DISCUSSION -- MAY 2017 75-word Writing Challenge

[Starbeast]

I can't see myself being able to take a more active part in the Chrons for the foreseeable future - but I am out here watching

That sounds disturbing.

​

No worries, my friend. I've missed a couple myself, because I was either busy or stumped. But, who-can-tell, you may have inspiration over-night, so don't get worked-up with perspiration. Be gentle with your brain, don't force it, just let it slide out, let it walk around your house, raid your fridge and make long distance phone calls, rub it's feet, etc.

Starbeast does not in any way endorse any lousy, stinking, smelly,
rotten, and horribly tasteless product from this disgusting fast food
garbage spewing food chain that is poisoning the wonderful people
of this lovely planet in our solar system.​

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Perpetual Man -- This tastefully bawdy comedy demonstrates the importance of accurate communication.

 

[LittleStar]

Hi team. I didnt want to bother staff members with private messages if i didnt need to, so im just throwing a hyphen question out here first. The one word I can remove to get down to 75 without hyphen is a word I like and I don't want to get rid

So here goes, is 'fifty-pence' correct, as in 'I found a fifty-pence piece'?

I think it is, but my confusion comes because in a different context I definately isn't, eg. 'it costs fifty pence'.

Thanks

 

[Danny McG]

Hi team. I didnt want to bother staff members with private messages if i didnt need to, so im just throwing a hyphen question out here first. The one word I can remove to get down to 75 without hyphen is a word I like and I don't want to get rid

So here goes, is 'fifty-pence' correct, as in 'I found a fifty-pence piece'?

I think it is, but my confusion comes because in a different context I definately isn't, eg. 'it costs fifty pence'.

Thanks

I would say fifty-pence just like you have.
Boomtown Rats say 50p in Rat Trap:-
"Deep down in her pockets she finds 50p.,
Now is that any way for a young girl to be,"

 

[Heijan Xavier]

Thank you @Victoria Silverwolf and @Parson for the inspiring reviews!

 

[The Judge]

Hi team. I didnt want to bother staff members with private messages if i didnt need to, so im just throwing a hyphen question out here first. The one word I can remove to get down to 75 without hyphen is a word I like and I don't want to get rid

So here goes, is 'fifty-pence' correct, as in 'I found a fifty-pence piece'?

I think it is, but my confusion comes because in a different context I definately isn't, eg. 'it costs fifty pence'.

Firstly, it's no bother if you PM one of us about a hyphen query. We much prefer people to ask for a ruling than to take a guess -- or ask non-mods -- and get it wrong.

Secondly, it's often the case that a compound adjective counting as one word can be formed from a couple of words hyphenated together which in other contexts -- eg when nouns -- would be counted as two separate words. Here my first reaction was that "fifty-pence" in "fifty-pence piece" might be OK as one word but I'm having second thoughts. I'll see what the other mods think and get a consensus.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

HazelRah -- This moving story vividly portrays an act of selfless sacrifice.

pyan -- With a playful nod to popular culture, the author offers an intimate portrait of apocalypse.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Phyrebrat -- The author creates an entirely original modern myth in this compelling tale.

 

[Parson]

@Perpetual Man .... Brings us a main character who might get more than he bargains for "Within the Fetish Emporium."

@HazelRah .... Gives us a family where the son seizes the moment so that the obligation might pass "From Father to Son."

@pyan .... With a classic line from Star Trek, Pyan shows us London as "The city and the end."

@Phyrebrat .... Brings us to the world of life bound trains and Adele has a ticket on the white one, the good direction in "Northbound/Southbound."

 

[Danny McG]

Star Trek?
I interpreted it as Dr Who

 

[Shyrka]

End of the Line, @Parson – This sad tale details a creature, almost the last of his kind, lost in the modern, non-magical world. In this world, as in ours, loneliness is a killer.

First Time in London, @Maieius – This mysterious little tale of an unwilling visitor taking in the sights and sounds of the Big Smoke comes to an abrupt – and terminal – end.

Beginning of the End of the Lies, @Heijan Xavier – Faced with impending destruction, The Great City’s defenders must ignore the vague, doom-laden prophecies of the past and forge their own future.

The Captive Returned, @Stable – A parent searching for their lost child must come to terms with a horrific truth: even when found, their son is still lost.

 

[Perpetual Man]

For anyone who might have noticed the lovely comments on my story and suddenly wonder what is going on as it can't be found, I've had it removed for excessive word count. In my haste I used a few shortcuts to get the word count down, but in the end (and quite rightly) they may well have been used as a distinct method of speaking, but it did not really change the amount of words used.

When the challenge is over I'll post it so people can see it, find out what it was all about and indeed, the Arabian nipple clamps.

As is common in these cases there is always time for some friendly advice - it does not matter whether you are a newbie at the challenges or a long time partaker - check and double check your word count, and if you have any doubts check with a mod.

 

[Ursa major]

and I've been doing verse, despite knowing you disliked it

That would be me... and yet it hasn't stopped me from voting for quite a few entries that have been in verse.

(So, I suppose, my choices have sometimes been the inverse of what you -- and I -- would expect....)

 

[Heijan Xavier]

For anyone who might have noticed the lovely comments on my story and suddenly wonder what is going on as it can't be found, I've had it removed for excessive word count. In my haste I used a few shortcuts to get the word count down, but in the end (and quite rightly) they may well have been used as a distinct method of speaking, but it did not really change the amount of words used.

When the challenge is over I'll post it so people can see it, find out what it was all about and indeed, the Arabian nipple clamps.

As is common in these cases there is always time for some friendly advice - it does not matter whether you are a newbie at the challenges or a long time partaker - check and double check your word count, and if you have any doubts check with a mod.

I thought it was removed for being family "unfriendly."

 

[Ursa major]

So you thought that this was a case of us clamping down on that...?

 

[Perpetual Man]

I thought it was removed for being family "unfriendly."

Family unfriendly, moi?

 

[mosaix]

For anyone who might have noticed the lovely comments on my story and suddenly wonder what is going on as it can't be found, I've had it removed for excessive word count. In my haste I used a few shortcuts to get the word count down, but in the end (and quite rightly) they may well have been used as a distinct method of speaking, but it did not really change the amount of words used.

When the challenge is over I'll post it so people can see it, find out what it was all about and indeed, the Arabian nipple clamps.

As is common in these cases there is always time for some friendly advice - it does not matter whether you are a newbie at the challenges or a long time partaker - check and double check your word count, and if you have any doubts check with a mod.

I 'liked' Perp's post not because his story was removed but because he was offering sound advice.

 

[Zoe Mackay]

I think we've all, from time to time, felt the pinch of the word limit.

 

[Moonbat]

Well I posted. I have really struggled to enter these in recent years, and I'm afraid I might be one of the few who entered an didn't vote last year - for which I am sorry. I just don't have the time I used to, who knew kids would take up so much time!

 

[Heijan Xavier]

Well I posted. I have really struggled to enter these in recent years, and I'm afraid I might be one of the few who entered an didn't vote last year - for which I am sorry. I just don't have the time I used to, who knew kids would take up so much time!

Hawthorne Knew.

"I find it a very sober and serious kind of happiness that springs from the birth of a child ... There is no escaping it any longer. I have business on earth now, and must look about me for the means of doing it." - Nathaniel Hawthorne (Schreiner p.119)



Schreiner, Samuel A., Jr. The Concord Quartet: Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and the Friendship that Freed the American Mind. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2006