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So, guys! I'm totally not dropping this... not unless everyone else does first, and that hasn't happened yet! Juuust a little absent-minded today, apparently. Thanks to @ItAintPretty for the heads-up. And sorry @the_quiller, since it's probably already tomorrow where you are. >_<

So, yeah, given that this is going to be an ongoing thing... what do you guys want to see? More of the same? Mixing it up more? By @nmelssx 's request, I'll be doing some sort of descriptive exercise tomorrow. But what else?

@Danaos @NightBirdBlue @betaband @31TeV @Briar_Rose @ISentinelPenguinI @TaraGil @the_quiller @jamescoker1226 @LostConnection @Kiel_Farren @Cynical @ItAintPretty @Swiftstryker @TacocaT @Romulus @coins @Malkalack @Virtualide @Morgan_R @Fireplay @nmelssx

(As always, if you don't want to be tagged, just let me know!)

You have failed us.

>_<

Is it Monday where you are? Then go write some sentences. XD

You've still failed us.

Vote for one of my first sentences which you think I should build upon for an opening scene.

I would strongly advise against number 4 unless you have a strong stomach.

I vote for #1.

I don't know if you're still counting votes, but I'm voting 2.

@TaraGil

I really liked your descriptive Monday bonus scene and the way you made the reader really understand how the protagonist feels. You even get a good sense of character too from little details about the grandmother forgetting things, which was a nice touch. The ending is keeping me in suspense and I want to know more now.

Thanks, 31TeV! I am glad to hear you enjoyed the ending to that scene. It sounds like the ending had more of an impact that I thought.

Also, glad to see you put your bonus up. I enjoyed how eerie the aftermath of Titus' disappearance was. Even if everyone knew what caused it, there's something inherently creepy about everything else just being as it was. And in good tradition of raising stakes, it sounds like things will just get worse for our hero from here. Good cliffhanger.

*raises hand—palming thumb*
 

@ItAintPretty

Your Monday bonus was funny stuff. Short and sweet. I've said this before but I'll say it again, I think one of your greatest strengths as a writer is making the reader think and get them engaged with relatively few words. It's a skill that I envy because I tend to rant and write too much. To make things worse I write pretty slowly too. XD

I tend to view it as a weakness myself.  I can never become a novelist because I can't drone on and on about nothing.  And people won't buy single page books.  XD

I guess it's finding a good middle ground. You don't want to bore readers with pages and pages of just setup and background information, which I am often tempted to do.

I think it's habit with me.  I wrote columns for the school newspaper and they had to be short and direct.   And I just never got past it.  I guess it would be a good idea if I was writing for readers' digest, the condensed version.

The votes are currently at a 3-way tie. I'll leave it for a bit but if I don't get votes soon I'll have to pick from one of those already voted for.

EDIT: I know this is late, but voting is now closed. I've had to use a random number generator to decide which one to write. You'll see soon enough which one it is.

My vote is that you get everyone out of their comfort zones.  I'll let you figure out how...

Edit:  Like me, for instance.  I like to write adventure and horror.  Sometimes fantasy...

So number four? XD

I've certainly grossed out some people with my pieces before. I'll be sure to outdo myself on that front if number 4 gets chosen.

Make it a Romance? xD

All these possibilites to make this scene distusting. XD

Reading a romance novel seems pretty horrific to me!  xD

I guess it'd be worse if a romance story involved a corpse.

I think it would soften the blow.  (ie. Stephen Kings - Pet Cemetery)

Never actually read it. Should I?

Actually, it's Pet Sematary.

----------

You're right!  It's been so long since I read it that I'd forgotten that children made the sign...

Edit:  A double post?  How'd that happen?

Maybe you tried to edit the first post but instead ended up going back to the page where you were originally writing the first post. I've done it before.

I clicked edit, checked a new post, then backed to the wrong reply!  Haha.  I'll have to be more observant.

Well...my daily writing exercise post is up.  Not that anyone cares.
 

Au contraire, ItAintPretty. I enjoyed your short, first person opening sentences. They're short but each present very interesting scenarios that could easily be expanded upon well, as well as present potential conflicts right away.

As for the bonus, what a tease. Why everyone is so forgetful and what the thing is going to bug me for a while. We're never going to find out what it is, are we?

I decided to write in first person and a scene with mostly dialog, because they are my weakest skills.  And I thought that I should be more focused on them.

As far as the thing goes...I don't know what to call it.  ;)

Edit:  Maybe I'll divulge it if we have to create an ending.

It's always good to practice outside your comfort zone, like you mention above. Honestly, the mostly dialog scenario sounds like a good challenge for Morgan to use. That could be a fun exercise.

And until further notice, I'm going to consider the thing a thingamabob.

Oh! You'll never get rid of the dun-da-da-dun no matter what you do!

Guys you know you better watch out

Some girls, some girls are only about

That Thing, that thing, that thing

Edit: Ahaha, I looked up the Phil Harris song, and then remember another songs about things. Then, I see you add the link. Thanks for the link.

Still one of my favorite songs.  Can't help but grin while I listen to it.  :)

It's a real good song. Nice and upbeat.

Btw, lemme officially say my exercise entry is up and open for comment and critique.

@Morgan_R  I'm assuming you're going to be lax on the time limit for his one, right? No clue how that's going to affect the other challenges. Are the points currently not updated yet? I actually was going to make an imagery suggestion for an exercise. If nmelssx's request doesn't fall under that, it could be a pretty good.

Thanks to ItAintPretty's last piece, I also recommend some type of word economy exercise. Maybe challenge us to write something with a set word limit. When I was a teen, a popular thing was a 100 words challenge. Maybe even a set word count and see what we get.

More character exercises might be good, too. I was thinking maybe something with relationships. Like, you give us a relationship two characters could have, and we'd have to write a scene that portrays that.

A few other exercises I could think of, which may be better for bonuses, are genre-based stuff (ex. Slice of Life only), G-rated challenge (children's audience), censorship challenge (writing with the intent to pass under a set acceptable for an audience criteria), and maybe something limited by setting.

Points reset at the first of the month, and I update them when I post the next exercise. So, since I was late again, technically folks did have extra time. :P

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll definitely be using some of those! ^_^

Late again. >_< Maybe I'll just go with 'morning' rather than 'midnight' this week...

Anyway, Monday is scored -- welcome, mek7! -- and Tuesday is up.

@mek7

See above. Thought I'd tag you because you might not be aware of this thread.

You're referring to voting for one of your sentences, correct? 

No, just referring to Morgan's post where she welcomed you. You can vote for one of my sentences if you want to buy that's not what I was talking about.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info and welcome! :)

@mek7 I have to admit, I laughed at your third one. The exact same thing happened to me, just not aloud. I also like the thought progression in the first opening. The bonus was especially fun and something I’m sure a lot of people can relate to, including myself.

@the_quiller Okay, I have to admit. I laughed at 2 and 4. Love the potential that could be done with 1, and 3 gave me chills. The bonus I really enjoyed, particularly for the smart humor and the hilariously blithe attitude towards the death of would-be heroes and the princess-saving tradition.

@Swiftstryker You had my attention with beginning sentence 1. Every single one of these is super clever, and I’d read any story that began with any of these. Speaking of which, the bonus was was really cool and really creative direction to go. It definitely was a joy and interesting to read.
I’m going to wait for 31TeV’s bonus before I make comments on that.

@TaraGil I always appreciate laughter! Thanks for the critique. As for your Monday sentences, I was drawn to 2 and 5. 2) It was a quick emotional roller coaster of 'that's sweet' to 'how could he!'. 5) "I would say I simply didn't" ushered me to read on and I'm sure glad I did-sort of, since 5 left me glancing out my bedroom door. 

Certainly appreciate it.  My bonus was not exactly original (I do give my thanks to World Customizer Creator and Re:Monster, two very neat light novel series), but the tangibility of space-time with numbers has been interesting.  Suppose one stood outside the boundaries of the world, yet not too far away so as to be aloof from it, but not close enough so that the makings of the world would be so easily seen by anyone else.

It's a theme that's been popularized in Japan, and I do expect this sort of theme to come to the Western World in due time, but for now, it's still springy and fresh.

Shows what I know. The theme does sound fascinating, so I might have to look and see if there's an official localized version of those light novels here. I swear, the title Re:Monster sounds so familiar. I'm kind of glad that I'm hearing there's more of this out there. Thanks for telling me this isn't a new thing and there's more to read like this.

My Tuesdays' is up just in the nick of time.  :)

Tuesday is scored, Wednesday is up! ^_^

Wednesday is scored, Thursday is up! ^_^

Forgot to say, Friday is up! I honestly can't remember if I scored for Thursday or not, but I'll check when I'm back at a computer. ^_^

Thursday AND Friday are finally scored! This weeks' winners are @the_quiller and @mek7 -- well done! ^_^

Please move any discussion of Week 5 to Feedback 5. ^_^