What I didn't like about my story in the last contest was that it was too easy. After three or four days writing about the conspiracy theory surrounding Fort Sumter, I determined that the average reader was not going to know enough about the American Civil War to make it interesting. But I wanted to enter so I took the stock characters, a Hobbit, dragon, and idiot human Wrote for about 20 minutes, edited for 10, and called it good. That won?
I won the August short story contest with a story I didn't particularly like. That makes three total. I'm thinking that's enough shiny dots. Now what do I do?
Sometimes, ( frequently) I think I should just hang it up. I am never going to be able to write consistently interesting stories. That's because I don't know what other people find interesting. I don't understand people and never have. They don't seem to be interested in anything other than what is good to eat or feels pleasant when rubbed. Maybe I'm just feeling my age. I want to go patch some drywall. At least I know I'm good at that.
The basic concepts of quantum mechanics are not hard to understand, they are hard to believe. My last entry in the short story contest was semi-autobiographical. Someone commented that the characters were not believable. I am unbelievable. I'm writing fiction. Is it a disadvantage?
I figured it out at last. What's wrong with my stories. It's the stories themselves. Daaah.... Stories about silly people doing silly things are just not very interesting. So what are my options? Writing about people being horrible to each other? Nope, they have newspapers for that... and politicians. I'll have to settle for a nitch audience, if I can get one.
Another short story contest ended and I didn't win. I actually liked my story this time. I thought it was cute ( most of my stories suffer from cute) and I had never heard of someone sucking up a vampire in a dustbuster before and I hoped that was original. In retrospect I think maybe my reference to the Pinto automobile was dated and therefore no one would understand why the guard would have been falling down laughing. I've got to watch that. There was another run away winner this time which speaks of the over all writing quality. I didn't care for it due to numerous plot holes and it was one long train wreck. I accidentally voted for it and thankfully my vote would not have changed the outcome of the contest one way or another. This way I have one less thing to feel guilty about, I always feel guilty about everything, it's just my nature. I haven't got even the slightest idea what to do for the next prompt. I've been thinking but nothing about masks comes to mind.
. Unfortunately, a person cannot reason emotion. The short story contest (through which all things are revealed) is once again going to the story which has the greatest emotional impact. Plot holes, lack of response to the prompt, predictable events etc. etc. etc. aside. A run away winner. So, how can I come up with emotions that I don't experience? In my world, emotional behavior means that you're just plain nutz. Every woman who cries to solve a problem or every man who reacts violently, nutz. Yet it makes a good story apparently. So, how can I drive myself nutz? At least enough to write a good story.
I think a lot. I always have and so do my characters. To me it's normal. I was never even aware of it being unusual until one day I was having a discussion with my high school art teacher and she remarked "You mean that you think everything through before you do it?" I answered, "Of course, don't you?" To which she responded, "I feel sorry for you." I was going to answer, "Are you actually advocating stupidity as a life style?" But, after thinking things through, I kept my mouth shut. My characters do the same thing. I'm thinking now that this could be a problem with my stories. So, how can I emulate knee jerk reactionism? Maybe write dialog really fast? Workshop, here I come!
It's not that I don't have emotions, it's that I don't feel the same ones as most people. I feel guilty as hell for carelessly clicking the wrong radio button in the short story contest. If I hadn't, the two leading stories would be tied. Yet, the contest is not about anything but bragging rights. So, really who cares? One of the stories had great emotional (empathetic) thrust to which I was immune. Yet, I feel remorse at having made a mistake which may cause someone to lose a contest for which nothing was to be won. This morning I'm pondering how to turn this weird emotional state into a more common one and incorporate it into a story?
It's no secret that I am a big fan of the short story contest here. I really messed up in voting this time. It was between two stories this month and I was choosing between them when the phone rang, I voted without checking which one I picked and got the wrong one. It was close decision but I was going to choose the other one because the one I mistakenly voted for didn't use the prompt. I get in trouble no matter what I do.
The afternoon of the 26th and still only two entries in the short story contest. It was a tough prompt ( I already threw one story out) but I didn't think it was that tough. If it ends up like this somebody is going to have an easy win... or, no one will vote either.
We only have two entries in the short story contest. It's the twenty third. The entry period is about half over. If everyone waits until the last minute, that's going to be a heck of a lot of reading all at once for the voters. I have an excuse for not entering yet. I wrote something, it sucked, so I posted it in the work shop to see if someone could tell me why it sucked. As it turns out, it needs a fluffy bunny. So, I'm working on something else WITH fluffy this time. Anyway, get those entries in fast! I'm out of things to read.
I find myself bringing up the rear in this month's short story contest again. I shouldn't complain about being bested because some of you folks are really good. I've entered ten short stories and I've won twice, that's a pretty good average. We had a run away winner again this month but for the life of me I can't find anything to like about this story. It has a great big plot hole in getting a gun into prison (they really frown on that) and it's so cliché that it's almost plagiarism. Zatarks from SG1, The Bourn Legacy, just the number of movies and TV shows it steps on are mind boggling, so why did it win? The story that got my vote, got... my vote and that 's it. I certainly thought it was the cream of the crop. So then, what am I going to do for next time to see if I can't do a little better in the rankings? NO pseudo-science. Common trope. More emotionalism (that's going to be a trick). Onward, ever onward.
Pseudo-science is science (kind of) that exists largely without experimentation. Proofs offered are only in thought, and after a while it's pretty easy to poke holes in that. Most of my stories involve this psydo-science, and I'm expecting the reader to share my interest in the possible rather than what they have been taught. That's not happening. People (as a rule) don't think any farther down the road than they have to. Does Jo Average know how his electricity is generated for example? Does ol' Joe have any idea what electricity is? Therefore, writing stories for Joe to read which involves twists on concepts he doesn't understand in the first place, is just plain stupid. I should resolve to stop being stupid in this fashion in the future.