest, but I've really liked the stories I've read a bit of so far. Looking forwards to whenever we do the next one, hopefully I'll be able to make more time for it. (On the note of something brought up in the last e-mail we all got about this, I'd definitely buy an anthology of these.)
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Oct 6, 2013 18:43
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I ended up sick as hell the last week, pretty much down for the count and unable to write. I will however still participate by reading and voting. Good luck, guys.
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Oct 7, 2013 04:35
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So for anybody who is in the writing mood now with no outlet, remember that the thunderdome is always friendly and welcoming! http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3527428&pagenumber=120#post420291077
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Oct 7, 2013 21:09
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crabrock posted:So for anybody who is in the writing mood now with no outlet, remember that the thunderdome is always friendly and welcoming! "So for anybody who is in the writing mood now with no outlet, remember that the thunderdome is always You might get harsh feedback but in my experience it's been invaluable. Patting each other on the back doesn't help anyone. However, it's never (or rarely) done in a mean way. As a bad writer, I highly recommend TD to anyone interested!
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Oct 8, 2013 03:15
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crabrock posted:So for anybody who is in the writing mood now with no outlet, remember that the thunderdome is always friendly and welcoming! If nothing else, I now have a cool new way to come up with writing prompts. (Cards Against Humanity deck)
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Oct 8, 2013 13:08
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Surely it would be a huge undertaking, but it would be wonderful if someone posted crits for all of the stories in the short-fiction contest.
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Oct 9, 2013 15:57
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I've registered with this username, thanks.
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Oct 9, 2013 21:28
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systran posted:Surely it would be a huge undertaking, but it would be wonderful if someone posted crits for all of the stories in the short-fiction contest. I could give it a shot but it would take a while, and depends on if Desmond is cool with it. Would people want it here, on-site, both?
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Oct 11, 2013 22:32
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