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Workshop Entries
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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- fats
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*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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- jumperprime
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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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- d_k_c
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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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- shadar
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- argonaut
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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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- LustMonster
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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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- Woodclaw
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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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- TwiceOnThursdays
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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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- LustMonster
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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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- TwiceOnThursdays
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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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- ace191
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Btw: tx for all the entries, really appreciate your hard work!
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- Gargamel
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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 think the story should be a bit more readable now.
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- Woodclaw
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- castor
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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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- Woodclaw
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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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- Sarge395
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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 ...
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- rebel4life
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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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- ace191
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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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- 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!I'm not really sure whether DKC cheated his way - very ingeniously - out of this one. After all, the rules called for the usage of at least 7 of the 10 items, and rather than to incorporate the items into the story, DKC basically used most of them as proper names for different persons or objects (Rose = Name of a Friend, Dominoes = Name of the Powered Folks, Blender = Name of an AI, Pie = Name of a Device, Slide Hammer = Name of a Weapon ... you get the idea. Like I said, I really do love the story (thanks again to DKC), but it surely bends the rules. Does it break the rules? Idk, you decide.
And, come to think about it ....
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- rebel4life
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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!I'm not really sure whether DKC cheated his way - very ingeniously - out of this one. After all, the rules called for the usage of at least 7 of the 10 items, and rather than to incorporate the items into the story, DKC basically used most of them as proper names for different persons or objects (Rose = Name of a Friend, Dominoes = Name of the Powered Folks, Blender = Name of an AI, Pie = Name of a Device, Slide Hammer = Name of a Weapon ... you get the idea. Like I said, I really do love the story (thanks again to DKC), but it surely bends the rules. Does it break the rules? Idk, you decide.
And, come to think about it ....
Still an awesome story, though, and just my two cents.Warning: Spoiler!Her power ain't telekininesis either, it's rather "suck up any other power", which is very much like that scary dude played by Zachary Quinto (Heroes).
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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- Dru1076
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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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- rebel4life
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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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- fats
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- d_k_c
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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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- Woodclaw
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