Discussion thread -- September 2015 75-word Writing Challenge

[The Judge]

Congrats, Cul! And commiserations, holland.


I didn't get to post a short list, as I lost track of the month and only realised it was voting day as I was about to go to bed, so I had to come in and re-read the stories in something of a rush. I managed to get my vote in (for DGJ) but had no time to craft a list. Cul would have been on it, though, so I voted for him on the tie-break.

Since I know nothing of cyberpunk, with my story I wanted to rip off pay homage to the one I wrote last time we had it as a genre (the rap song one), and I was moderately pleased with it. Then I had to edit it down from 150 words to 75, and managed to lose both all the cyberpunk stuff and any proper redemption, so it was all the more pleasing that some people ignored both errors and mentioned it anyway. So a great big whacker-man thank you to Droflet, Vaz, VB, johnnyjet and Mad Alice. Greatly appreciated.

 

[Juliana]

Congratulations Cul! And well done Holland.

 

[Parson]

Congratulations Cul! well done. Holland being runner up is better than 40 of the others of us did.

 

[Mad Alice]

Congratulations Culhwch! Fine job!

What made me feel dialog heavy was the way other stories nailed the setting description with just a line or two, while mine mainly relied on the reader to fill in the blanks for the setting based on the few details I had to establish the technology in use.

As for why I happened to be driving though vineyards, Mad Alice, I'm just not very good with taking corners. A side effect of living in the USA

Saharren you just need a bit of practice in nailing your story beats. This lot have been at it for ages, so right now you are playing catch-up.

Driving like an American, are we? My Dad raced cars in his offtime. He taught me that cornering was best done by keeping power upon the tires for the best momentum. First you brake before entering the corner, then you speed up upon entering. This gives you more control. Perhaps that will limit your auto its its wine habit.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Thank you for the mentions as well as the lesson in humility of my first no-voteness in a while. I knew I was on to a loser when I tried condensing my 200+ words to 75.

Okay, okay, I'll come clean; the real reason for my turkey is that it was embarrassing making Alc vote for me each month so I wrote a stinker to give him a break <ahem> #thatsmystoryandImstickingtoit



pH

 

[Vaz]

Congratulations Cull and commiserations to Holland, Well done both

Nice theme for the next competition, good job Holland

 

[mosaix]

Congratulations, Cul! And commiserations, Holland.

 

[Saharren]

Congratulations to Cul for the win. It was a tough call to decide who to vote for, but Holland's method of telling the story won me over. I do have to agree that the line "Don't code angry, kids," is quite good. It's interesting how that one line does so much to help establish what the character is like.

As for the story beats, I think what I will learn from doing these is how to be more concise in descriptions, which I imagine will improve the flow. Between the drafts for the three books I have for my story there's about... 310,000 words or so. If I can eventually eliminate a few thousand unnecessary words by practicing with these challenges, then not only did I have fun, I will have learned from them as well.

In regard to the cornering tips, my step dad worked with all kinds of cars, from 1900 to modern. Steam or petrol, he loved it all, and restored whatever he could find, or just made it himself if he couldn't find enough original pieces. Not only that, he knew how to drive almost any type of car, and well. The best piece of advice he gave me for real life driving is to remember that you only have a limited amount of traction, and you can use it to steer, accelerate, or break. Quite similar to what your dad told you, Mad Alice, just in different terms. In game driving, I'm pretty sure most of my problems come from trying to go 200mph or more on country roads. But it does work well, accelerating after to get into the corner.

 

[TitaniumTi]

Congratulations, Culhwch, for your great win, and congratulations, Holland on being a strong contender. Thank you both for the October theme.