RE: Tell A Story To Me, And Win 5 SBD! Writing Contest #10 - When You Die... & Winners of #9
Hmm. I was interested until I read the full prompt. I was expecting a few sentences, but got a paragraph with bullet points, and even a subset of genres. While I think I might still be able to write a story within the parameters, I don't think my heart would be in it. I'm not against setting up predetermined requirements to encourage novel ideas and good writing within that framework, but it feels like you already know the story you want to read, and I don't think I can provide it. I'll leave that task to those who are up to it.
I have written a story before where someone realized the world(which basically matched modern day reality) they were living in was not what it seemed, but it doesn't quite match the prompt as they don't actually die within that reality to leave it. I also had some plans where someone dies and goes on a kind of short, supernatural journey related to one of my other stories, but that was going to be set in a fantasy world, so it again doesn't fit.
I'm so grateful you felt like you could say this, and sincerely appreciate you taking the time to give me your thoughts.
I am really sorry to have made you feel, even for a single moment, like you 'aren't up to the task', I do this to encourage people, not to make them feel like they can't do things. It's easy to underestimate ourselves, I am always reading prompts thinking
and the very last thing I want is to cause someone to feel even a fraction of that. So thank you very much for telling me, I will really rethink how I phrase the next round, which has a more space scifi prompt coming, but will be back to the standard level of open and vague.
I format the contest like this for a variety of reasons, i'll just give you an idea of why I have added these bits:
I added the genres, as in the first few rounds - despite stating a few times it must be fiction, I got biographical entries, and this is a fiction contest. The genres are not limited, just suggestions, they are really broad genres anyway.
The further explanation of the prompt is something I started doing as I was getting unrelated entries, stories people had written already, and just added a line to that really didn't fit with the rest of the story. This is the same reason I switched from having a line to include in the story.
The bullet points were just suggestions to think about, if someone was struggling to work out how to approach the prompt, not things you need to include, I thought they may be useful for people who were struggling to get started, or to understand the prompt, although now, I can see how they may seem over whelming. I equally love things being left unanswered, unexplained, and do normally put something in about that, but having thought about it more, I will probably cut these going forwards or maybe think about wording so it's more clear, i'm not sure what you think would work better?
The main point of the prompt, is when you die you wake, I don't have a set story in mind, the prompts are designed to reflect part of the author, and part of their perception of society and the world, thus I often ask for things rooted in our reality. I am more interested to see how different people approach it, it could be an entirely background element to another story, I have said it can start at any point, so the story could be written in a fantasy world, but there must be an aspect of a person experiencing a life in our reality, and when they do, believing it. I tried to phrase it so someone could start the story in the fantasy world, have someone then live their life in our reality, and return to the fantasy world they started in, how much you focus on each aspect is up to you, the story could be mainly fantasy, or mainly reality.
I totally get you wanting to tie in to another story/series you are writing, but part of the reason for prompts are to encourage the pursuit of a new idea, a story that someone wouldn't have written otherwise, as opposed to people just giving me a story they had already written. It can be any kind of story you want, I would really love it if you managed to enter, there is a suitably long deadline to give you plenty of time to think about it, if you do manage to tie it in to something you are working on, that is more than ok, but there's nothing wrong with saving your own ideas, and writing something totally different. If you have any more feedback or suggestions on ways I could make this more accessible, I would really love it if you found the time to tell me.
I am exceptionally lenient, I think only one entry has ever been disqualified, I want people to push the boundaries of the prompt, think of things I never would have. You are very welcome to push the limits of the prompt as far as you can, and maybe only just fit them, I would love to read your entry!
Something about reading this struck a chord with me, so I'm going to say some things that are maybe the things i should be telling myself, I hope this isn't inappropriate, and if it is just totally ignore the rest of this <3
It's easy to doubt yourself, to be afraid to have confidence in your own ability, to think things beyond you. Some mountains are hard to climb, self acceptance has the highest peaks, with the most false summits, but slowly but surely, as we learn to let go of what weighs us down, the climb gets easier. The hike may be long, but we are not alone.
Yeah, I certainly agree with several of those rules(such as no prewritten stories, no non-fiction, must be on topic, etc...)
I hope I didn't discourage you by writing all that. I'm flattered you felt strongly enough about my comment to respond at length the way you did. It reflects very well on how much you care about your community, which is one of the most important aspects of any creator in my opinion.
The only suggestion I would have is one you have already come up with, and that's differentiate clearly between requirements and suggestions within the prompt. Other than that, my main gripe was I didn't think I could come up with anything good for the contest(which is a reflection on my own abilities as opposed to yours). However, since you took the time to address my concerns, I'll take another look at the contest details, and see if I can come up with something to enter.
I think I understand what you mean by your feedback here. I like this idea and topic. I imagine the suggestions / parameters are intended to open up possibilities rather than restrict them.
You definitely have the writing talent to take advantage of the criteria.
I'm glad you commented too as it promoted me to check out your posts. I haven't been very active on steemit lately, but I do enjoy a contest and I love discovering talented people (and I hate spammy comments, relevant intelligent comments even critiques are better than generic transparent "complimentary" one liners. @calluna I hope you don't mind me crashing your post with my own response.). Steemit is like mining for gems, sometimes you just stumble upon treasures. I'm happy to discover both of you @rhethypo and @calluna. I look forward to reading your story, (hopefully for this contest, it looks like a cool idea).
Take the suggestions as a challenge, push the boundaries of them and turn them on themselves to suit your purpose.
I too am thinking of entering a piece. I have done a little bit of poetry and free writing on steemit, but am not experienced in story writing, but I thought I might give it a go. The topic interests me, and I would like to develop my writing.