Theme For The Next Writing Contest

I'll enter the contest when it starts.

How about the story itself is trapped in a room, but the characters can come and go as they please and the objects in the room actually have to play a role in the story? That forces description because you can't do a good story if something unexpectedly pops up in a room we're all sitting in.

edited 15th Jan '12 11:49:14 AM by Journeyman

That's a laudable enough goal...but considering how hard a time people have historically had with finishing their entries, I don't think pushing people outside their comfort zone is really necessary. We're all a bunch of indolent writers here; let's make it easy on ourselves for the nonce.

This is a good thing.

I don't really see this as necessary, as its really impossible to be completely objective when judging a piece of writing ( /obvious). With enough judges who have differing tastes, we'll get something approaching objectivity.

Look, it's going to be a little challenging to connect a cell-phone and uncooked matzo balls, but not that challenging. It's a prompt. It gets you wondering, which gets you to thinking, which gets you to creating.

And the turnout was highest for the most finicky theme (which was to combine two other themes) while the number of judges has stayed the same, so there's no real problem with people finishing entries.

Instead of objective, think of it as a constant in a science experiment. There has to be one or a few similar things for the judges to base their scores on. Two entries can be vastly different—Story A could be about the ultimate Robot v. Teddy Bear war, and the other could be a small wedding scene—bur a theme and a few requirements will give the judges some direction.

Could you give a small example of the story you have in mind?

edited 15th Jan '12 4:30:27 PM by BetsyandtheFiveAvengers

Small example of what story I have in mind?

I'm still keeping the song's prompt on the table.

@Leradny: The objects.

edited 15th Jan '12 4:45:46 PM by BetsyandtheFiveAvengers

I don't have one. The theme hasn't even been decided on yet.

I know. I understand what the prompt is, but I wanted to see how it can be done.

Anyway, never mind.

...You pick some objects, plan a few scenes which incorporate them in a manner which is ideally not clunky, and write out the story.

The idea of a "bonus" for entrants who write what one of the judges would prefer to read looks passive-aggressive and selfish to me.

If you want a specific genre for contestants to aim for or avoid, then find the sand to state upfront what you want them to write for a particular contest. Post it in bold as part of the requirements on the very first post.

Though, in a forum population this small, don't be shocked when there's fewer entrants than you hoped. I could be wrong about that, you never know.

Picking themes without me, are you? *Stern look over librarian glasses*

Our running suggestion list seems to be:

• No speculative fiction
• Stories based on songs
• Erotic fiction
• No human characters
• A single setting
• A long timespan
• Objects (most popular idea so far)
• Story within a story
• Shakespeare plot in a different setting
• Twist ending
• Political satire

I just want to say that political satire and erofic (not to mention Stylistic Suck) all have the potential to be eye-gougingly bad, which as a probable judge I'd like to avoid.

I don't have a specific genre I want them to write. I have a specific... set of genres... that I'd like to see if they can avoid writing.

Seriously, is it that much to ask to see people step away from the fantasy and science fiction for one short story? To be good at writing one must be versatile. If you're stuck in a rut within one or two genres, then you're not going to grow as a writer.

And yes, yes, I know it's for fun, but it's a contest. It's not unreasonable to ask people to challenge themselves, and it's not even that hard of a challenge.

Edit: I can see political satire and erotic fiction both going bad merely because you know it's going to offend one of the judges somehow, being respectively about politics and sex...

edited 15th Jan '12 9:06:30 PM by Flyboy

...I think it's because political satire and stylistic suck are gonna be eye-goungingly bad simply because they're hard, on a technical as well as creative level.

Well, I don't know, is it too much to ask? Guess we might find out soon.

Does writing too much spec fic rot writer's brains? Do they get creative diabetes from indulging in secondary worlds too often?

All sarcasm aside, why do you hold this position? Do you speak from professional experience of some kind, like working as a creative writing teacher, or an editor? Do you know what it takes to develop creative fiction writers to their full potential?

I don't want this to sound hostile, I really want to know, if you feel comfortable saying. I don't presume to know what posters on a forum do for a living. If you have solid experience on what's good for writers, then as a wannabe writer myself I'd be glad to hear your stories.

It might be that many people here post spec fic of some kind, I dunno, I don't collect data on the trends. But you run into the problem of defining criteria for what spec fic is, a list of dos and don'ts. Entrants might worry they'll run afoul of unwritten rules on what content or style constitutes what genre.

I don't mind if you want to ban all spec fic, whatever that might be, but please don't beat around the bush with "bonuses" and the like. Just state what the required themes are and let people make up their own minds.

I'm not a professional of any kind, but most people realize that writing for a variety of types of fiction helps you develop skills for writing your preferred genre/style.

We actually had a thread to test it out. The vast majority of people (including me) here do write speculative fiction of some kind.

As for what constitutes the genre, most people know basically what constitutes science fiction, fantasy, or alternate history (which are the three main speculative fiction genres I can think off of the top of my head), and if we really need clarification they could always PM the person running it.

Hey, I didn't propose it as a bonus, I proposed it as a required criteria for the contest. Somebody else said that they didn't want to force it on people, so apparently that isn't going to happen. I'd make it (one of) the main requirement(s) for the contest, but I won't be running it so I have no real say in the matter. All I want to do is see how well we can all do outside of our comfort zones.

The simplest way to define it would be "anything that couldn't happen in real life."

I would personally be happy to see more realistic fiction just for the variety, but I oppose it as a theme because it's not a theme, it's a restriction. "Not speculative" can't be what the story is about. I wouldn't mind it in combination with a "real" theme, though.

As for political satire, the issue is objectivity—we want to judge how good the story is, not how much the judges share your politics. If someone wrote, say, a story passionately arguing that 9/11 was an inside job, I'd have a difficult time fairly assessing its merits. Erotica is problematic because there are so many bad ways to write it and so few good ways and the odds of most entries falling into first category are high*

Eh, "it couldn't happen in real life" isn't necessarily a good qualifier.

Action movies do things that would never happen in reality, but that doesn't make them speculative fiction.

And, I definitely agree, it's better as a restriction/challenge to go with another theme. I'm partial to the "objects" idea, myself.

Most people are familiar with some of the cliches of each genre, but what makes the "person running this" a reliable expert on what constitutes crossing the line into the forbidden zone of spec fic? Oh, and other people would say science fiction, fantasy, and horror are the big three spec fic genres. Or then there's New Weird, but that was never huge, so most people (including judges) might not know it when they see it. And there's Magical Realism. And regular historical fiction (which consists of, to a greater or lesser extent, on what historians speculate is the truth), and folktale/mythology. And political satire using talking animals for the purposes of allegory. And literary allusions to older works which incorporated fantastic elements. And there's stories that involve god and angels and it's not spec fic for the writer because they believe these exist. What if the story takes place 15 minutes into the future, but is otherwise based solely on the real world? Hell, what about westerns?

Oh. There are those mysterious "most people" again. So I'm correct in stating that the theory that writers must write in X number of genres or else they'll stagnate and fail as writers is your own personal theory?

Okay. Right then. Restrict away. I can take it.

HORROR!

That's what I was forgetting.

And, presumably the person running it (is there a term for this?) could ask somebody who isn't a judge if they aren't sure.

"New Weird" sounds familiar, but I'm not sure I know what it specifically is. Most people will recognize magic for what it is, though, even if it's in the form of Magic Realism.

I wouldn't call historical fiction speculative fiction, in the sense of being a brand of science fiction or fantasy (those being the two largest divisions in which all other kinds of speculative fiction sit), unless it branches off into alternate history I guess.

Folklore and mythology would be speculative fiction, methinks. Granted, there are folklore tales that don't involve speculative fiction concepts, though.

I don't see what's wrong with literary allusions. Now you're just reaching to get irritated at me.

I do like the sly Animal Farm reference, though.

Angels and demons would be speculative fiction even if it is religious-based and the author is positing that they're real, because they can't exactly prove that and thus insofar as everybody else is concerned it's fantasy(/science fiction).

A story set in the future would be speculative fiction by necessity, though I suppose I could see some sort of flash-forward being incorporated that could skirt the line by just not showing anything.

...Westerns aren't usually speculative fiction.

Er... no. It's not just genres. It's experimenting with everything. Different characters, settings, plots, themes, motifs, everything! It'll all make you better in the end. And yes, there are people who can work exclusively with one set of characters, settings, plots, themes, and motifs, and come out fine because they're really good. But unless we're going to be conceited, all of us here have to admit that we're not the next perfect best-selling author (or at dead least, not yet). We're amateurs on a writing subforum. But there's no harm in trying to be better.

I honestly don't understand why you're so hostile to this idea. Care to elaborate?

Sorry, I got carried away. It's... several things mixed together.

Well, I'd like to clarify: I have nothing against speculative fiction, and I do like what quite a few tropers here write.

I just know that everybody (or almost everybody) here writes speculative fiction, including for these contests (and yes, I'm totally guilty as charged). So, I just figured we could do something totally different, and see what happens when we put our talents to non-speculative fiction.

Because dammit, I want to see cool shit in reality.

Oh, honestly. Last contest we had to determine what was and wasn't a fairy tale. There are always marginal cases, and it's always been left to the judges' discretion. Plus, you can post a question if you're not sure.

Or, you know, just write something that's clearly within the restrictions.

In the end, it's up to whoever organizes anyway.

I was being honest, honestly. And there's nothing clear about those kind of restrictions.

Edit: but you're right in that this won't be an issue.

edited 16th Jan '12 12:57:44 AM by MildGuy

If you wrote present-day slice of life story following, say, a journalist through the events of an ordinary day, that would clearly fall within the "no speculative fiction" restriction, no?