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I registered for goonreaders for the sake of the horror writing contest. Now to get completely crushed!
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Aug 29, 2013 23:30
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 15:18 |
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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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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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Oh yeah, I definitely needed another edit pass and there's a few things I'd tweak. I'm trying to wrap up reading all the entries before voting. I've been reading them in bed before I go to sleep...
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Oct 22, 2013 00:52
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Thanks for the congratulations. FWIW, I voted for Little Curly Tail. Also, whoever's comment it was that jokingly accused me of being Neil Gaiman, I want you to know that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me even if I'm really not trying to be Gaiman. Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 05:04
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workingdogv1 posted:I honestly wasn't enamored with the prompt, either, and tried to work around it, but I think Random Stranger did a much better job of circumventing it. My original concept was that the thing that escaped was hope from Pandora's box so humanity was falling into despair and killing themselves, but I couldn't come up with a character and angle that would plant that firmly in the horror genre. Saddest Rhino, I completely agree with almost everything you said about me. The beginning is definitely too slow but I was having trouble working out a way to bring in the threat and integrate the writing prompt as the inciting incident. At this point I'd toss out and rewrite the first two pages from square one to making things more menacing. The only thing I disagree with you on is the ending. I feel like I should have ended it two lines earlier. That last line plays as a bit corny to me, partly because I was trying for an EC comics feel in my initial draft, and I think a more abrupt ending that didn't hit things on the nose would be better.
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Oct 31, 2013 14:13
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Desmond posted:Just 10 days to go for the writing contest! I scrapped my story and just started again today so I'm hoping it's possible to dish out a few thousand words that make some sense by May 31. I wrote three thousand words in the hospital last week and then lost the thumbdrive I saved them to (it wasn't my computer and I usually work off of Google Drive just so I won't have any problems like this). At least now it works as some kind of revision.  FWIW, I decided to follow the standard romance novel playbook: who are two people who shouldn't be in love, what would bring them together, what would tear them apart, and what would bring them back together. I actually went through about a dozen spins on that from my starting point as I rejected the common ideas and tried to warp the traditional ones into a more modern framework. We'll see how I do! Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 16:59 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 16:55
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 15:18 |
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Currently running a high fever and can barely get out of bed. I'm positive that all my last minute rewrites to improve the language are going to turn out brilliantly!
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May 31, 2014 14:59
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