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Workshop Entries

13 Jun 2017 02:43 #54714 by fats
Workshop Entries was created by fats
Hi all,

It’s that time of year again that we let the workshop entries loose on you fantastic members, this workshop was the most difficult for some time.

The idea is for each writer to receive a pm from me with a list of ten (10) items and one (1) power, your story must use at least seven (7) of the items listed and the power listed must be used, but the use of other powers is of course welcomed but you must use listed power as your primary power.

We had 10 entries from some experienced writers but alas only 4 were able to submit their story.

Below is the table that showed you what items and power each writer got.



As you can see the lists were not that easy in fact that we only got 4 entries showed that.

I’ll be opening the voting on Sunday and the voting will be open for 14 days.

So please thank Dru, DKC, Castor and Argo/Ace for their excellent stories.

Fats

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13 Jun 2017 05:25 #54718 by jumperprime
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I am somewhat annoyed. I had wondered what kind of lemonade the other authors would make with the esoteric powers they would have gotten handed to try to shoehorn into their stories. Now I find that I'm the only one that got an esoteric and out of genre power to work with. All the others can fit well into an ubergirl story. Omnilinguilism, that's basically the ability to speak all languages, so no matter what language her victim speaks, the ubergirl can tell them just how screwed they are. Atmokinesis, control over atmosphere, maybe life support bubbles for squishy mortals while the ubergirl frolics naked in space or deadly atmosphere. All the powers assigned to other authors can be fitted into an ubergirl story relatively easily. Time Travel more or less requires that the entire plotline revolve around it.

*sigh* OK, I'm all ranted out now. Not like I woulda had any use for the prize anyway. I'm a single guy so if I'd won the costume woulda just sat in the box gathering dust in the back of my closet.

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13 Jun 2017 06:52 #54720 by d_k_c
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No question it's tough....But I would have loved Time Travel. I have a story I hadn't completed years ago. It involved a very good person who obtained superpowers many years ago. Jealous of him, the antagonist develops a way to go back in time, and be at the right place at the right time so that he can get the power. Suffice to say, things don't go according to plan, and the power is transferred into someone not exactly befitting. It would have to be modified to some degree, but I think it would have worked great.

Telekinesis is my core power, it's not hard to work with so I got lucky, but it's really only used to primarily get the story rolling. As far the rest of the powers Fats listed, that's exactly how I would have played with them. Use the core power, or ability to begin a chain reaction that leads to the character developing other powers.

The story doesn't have to revolve around the power....It just has to be used. Was my understanding.

I don't think I knocked this one out of the park. But, I have to say.....It was fun trying to develop a story with ideas and suggestions not my own. But maybe it's not for everyone.
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13 Jun 2017 11:11 #54725 by shadar
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The golden rule for writers is to "write what you know", or what you can easily imagine and emotionally connect with in the case of our genre.

This workshop, which forces the authors outside those boundaries in various ways, is interesting because it breaks that rule. Not interesting enough for me to write a story (in this case), but interesting to see if anyone surprised themselves and their readers by discovering something interesting they hadn't considered before.

As I read the entries, I'm going to be considering that.

Shadar

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13 Jun 2017 15:42 #54729 by argonaut
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Personally, I would have found omnilinguilism to be the hardest power to write a story around.

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13 Jun 2017 16:17 #54730 by LustMonster
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argonaut wrote: Personally, I would have found omnilinguilism to be the hardest power to write a story around.


Actually, that could be a fun one, especially if the power also includes being able to grant that ability to others near you, while you're around. Sort of a walking universal translator for a whole room.

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13 Jun 2017 18:02 #54733 by Woodclaw
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argonaut wrote: Personally, I would have found omnilinguilism to be the hardest power to write a story around.


I might have to work on that ;)

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13 Jun 2017 18:47 #54734 by TwiceOnThursdays
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LustMonster wrote:

argonaut wrote: Personally, I would have found omnilinguilism to be the hardest power to write a story around.


Actually, that could be a fun one, especially if the power also includes being able to grant that ability to others near you, while you're around. Sort of a walking universal translator for a whole room.


Reminds me of the Babel fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A little fish you stuck in your ear and it would translate any language. I love the little bit at the end of its guide entry:

"Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."


It's those little philosophical asides that make me really love the Hitchhikers Guide.
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13 Jun 2017 19:18 #54735 by LustMonster
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TwiceOnThursdays wrote:

LustMonster wrote:

argonaut wrote: Personally, I would have found omnilinguilism to be the hardest power to write a story around.


Actually, that could be a fun one, especially if the power also includes being able to grant that ability to others near you, while you're around. Sort of a walking universal translator for a whole room.


Reminds me of the Babel fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A little fish you stuck in your ear and it would translate any language. I love the little bit at the end of its guide entry:

"Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."


It's those little philosophical asides that make me really love the Hitchhikers Guide.


Just imagine if Douglas Adams were not only alive but could be lured into SWM to write a Workshop entry or two...
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13 Jun 2017 19:27 #54736 by TwiceOnThursdays
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LustMonster wrote:
Just imagine if Douglas Adams were not only alive but could be lured into SWM to write a Workshop entry or two...


That's a very pleasant day-dream.

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14 Jun 2017 02:05 #54747 by ace191
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Interestingly, my first idea before Argo approached me to team up with him was very similar to the approach that DKC took. I will not say anymore about that until everyone has had a chance to read all the entries.
I want to say thank you to every one who took a stab at this, especially Castor, Dru and DKC who submitted entries. Special thanks to Argo for doing most of the heavy lifting on our entry. I think it was one of the toughest workshops ever.

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14 Jun 2017 12:41 #54765 by Gargamel
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I have problems reading castors story on the phone, the format seems off. Any chance to fix that? Can't really enjoy and therefore judge it the way it is.
Btw: tx for all the entries, really appreciate your hard work!

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14 Jun 2017 12:43 - 14 Jun 2017 13:50 #54766 by Woodclaw
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Gargamel wrote: I have problems reading castors story on the phone, the format seems off. Any chance to fix that? Can't really enjoy and therefore judge it the way it is.
Btw: tx for all the entries, really appreciate your hard work!


The issue is known and it's due to the way Castor formatted his text before submitting it. I've already tried to reformat it with little success, but I'll give it another go.

I think the story should be a bit more readable now.
Last edit: 14 Jun 2017 13:50 by Woodclaw.
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14 Jun 2017 16:37 #54772 by castor
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I am sorry if people are having problems. i decided to play a lot with the font function on the story to play with the idea of diffrent perspectives on it that the 'story' has.

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14 Jun 2017 16:55 #54774 by Woodclaw
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castor wrote: I am sorry if people are having problems. i decided to play a lot with the font function on the story to play with the idea of diffrent perspectives on it that the 'story' has.


It wasn't a problem of fonts but the fact that the entire story was formatted as a single text block and I had to extract the single lines and reformat them one by one. This often happens if the text is copy/pasted from notepad without a proper check with a more advanced text-editor.

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14 Jun 2017 18:50 #54782 by Sarge395
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If you submitted a story and wish to have a costume I will send you one if you pay the shipping.

I appreciate all of the submissions. And if dkc wins again he can have another. Maybe the first one is worn out by now.

Send me a PM to talk more.
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14 Jun 2017 23:06 #54792 by rebel4life
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ace191 wrote: Interestingly, my first idea before Argo approached me to team up with him was very similar to the approach that DKC took. I will not say anymore about that until everyone has had a chance to read all the entries.
I want to say thank you to every one who took a stab at this, especially Castor, Dru and DKC who submitted entries. Special thanks to Argo for doing most of the heavy lifting on our entry. I think it was one of the toughest workshops ever.


OK, first of all, I'd really like to thank bigtime all the 4 contributors to this WS, I very much appreciate all the time and efforts you put into this.

I've read only Element X by DKC so far, not by actual choice, but because it appeared first on the list, and it was really an outstanding read.

However ...

Warning: Spoiler!

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14 Jun 2017 23:54 #54797 by ace191
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Let's see if I can get the spoiler thing to work. It has been so long since I used the spoiler thing so I will just post this in the open.
1) DKC is a VERY clever guy
2) I think he would like for someone else to win a workshop
3) He very much likes to participate in workshops and likes to
Encourage others to do so as well.
4) He didn't want to win this workshop but wanted to write a great story.
Now if you believe all of the above, you will understand what he did.

He wrote a great story that mocked the objects that he was suppose to use. Instead, he just used the names, so that he would get DISQUALIFIED!

Pretty clever and VERY NICE GUY!

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15 Jun 2017 01:29 #54803 by rebel4life
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ace191 wrote: He wrote a great story that mocked the objects that he was suppose to use. Instead, he just used the names, so that he would get DISQUALIFIED!

Pretty clever and VERY NICE GUY!


None of which I'd ever deny.

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15 Jun 2017 03:30 #54804 by rebel4life
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rebel4life wrote:
OK, first of all, I'd really like to thank bigtime all the 4 contributors to this WS, I very much appreciate all the time and efforts you put into this.

I've read only Element X by DKC so far, not by actual choice, but because it appeared first on the list, and it was really an outstanding read.

However ...

Warning: Spoiler!


And, come to think about it ....

Warning: Spoiler!
Still an awesome story, though, and just my two cents.

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15 Jun 2017 03:40 #54806 by Dru1076
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rebel4life wrote:

rebel4life wrote:
OK, first of all, I'd really like to thank bigtime all the 4 contributors to this WS, I very much appreciate all the time and efforts you put into this.

I've read only Element X by DKC so far, not by actual choice, but because it appeared first on the list, and it was really an outstanding read.

However ...

Warning: Spoiler!


And, come to think about it ....

Warning: Spoiler!
Still an awesome story, though, and just my two cents.


The same could be said of my story. I was surprised by how similar at the core Element X and my entry are. I understood that the given power had to be central to the story, and I think Element X stays true to that. It's the l first power she steals, because it was used against her to motivate her, and it's through obtaining it that the main character discovered her ability.
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15 Jun 2017 03:52 #54807 by rebel4life
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Dru1076 wrote:
The same could be said of my story. I was surprised by how similar at the core Element X and my entry are. I understood that the given power had to be central to the story, and I think Element X stays true to that. It's the l first power she steals, because it was used against her to motivate her, and it's through obtaining it that the main character discovered her ability.


Ah, I'll read your story right away, but that is stretching the rules thin. The basic and central power of Eve in Element X just ain't telekineses, period. I don't think there's any way around that conclusion.

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15 Jun 2017 04:21 #54808 by fats
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HI all,


The ruling on the field of play is this.

DKC did not break the rules, he took them in a different direction but stayed within the spirit of them. As such his story is NOT disqualified.

Fats
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15 Jun 2017 05:08 #54809 by d_k_c
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15 Jun 2017 11:25 #54813 by Woodclaw
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I'm going to point out one important thing -- and pulling out my bachelor degree by doing it -- words are by their own nature arbitrary. Butchering the scripts of Ferdinand de Saussure a lot: we, as human, only agree on the general sense of a word because there is a consensus built into us by a shared culture, but by no means we all think of the same thing when we use it. when someone say "dog" I think of my old dog, another person might think of the dog that took a shit in his courtyard, or a plush dog, or Snoopy. All these images pertain to a shared context, but they're wildly different and we are talking only about one cultural perspective. Just for the sake of context there are populations that don't have words to describe shades of color, but only the level of saturation.

What I'm trying to say was that this workshop provided words, not objects, nor context, just words floating in an empty space that needed to be put into context, so I kind of expected someo them to be used in a wildly different manner.
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