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Hey there, friend, I see you got a word sword on you. You're gonna to have to check that at the door. There are many things this thread aspires to be and just as many things it aspires not to be. What this place is:
What this place is not:
Generally speaking, we’re making this thread because this is a fantastic community full of kind and talented people. The contest that holds this community together has been going on for over a decade now, and we want it to continue. So if you’ve been intrigued by the concept of a weekly flash fiction contest but haven’t felt compelled to join, here’s a place to feel it out. Join us on the mission of writing and supporting others while they write. It’s a good time.
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Jun 8, 2023 06:20
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 18:43 |
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a story in possession of a boring plot must be in want of a goblin. Words to live by imo.
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Jun 8, 2023 06:31
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I can't believe me and Chairchucker showed up wearing the same avatar. The embarrassment!
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Jun 8, 2023 06:34
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Hello. Join the dome, write some stories, make some friends (and enemies?)
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Jun 8, 2023 06:58
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Hello, wordfriends, and wordfriends-to-be. 
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Jun 8, 2023 07:33
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giBdlreKxMQ
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Jun 8, 2023 08:37
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Mrenda posted:I can't believe me and Chairchucker showed up wearing the same avatar. The embarrassment! At least you can take comfort that his avatar is soooo last season.
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Jun 8, 2023 11:09
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in lol
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Jun 8, 2023 11:39
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I heard there would be cat pics
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Jun 8, 2023 11:49
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thunderdome winner
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Ooh, no one has posted this week's prompt: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=4021140&perpage=40&pagenumber=20#post532338450 And then talked about how great a prompt it is. Short, inspirational, lots of latitude. Excellent.
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Jun 8, 2023 13:55
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speaking of great prompts what's everybody's favorite past prompt? could be either your favorite prompt you wrote a story for, or if your ego is an unbridled stallion, your favorite prompt you came up with in true shitposting fashion I have not taken the time to figure out my own answer before posting this question
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Jun 8, 2023 14:40
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Haven't been to the 'Dome myself lately, not for a couple of weeks at least, because I finally got my rear end back to editing my second novel. Ugh, so much work.
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Jun 8, 2023 14:53
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MockingQuantum posted:speaking of great prompts what's everybody's favorite past prompt? I like my prompts because I like giving out songs. In general I like prompts where each person who signs up gets given a song or a gemstone or a disney princess or whatever it is.
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Jun 8, 2023 15:09
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MockingQuantum posted:speaking of great prompts what's everybody's favorite past prompt? I like prompts that conveniently line up with whatever thing I happen to be obsessing over that week
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Jun 8, 2023 15:15
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MockingQuantum posted:speaking of great prompts what's everybody's favorite past prompt? I always love prompts structured around an assigned first line. Staggy and Anti have done this in the past (like Lyttle Lyton weeks) and both times I entered, the prompts inspired the heck out of me (and my stories won for some reason.) First lines are hard, so prompts that write them for me are good.
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Jun 8, 2023 17:12
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Any tips on incorporating colors into story? Right now my TD story is like "ohh there was red, green , blue." Going to a thesaurus and replacing it with "ohh, there was crimson, green and beige" just makes it read like I.. well.. went to a thesaurus.
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Jun 9, 2023 15:31
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Make the colours worth mentioning. Just describing the colour of something is —meh. Why do that? I mean it sincerely: why mention the colour? Do it for a reason! For example, mentioning someone's red sports car is actually saying they've got a small dick. Also, talking about crimson all the time is going to make me think about blood, so could fit a vampire story. Also, the colour might be a detail you use to make something identifiable, like in a story that starts with someone's blue cardigan and later shows you blue cotton fibers caught in barbed wire. There's nothing wrong with sounding like you're reading a thesaurus. That could be the POV character: some kind of nerd. Or if the descriptions sound like they came off some corporate colour chart, it might make the voice sound like a camp interior designer type of guy (which could be a neat character). Azza Bamboo fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Jun 9, 2023 |
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Jun 9, 2023 15:58
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what are you describing? red can be a lot of things. use a metaphor. is it red like blood? is it red like lipstick? is it red like a clowns nose? use the opportunity to put some image in the readers mind that helps set whatever tone you are going for.
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Jun 9, 2023 16:10
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Flyerant posted:Any tips on incorporating colors into story? Right now my TD story is like "ohh there was red, green , blue." Seconding a lot of what Azza said, but also you can vary how you reference the colors so that you're not just giving a straight description of "the sky was very azure, so cerulean, boy was it ever cobalt". draw a comparison between the color and something tangible, align it with some sort of emotion, describe how it changes, link it to a character's emotional state somehow... basically you can kind of get a two-for-one deal out of any sort of descriptive language by incorporating some sort of emotional weight into the description of the color. make it work overtime for you, you'll need it with a 500 word limit edit: derp said it better, faster
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Jun 9, 2023 16:12
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Thank you for all the replies. It gave me a lot to focus on. I'm describing a vague world where its nothing but shifting colors (No objects, just colors) so we can contrast it against the real-life world full of non-shifting objects. I'm happy I shared here, because that revealed I also have to focus on how I explain my world.
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Jun 9, 2023 19:19
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MockingQuantum posted:speaking of great prompts what's everybody's favorite past prompt? I like prompts that are more inspiration than proscription. So songs are good, first lines are good, anything where the prompt goes to the feeling of the story. e: I'd also like my goddamn health to be better so that when I say 'in' to a prompt I really love I don't spend the next several days unable to write anything. DigitalRaven fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Jun 10, 2023 |
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Jun 10, 2023 18:29
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I don't know that I'll get the story in on time, working on the story took a back seat to mental health issues.
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Jun 11, 2023 01:30
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Sorry for the double post. This is about what I'd been writing in my head all week. It's still pretty rough though. --- Then That's Your Dog - Draft It was time for me to take stock of the past few months when things went from triage to reentry to recovery. March saw the biggest fires. The sky went thru different shades of orange depending on when and where I was busy. I'd drive carpool towards the ember snows and copper/amber sunrise. Lunch mobile feeding was under smoke-tinged hues like apricot, cantaloupe, and peach. I'd feel most focused on colors when driving the return carpool. Different light sources would fight against the smoke and flames in the distance: and there was this certain tiger-eye layering that let me know that I was almost home. April had the ocean and the sky practically switched places. Clouds heavy with rain clung to a dark sky. The waterways and ocean were slimy from the sludgy runoffs and mudslides. I pulled back on my volunteering: I needed to find a new job and more resources were pouring into the county anyways. If things didn't turn around, I would need to fall back to retail jobs and food deliveries. (This section is missing something, and I keep making it action centered when I want it to be touch word-centered) And today, the last day of May. Hot, humid, muggy. I woke up at noon, had my breakfast, and got myself showered. I set up my portable AC and its window seal and hoses. Then it was time to shop for strangers from 2 to 5. To deliver people's meals from 6 to 9. I grabbed myself a late-night chicken sandwich. And came home to my studio granny flat to find the window seal fallen. Like someone pushed it in. There was a light coming from the kitchenette's fridge, a black midsized...something, whimpering. Pawing at the deli drwaer. Trying to get to the food inside. "Well, if you've got a dog in your fridge..."
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Jun 11, 2023 10:37
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RandomPauI posted:I don't know that I'll get the story in on time, working on the story took a back seat to mental health issues. Don't really know how to engage here. What are you looking for. Crit on your story, discussion on health stuff or confidence in posting your work?
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Jun 11, 2023 16:24
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Hats off to the three first-timers who got their subs in on time this week and will not be failing.
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Jun 12, 2023 01:22
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Beezus posted:Hats off to the three first-timers who got their subs in on time this week and will not be failing. 
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Jun 12, 2023 04:22
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Anyone wanna trade Crits? I'll crit your piece if you crit mine 
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Jun 13, 2023 02:33
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Flyerant posted:Anyone wanna trade Crits? I'll crit your piece if you crit mine I will crit your piece. Additionally as an open question. What's the best way to apply the advice from crits? Often I feel like I just end up with a new set of expectations to try and meet. Is there any easy guide to "resolving" the issues highlighted by a critique? e: not necessarily "easy", but kind of like a practical process for unpacking and applying the suggested recommendations from crits, or addressing a reader's specific issues? But also doing that while trying to increase a piece's appeal to a broader group of persons in general? Idle Amalgam fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Jun 13, 2023 |
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Jun 13, 2023 06:42
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Unless it's from your editor or someone who really gets your work, critiques are just opinions about your work. Critiques give you more data points to think about. Just like, consider what a critique is saying about your work. If it rings true to you, then maybe the reader really did get what you were going for and their feedback is worth taking to heart. Ultimately though, your work is about telling the story you want to tell, how you want to tell it. Listening to critiques is only useful as far as it gets you to realize the work of art you want to make. Some critique info is more concrete and relates to things like grammar, clarity, or factual accuracy. Those can be taken seriously more easily than critiques about style or subject matter or content. The "meat" of the story is what you are here for; wear it closer to your heart and make sure the core doesn't get torn away from you by suggestions that go against what you want to make. In other words, it's about being measured in your receptiveness. Don't implement every single suggestion just because someone else told you they wanted it that way. Consider their suggestions and weigh them against your own sensibilities. This doesn't mean being belligerent or lazy and refusing to change your piece, however. When it comes down to it, if you really want your writing to be as good as it can be, you must revise it. Examples of critiques I've gotten IRL: Good critique - "The issue I have with this story is that it's taking place mostly in the narrator's head. The story is about things that have happened to the narrator, but they are just being recounted to us in the narrator's thoughts. Is there a way to narrate the story so there isn't this distance between the action of the story and the telling of the story?" Bad critique - "Your story about transsexuals reminds me of my cousin, who had a sex change operation. You should have your characters visit Trinidad, which is considered the Sex Change Capital of the World!" edit: the above advice also comes with the caveat that readers giving feedback about sensitivity issues (race, sexuality, ability, gender, religion, etc.) should also be taken seriously, though obviously it is ultimately up to the writer to act as they see fit. Cephas fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Jun 13, 2023 |
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Jun 13, 2023 07:13
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Now if you do want to apply advice from a crit, you could write something specifically in order to practice it, be it a scene, a paragraph, a story, as practice. But also don't feel the need to change anything just because of a crit or two.
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Jun 13, 2023 07:22
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Idle Amalgam posted:Often I feel like I just end up with a new set of expectations to try and meet. Is there any easy guide to "resolving" the issues highlighted by a critique? It's really up to you on how you handle critique, as it is your story. However, If you can, you can go with straight numbers. When I have a piece ready, I am fortunate enough to have 3 critique groups it can go through. Typically I'll listen for the same words that repeat. (I.E: Start wasn't engaging, this character doesn't work, I was bored/confused at this line). If three people say its a problem, then I'll take a look. If one person says its a problem, I'll still consider their critique, but it's my story so I get to do what I want with it. If there isn't a consensus, I.E: 3 people say its a problem, 2 said it was awesome. I usually say Ties go to the writer, and I'll decide what to do with it. This gets more complicated when you are writing for a specific audience. I.E: In my group there are a lot of crime writers, so when I used the word "hedge witch" in a story, nobody had an idea what hedge witch meant. Since I'm writing for Fantasy writers, specifically for a witch anthology, I made the call to ignore their advice.
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Jun 13, 2023 07:31
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Idle Amalgam posted:I will crit your piece. Whether Thunderdome or elsewhere, I don't try to apply the crits by rewriting the story itself — then again, I'm not polishing a piece for publication. If there's something specific to consider, about word choice, or a specific element that doesn't work, that's one thing and it's easier to figure out what the issue is. Or if it's not then since it's a targeted thing then you can ask for more targeted feedback. If it's for the story as a whole, though? Can you see how the critter read it that way? And if you can, do you give two tugs of a dead dog's dick? It's entirely reasonable to pull a Dude and be all "yeah, well, that's just like, your opinion, man." Especially when it comes to comments about the feel or the overall structure, crits are as subjective as anything else. If a crit calls out something and you realise you could have done better, that's one thing. But if you don't, then gently caress'em. If they don't get (or don't like) the style you were going for, that's on them. And if they're particularly lovely about it, or pull the same nebulous stuff over multiple crits, call them out.
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Jun 13, 2023 11:26
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Flyerant posted:Anyone wanna trade Crits? I'll crit your piece if you crit mine I never posted here before but if you mean the thunderdome one with the sorta Lovecraftian eldritch light being, then yeah, I liked it, wouldn't mind seeing where it went.
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Jun 13, 2023 12:07
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Btw, if anyone needs a link to the TD Discord, here you go: https://discord.gg/M3uBetxS
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Jun 13, 2023 22:37
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Idle Amalgam posted:I will crit your piece. Everybody else has hit on a lot of what I was going to say re: unpacking and applying crits, but I wanted to add that when I first started doing TD I tended to treat it as a sort of laboratory for applying crits, so if I was getting a lot of "the story just happens to the main character" crits I'd try to intentionally write a piece where the main character was the driving force of everything in the story, possibly to the detriment of the entry. I don't know how successful I was in actually doing this, but it was at least the intention I went into some weeks with. My theory was that Thunderdome is kind of uniquely suited to that sort of play and experimentation, and if it didn't really work, well, there's always next week to try something different. I kind of viewed it like when I was first learning to play guitar, and my dad was teaching me how to tune the guitar--he'd tell me that if the string was flat, it'd take too long to nudge it just a little sharper, over and over, until it was in tune, so instead it was quicker to overshoot and sharpen the string too much, then split the difference back down, etc. until you sort of homed in on the right tuning. It's the sort of advice that is useful when you're first learning to tune a guitar, and then eventually you do it enough that you just get the right feel for it. I still sort of think of crits in the same light, if I'm getting the same general responses over and over, sometimes the best from a self-development standpoint is to go too hard towards correcting the issue, then finding the middle ground that works for you, and eventually you just get a feel for what aspects of any given crit are going to resonate with you and be helpful, and similarly I think you develop a feel for how you could adjust your approach to incorporate them. It's probably the most useful aspect, for me, in doing TD multiple weeks in a row.
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Jun 13, 2023 23:14
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I think we still need a third judge for this week. Any bites? If so please post in Thunderdome proper. Thanks!
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Jun 15, 2023 13:43
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Thanks for the feedback. All very good points and I got some good exercise/editing ideas as a result.
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Jun 15, 2023 17:05
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Fat Jesus posted:I never posted here before but if you mean the thunderdome one with the sorta Lovecraftian eldritch light being, then yeah, I liked it, wouldn't mind seeing where it went. Thank you! I critiqued your pieces and put em below. Fat Jesus posted:Rise of the Superhussein I don't know what a Super Hussein is and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm getting a sense this whole piece is a joke. Okay, as soon as I read Marx von Engles, I think this is a clever joke piece. You can see how I missed "Ayn of Rand" and "Land of Economos" because my mind went blank when I saw Titles + People and skimmed. instead of coming across as clever, I am just confused over what happened. I don't really understand what we are making fun of and I think that's a problem. The general plot is Any Rand and John Galt fight Super Hussein. Galt gets distracted by rear end, and Super Hussesin twerks and wins the fight. Then Sir Galt decides to open a bible gun camp. I think this story is lacking revision and needs to convey who we are making fun of, in order for it to succeed for me. I think we are making fun of Ayn rand, but I have no idea why Super Hussein twerks, and why 2-3 sentences are focused on his rear end. If we had met up and I knew what this story was trying to do, I think I would laugh. Its a ridiculous story, and there are times when you highlight the ridiculousness. As is with no context, I'm too uncomfortable to laugh. Fat Jesus posted:A Brother's Love I don't think placing this in the lord of the rings setting does you any favours. It saps the piece of originality and distracts the reader. I see you utilize the Eye of Sauron in the end to setup the punchline, but I still think you shouldn't so blatantly use the Lord Of the Rings (Movie) setting. In fact it hurts your story, when you talk about coin and reference Saruman. To get into the meat of this story, I think you spend too much time setting up the setting, as weird as that sounds. In one sentence, you setup where we are, who our characters are, and then spend an extra two or three sentences setting up the scene again, or transitioning to the punchline. I think you could be more efficient, which would make your jokes and little asides stand out more. I think a revision of this story, removing all references to Lord of the rings, would give me more to work with. Hope you consider revising it, cause there are some great lines in here
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Jun 16, 2023 00:51
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hello
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Jun 16, 2023 03:02
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Noah posted:hello hey
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Jun 16, 2023 04:35
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