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At 6/12/10 11:15 PM, MattTheParanoidKat wrote: Needless to say, I had up to 3000 words and have to start from square fucking one. This is painful.

The power of back-ups compels you!
This is why I write it down before converting it to a digital format.

Learn from your mistake and move on ;)

At 6/13/10 07:11 AM, RNNR wrote:

At 6/12/10 11:15 PM, MattTheParanoidKat wrote: Needless to say, I had up to 3000 words and have to start from square fucking one. This is painful.

The power of back-ups compels you!
This is why I write it down before converting it to a digital format.

Learn from your mistake and move on ;)

My only alternative is to save files and not be a dumb ass. If I wrote it done I doubt I could make heads or tails of it as while I am competent in my story telling abilities and my grammar, I am shit when it comes to pen and paper writing.

At 6/13/10 07:50 AM, MattTheParanoidKat wrote: My only alternative is to save files and not be a dumb ass. If I wrote it done I doubt I could make heads or tails of it as while I am competent in my story telling abilities and my grammar, I am shit when it comes to pen and paper writing.

Maybe it's just personal, but I find a pen to be the best way to write down what's in my head, as if it's more... palpable when analogue.
It's usually very raw when it's still on paper, so when I type it over that's when the first editing pass goes over it, weeding out the (sometimes very) bad.

Then it's more cutting, pasting, spit and polish.

What happens if you're without a computer? Or do you carry a laptop everywhere :p?

Still plugging away at my entry to get it in for the end of June. Was a fair chunk in when I decided I didn't like my setup and scraped everything to start again. It seems better to me now, but I could be horribly wrong. Oh well, we shall see what occurs.

This month my submission will be a prequel to my robot day submission. I think it'd be a great way to build content and foundation for the later, adding additional richness to both.

My biggest concern now, is in writing action sequences. It's been a vulnerability to mine. The extent of detail with each attack, or motion; the inclusion of narrative during the fight; this is all something I'm still trying to work out. Hopefully this competition will be a great medium for a solution.

Like all things, writing action portions take practice. The more you do it the better you are. It also really depends on the mood and feel of your piece that should determine how much detail you put into your action.

My own submission turned out to have a lot less action in it then I planned. Oh well.

Hah, I jinxed myself.

Found an older story (or first chapter of a series to be), found it to be a lot more fun to continue from there than start a whole new story. So, that might result in more chapters culminating in a short-ish story, or just a withdrawal and a 'better luck next time', depending on how I feel like.
Maybe it's because I already 'belong' in that world.

It's a shame really, since I had something really cool in mind when I started my entry for this, but it's proving to take a little more time than I had anticipated and it's really something I'd like to write well, rather than quickly.

Or... maybe I'll get a shot of inspiration in the near future and all of this won't even matter.

Internal conflict a possibility or does it need to be something of actual skirmishing?

Both are within my scope, but I'd like to try internal conflict, if at all possible.

At 6/4/10 04:56 AM, Coop83 wrote:

At 6/3/10 08:54 PM, funnyhomeboy wrote: Hey Coop, when it comes to battles, is the conflict limited to external skirmishes, or internal as well? I just had a good idea pop into my head, but I don't really know if it will be 'cinematic'. I'll try my best.

The idea of mental or even social combat had crossed my mind. If you'd care to give us a brief snippet, I'd consider it at the very least.

Of course, I'd like to hear what the other writers make of this as well.

What I was considering was that the setting would be during the Vietnam War. The drugs are ample and at times a necessity, and the morality is not exactly the highest. With prejudice, hatred, and psychology altering actions that take place, what actions are wrong?

What I am thinking of doing is I'd place warfare combat alongside psychological struggles within the characters head, as he tries to fight against the part of that wishes for destruction and revenge versus the humanity and compassion he still has inside in the midst of the chaos.

In my piece, I'd think of trowing in physical and metaphysical combat into the mix if I end up throwing my hat in.

Man it's been a long while since I did one of these. Last time I participated was last August or so and I managed to make honorary mention. Hopefully this time I will make it to the top 3! :D

I'm just about to write up the fight portion of my story so if I'm not terribly lazy I should have it posted in a few days. Happy writing everyone!

Damn, didn't hear about this until today. Figure I'll get to writing a story about a Russian sailor and a shark, or maybe I'll finally do the Dinosaur Ally Force....

all of the stories post are good it going to be a tough choice for the judges

Shit...forgot to divide some parts of my story into sections...plus I spotted one small mistake...I hope the judges will forgive me, really sorry about that.

At 6/26/10 10:19 AM, Combatboots wrote:
See that was my problem. I ended up having the story fueled by personal experiences, from both myself and guys I've served with. It was the only thing that really drove me on other then the odd bit of thought that sparked in my head from the outside.... Am I that marine or am I that child in soldiers clothing? Well I'm not a marine, I'm a soldier and I'm 24, so I'm probably somewheres in between.

Personal experiences really can add a layer of believability and personal attachment to a story. If the writer has that much more of a personal attachment it gets better. Also, for some instances it's a rather good coping mechanism. Or so I find.

At 6/25/10 05:44 AM, Combatboots wrote:

At 6/25/10 04:33 AM, noodleoodle wrote: Shit...forgot to divide some parts of my story into sections...plus I spotted one small mistake...I hope the judges will forgive me, really sorry about that.

I wrote mine in about half an hour and had it proof read by an arts student with a minor in english in an even smaller time frame.

I believe I have you all beat. Wrote mine in five minutes before I got out of bed.

At 6/27/10 11:04 AM, Combatboots wrote: Yup, probably explains why it will be disqualified after the judges find out its only 700ish words. Minimum is a 1000 brah.

Having seen a short spate of entries, contestants are respectfully reminded that the minimum word count is 1,000 Words, while the maximum is 5,000.

Perhaps when the next contest it released, there will be better chances for the next contest.

At 6/27/10 06:58 AM, Combatboots wrote:

I never found myself having to cope with all that much, except boredom, which is pretty much the main point of what I wrote and is reflected in the title. Kinda wish I could of worked the title more into the story, but thats too late now.

I had some shit to deal with. But yeah, boredom is a huge thing to deal with overseas. Boredom punctuated with moments of utter intensity. Strange bedfellows they be.

At 6/28/10 11:05 AM, Combatboots wrote:

As in "Contact, wait out" and that whole 3 hours of waiting out on a contact report that ended up being a tree? Eager to start shooting something but trying not to fall asleep

There's that, or having an 82mm round punch through your hesco wall. Shrapnel cut open someone's scalp (he was fine, back in the field in a few weeks) and went clean through another guy's shoulder (he was fine but went home).

Last Minute June Monthly Writing Competition Review and Revision Typewith.me Session

I've prepared a Typewith.me room for getting a group together to provide last minute reviews, edits, and critiques on MWC submissions. It'll be set up in a round-robin kind of format. Each person will put their story on the chopping block, and everyone else will review it. It'll go around until everyone has had a turn. At the end, we should have had our pieces finalized, and submitted.

If you're interested, go here: http://typewith.me/yvVL7J9K9j

The session doesn't actually start until 9 PM Eastern, 6/30/2010, but feel free to bookmark the page and check out the preliminary information I put up.

Hopefully if this works out, better rules can be implemented, and a monthly session can be organized. If you have any questions, PM me, or contact me per the instructions in the Typewith.me page. Thanks!

http://typewith.me/yvVL7J9K9j

Guest so far include:

Myself,
TrevorW (later in the night),
JerryAntares

Drop a message in the chat room if you're planning on showing up so I can gauge who will be there and start making plans for the schedule. Pizza and beer will be included.

I'm surprised with the turnout this time. The judges are going to have their hands full with submissions and probably a hard time with the voting process as well. I'm just happy that I managed to get my story in within the time limit.

It'll probably be the last competition I enter with block and student teaching coming up here as soon as summer is over. Who knows though, I might be able to find some time.

At 6/30/10 02:59 PM, Fro wrote: It'll probably be the last competition I enter with block and student teaching coming up here as soon as summer is over. Who knows though, I might be able to find some time.

I'm hoping to release a new competition tomorrow - would people that will be available for judging IN AUGUST please advise me via PM. We should be able to start the judging process in earnest tomorrow, as the final entries descend upon the thread in a splurdge*

*Splurdge - very technical term involving vast volumes and the sound made by thick semi-liquid substances being passed through an electric fan.

The Typewith.me session will be live in 1 hour: http://typewith.me/yvVL7J9K9j

I just submitted my story, are you guys ready to lose?! (To somone who isn't me though)

Yep, no way I can finish my story. I got boned pretty hard. But, I will finish the story. Why? it's too awesome to just drop. It looks really good and it can very-well tie into another contest some way or another.

At 7/1/10 02:36 AM, MattTheParanoidKat wrote: Yep, no way I can finish my story. I got boned pretty hard. But, I will finish the story. Why? it's too awesome to just drop. It looks really good and it can very-well tie into another contest some way or another.

Or ye can just do it as yer own thing. Doesn't have to be part of a contest.

At 6/30/10 06:24 PM, Coop83 wrote:

I'm hoping to release a new competition tomorrow - would people that will be available for judging IN AUGUST please advise me via PM. We should be able to start the judging process in earnest tomorrow, as the final entries descend upon the thread in a splurdge*

Great! I get to write one more story before my short writing career ends to my American teaching and American football. I'll still have a fully functional brain long enough to create one more nightmare. :)

Also, I suggest if you are going with the time travel theme that you make it slightly more vague and make it something related to time in general. Time would just have to be the main theme. I say this only because I feel time travel could get very generic and boring to read after awhile.

Goodness, what a turnout this contest came to be. All the latecomers really piled on the stories; this will certainly take a good while to properly read and judge each one (especially with my lengthy entry XP)

Are they going to post here when they decide who wins?