DISCUSSION: Oneshot Competition Chat Thread (Summer 2019)

[Beth Pavell]

On the home stretch now, though I won't deny it's something of a trial at this point. My plan's changed a little, insofar as tomorrow I plan to just write like a maniac, and at work I'll be polishing up the sections I've had to leave as "good enough". Not sure how the pacing will turn out in the end with this frantic (By my standards) pace

 

[Cresselia92]

Well, I have reached the 8.5k mark now, but I’m considering cutting some words to gain extra words for the final scenes. Probably I’ll need to merge some scenes and streamline events, but all in all the oneshot is coming out nicely. Had a lot of tweaks to do, mainly in terms of characters’ personalities and in how to incorporate two parallel stories (yeah, that’s insane, I know XP).

 

[Beth Pavell]

Mine is going to be well under 10,000 words, which seems like it maybe unusual. Certainly I won't need to edit to cut words

 

[UselessBytes]

Same here. I'm closer to the minimum than the maximum.

 

[canisaries]

I've been done with mine for a few days with a wordcount of 9.8k. Looks like I'm going to have one of the longer ones, then.

 

[hanecco]

Mine's probably going to be just about the minimum. Yeah, I'm kind of lazy.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Well, I'm nearly there. Just finished the penultimate scene, only a short epilogue to go. Still don't think I'll really have time for aggressive polishing, but probably will be able to find an hour or two on Sunday before the deadline.

Am I happy with the story, not completely. I don't know if I'd have been able to do better with the allotted time. But the upside is I'm feeling more enthusiastic for my other stories than I have for a long time

 

[canisaries]

So when was posting the entry allowed, again? Starting GMT midnight between today and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday)?

 

[hanecco]

@unrepentantAuthor
Is it OK if our stories are slightly below the word count, like if we've written 1992 words instead of a full 2000?

 

[Cresselia92]

@unrepentantAuthor
Is it OK if our stories are slightly below the word count, like if we've written 1992 words instead of a full 2000?

The minimum is 2k, so that story probably wouldn't be allowed.

Now I don't know how your story is, but adding those extra eight words shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

@lapisora If I allow below-minimum and above-maximum wordcounts, whatever limit I allow becomes the new min or max. I'm sure you can add a sentence somewhere.

So when was posting the entry allowed, again? Starting GMT midnight between today and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday)?

GMT midnight today. So 9pm for you, mate!

 

[hanecco]

Don't worry, my story is over 2000 words. But next time I will take the word counts to heart.

 

[canisaries]

GMT midnight today. So 9pm for you, mate!

think you mean 3 am, but thanks for replying lol

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

@canisaries lmao yeah

 

[namohysip]

I just want to get it over with. If I stare at this for any longer I'm going to get diminishing returns.

So here it is, my experimental one-shot. I've talked about it now and then on discord, but it's a slight departure from my usual kind of writing... but there are still shades of my usual flair. Hopefully it's enjoyable.

Link

 

[canisaries]

And here is mine!

 

[The Walrein]

It might be a bit late to announce this, but I'm dropping out of the competition. My original idea was to write a tribute to what I consider to be the most important undelivered message in history - namely, the message from the Oko Soviet Missile Defense system that five nuclear missiles had been launched towards the Soviet Union on September 26, 1983 that Stanislav Petrov did not pass on to his superiors, thus avoiding a likely global nuclear war. However, this was a fiction competition so a straight retelling of the incident was out, and the other possibility I thought of, exploring an alternate history where Petrov did pass on the warning, wouldn't fit the theme anymore since it would be about a message that in fact was delivered, and had already been done before, besides. Good luck to everyone else in the competition, and happy 80th birthday, Petrov.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

For the sake of tracking expectations, AceTrainer14 is also dropping out.

I'm not quite finished with mine yet, but I'm working hard on it now. Will be posting later today. Good luck to everyone still putting on those finishing touches!

 

[Cresselia92]

I’m almost done with my story, too. Should be able to post it this afternoon, after I’m done with fine tuning and polishing.

 

[Misfit Angel]

It might be a bit late to announce this, but I'm dropping out of the competition. My original idea was to write a tribute to what I consider to be the most important undelivered message in history - namely, the message from the Oko Soviet Missile Defense system that five nuclear missiles had been launched towards the Soviet Union on September 26, 1983 that Stanislav Petrov did not pass on to his superiors, thus avoiding a likely global nuclear war. However, this was a fiction competition so a straight retelling of the incident was out, and the other possibility I thought of, exploring an alternate history where Petrov did pass on the warning, wouldn't fit the theme anymore since it would be about a message that in fact was delivered, and had already been done before, besides. Good luck to everyone else in the competition, and happy 80th birthday, Petrov.

Interesting idea. If you're still interested in pursuing it (even if it's not for the contest anymore), perhaps an alternate history where the message still isn't delivered, but the threat of nuclear attack was more than just a flash along the horizon, and the missiles were launched?