Comments on: The 2k Award Avalanche Challenge!

By: ReaderMan

ReaderMan — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 23:27:23 +0000

Sweet, I’ll enjoy your story later tonight when I get home. Thanks for joining the party Tenyari, much appreciated!

By: tenyari

tenyari — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 23:20:49 +0000

In reply to ReaderMan. Got it posted, thanks. It was hitting enter on the second title that was holding me back. By instinct I had chosen the 'text' tab already.

By: ReaderMan

ReaderMan — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 22:35:12 +0000

Maybe it was a connection issue. To get it published you have to hit the ‘publish’ button to make it show up… plus it needs a title in 2 spots. Above and below where you post the chapter. Don’t worry, you won’t miss the deadline, especially if you are having technical issues. How about just try again? Also I recommend pasting your story in when on the ‘Text’ tab, rather than the ‘Visual’ tab… that way you don’t get double spaces.

By: tenyari

tenyari — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 21:37:57 +0000

I’ve just submitted a story.Or so I believe. I don’t see it nor do I see anything in my dashboard saying something like ‘pending’ nor any email saying “you’ve hit the button, now be patient,” or whatever. :)Do I just ‘hope’ it made it somewhere?

By: ReaderMan

ReaderMan — Sun, 05 Jun 2022 00:11:04 +0000

The 2k Challenge officially goes until June 19th, Sunday. But don't let that deadline worry you too much. This time we do not have voting, but rather Award Comments instead. Award comments that can be created at any time. Also we are not going to count up the awards and declare a winner. Instead we will just relax, and enjoy our Awards as they trickle in. All late entries are welcome to participate. So in summary, there is no pressure and only fun. Sound good‽

By: ReaderMan

ReaderMan — Fri, 20 May 2022 20:22:04 +0000

I’m not at ‘home’ with writing a short story. I haven’t written one this short before. But I am excited to try it.

The older I get, the less I believe in the concept of talent. With any skill, the more you do, the better you get. Support from friends is also huge, especially writer friends. It’s no different for the first time writer, or the famous writers. We all ‘thankfully’ have mountains to learn, and the more we enjoy the process the funner each step our ‘writing adventure’ will be.

TRA is actually on the third novel. It probably should be just one novel. I got carried away, but then that was my intention to just keep writing and see what happens. What happens is that we gradually, slowly, learn to write better.

So you can see why I’m up for this 2k challenge. It’s all about focus and execution. Strong start and ending, and try to make it fun in the middle. Polish a few key sentences and call it a day. If we don’t like it, then try again with a different idea. Most important is to just have fun with it. Don’t try too hard!

By: Hooked6

Hooked6 — Fri, 20 May 2022 19:51:48 +0000

See? THAT’S a mark of a talented writer – someone who is at home with a book length novel like “The Resort Ambassador” (still hoping for more chapters, BTW) or a brief short vignette of a story. Not everyone can do that so easily I think.

Practice might be the key.

I have been working on an outline. You have inspired me to try. Great contest.

By: ReaderMan

ReaderMan — Fri, 20 May 2022 19:44:50 +0000

It’s all about managing scope with the idea. Like for example, I just thought of this ‘throw away’ idea, a young woman in McDonalds asks the counter guy – ‘why do you always give me extra chips and stuff?” He stammers… she presses… ‘is it because I wear sexy clothes?’ He stammers… but nods… she is delighted with the news, looking around she leans over and flashes him her nipples in a non-obvious manner. Then she waits.He get’s her a free milkshake.Gradually she realizes she can get free food! and so over the next few days or hours she gradually escalates. Maybe she get’s carried away…That would be a fun story I would like to read. I hope someone takes this idea and writes this story. Even if more than one writer writes it, probably each different version would also be fun to ready. At the end of the day, that’s all we want. Fun to read.

By: ReaderMan

ReaderMan — Fri, 20 May 2022 19:32:31 +0000

That is a rather large exaggeration. We already have a first short story and it was probably at least 50 times easier to write than a full length novel. Or even one of my hour long chapters. I don’t know why, but despite what you, Blair, Mark Twain and Blaise Paschal say – I don’t think its hard at all. Its probably only hard if we try to put more into the container than it can properly hold. Or hard if we expect it to be. A short story is basically just a stand-alone scene. From the perspective of wanting to have a better start, ending, and more polished sentences, without too much word count… I’m kind of delighted that, because of the shortness, we will have time to address all those things. Instead of managing lots of plot items, and characters, and other grand items, we just have this short scene we get to focus on just a few things. What’s not to like or enjoy? I can hardly wait! But yeah, if you set out to write the worlds best short story, then it’s probably hard. Or if you simply can’t reduce how much you want to put into it. That’s hard. But if you just try to have fun with it, then I think you will surprise yourself. The first story challenge ‘At the Office’ was a perfect example. And it didn’t even break 1k. Blair’s story about the girl in the cake, that was a LOT of content for a short story. So it was probably difficult because he was cramming so much into it. Don’t be greedy. Make it easy. This is supposed to be a ‘fun’ exercise. At least, this is what I think currently. Perhaps after I start I will learn differently?

By: Hooked6

Hooked6 — Fri, 20 May 2022 16:23:36 +0000

ReaderMan says:
My first thought was that the shortness might inspire me to have better word choices and be more creative with sentences, dialog, and spend more time polishing the start and ending. All things I never seem to have time for.

Therein lies the work that makes writing short stories harder than writing long full-length novels. This contest might be educational for all of us.