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NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge #209 - "Tyranny"

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M

Mike M

Nick N
images


Theme - "Tyranny"

Word Limit: 2000

Submission Deadline: Friday 7th April by 11:59 PM Pacific.

Voting Deadline: Monday 10th April at 11:59 PM Pacific.

Optional Secondary Objective: There are no happy endings

Scrappy underdog rebels waging a cunning, nimble insurgency against a totalitarian regime are out. Heroes ground beneath the boot heel of the unstoppable machine of malfeasant power is in.

Note, since I will inevitably have to clarify: You needn't take either the theme or secondary strictly literally. Tyranny arrives in many guises. Like, for instance, this next part!

Mandatory tertiary objective: Hard deadlines

For too long, some of you have drifted in the sheltered harbor of my patience, grossly abusing the very notion of grace periods to post 6, 12, 18 hours after the stated deadline.

Now comes your reckoning!

Submissions close at the stroke of midnight on Friday the 7th. Votes by midnight the following Monday. Anything that doesn't make the cut gets... cut... That sounded better in my head.

Why, why would I do such a thing?

Because I am tyrannical.

Submission Guidelines:

- One entry per poster.
- All submissions must be written during the time of the challenge.
- Using the topic as the title of your piece is discouraged.
- Keep to the word count!
- Follow these rules when posting your entry for easy collection of entries:

Voting Guidelines:

- Three votes per voter. Please denote in your voting your 1st (3 pts), 2nd (2 pts), and 3rd (1 pt) place votes.
- Please read all submissions before voting.
- You must vote in order to be eligible to win the challenge.
- When voting ends, the winner gets a collective pat on the back, and starts the new challenge.

Important side note: A lot of our regulars like to write out short critiques/comments for the stories, but you can always opt out by simply adding a note like "I'd prefer no critiques" in the post where you submit your story. We're an understanding group and respect that not everyone wants comments on their work. Above all, we just want to read your story.

NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge FAQ
Previous Challenge Threads and Themes
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Somehow I saw this coming :D

Funny enough I'm actually good at keeping to hard deadlines. It's when I feel that I still have time when I start to slack, so I'm not as freaked out as one might think.
 
Autoignition

Autoignition

Member
Hyyyyyyyype. I'm going to try to participate in this one. It actually falls in line with a novel I'm currently writing, so hooray for writing fanfiction of one of my own stories?
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
Nezumi said:
Somehow I saw this coming :D

Funny enough I'm actually good at keeping to hard deadlines. It's when I feel that I still have time when I start to slack, so I'm not as freaked out as one might think.
Click to expand...

mu cephei said:
i) It's funny how quickly this challenge showed up
ii) I was kinda expecting the tertiary too :p
iii) Congrats!
Click to expand...

Cyan said:
Haha, I thought this might happen. I agree with you, we've gotten super lax on deadlines.
Click to expand...

I maaaaaaaaay have been a little passive-agressive about it the past few challenges.
 
F

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
I always wonder what's worse, Ashes lax challenges where sometimes we don't even have a theme, or Mike figuratively chaining us to the wall and screaming "Write!"
 
A

Ashes

Banned
Saw this coming a mile off. Carrots over sticks machine man.

Edit: having said this, terrific theme. Do hope people don't focus on the deadline and pay attention to the theme.

Btw, mike's deadline is strict. So if I run the script, I'm afraid it's to the minute.
 
A

Alucard

Banned
Free brainstorming of ideas to fit this theme:

-the tyranny of time
-the tyranny of an abusive partner
-the tyranny of money
-the tyranny of government (this is probably where many will go?)
-the tyranny of fascism/dictatorship (tied to above)
-the tyranny of capitalism/advertising
-the tyranny of existence
-the tyranny of a natural disaster

You're welcome. Anyone else want to chime in?
 
C

Carlisle

Member
I like that the tertiary objective is to simply follow the rules outlined in the OP. In 6 months we can have a *opens new tab to dictionary.com* quaternary objective to follow the tertiary objective.

Nezumi said:
Somehow I saw this coming :D

Funny enough I'm actually good at keeping to hard deadlines. It's when I feel that I still have time when I start to slack, so I'm not as freaked out as one might think.
Click to expand...

Yuuuup. I'm on the east coast so I've already built in 3 hours of slack. And then I think to myself, hey I can get up around 8 or 9 the next morning and finish it then because those west coasters won't be up for a while yet. And then I see there's another couple stragglers and I think, well as long as I'm not the last one I can take more time. And then I'm the last one and all out of excuses and all I have to show for it is a haiku.
 
D

Dr. Benton Quest

Banned
I've never written anything outside of academic papers. I've got about a quarter of this challenge done. Would it be ok if to post what I have for critique? If not it's cool.
 
F

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
Dr. Benton Quest said:
I've never written anything outside of academic papers. I've got about a quarter of this challenge done. Would it be ok if to post what I have for critique? If not it's cool.
Click to expand...

Technically you can post up a part for early critique, but be warned that chances are people won't respond with a critique. If no one responds, don't feel disheartened for feel like it is some way a poor reflection of your work, the people who do critiques don't usually get around to them until after the voting deadline and during the reading phase.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Writing hangout in about half an hour. Standard quick recap: it's on Google Hangouts, and the format is ten minutes of chat, then thirty minutes of writing with mics muted, repeated until we've gone for two hours. Webcams aren't required, though several of us will have them. Mics are recommended but also not required, as you can use the text chat.

The hangout link is (quote to see):
 
R

Royal_Flush

Member
Thought you would see me again? Well, here I am. And I'd be grateful for a small advice.

So you have about 500 words left. Do you try to somehow cram the ending you imagined into the story (which could easily fill another 1000 words), go with an alternative version that takes up less space or try to cut something from earlier?
 
W

weemadarthur

Member
I say, write your original vision. Then edit for succinctness in the whole thing. Then see about word count and cut whatever adds the least value to the whole.
 
F

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
Welcome back Royal_Flush (And Red and Freeza) glad to see you post in the thread again. Anyways, I'm going to be a bit of a counter opinion and say make two copies of your story right now, and rush one of the copies. Just get to the end now as quick as you can, even if its only a bit of a skeleton of an ending. Then actually do the proper pacing in your other, real story. I think people make the mistake of thinking the stories they have to submit need to be final drafts, but they can just first or second. You can always come back later, and I find knowing how it ends gives you something to work towards(maybe you'll think of a better ending too? Who knows?) My two cents.
 
C

Carlisle

Member
The Shadow said:
Submitting this early because I know I won't get a chance to submit later. Please let me know if I'm submitting incorrectly. I've never done this before.
Click to expand...

I think the only thing you're missing is putting the title of the story in the title box of your post. I'm an expert in this now because I always forget it myself.

Also way to get it done a whole day before the due date. That's a skill that feels eternally beyond me.
 
T

The Shadow

Member
Carlisle said:
I think the only thing you're missing is putting the title of the story in the title box of your post. I'm an expert in this now because I always forget it myself.

Also way to get it done a whole day before the due date. That's a skill that feels eternally beyond me.
Click to expand...

Thanks. And I only submitted it early because I know I'll be too busy tonight. Otherwise, I'd be submitting it minutes before the dateline, so definitely not skill. Just necessity.
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
Noisy Ninj4 said:
So, uh, how does one password protect a specific document in google docs or drive? Haven't done this before.
Click to expand...
You do it when you create the document itself, though you may have to use third party software if your word processing software doesn't do it natively.
 
choodi

choodi

Banned
#entry

She rides the night

I wasn't going to submit anything this time around. I just didn't think I was going to have time.

However, this is what happens when I have a small window of time late at night and some good music playing in the background.

I am not sure it will appeal to everyone, but I am very happy with how it turned out.

I think it hits both the primary and secondary themes, and best of all it was fun to write.
 
F

Freeza Under The Shower

Member
"Fuck you, tyrant!"

And with those final world, the little mammal was promptly crushed by the T.Rex, before it was thoroughly blown to bits by a meteor that ended its entire race.

The end, ha!

(not an entry, just entertaining our self-declared dictator)
 
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