The Eighth TV Tropes Writing Contest

Hermiethefrog, I share your interpretation of the sentence.

Hopefully the judges do as well. Or rather, leave it up so you can interpret it either way.

"And now I stand proudly in the one place I never meant to be." — the current form — seems to me to indicate that the speaker has ended up in a state/location/etc. that was amongst the last that they had intended for themself. To me it seems quite a stretch to interpret it to mean that another didn't mean for the speaker to be there.

"And I now stand proudly in the one place that I was never meant to be." — the proposed form — seems to me to indicate that some outside power, whether fate, genetics, choice of others, etc. intended that the speaker not have ended up in a given state/location/etc., but that the speaker has ended up there anyway. It could, I think, be stretched to include the speaker's choice with careful wording of the preceding text to make it clear that the speaker didn't intend to be there and to avoid suggesting outside influence.

At the moment I'd rather not change the overall sentence, but perhaps we could instead have permission to alter the sentence in minor ways: change the "and" to "thus", for example, or add in the implied "that" after "place", etc.

My Games & Writing

I pretty much designed my entire premise around Ars's interpretation of the current sentence.

lol the opening sentence is just sort-of awkwardly shoehorned in I really need to change that

I somehow read the sentence as "...where I was never meant to be," and it's been difficult to shake that interpretation from my mind. Fortunately, my planned ending works equally well with either meaning.

"And every life is a special story of its own." —The Stargazer, Mass Effect 3

Just let people use either phrasing. It allows for more variety of ending. Also, if we change it now, some people will have to drastically change their existing works.

Also, I MIGHT THROW MY HAT IN AND WRITE AN ENTRY.

I'm so sorry that my avatar doesn't appear fully in the shot, but the cat was threatening the photographer.

Well, after several days of being very tired and thus easily distracted from and untrusting of myself with my writing I've managed to do some work tonight: I'm at nearly 4900 words and not yet finished my first draft.

I'm... not as confident of my prose and story as I'd like, and also realise that I'm nearing the upper word limit, but I'm one way or another likely to do significant work on this once the first draft is complete.

My Games & Writing

Don't worry about the word count. You can tighten the prose and story during revision. At least you're not waiting until the last minute.

Hey, don't blame me, I literally only found this thread five minutes ago. So, where do I sign up? I don't know whether or not I can pull this off, but it never hurts to try.

You sign up by posting here. Good luck!

Oh hey, Nocturna, can you please edit the OP so that I'm included in the participants?

I actually have an entry with most of the first draft done so I will, in fact, be participating.

Done. Sorry, I thought you were already on the list. ^^;

By the way, I'll like to request one more judge. I want to play it safe, since we had a incident with the panel in a previous contest.

Aye, true, and thank you.

I have no progress to report at the moment, but I'm hopeful of doing some work later today...

My Games & Writing

If no one else rises to the challenge, and if I am needed, I am willing to be a backup judge.

@Khant: so I guess I'm not going to send you my entry then.

Well, someone else might still show up. I'd rather not ruin my enjoyment of the stories by having to critique them, but since I am not writing, I might as well participate in this way.

And I have a first draft done, at 6028 words!

What thoughts do you (in the general sense) have on the possibility allowing minor changes to the required sentences — "and now" to "so now", for example — and to the ending sentence in particular? It would likely make it a little easier to work them into our stories — which admittedly may not be desirable, as the constraints of the sentences are, after all, part of the point.

My Games & Writing

I'm very much in favour of that.

Complicated - because simple is simply too simple.

I have no objections to that, although I think it's something that all the judges would have to agree is acceptable.

Whatever gets the contestants and the words flowin' is fine with me.

"And you must be Jonathan Joestar!" - Sue

I get the creeping feeling that I am going to miss this deadline by miles...

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

And I get the feeling I'm gonna send this ten days earlier to beat the deadline by a mile.

I'm still waiting on editors.

I finished the first draft!

Now to send it to my friends so they can go over it and proof read.