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Iron DM 2016 (The Complete Game Thread!)
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<blockquote data-quote="Deuce Traveler" data-source="post: 6911692" data-attributes="member: 34958"><p>With a word count limit of 750, I knew I had to keep my entry limited and constrained, which is what I sought to do even if it limited me on how to use the ingredients in the list.</p><p></p><p>Jumping Beetles</p><p> Echoing Sounds</p><p> Nightmare Clock</p><p> Feat of Weakness</p><p> Wild Dogs</p><p> Pink Socks</p><p></p><p>One idea I had was to have the Nightmare Clock actually send out a Nightmare, that black demonic horse. I could have connected the Echoing Sounds to the Nightmare, as an impending sound of doom as the sound of the horse would have echoed outwards from the clock until it came through it and attacked those around. I was then thinking that Wild Dogs could come next connected somehow to a Feat of Weakness, and that the Jumping Beetles would come last, but I couldn't find an easy way to connect them to Pink Socks easily. The clock could have been counting down to three dooms that would come from it: demonic horse, dogs, devouring beetles. But to make this all work would have required a lot of writing, something not conducive to a 750 word limit.</p><p></p><p>So I decided to keep it simple. Some of the ingredients ooze with a potential for horror: the nightmare clock, jumping beetles, and echoing sounds for sure, so that was the core of the story. The pink socks seem more whimsical and not an easy fit, so I thought of having them stained with diluted blood, but that wouldn't work for the type of all-devouring beetles I envisioned to be at the heart of the story. Ultimately I focused on making the pink and the sock wearing significant in different ways, splitting the one ingredient into two related ideas: pink affecting the senses of the beetles and the young girl hiding behind a tapestry with only her feet being shown. That way pulling the pink socks out of the synopsis would make that part fall apart, thus making my pink socks integral to the tale.</p><p></p><p>Halfway through my brain storming, I knew wild dogs were going to be the weakest ingredient in my stew, and the judge saw right through that. They were tossed in decently enough, as a reason for the boy having been trying to stand perfectly still when the beetles showed, but they could have been swapped for bandits, or an ogre, etc. I decided that I could sacrifice having a weak use of an ingredient for narrative cohesion, and that I would just take the hit. If I had two weak ingredients I may have tossed my idea into the trash and started from scratch, but I didn't want to do that with a 24-hour time limit. When I have 48 hours I sometimes take a night to sleep on it before committing to finalizing a draft.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, that was my own thought process. I've lost plenty of matches where I disagreed with a judge's decision. A writer always loves his own work above others.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Deuce Traveler, post: 6911692, member: 34958"] With a word count limit of 750, I knew I had to keep my entry limited and constrained, which is what I sought to do even if it limited me on how to use the ingredients in the list. Jumping Beetles Echoing Sounds Nightmare Clock Feat of Weakness Wild Dogs Pink Socks One idea I had was to have the Nightmare Clock actually send out a Nightmare, that black demonic horse. I could have connected the Echoing Sounds to the Nightmare, as an impending sound of doom as the sound of the horse would have echoed outwards from the clock until it came through it and attacked those around. I was then thinking that Wild Dogs could come next connected somehow to a Feat of Weakness, and that the Jumping Beetles would come last, but I couldn't find an easy way to connect them to Pink Socks easily. The clock could have been counting down to three dooms that would come from it: demonic horse, dogs, devouring beetles. But to make this all work would have required a lot of writing, something not conducive to a 750 word limit. So I decided to keep it simple. Some of the ingredients ooze with a potential for horror: the nightmare clock, jumping beetles, and echoing sounds for sure, so that was the core of the story. The pink socks seem more whimsical and not an easy fit, so I thought of having them stained with diluted blood, but that wouldn't work for the type of all-devouring beetles I envisioned to be at the heart of the story. Ultimately I focused on making the pink and the sock wearing significant in different ways, splitting the one ingredient into two related ideas: pink affecting the senses of the beetles and the young girl hiding behind a tapestry with only her feet being shown. That way pulling the pink socks out of the synopsis would make that part fall apart, thus making my pink socks integral to the tale. Halfway through my brain storming, I knew wild dogs were going to be the weakest ingredient in my stew, and the judge saw right through that. They were tossed in decently enough, as a reason for the boy having been trying to stand perfectly still when the beetles showed, but they could have been swapped for bandits, or an ogre, etc. I decided that I could sacrifice having a weak use of an ingredient for narrative cohesion, and that I would just take the hit. If I had two weak ingredients I may have tossed my idea into the trash and started from scratch, but I didn't want to do that with a 24-hour time limit. When I have 48 hours I sometimes take a night to sleep on it before committing to finalizing a draft. Anyway, that was my own thought process. I've lost plenty of matches where I disagreed with a judge's decision. A writer always loves his own work above others. [/QUOTE]
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