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Competition: Variations on a theme 1 (Kim)

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  • 18-02-2010 9:53am
    #1
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    I had an idea for a thread, based loosely on a book by a French author whose name I've forgotten and work I've never read (if anyone can guess who it is from the idea, please put me out of my misery).

    The idea is that we come up with some basic skeleton of a (very short) story and everyone writes a version of the same story, about 300-500 words or so, maybe a little longer but definitely not over 1000.

    Anyone interested in trying it? If so, throw out a few ideas, character names, situations etc.
    Tagged:


«13456

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    #2
    Insect Overlord
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 30,870 Mod ✭✭✭✭Insect Overlord


    I'm up for it, but I probably won't be able to post my contribution for at least a week.

    I'll leave the skeleton design up to more capable creators than myself, but I'll put some proper effort into the story.


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    #3
    Antilles
    Registered Users Posts: 1,183 ✭✭✭Antilles


    Sounds great. We could have a closing date, a thread for submissions and then a poll for people to vote for their favourite :)


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    #4
    dcmu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 103 ✭✭dcmu


    I'd be on for giving this a go.

    What should the idea, or skeleton, be based around? Any ideas?

    Being the seemingly lone active mod, I nominate Pickarooney ;)


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    #5
    ToasterSparks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 368 ✭✭ToasterSparks


    Ooh, this sounds like fun.

    Yep, we need a good story 'shell'. I guess since you suggested the idea, you should pick that Pickarooney.

    The sooner we get it started the better.


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    #6
    Antilles
    Registered Users Posts: 1,183 ✭✭✭Antilles


    ToasterSparks wrote: »
    The sooner we get it started the better.

    Definitely this! Good suggestions tend to be forgotten if not acted on quickly.


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    #7
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    TED: My God!

    DOUGAL: What?

    TED: That's a good idea!

    DOUGAL: No it isn't.

    TED: It is Dougal, it is!

    DOUGAL: No Ted there's probably something wrong with it. You just haven't thought it through.

    TED: No no Dougal, you've had a brilliant idea. Hah! But break it down for me a bit more. What would an event celebrating all the different cultures in Craggy Island actually be like?

    DOUGAL: What?

    TED: What would it involve? I mean, celebration yes but what form could it take?

    DOUGAL: Ted I want out.

    TED: What do you mean?

    Ok then, first thing that came into my head...
    ---
    There's a medical student, Kim, queueing at the post office when a middle-aged man with a green jacket collapses in a heap in front of one of the counters. Kim has failed four second year exams and is just about ready to drop out completely. Somebody asks if there's a doctor in the house. Kim hesitates about going to help or waiting for an ambulance.
    ---

    If you hate it, feel free to throw something else out there.

    For submissions, to keep it fair, I suggest either posting anonymoulsy with an easily recongisable variation of your user name and I'll validate all entries at once, or else PM your story to me and I'll copy them into the thread for voting. I say we give it 4 weeks from Monday to try and get a good few entries together.

    Let me know what you prefer.


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    #8
    ToasterSparks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 368 ✭✭ToasterSparks


    Cool. I like the idea - it's random enough anyways, and not something mainstream.

    I think probably PM'ing you with the entries would be the best idea. Then they can all be posted after the end-date and we (I) won't be subconciously influenced by other entries!

    And we need a prize. Even just a virtual one. For the heck of it!


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    #9
    af_thefragile
    Registered Users Posts: 7,171 ✭✭✭af_thefragile


    I'ld be up for this...
    Haven't writing a story since school days. So should be good to get back to it!
    Should also warm me up for the novel(s) i've been putting off to writing over the past months/years!


    Being a second year medical student myself (and having done my fair share of failing exams), I feel intrigued to go with Kim's story...
    But something tells me Ted and Dougal's could make a pretty exciting one too...

    So how are you supposed to do this? Or when does this start?


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    #10
    Antilles
    Registered Users Posts: 1,183 ✭✭✭Antilles


    Well four weeks from Monday was 22nd March. We've agreed the theme, so I guess we start whenever we want and submit our stuff via PM by that deadline :)

    I assume we're all happy with a 1000 word upper limit?


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    #11
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    Might as well make it the 31st of March starting from yesterday. I'll post the entries without the authors' names for voting if that's OK, just to rule out any suspicion of bias, nepotism, simony or blackmail.


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    #12
    ToasterSparks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 368 ✭✭ToasterSparks


    Blackmail? Hadn't thought of that.

    *sets up virtual spycam focused on Pickarooney*


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    #13
    BrandonFlowers
    Registered Users Posts: 102 ✭✭BrandonFlowers


    this sounds like the best idea ever!

    used to love writing stories in school but have stopped since, lookin forward to the challenge!

    are we defo goin with kim the medical student so?


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    #14
    af_thefragile
    Registered Users Posts: 7,171 ✭✭✭af_thefragile


    So which plot are we going with??


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    #15
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    Yes, the plot in post 7 is the skeleton. I've already got three entries in, so there's no chance of it being changed now!

    I tried to get an announcement but there are a lot of big things going on on boards just now so it'll be some time before that goes up> In the meantime, if you want to spread the word somehow (in sigs or whatever), please do.


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    #16
    af_thefragile
    Registered Users Posts: 7,171 ✭✭✭af_thefragile


    pickarooney wrote: »
    Yes, the plot in post 7 is the skeleton. I've already got three entries in, so there's no chance of it being changed now!

    I tried to get an announcement but there are a lot of big things going on on boards just now so it'll be some time before that goes up> In the meantime, if you want to spread the word somehow (in sigs or whatever), please do.

    So is the plot the one with Ted and Dougal or is it the one with Kim, the medical student??
    Or are they both part of the same plot?

    Sorry but i'm a little confused... :confused:


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    #17
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    af_thefragile wrote: »
    So is the plot the one with Ted and Dougal or is it the one with Kim, the medical student??
    Or are they both part of the same plot?

    Sorry but i'm a little confused... :confused:


    Sorry! It's the medical student one. The Father Ted quote was just a joke.


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    #18
    af_thefragile
    Registered Users Posts: 7,171 ✭✭✭af_thefragile


    pickarooney wrote: »
    Sorry! It's the medical student one. The Father Ted quote was just a joke.

    Aww... thanks...! :)
    I'll get writing on my story soon!


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    #19
    Bonito
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,399 ✭✭✭Bonito


    I have an idea. Why don't you give us the spine of a story and then we take turns to construct it. Chapter by chapter and everyone takes a turn. Then see what we end up with?


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    #20
    Dublin141
    Closed Accounts Posts: 190 ✭✭Dublin141


    I sent my attempt in and am already regretting it :o I can't wait to see everyone else's though!


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    #21
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    Dublin141 wrote: »
    I sent my attempt in and am already regretting it :o I can't wait to see everyone else's though!

    If you want to change anything and resubmit, that's fine up until 31st March.


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    #22
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    Just a quick note for anyone submitting:

    Where there are swear words in the original, remember they get asterisked if you copy/paste into PM or a post, so if you'd prefer they remain intact maybe re-spell them or use whatever tricks you need to get around the filter (not that I'm recommended that sort of thing outside of an artistic context, you understand).


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    #23
    Oryx
    Subscribers Posts: 19,425 ✭✭✭✭Oryx


    pickarooney wrote: »
    If you want to change anything and resubmit, that's fine up until 31st March.
    Ha, cue a total rewrite then...

    Dublin141, Im the same. Thinking wtf did I do that for? :)


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    #24
    landsleaving
    Registered Users Posts: 4,345 ✭✭✭landsleaving


    Might get involved if I can drag myself away from my thesis. Seems like a fun idea.

    How loose an attachment to that spine should it be though? Are you just after a quite literal story about what happens next/what she decides to do, or can it be a more creative interpretation, where Kim turns into a monkey and the post office is the zoo and it's all an existential dystopian nightmare? (May not be a real idea)


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    #25
    Memnoch
    Registered Users Posts: 4,276 ✭✭✭Memnoch


    So is there a 1000 word limit? Or any word limit for that matter? Just wanna check before I start writing.


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    #26
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    1000 word limit. 1100 is no problem, but 1500 might be stretching it. Feel free to base your story as loosely on any interpretation of the plot as you can manage.


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    #27
    Memnoch
    Registered Users Posts: 4,276 ✭✭✭Memnoch


    Thanks for the info.


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    #28
    Dublin141
    Closed Accounts Posts: 190 ✭✭Dublin141


    Oryx wrote: »
    Ha, cue a total rewrite then...

    Dublin141, Im the same. Thinking wtf did I do that for? :)


    That was literally the first thing that popped into my head when I woke up this morning :D


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    #29
    Pablo_
    Registered Users Posts: 188 ✭✭Pablo_


    great! just what i needed ... nice skeleton to work with... i feel like jimmy from Supermans' Metropolis Daily going out getting a scoop ..... except i'm writing it .... from my mind ..... and its not for a paper ..and i live in a real place :rolleyes:


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    #30
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    Someone has very kindly given me the name of the book and author, so for the sake of having some kind of tangible recompense for his/her efforts, the winner will receive a copy of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style (English translation).


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    #31
    Spiritoftheseventies
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,082 ✭✭✭✭Spiritoftheseventies


    pickarooney wrote: »
    Ok then, first thing that came into my head...
    ---
    There's a medical student, Kim, queueing at the post office when a middle-aged man with a green jacket collapses in a heap in front of one of the counters. Kim has failed four second year exams and is just about ready to drop out completely. Somebody asks if there's a doctor in the house. Kim hesitates about going to help or waiting for an ambulance.
    ---

    If you hate it, feel free to throw something else out there.

    For submissions, to keep it fair, I suggest either posting anonymoulsy with an easily recongisable variation of your user name and I'll validate all entries at once, or else PM your story to me and I'll copy them into the thread for voting. I say we give it 4 weeks from Monday to try and get a good few entries together.

    Let me know what you prefer.
    Im guessing we dont have to be too up on Medical jargon for this.


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