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100 Themes Writing Challenge

EleanorEleanor FOR SCIENCE
edited April 2013 in OOC Chat
So there's things everyone has that they want to get better at, right? And things like drawing or writing or whatever, they're like a muscle. They get better when you work them. So I've decided to do something a bit fun and different to work on my writing, and I thought I'd pop it here to see if anyone wanted to join me!

There's a thing called the "100 Themes Challenge". I've most commonly seen it attached to art-making, but it's easily adapted to writing as well. Basically, the idea is, you get 100 different prompts, and you have to make something for each one.

For this, I'm doing a drabble for each prompt- a short snippet of writing that you make within a set time limit. The time limit I'm using is 5 minutes, but if any of you want to take a crack at this you can pick whatever time limit you like (or not set one at all! Though that makes it kind of hard to start).

I'm writing from my character's perspective- helps with material and framing- but if you're doing it, you can choose whatever perspective you want. Also, you might notice I'm not going in order- it's okay to pick what inspires you and do that first!

I'm uploading all my efforts to a tumblr, so I can keep track of it and to keep me motivated- you can see that here. It'd be super cool if others wanting to try this made tumblrs for it too!

Here is the list of prompts I'm using.
Here is where I got it from, and there's a second list with different prompts if you prefer that one!
Here is the tool I'm using to time myself for five minutes per piece.

So... yeah. This being a community with a generous proportion of roleplayers, I thought you guys might be interested in a bit of a challenge to work your writing skills!

Also I thought that perhaps comments and critique could happen in this thread, for those that are up for that. If you're interested in having a go at the challenge and would like people to comment on or discuss your work, post saying so and I'll add a list of folk that are up for critique.

(To keep badfeels out of the thread, please don't critique work where the writer hasn't asked for it!)

I'm going to make it all the way to 100! Who's with me?


PEOPLE PARTICIPATING

MoireanEsperCiarelleValenaeHavenIosyneLinEmelleLiancaAngweAshmer
«134

Comments

  • EmelleEmelle Dreamshaper Tecpatl's Cradle
    This is great -- thanks, Elea!

    I'm joining in, also writing from my character's point of view, because I want to look at this as a tool for character development as much as for my own writing.

    I'm giving myself ten minutes a post.  Part of this is to accommodate me because I'm a slow writer, but most of it is because Emelle as a character is taciturn and much more of a listener than a speaker, so I'm doubly slow when I'm in her mind.

    My tumblr is here.  I welcome constructive criticism!


    "The smell of dusty fur, sweet smoke, waiting and patience, a thing that time cannot kill. The moth that candles won't burn."

  • EleanorEleanor FOR SCIENCE
    Hey, great to have you joining in, Emelle! I've had a read through of your things, and they're really nice! They've got a real poetic feel to them, like the words are pretty even if it isn't specifically a poem. I think after you've done the 100 (or maybe sooner, if you're stumped for something to do) you should try and work into the introductions one and make it longer, I'd like to see what more you can draw out of the two-different-lives thing.

  • HavenHaven World Burner Flight School
    ...this looks awesome. I may give it a try!
    ¤ Si vis pacem, para bellum. ¤
    Someone powerful says, "We're going to have to delete you."
    havenbanner2
    ValenaeEmelle
  • ValenaeValenae
    This is a really good idea! 


    "To be awkward or unkempt, to talk or move wrongly is to be a dangerous giant, a destroyer of worlds...any accurately improper move can poke through the thin sleeve of immediate reality." - Erving Goffman



  • EmelleEmelle Dreamshaper Tecpatl's Cradle
    edited March 2013
    Thanks, @Eleanor! My hope is for the introduction to serve as a frame for the rest of the entries, and that eventually I'll fill in the questions in the mind of the reader with the other 99. I'm also challenging myself not to touch the entries after I publish, because I'm a perfectionist and given to compulsive post-editing. So, we'll see how it works out in the end! It amazes me how difficult it is to write even brief passages like that in a ten-minute span.

    One thing I really enjoy about reading your entries is the breadth and depth you're able to touch on with each entry, as well as the balance you strike between evoking memories in a familiar, but still vague way -- one that gives the reader just enough of a sense of continuity to understand without completely giving away the mystery of another person's mind. No criticism from me yet, but no doubt I will do so eventually!


    "The smell of dusty fur, sweet smoke, waiting and patience, a thing that time cannot kill. The moth that candles won't burn."

  • EleanorEleanor FOR SCIENCE
    Haven, Valenae, you guys should definitely do this and make a tumblr!

    I really like your 'death' one, Emelle. It's actually interesting thinking how these short stories would work together- Elea's writing on death would (will) be pretty different, because she has an idea of where folk go- it's sort of interesting to think of the actual characters getting to read these things, what they would think of it.

    And yeah, I know what you mean with finding it hard to start- I'm finding that I think of an incident or topic I want to write about, then find a prompt it would fit into, then kind of mull it over for a day or two before actually sitting down for my five minutes to write it. Cheating, a bit, but the run-up helps with making writing I'm satisfied with.

    Emelle
  • IosyneIosyne the Lair
    edited March 2013
    Well, I wasn't as interested in participating at first, despite loving these little exercises. But then I saw the list of themes, and the wheels in my head started turning. I'm going to do this a little differently, though - still for use as a character development tool, but the perspective is going to jump around a bit, since I have that freedom.

    Also, I'm going to put very little forethought into each entry. I'll start thinking/writing at five minutes and stop at zero. This is tough, because I'm the type to put a lot of thought into even the shortest bit of prose! It'll be good for me to just let something emerge, though. Think less, etc etc.

    Here I am. I should also probably warn that possibly NSFW on a few.
    image
    Emelle
  • EmelleEmelle Dreamshaper Tecpatl's Cradle
    edited March 2013
    It is pretty fascinating seeing how different two (or more) perspectives on the same initial idea can be. I definitely have more than one Emelle-association with some of the themes, which is interesting in itself. It's also lovely to have a chance to flesh out some of an old character's past experiences and/or backstory, because I find fewer opportunities to do that within the game as time goes on.

    As far as the writing is concerned, I take the same approach as Iosyne. I read the list, find one that strikes my fancy and makes sense in the grand scheme of the entries, and go. Helps me think on my feet. I guess I kind of want to gain a little more speed from this exercise and get used to letting my ideas flow more, in the end.

    I really encourage more people to try this! Not just because I enjoy reading them (which I do), but also because I'm having a lot more fun with it than I initially expected to.


    "The smell of dusty fur, sweet smoke, waiting and patience, a thing that time cannot kill. The moth that candles won't burn."

  • LinLin Blackbird The Moonglade
    edited March 2013
    I am doing this as well. You can find my work here. (Bad language, probably some occasional sexual/drug-related content as I go along)

    This is a little different, as I am writing from the viewpoint of a fictional world. My entries will be concerned with offering peeks at that world, in varying times and places. You might see a familiar face or two. Critique is welcome.
  • HavenHaven World Burner Flight School
    edited March 2013
    I've never used tumblr or anything like it before so please bear with me as I get myself situated.

    Count me in on this challenge! I haven't decided on my approach yet but here's my page.

    Edit: I also welcome any and all critiques.
    ¤ Si vis pacem, para bellum. ¤
    Someone powerful says, "We're going to have to delete you."
    havenbanner2
    Emelle
  • KiyotanKiyotan spectacular vernacular Summit of the Falconmount
    I'll take a crack at it, too

    Be gentle.
    Some may say we've lost our way, but I believe we've not gone far enough.
    image
  • MoireanMoirean Chairmander Portland
    I can't figure out how to comment on anyone's posts! So far, this is really fun to read, although Emelle's layout kinda distances me from reading very much (I don't like clicking links away from stuff and then having to use back buttons, personal twitch I guess).
  • MoireanMoirean Chairmander Portland
    edited March 2013
    Ok, I joined in too!

    Critique welcome, please! I'm finding that it's pretty darn hard to do humor, so I'd love feedback on what works and what doesn't.

    Edit: switched to blogspot, I find it easier to access posting there, plus you get money from the ads. >_>
  • EleanorEleanor FOR SCIENCE
    Yeah tumblr isn't great for directly commenting unless you want to reblog it- hence me noting that commenting can happen here for people that are ok with it.

  • EmelleEmelle Dreamshaper Tecpatl's Cradle
    Yeah, as much as I like the way the layout looks, it's annoying not to be able to read the posts in their entirety on the home page. I've changed my layout to something simpler and hopefully easier on the eyes. :)


    "The smell of dusty fur, sweet smoke, waiting and patience, a thing that time cannot kill. The moth that candles won't burn."

  • SeirSeir Seein' All the Things Getting high off your emotion
    edited March 2013
    Yeah, so... I'm not a very good writer and I'm sure many know that I'm known for my player killing rather than my roleplay. However, I have been encouraged to participate and I think I shall!

    http://seir100.tumblr.com/

    I'm not a great writer mind you, but I get by. As always, constructive critique is welcome. Olawd, so scurred. Also, I went with the timer.
  • EleanorEleanor FOR SCIENCE
    Awright, I'm going to make an attempt to do some actual critiques! Or at least more comments because everyone loves those.

    @Emelle: The writing in your #52 theme is really nice, very kind of atmospheric- it describes the time and the sort of... quiet scenic-ness very nicely? But the line 'Something's coming.' seems sort of... out of place because the writing goes back to atmospheric description after that. It sort of feels like it wants either a less intense and ominous 'hey is there something over there', or more of a follow-up of danger or something.

    @Iosyne: I'm enjoying reading yours- I wonder, the one about burning, is that a character we know or something more abstract out of your head? In the most recent one, Rivalry, I like the story that's being told but I'm not sure that the part where the storyteller actually addresses herself really fits- it seems like more of a recount than a soul-search until that point.

    @Lin: I pretty much always enjoy reading your writing, so liking these things you're making is a bit of a no-brainer for me I think! My favourite is probably "Complicated", and I think it's because it's a small enough story to make a vignette on its own- I get the sense that the others are part of a much bigger picture that hasn't been explained to me yet, so I don't get as into them because there's parts missing.

    @Haven: Hurry up and write something, you choob.

    @Kiyotan: Your first one was intriguing- is that someone we know, or just a general redshirt to facilitate the vignette? The second one with Kiyo and Siba is a nice little snippet- critique-wise, you've got a tense change in the middle of it that feels weird. I'm getting into your writing because I know the characters pretty well, but I wonder if the writing might feel a bit more fleshed-out if you spent some time on emotive and character-thoughts stuff?

    @Seir: I really enjoyed 'Knife'! Was that Laefin? Nicely balanced bit of writing, I think. Enough introduction to make it smooth, but enough ambiguity to give it character. With 'Failure', I'm guessing that you're trying to say that he stood up and went and fought and lost and stuff? Rather than just sitting there screaming. It could make it clearer that that's what happened if you add something about him deciding to fight on or whatever.

    SeirEmelleHaven
  • SeirSeir Seein' All the Things Getting high off your emotion
    @Eleanor: Yes, that was Laefin in Knife. With Failure, it was Seir's loss to Bloodloch during a war and having to dealing with feeling that he failed Duiran. I appreciate the critique. I was honestly very nervous, but I'm glad there was some high points.
  • EmelleEmelle Dreamshaper Tecpatl's Cradle
    edited March 2013
    Eleanor said:

    @Haven: Hurry up and write something, you choob.

    +1 agree.

    @Eleanor: Thanks for the feedback! I have this nearly constant tendency in my writing with Emelle to foreshadow or acknowledge things vaguely, and I'm never sure if that's the right thing for this medium. In that particular case, my intent was to give her a sort of purpose in the moment rather than having the complete focus just on the atmosphere I was primarily trying to describe, and then have a feeling of distraction with the wind thing. Possibly an issue of word choice more than anything else? I felt the same thing with the last sentence in the "Love" entry -- it was something I really wanted to include, but still seems a little disjointed to me.

    Also, did you have a feeling about tense in #52? I initially wrote it in past tense but changed it to present at the last minute because I thought it was more effective, but something about present tense always feels kind of strange to me.

    @Iosyne: I agree with Eleanor about the last bit of your most recent entry, although for a bit of a different reason, I think: her shift to the third-person address with the line "And why, Llazuth?" It felt jarring to me on the first read, and it took me another before I was able to get into the flow of it. In my opinion, the self-reflection wouldn't be amiss if you continued in the same flow of the rest of the entry.

    @Lin: I love reading your writing. You have a really wonderful, effective sense of vocabulary and description that I really admire. One thing that's struck me in a few of your sketches is the repetition. Just for an example, I pulled this from #2: "Blame forced his weight into the foremost foot and brought about his knife, swinging it like the arm of a clock. Blame growled, his face set with concentration, and killed the air in front of him with brutal economy." I get the feeling it might be intentional for effect, but I'm not sure? Personally I'd prefer more varied sentence structure, or maybe even just a pronoun to replace the name.

    @Kiyotan: I like your style. More later.

    @Seir: Also more later.

    Finally, I really like that @Iosyne and @Kiyotan are going in list order. I think one of the hardest things for me about starting this was trying to decide whether I wanted to do that or skip around, and obviously I opted for the latter, but it's also fun to see the former done because there's a little bit of a continuity to the list in certain parts, even if what it evokes isn't necessarily linear.



    Edit: I have no idea what happened to my text with the copy/paste up there, but it is really unpleasant to read and I don't know how to fix it. Sorry!

    Fixed. - Iosyne


    "The smell of dusty fur, sweet smoke, waiting and patience, a thing that time cannot kill. The moth that candles won't burn."

  • LinLin Blackbird The Moonglade
    edited March 2013
    Emelle said:

    @Lin: I love reading your writing. You have a really wonderful, effective sense of vocabulary and description that I really admire. One thing that's struck me in a few of your sketches is the repetition. Just for an example, I pulled this from #2: "Blame forced his weight into the foremost foot and brought about his knife, swinging it like the arm of a clock. Blame growled, his face set with concentration, and killed the air in front of him with brutal economy." I get the feeling it might be intentional for effect, but I'm not sure? Personally I'd prefer more varied sentence structure, or maybe even just a pronoun to replace the name.
    @Emelle: A bad habit and trick I picked up from Neal Stephenson. The idea is that repeating the name forces a "new scene" into your head, the way a camera would cut in a movie. So readers should be seeing the man shift forward, then a new picture altogether when he makes the knife swing. Thanks for pointing it out, I'm not sure if it's effective!

    I love that you guys are writing from Aetolian points of view, because it lets me get into your character's head in a way I never could before (even though I tried). Emelle's story about Gepideth was sweet, and cast that entire arc in a whole new light for me. And I was pleasantly surprised that she knew Noxume, since Nox was a favorite RP-buddy of mine back in the day.
    Eleanor said:
    @Lin: I pretty much always enjoy reading your writing, so liking these things you're making is a bit of a no-brainer for me I think! My favourite is probably "Complicated", and I think it's because it's a small enough story to make a vignette on its own- I get the sense that the others are part of a much bigger picture that hasn't been explained to me yet, so I don't get as into them because there's parts missing.
    @Eleanor: You're a sweetheart as usual. Thank you, Complicated is my favorite too. I know none of the rest of the stories make sense, and that's okay because I'm basically retconning years of writing as I write these shorts, so I don't know what's going on either. The blog should be much more enjoyable when I put out some more stories.

    I'm not great at writing critique because this isn't my field, per se, but your "Breakfast" story was my favorite of yours so far. I'm a sucker for down-to-earth homey scenes, and I swear, reading it made me feel like I was curled up at Elea's house in front of the fire. That breakfast sounds delicious!
  • EmelleEmelle Dreamshaper Tecpatl's Cradle
    edited March 2013
    Lin said:
    @Eleanor ...your "Breakfast" story was my favorite of yours so far. I'm a sucker for down-to-earth homey scenes, and I swear, reading it made me feel like I was curled up at Elea's house in front of the fire. That breakfast sounds delicious!
    So much this. The RP of typical day-to-day almost mundane events is one of my favorite kinds, both to participate in and to read because of all the lovely imagery and little details that go into character demeanor, and I loved that entry of yours for exactly that reason.


    "The smell of dusty fur, sweet smoke, waiting and patience, a thing that time cannot kill. The moth that candles won't burn."

  • HavenHaven World Burner Flight School
    @Eleanor, @Emelle: My bad! Finally took the time and write one.
    ¤ Si vis pacem, para bellum. ¤
    Someone powerful says, "We're going to have to delete you."
    havenbanner2
  • KiyotanKiyotan spectacular vernacular Summit of the Falconmount
    Eleanor said:

    @Kiyotan: Your first one was intriguing- is that someone we know, or just a general redshirt to facilitate the vignette?
    That's Kiyo! Little known fact is that when I first joined Aetolia, Kiyotan was Spirean. All of my 100 posts are going to be scenes from Kiyotan's history. 
    Some may say we've lost our way, but I believe we've not gone far enough.
    image
  • EmelleEmelle Dreamshaper Tecpatl's Cradle
    @Moirean, I wish you tumblr'd (it's easy to remember to read everything when it's all in one place), but your entries are hilarious, in addition to being well-written. What was the inspiration for #1?


    "The smell of dusty fur, sweet smoke, waiting and patience, a thing that time cannot kill. The moth that candles won't burn."

  • MoireanMoirean Chairmander Portland
    Sorry, I just found tumblr hard to navigate for posting with. I can switch back, I guess, but I need to sit and figure out how to use it better first. It seemed pretty awkward, but I know there ARE tumblr blogs out there with side navigation and stuff, so it'll just take some digging.

    I'm focusing on refining how to make things funny, without being too cheesy about it (I think I was a bit heavyhanded in #1). I kinda wanted to get the puerile out of my system, though, with a goofy send-up to Aetolia's initial creation and its associated issues.


  • EleanorEleanor FOR SCIENCE
    edited March 2013
    <P>@Kiyotan: I'd wondered at first if that was the case, but I was uncertain because I wasn't aware of that fact!</P>
    <P>@Moirean: That just depends on what theme you plug in- there's a squillion of them all over the intertub. I'm willing to give you a hand if you want to get tumblr going- it's super easy and fast to use once you've got the hang of it. And people can follow, which means your writing appears on the big tumblr feed page and they don't have to go out of their way to find your stuff!</P>

  • MoireanMoirean Chairmander Portland
    Ok, I went back to http://moirean.tumblr.com/

    I can't figure out how to display a sidebar listing latest posts. Is that just something tumblr doesn't do? I always like that for easy navigation on blogs I read. :/
  • EleanorEleanor FOR SCIENCE
    Tumblr tends to be the thing where people just scroll downward forever. A little like 4chan, I guess.

  • LinLin Blackbird The Moonglade
    Try looking through some of the Free Themes for your blog to see if any of them have a sidebar. It's fairly common that they do!
  • EleanorEleanor FOR SCIENCE
    Alright, eff work machines that crash when I try to tumblr and forums, but the list's updated now. Sorry I apparently missed you the first time round, Moirean! Not sure how I managed that, derp.

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