Ceramic DM autumn '03(final judegment: new ceramic dm champ!)
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
You want to hone your writing skills -- jump into a competition like this one. You learn so much getting thrown into a whirlwind like this.BardStephenFox said:Wow, when I initially read the Ceramic DM I was thinking I could jump in at some point in the future. Watching these stories though has seriously deflated my ego. That's a good thing!I need to hone my writing skills so I can jump into a future competition.
Don't think you need to be "at a certain level" in order to enter the competition -- you'll rise to the occasion. Enter with commitment and a sense of fun and you'll do yourself (and all of us) proud.
I don't really think of Ceramic DM as a competition so much as a CELEBRATION. A celebration of the creative impulse and of inspiration.
Join in!
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Which is nice, because you probably needed those.alsih2o said:
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
A few thoughts on my last entry.
This last one was definitely the most difficult of the three to write. Unlike the others, I made four false starts before I found roughly the tone and plot that I wanted. I just wasn't comfortable using the same protagonist as in the second story, but I finally decided to do so from another person's point of view. The concept of the husband pushing a mannequin finally sealed it for me. The tie in with magic was too strong not to use it.
I considered having the little girl flying an ultra-realistic hawk kite, but couldn't tie it in. I considered making the bug-lady an actor in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (or a former HR Puffinstuff cast member!), but rejected that, too. The giraffe was a reject - beautiful, but very hard to tie to a story - so I ended up using it as window dressing.
When I finished the first draft, the narrator was completely and utterly without personality. Bleah. I improved it by making him a thief, but he still suffers a little. The last draft was spent removing words and tightening the story. I think it's still too wordy, though, for what it's trying to be.
I think I did a decent job (better than the first, worse than the second), but ultimately I retreaded mostly old ground. Mythago went with something that was ambitious, original and lended itself beautifully to the genre and mood of the photos. It shows.
This last one was definitely the most difficult of the three to write. Unlike the others, I made four false starts before I found roughly the tone and plot that I wanted. I just wasn't comfortable using the same protagonist as in the second story, but I finally decided to do so from another person's point of view. The concept of the husband pushing a mannequin finally sealed it for me. The tie in with magic was too strong not to use it.
I considered having the little girl flying an ultra-realistic hawk kite, but couldn't tie it in. I considered making the bug-lady an actor in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (or a former HR Puffinstuff cast member!), but rejected that, too. The giraffe was a reject - beautiful, but very hard to tie to a story - so I ended up using it as window dressing.
When I finished the first draft, the narrator was completely and utterly without personality. Bleah. I improved it by making him a thief, but he still suffers a little. The last draft was spent removing words and tightening the story. I think it's still too wordy, though, for what it's trying to be.
I think I did a decent job (better than the first, worse than the second), but ultimately I retreaded mostly old ground. Mythago went with something that was ambitious, original and lended itself beautifully to the genre and mood of the photos. It shows.
alsih2o
First Post
Piratecat said:
i am glad to hear this. i have believed for a long time that "blank" pictures like that make the hardest pics to deal with.
almost anything can be happening in a pic and people find it easy to use. almost any character can be thrown at these writers and they are on it.
but there is a certain catergory of what i htink of as "static" pictures that i keep in a seperate file, the ones that are great pics, but seem hard to use. i have seen great writers stumble on them and seen mediocre writiers really be drawn out by them.
i always like the feedback on pic use because it shows that we tend tos ee things very universally. i love the commoness that is shown amongst us by art as amuch as i love the individuality.
i THINK the key with such pictures is to focus on somethig that isn't the focus. have a settign with a giraffe, but have the text be about how the odd fog arose, or about the trees.
i think i miss a lot of references in these stories, when read other peoples reviews i always think "i don't rememebr that!" peanut references, mythology references- ZOOM, right over my head. but what people draw from these pics seems an amorphous and hard to discuss art, and i like those
i worry about the fact that someone else is gonna do one. i worry that they won't have THAT feel. and then i realize that whoever it is will have their feel, and that is a good thing.
wow, i went on a bit there, didn't i?
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
You go, Potter.alsih2o said:
*waits for it*
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