The Great Write Way, Chapter Two: Twice upon a time...
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
Gar, it's done, and I'm sending.
Zen brings up something I wanted to ask: would everyone who wants to have drabbles considered for the proposed anthology give a little thought to the topics they think the book ought to cover? I'd love to hear some feedback from the other writers here. Which topics appealed most to you?
Hmm - does the book have to be organized around topics? Why not just the 1000 best drabbles or 500 best drabbles or whatever fits the word length? Then pick the topics based on the drabbles picked.( OK I know I'm about to practicise a philosphy of learning here; that sometimes the best way to learn is reveal your ignorance so that bits of it can be chopped off.)
I'd love to have my drabbles merely considered, even if ultimately rejected. I'm in heady company.
Perhaps the topics could be chosen after the best drabbles are picked, as a way to narrow the undoubtedly large field?
Probolem is, most editors (AmyLiz, paging AmyLiz, white editorial phone, please) want a proposal that's showing as much pre-organisation as possible. So the chapter headings should be there, even if they ultimately reject that for their own scheme.
Thing to remember is, there is no earthly reason you can't write a new drabble for an old topic, and have it be considered. Insofar as the topics go, there aint no past-tense. You can take a challenge from a year ago and write a drabble now.
Would it be possible for Teppy to post a list of the topics we've used so far? That would give us all a feel for what topics might go together, which ones drew the most interest, which ones were the hardest to write for, which ones were the most fun/painful, etc. I love the thought of using some of the drabbles we did to those old photos, but I don't know what, if any, kinds of permission might be necessary to use them in the book.
I think my best drabble was the Door one, where I described the door in the funeral home while at my father's viewing. Doors on the whole is good, because of the transition and revelatory nature of doors.
I really enjoyed doing the ones based on the pictures Teppy found, but those won't work without the pictures.
Connie, I also suspect we want to avoid legal issues on use of the pictures in a published format.
But I'm inclined to include a separate little section of just Jilli's on those pictures. There's something very Amphigoreyish about them, and I adore them.
(No, I'm not really here. I'm still catching up, I'm somewhen around September of last year, and I'm determined not to skip, at least in this thread, not to skim, too! But, by mistake, I clicked the "Last" instead of the "Next" link, so I got to the end in-which-I'm-not, and, well, anyway. Um.)
The drabble topics are in the lj list, but also, in this GWW thread and the former one:
Challenge # 1: Two people are sitting at a table, opposite each other.
Challenge # 2: Place
Challenge # 3: Memory
Challenge # 4: Sleep
Challenge # 5: Hands
Challenge # 6: Knots
Challenge # 7: two people -- one is lying down and one is standing
Challenge # 8: Blue
Challenge # 9: fruit
Challenge # 10: keys
Challenge # 11: Silence
Challenge # 12: a person walks into a room that has shards of broken glass on the floor
Challenge # 13: "A man walks into a bar...."
Challenge # 14: Revenge
Challenge # 15: Shoes
Challenge # 16: Doors
Challenge # 17: Parade(s)
Challenge # 18: near-death experience(s)
Challenge # 19: the stomach
Challenge # 20: escape
Challenge # 21: a group of people is gathered together, and all of them are looking down.
Challenge # 22: bells
Challenge # 23: under the bed
Challenge # 24: First Time(s)
Challenge # 25: drums
(continued...)
( continues...)
Challenge # 26: the lies we've told so often that they've become real in our* minds
Challenge # 27: Write a personals ad for a famous work of
art (painting, sculpture, etc.) that's looking for its ideal viewer/Art education
Challenge # 28: fateful encounters
Challenge # 29: music
Challenge # 30: one person on a ladder, one person on the ground.
Challenge # 31: "Another belief of mine: that everyone else
my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise." (Margaret Atwood)
Challenge # 32: breath
Challenge # 33: the passage of time
Challenge # 34: first impressions
Challenge # 35: The End
Challenge # 36: Holiday Hell
Challenge # 37: talismans
Challenge # 38: falling
Challenge # 39: Upside-Down
Challenge # 40: Use at least *3* words from the following
list: coffee, spaghetti, cromulent, help, pantaloon, anthropomorphic,
transubstantiation, carbohydrate, yummy, sleepy
Challenge # 41: degrees
Challenge # 42: fire
Challenge # 43: Two people -- one sitting, one standing
Challenge # 44: opposites
Challenge # 45: hearts
Challenge # 46: describe something small
Challenge # 47: Yellow
Challenge # 48: container(s)/holding (or some variation on "hold")
Challenge # 49: Look At Me photos
Challenge # 50: portray a person by describing the belongings in his/her wallet, desk drawers, kitchen cabinets, car trunk -- you name it.
Challenge # 51: heaven and hell
Challenge # 52: Look At Me photos
(continued...)
( continues...)
Challenge # 53: One Year
Challenge # 54: discovery
Challenge # 55: cliches
Challenge # 56: home + Look At Me photos
Challenge # 57: deliberately poor writing
Challenge # 58: shadow
Challenge # 59: the ways we communicate without words
Challenge # 60: Look At Me photos
Challenge # 61: two people in a small space, in a specific genre
Challenge # 62: the air we breathe
Challenge # 63: meat
Challenge # 64: trust
Challenge # 65: blood
Challenge # 66: driving
Challenge # 67: fire
Challenge # 68: cooking
Challenge # 69: green
Challenge # 70: currency
Challenge # 71: The Other Side
Challenge # 72: dancing
Challenge # 73: rain
Challenge # 74: Look At Me photos
Challenge # 75: cave
Challenge # 76: strike
Challenge # 77: behind the door(s)
Challenge # 78: two people are sitting at a table, opposite each other
Challenge # 79: never say "never"
Challenge # 80: Out of the Closet
Challenge # 81: masks
Challenge # 82: trick[s] and/or treat[s]
(continued...)