Luka's 2015 Novella and Novelette Challenge and Contest

NickeeCoco said:
We are exact opposites. When something is super defined, I walk away.
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Yep, I'm kind of weird like that. This is one of the reasons I'm not a short form writer.

I don't want a thing defined to the T, but I don't want it too open ended either. If you tell me you want something in the range from A-Z and that's all you tell me but, what you are really looking for is from E-P, then why in the world would I look at doing anything outside of that range?

Personal history: the law of the universe in regards to me is that too loose and I'm going to go outside the bounds of what is wanted while the more definition given means the higher chance of my having reasonable expectations of not only winning a contest, but of getting decent feedback. And yes, it's a law. It happened in all of my school projects and even my teachers were confused by where I was getting my ideas from. Perhaps it's a learning disability...
 
I guess part of the fun of having a theme is too see how far you can push it. To make the ordinary, extaordinary, as my art teacher used to say. The challenge is to take something standard and make it brand new. :)
 
Dreaming said:
I guess part of the fun of having a theme is too see how far you can push it. To make the ordinary, extaordinary, as my art teacher used to say. The challenge is to take something standard and make it brand new. :)
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True. I'm just utter crap at using other peoples' ideas.
 
RedMage said:
Yep, I'm kind of weird like that. This is one of the reasons I'm not a short form writer.

I don't want a thing defined to the T, but I don't want it too open ended either. If you tell me you want something in the range from A-Z and that's all you tell me but, what you are really looking for is from E-P, then why in the world would I look at doing anything outside of that range?

Personal history: the law of the universe in regards to me is that too loose and I'm going to go outside the bounds of what is wanted while the more definition given means the higher chance of my having reasonable expectations of not only winning a contest, but of getting decent feedback. And yes, it's a law. It happened in all of my school projects and even my teachers were confused by where I was getting my ideas from. Perhaps it's a learning disability...
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I'm struggling a bit to understand this, but am very intrigued by it.

I'm not sure I understand why or what this has to do with short vs long writing. I mean it seems to me that writing short - as Edgar Allan Poe said - you must focus on one thing, the entire story must be written to support the 'theme,' the meaning, the conclusion. This would seem to be MORE defined not less, yet unless I'm misunderstanding, you want to have a more defined theme in order to write long.....I'm probably just confused, maybe you could try and clarify for me, or tell me what I'm misunderstanding.
 
N. E. White said:
How about, for the first contest, RedMage sets the theme! ;)
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Thank you, but I was voting for no theme at all. I'm also rather like Luka when it comes to choosing something for everyone else. However, titles I can do!

Call the contest "July-December 2015 Novella Contest". Or whatever the chosen timespan is. Lay out its OP just like you would one of the other contests. The only differences between this one and the others are the timespan in which to write the stories and the length of those stories, right?
 
kennychaffin said:
I'm struggling a bit to understand this, but am very intrigued by it.

I'm not sure I understand why or what this has to do with short vs long writing. I mean it seems to me that writing short - as Edgar Allan Poe said - you must focus on one thing, the entire story must be written to support the 'theme,' the meaning, the conclusion. This would seem to be MORE defined not less, yet unless I'm misunderstanding, you want to have a more defined theme in order to write long.....I'm probably just confused, maybe you could try and clarify for me, or tell me what I'm misunderstanding.
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Umm, I hated those "pick your own topic" papers and projects in school. I always waited until the last minute to decide, made the decision out of desperation and later hated the topic I chose and struggled to complete the assignment.

It's like you're in a restaurant having dinner with your friends, they've all ordered and now they, and the waiter/ess are all looking to you. It's not a big menu, yet you can't decide. And it's not because things don't look good. They do, but you're not in the mood for them. You could go with your usual, but you want to be more adventurous than that. You want to challenge yourself, do something new, but with what? You're bogged down in the possibilities and, when it comes to it, as it has with the waiter standing over you and holding everyone elses menus, you make a choice not because you want it, but because you are desperate. When the food comes, it could be delicious, but all you will taste in the moment is decent, filling food, but you're not enjoying it.

More definition in this sense would be one of your friends telling you to try one of their chicken dishes, because the restaurant's chicken is the best chicken they've ever had. So now you're ignoring all the rest and simply looking between the 3 or 4 chicken items. Now you have far less possibilities and, with the field narrowed, you are able to make a choice and be happy with it. When the food comes, you find your friend was right and you enjoy the delicious (more than just decent, mind) and filling food. You leave the restaurant at the end of the night happy, giving a larger tip then your norm, and with a full belly stretching your clothes tight around your middle. You are happy, content, and ready for bed. This has been a great night.
 
And I believe Poe is right. A finished story should be about specific things, with everything working toward those things. That gives them a feeling of tightness and like a lot more has happened than their page count can support. It goes for novels, but even more for short stories. A novella, however, is neither but, rather, at a midpoint between them. Short stories are about one thing, novels about several and, as the definition of a novella, as seen in what it's called (a novella), is a "short novel", that means it is also, likely, to be about several things. Not the one thing like a short story.
 
Facing said:
o_O This is your idea. I think you should run with it. If you want help/feedback on that first thread PM me.
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OK I'll try to do both things...

How about this then:


THREAD TITLE: July-December 2015 Novella Challenge.
THEME: Nine Lives
WORD COUNT LIMIT: 17500 – 40000
DEADLINE: DECEMBER 31, 2015
YEARLY CYCLES: JAN 15 - JUNE 30 and JULY 15 - DECEMBER 31



The theme has a numerical component and a fantasy element you could look at it from the simple perspective of nine of something or the magical nine lives thing with cats, write it in nine chapters etc..It's as broad or as narrow as you'd like to make it. and could be linked to this sci-fi submission call:BLAH BLAAH or this fantasy sub-call: WAH WAAH (these are coloured red to indicate that they'll be live links in the actual thread.)

With all the usual contest rules including that writers can request help from other writers and readers and submit interesting helpful novella writing links in this thread. and writers can organise their team-ups from here too.
 
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For all that I've said about not wanting a theme, it doesn't mean that a specific theme doesn't sound interesting to me or make me consider possibilities for it (I just never get the chosen possibility off the ground).

That said, this one sounds interesting @Luka Datas! I think you should run with it!
 
Sounds like a good theme. I'm thinking already about a story in which the lives of nine characters my intertwine unexpectedly. Or maybe something about reincarnation. :) Or even a sf thriller with nine bombs to defuse :D
 
Dreaming said:
Sounds like a good theme. I'm thinking already about a story in which the lives of nine characters my intertwine unexpectedly. Or maybe something about reincarnation. :) Or even a sf thriller with nine bombs to defuse :D
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or even some weird combination of all your ideas. PKD wouldn't have not done it.o_O
 
Dreaming said:
Sounds like a good theme. I'm thinking already about a story in which the lives of nine characters my intertwine unexpectedly. Or maybe something about reincarnation. :) Or even a sf thriller with nine bombs to defuse :D
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Well, I'm thinking of 7 of 9! Woo-Hoo!!!
7of9_s4a.jpg
 
Luka Datas said:
OK I'll try to do both things...

How about this then:


THREAD TITLE: July-December 2015 Novella Challenge.
THEME: Nine Lives
WORD COUNT LIMIT: 17500 – 40000
DEADLINE: DECEMBER 31, 2015
YEARLY CYCLES: JAN 15 - JUNE 30 and JULY 15 - DECEMBER 31



The theme has a numerical component and a fantasy element you could look at it from the simple perspective of nine of something or the magical nine lives thing with cats, write it in nine chapters etc..It's as broad or as narrow as you'd like to make it. and could be linked to this sci-fi submission call:BLAH BLAAH or this fantasy sub-call: WAH WAAH (these are coloured red to indicate that they'll be live links in the actual thread.)

With all the usual contest rules including that writers can request help from other writers and readers and submit interesting helpful novella writing links in this thread. and writers can organise their team-ups from here too.
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I like it. The only thing I would caution is that it is easier to find a submission call with a certain date than it is to find one that conforms both to a date and a theme.
How about, for those wishing to write to a theme, here are links to three different callous with submission dates approximate to the end of the contest and their related themes.
 
Facing said:
I like it. The only thing I would caution is that it is easier to find a submission call with a certain date than it is to find one that conforms both to a date and a theme.
How about, for those wishing to write to a theme, here are links to three different callous with submission dates approximate to the end of the contest and their related themes.
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"YES, YES,YES, but what exactly do you mean?" sorry, that's just something I heard a French woman say in a radio interview recently, that struck me as universally applicable and kind of hilarious.

But...

I figured a theme in a thing was just something that sort of comes up - and has a kind of a presence in the story or that helps the writer to drive their story's subtext.

A few people have said they think novellas have multiple themes - so what's one more - or less... 40,000 words is a lot of room to slip themes in... provided the linked theme isn't literally 40 000 words already... because I'd probably have to say then that it had become a bit of a major obstacle
 
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Yep. The contest theme is merely a starting point. When I wrote for the 'Letters From Home' theme, I found other themes wanting to take over and I let them. But without the initial theme I would never have written the story. So the theme is a kind of spark that ignites your activity. A necessary spark! But not gospel. The theme is perhaps a 'kick up the butt' when you need it most. :D
 
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