PLAY/FOOTBALL
Prose: 1500 words
Poetry: 300 words
Optional Challenges: a) Pick a historical figure, or a literary character and write in first person POV, as if you are them. Maybe put a note at the end so we can see whom you wrote about. b) Use both subjects in a comedy set on/in another world.
THE CHALLENGE
This round was not only unique for the subjects and optional challenges set by last session's winners Saffron Piskie and Inner Prop, but it was also unusual in the expansive word limits.
Although we had fewer than usual submissions (four each for both categories) I'm pleased to announce that we had quite a nice turnout for votes. Big THANKS to everyone who participated - submitters, critters, and voters!
THE COMMENTS
We'll now look at some readers' commentary on this session's work.
PROSE
Mr Razorz
* "another piece of assured story-telling. When is Razorz going to get published???? He's too talented for us not to share him with the world."
* "Liked the SF setup. My favorite word was 'kiddie pound'."
* "This was an exciting and well knit story. The background of the characters, though only sketched out, was vivid and a real sense of environment was conveyed here. The resolution to the main characters horrible dilemma and the ending was very satisfying."
* "I picked Mr. Razorz's interesting scifi story. I thought it was very creative and innovative. Raz is so good at creating a totally different world with lots of interesting details and characters. I would need to read it again to get the gist of the story as I don't read lots of scifi so some of it went over my head. However, I can appreciate that it is definitely well written and worthy of my vote."
petiteflower
* "For prose, my vote has to go to ... petiteflower! This story was so funny - with lots of great in-jokes to spice up the already funny source material. This should be posted on other writing boards. It's too good for us to keep to ourselves."
* "Wonderfully creative."
* "My choice has to be for PF's hilarious "Passion between the Posts". I found myself chuckling all the way through this - whether you recognise any of the characterisations or not, or miss some of the jokes, it stands by itself as a chortle inducing piece of writing, as well as providing a different type of approach in its concept. The girl has missed her vocation as a comedy script writer. Great fun!"
* "PF's "passion between the posts" made me laugh the hardest. Great idea, brilliantly executed."
DarkPool9
* "DarkPool9 for her crusading tale on behalf of Richard III. I learnt a lot from her story, and it was fun, too. I hope her students realise how lucky they are."
* "Love stories about Richard III. Defend the guy!"
* "Richard III has always been one of my favourite historical characters, so it was easy to relate very quickly to DP's sympathetic and amusing portrayal. I'm not sure however, if it entirely worked for me as I found the beginning and the end a little confusing. That said, the main part of the composition worked well, providing a rather more interesting Ricardian viewpoint than one might find in the history books!"
* "Darkpool rocks! How she made this story around the famous quote was very clever. I could find no fault here."
* "Although the theme of a famous person traveling through time to see how the future will (has) viewed him is not new it was very well written."
* "I really enjoyed reading this. I can just imagine historical characters from the past coming back and being shocked at they way they have been portrayed. Well done."
Inner Prop
* "a fun premise, neatly executed. I loved the name of the ship (M$$ Chaching), and all the other funny touches spread throughout the story."
* "Funny!"
* "There was a great "tongue-in-cheek" feel to this piece. I loved the sublime banality of the characters. Great puns - "M$$ Chaching" and great jokes. It took me a while to get into this story - I had to read it a couple of times to really take it in, but it was a very enjoyable composition."
* "A little bit 'Star Trek', a little bit 'Hitchhiker's Guide', a whole lotta fun. And I liked seeing the subtle references to the Sci-Fi standbys."
*****
POETRY
rekirts
* "I picked rekirts' ballad about the legendary game between the Roughriders and the Roughriders. I find rekirts has a real talent for telling a story through poetry. I could just picture rekirts singing this poem as she wandered through the streets (or the stadium stands! Get out of the way you hot dog vendors!) with her mandolin."
* "Rekirts for keeping those long lines all in metre and rhyme."
* "I really enjoyed reading this, almost as a narrative story rather than a poem. There's a real feeling of enthusiasm about this poem - I'd say the writer was really keen on the sport herself and when you read it, you can almost hear the commentator narrating the match, such is the timbre of the piece, rather than it being a poem."
* "I loved them all. so hard to pick just one. BUT I think I have to go with Rekirts."
DandelionsnDaffodils
* "I could really taste Autumn through this poem!"
* "Dande for the way her jumble of autumn images kept changing in tone and focus, giving the poem an interesting structure."
* "this had a great deal of charm, but initially I almost saw it as two different poems. I loved the first section (although I'm not sure about using the word "plight" for the hummingbirds) but at first, I felt that when it moved into its second "football" section, the ..er...pass..wasn't as successful as it could have been. Then when I read it again, the second section did indeed have subtle links with the first and this made it much more satisfying than upon that first, initial read."
* "a super job of invoking the feeling of autumn. I had to run and get a sweater after reading the poem."
CyberCatty
* "my vote goes to CyberCatty in her Dr Seuss cat ... er, hat! She caught the style so well, that the Suessness of it all came out really strongly right from the first few stanzas. Very funny!"
* "Ah, great fun! I could almost see the pouting. Yep, Dr Seuss rules in this enjoyable poem with its typical lighthearted Catty approach."
* "Very amusing and well rounded with a wonderfully cheerful ending."
* "Clever idea to model this poem on Seuss. It's charming, but with a gentle bite"
Pretty Elf
* "PrettyElf, for the good laugh."
* "Pretty Elf - sweet and simple. With a 300 word limit she came up with a twelve word haiku! Yet for all that, this is the one that gets my vote with the visions it conjures up."
* "I think it was the tight pants that did it for me!"
* "I love this gem of a haiku. It has great opening and closing lines. It's so 'Football' without even mentioning the word."
THE WINNERS
While each of the submissions received admiration, each reader could only choose ONE favorite. And so we move on to the winners and another rare occurence - TIE WINS in both categories!
We await a new subject, and an optional challenge, from each winner for the next round.
Prose: 1500 words
Poetry: 300 words
Optional Challenges: a) Pick a historical figure, or a literary character and write in first person POV, as if you are them. Maybe put a note at the end so we can see whom you wrote about. b) Use both subjects in a comedy set on/in another world.
This round was not only unique for the subjects and optional challenges set by last session's winners Saffron Piskie and Inner Prop, but it was also unusual in the expansive word limits.
Quote:
They were good topics. "Play" could be used in lots of ways, and the authors were really creative with it. "Football" got some interesting takes too.
Quote:
It's a shame that there weren't more entries for this particular session, but it looks as though quite a few people were caught out by ever-fleeting time! Those poems and prose that came in however, were all well worth reading.
Quote:
All the poems were based around football - at least the North American version, rather than the English Soccer. And they all took very different viewpoints which made them very interesting.
Although we had fewer than usual submissions (four each for both categories) I'm pleased to announce that we had quite a nice turnout for votes. Big THANKS to everyone who participated - submitters, critters, and voters!
We'll now look at some readers' commentary on this session's work.
PROSE
Mr Razorz
* "another piece of assured story-telling. When is Razorz going to get published???? He's too talented for us not to share him with the world."
* "Liked the SF setup. My favorite word was 'kiddie pound'."
* "This was an exciting and well knit story. The background of the characters, though only sketched out, was vivid and a real sense of environment was conveyed here. The resolution to the main characters horrible dilemma and the ending was very satisfying."
* "I picked Mr. Razorz's interesting scifi story. I thought it was very creative and innovative. Raz is so good at creating a totally different world with lots of interesting details and characters. I would need to read it again to get the gist of the story as I don't read lots of scifi so some of it went over my head. However, I can appreciate that it is definitely well written and worthy of my vote."
petiteflower
* "For prose, my vote has to go to ... petiteflower! This story was so funny - with lots of great in-jokes to spice up the already funny source material. This should be posted on other writing boards. It's too good for us to keep to ourselves."
* "Wonderfully creative."
* "My choice has to be for PF's hilarious "Passion between the Posts". I found myself chuckling all the way through this - whether you recognise any of the characterisations or not, or miss some of the jokes, it stands by itself as a chortle inducing piece of writing, as well as providing a different type of approach in its concept. The girl has missed her vocation as a comedy script writer. Great fun!"
* "PF's "passion between the posts" made me laugh the hardest. Great idea, brilliantly executed."
DarkPool9
* "DarkPool9 for her crusading tale on behalf of Richard III. I learnt a lot from her story, and it was fun, too. I hope her students realise how lucky they are."
* "Love stories about Richard III. Defend the guy!"
* "Richard III has always been one of my favourite historical characters, so it was easy to relate very quickly to DP's sympathetic and amusing portrayal. I'm not sure however, if it entirely worked for me as I found the beginning and the end a little confusing. That said, the main part of the composition worked well, providing a rather more interesting Ricardian viewpoint than one might find in the history books!"
* "Darkpool rocks! How she made this story around the famous quote was very clever. I could find no fault here."
* "Although the theme of a famous person traveling through time to see how the future will (has) viewed him is not new it was very well written."
* "I really enjoyed reading this. I can just imagine historical characters from the past coming back and being shocked at they way they have been portrayed. Well done."
Inner Prop
* "a fun premise, neatly executed. I loved the name of the ship (M$$ Chaching), and all the other funny touches spread throughout the story."
* "Funny!"
* "There was a great "tongue-in-cheek" feel to this piece. I loved the sublime banality of the characters. Great puns - "M$$ Chaching" and great jokes. It took me a while to get into this story - I had to read it a couple of times to really take it in, but it was a very enjoyable composition."
* "A little bit 'Star Trek', a little bit 'Hitchhiker's Guide', a whole lotta fun. And I liked seeing the subtle references to the Sci-Fi standbys."
*****
POETRY
rekirts
* "I picked rekirts' ballad about the legendary game between the Roughriders and the Roughriders. I find rekirts has a real talent for telling a story through poetry. I could just picture rekirts singing this poem as she wandered through the streets (or the stadium stands! Get out of the way you hot dog vendors!) with her mandolin."
* "Rekirts for keeping those long lines all in metre and rhyme."
* "I really enjoyed reading this, almost as a narrative story rather than a poem. There's a real feeling of enthusiasm about this poem - I'd say the writer was really keen on the sport herself and when you read it, you can almost hear the commentator narrating the match, such is the timbre of the piece, rather than it being a poem."
* "I loved them all. so hard to pick just one. BUT I think I have to go with Rekirts."
DandelionsnDaffodils
* "I could really taste Autumn through this poem!"
* "Dande for the way her jumble of autumn images kept changing in tone and focus, giving the poem an interesting structure."
* "this had a great deal of charm, but initially I almost saw it as two different poems. I loved the first section (although I'm not sure about using the word "plight" for the hummingbirds) but at first, I felt that when it moved into its second "football" section, the ..er...pass..wasn't as successful as it could have been. Then when I read it again, the second section did indeed have subtle links with the first and this made it much more satisfying than upon that first, initial read."
* "a super job of invoking the feeling of autumn. I had to run and get a sweater after reading the poem."
CyberCatty
* "my vote goes to CyberCatty in her Dr Seuss cat ... er, hat! She caught the style so well, that the Suessness of it all came out really strongly right from the first few stanzas. Very funny!"
* "Ah, great fun! I could almost see the pouting. Yep, Dr Seuss rules in this enjoyable poem with its typical lighthearted Catty approach."
* "Very amusing and well rounded with a wonderfully cheerful ending."
* "Clever idea to model this poem on Seuss. It's charming, but with a gentle bite"
Pretty Elf
* "PrettyElf, for the good laugh."
* "Pretty Elf - sweet and simple. With a 300 word limit she came up with a twelve word haiku! Yet for all that, this is the one that gets my vote with the visions it conjures up."
* "I think it was the tight pants that did it for me!"
* "I love this gem of a haiku. It has great opening and closing lines. It's so 'Football' without even mentioning the word."
THE WINNERS
While each of the submissions received admiration, each reader could only choose ONE favorite. And so we move on to the winners and another rare occurence - TIE WINS in both categories!
*drumroll*
*drumroll*
PROSE
DARKPOOL9 & PETITEFLOWER
POETRY
PRETTY ELF & REKIRTS
Congratulations everyone! May you wear your laurels proudly or humbly, but always gracefully.
PROSE
DARKPOOL9 & PETITEFLOWER
POETRY
PRETTY ELF & REKIRTS
Congratulations everyone! May you wear your laurels proudly or humbly, but always gracefully.
We await a new subject, and an optional challenge, from each winner for the next round.
