Writing Contest #15

[Jud]

This months theme is 200 words on "memories inspired by colour"

PM all entries to me by midnight Wednesday 19th June.
The winner will receive a £5 Amazon Gift Voucher!

[Patti (baconater)]

Oh.

Wow.

I might actually throw myself into this one. Remind us who chose the theme please Jud? Wonderful!

Of course, I'll not be up for the prize as a mod. But wow, this one is speaking to my soul.

[Jud]

David S picked it

[Patti (baconater)]

Oh.

Gee. I hope it scabs over again soon.

[David]

So, Patti, when it was anonymous, it spoke to your sole. Revealed that it was I: "oh"!

What am I to make of this exclamative?

Look forward to seeing what everyone writes, and now I need to come up with something myself. Perhaps the smart move would have been to write first and then reveal the topic :~/

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

I love these little contests :) - short enough not to be onerous, just right to flex one's creative muscles. And I love reading the entries! This looks like a good one

[D.M. Andrews (author)]

Yay. Still going! :)

[Mago]

Bugger!

Colour-blind.

[David]

Should have a good twist in the tale then!

[Tim]

Oh, sorry, *memories*

Must get new glasses...

[Victoria]

I might have a go this time.
How strict is the word count?

[Kath]

Usually to within a slack handful either way - but not abusively so.

So - that didn't help did it! Just as long as we don't push our luck, I think.

[Victoria]

Ok, so about 20 or so words over is reasonable you think?
(My idea may well be a bit complicated lol)

[Kath]

Well, I won't shout at you. Mind you, I'm nice. (It says here.)

[Victoria]

Hahaha! I think you are nice.

I'm not a suck-up! Who said that? ;~P

[B J]

I wouldn't vote for anything that exceeds the stated maximum. An extra 20 words is an extra 10% in length; that means potentially 10% more character development; 10% more plot - which simply isn't fair.
I may well be the only one who thinks like that.
But with a substantial cash prize this time, others may take the same view!

[Victoria]

lol just seen that I put 20 or so words! Was supposed to put 2 or so words :~P

[Kath]

Oh, I forgot about the substantial cash prize! I'm easily impressed eh!

[Jud]

You can suck up to Ignite all you want Victoria but it won't do you any good!

I have never wanted to make the word count too strict (although you are all usually very good) cause I don't want to take the fun out of it but if everyone prefers I am happy to set an agreed limit since there is a prize this time.

[Victoria]

It's ok Jud, I can suck up to you too ;~)

*goes off to trim some fat from story*

[David]

That's good, I only like the lean!

[B J]

Victoria, even I wouldn't notice an extra 2 words. But having said that, just 2 words are easily cut, so it probably wouldn't arise. I don't know about everyone else, but I find that writing to a fixed maximum is an integral part of the challenge.

[Victoria]

One more question (I know, I'm annoying) does the title count towards the word count limit too? (I don't mean lets make the title a paragraph long, by the way :~P)

[David]

I wouldn't count the title in the word count, but then, I don't have any authority :~)

[Jud]

No, the title doesn't count.

[Jud]

The title is really just a way of separating each story from the other for the purposes of voting.

[Victoria]

Ok, brillo. Thank you :~)

[Patti (baconater)]

Grrrr I hate paragraph long titles.

I've not bought books because of that.

[Kath]

It's known as Title Stuffing, I believe. Serve them right when they try to tweet it! ;)

[Patti (baconater)]

Oh it has a name, eh?

It screams amateur.

[Kath]

Aye well. Even amateur has a name!

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

If you look at some of the really old books on Project Gutenberg, some of them have 3 or 4 sentences in the title!

[Patti (baconater)]

Yep.

Written in archaic language too.

[Victoria]

Now wondering if I am guilty of title stuffing with my short story books. It doesn't count if it is a subtitle though, right? *panic attacks* (not that they are 3 or 4 sentences long!)

[Simon (Highwayman)]

I will have a go. It makes the race for last place harder for you all.

[Kath]

You're such a sportsman Simon ;)

[Jud]

I haven't got many entries yet! 1 more week to go. Get writing people :o)

[David]

I'l be sending mine later today, wrote it yesterday and want to give it another read first :~)

[Jonathan]

Thanks for the reminder. *puts thinking cap on*

[Marc]

submitted

[David]

My entry is in.

[Victoria]

mine too :~)

[Jud]

There's hardly any entries compared to the months when we had no prizes!!

[Marc]

Jud (Disney Diva) wrote: "There's hardly any entries compared to the months when we had no prizes!!"

got a few more days to go., I suspect some writers are like students with essay crises, they leave it all to the last minute!

[Kath]

I'm afraid I'm a deadline person. I'll work myself up into a minor frenzy over the weekend and see what I can come up with!

[David]

I'd always taken you for an organised, methodical person, ignite. Just goes to show, don't it? :~)

[Kath]

Oh no! You're thinking of another Ignite entirely! I'm random in the extreme. :)

[Marc]

I wrote mine in about 10 minutes during lunch break at work this week. Straight after I'd seen the challenge. Best not to overthink these things when it's 200 words.

Plus I like riffing stories on my feet :-)

[Patti (baconater)]

Sadly, all I'm getting are disjointed thoughts that don't make a story.

I'm so not a writer. :(

[Marc]

Patti (Number 69) wrote: "Sadly, all I'm getting are disjointed thoughts that don't make a story.

I'm so not a writer. :("

I dunno, that sounds like literary modernism's stream of consciousness to me :-)