Challenge Idea

[aadarshinah]

Luctor Et Emergo by Kotik,

Translation: I Struggle and Rise Up

[Kotik]

Luctor Et Emergo by Kotik,

Translation: I Struggle and Rise Up

Another interpretation - I struggle, but I'll survive

[aadarshinah]

Luctor Et Emergo by Kotik,

Translation: I Struggle and Rise Up

Another interpretation - I struggle, but I'll survive

That would be Luctor sed Emergam

[panyasan]

Luctor Et Emergo by Kotik,

Translation: I Struggle and Rise Up

Luctor et Emergo is the motto of Zeeland, one of the provinces in the Netherlands. Zeeland suffered a lot from floods and always has been fighting against floods. Zeeland's sign is a lion coming out of the water. http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:WapenZeeland.gif

When I wrote chapter 7 of The Slopes of Andoria - the chapter that just been posted - I had to think of a U2 song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9J1sgo7wm0&translated=1
So listen en read!

[Kotik]

I want to point out that it is not too late for any writers to join in. I think our little story is progressing nicely and we can always use some more talent

[aadarshinah]

I had to think of a U2 song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9J1sgo7wm0&translated=1
So listen en read!

I'll have you know this made me think of a song I'd heard U2 did that I'd never heard before - they took the lyrics to main song in Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet and put it to music. So this got me looking for it... needless to say, while I've always liked the song in the book, hearing it sung was just wyrd... Anyway, this reminded me to look for it, as I've been meaning to do since I read the book senior year...

God, I got an invite to my 5 year high school reunion in the mail yesterday. I've been dreading this since... well, the first reunion I saw at my high school.

[Distracted]

In the comments thread for the round robin Kotik has proposed that we lift the length limits on each author's installment. Since this is liable to slow things down tremendously I think we need to discuss this first. We've also gotten gripes about the cliffhangers. Our readers need to realize that Round Robins are not like normal stories. They're more in the nature of a writing "game" and should be thought of as such. If we start taking this too seriously it'll stop being fun. I personally do not have the time or energy for another lengthy writing project. Two pages is doable, maybe up to four. But if our readers start expecting fifteen page chapters in the middle of flu season I'm going to have to bow out. We need to keep this manageable and fun.

And that's my two cents.

[aadarshinah]

Yes, no more than 4 pages at a go, please. Depending on how fast we go (and we're more likely to go faster if there are many people doing many small chapters than 1 doing 1 big one), our readers can still get several pages a week to read...

[Kotik]

Yes, no more than 4 pages at a go, please. Depending on how fast we go (and we're more likely to go faster if there are many people doing many small chapters than 1 doing 1 big one), our readers can still get several pages a week to read...

'fraid I have jumped the gun on that one Just sent you the next chapter and it actually came up at 6 pages Maybe we can change the limit so that everyone writes what he thinks he can reasonably produce in 2-4 days other than setting a firm limit on the number of pages.

anywho, here's a status update:

1, Semper Fidelis by Kotik, posted
2, In Extremis by Distracted , posted
3, Igni Ferroque by aadarshinah, posted
4, Horror Gelus, by Enerdhil, posted
5, Negotium Periculosum by Ginamr, posted
6, Copula inter Duos by Lady Rainbow , posted
7, Declivia Andoriae Cautione Requirunt by panyasan , which has been beta'd, is awaiting green lights, and will be posted as soon as allowed
8, Luctor Et Emergo by Kotik, sent for beta-reading
9, tba by Distracted
10, tba by aadarshinah

[aadarshinah]

Eh, 3000 words, but you did it pretty fast. Not much more than that, okay?

abreviated stats:

5, Negotium Periculosum by Ginamr, posted
6, Copula inter Duos by Lady Rainbow , posted
7, Declivia Andoriae Requirunt by panyasan , posted
8, Luctor Et Emergo by Kotik, beta'd, awaiting green lights
9, tba by Distracted , who should have a copy of ^
10, tba by aadarshinah
11, tba by Enerdhil
12, tba by Ginamr
13, tba by panyasan

Now for groceries....

[Kotik]

Eh, 3000 words, but you did it pretty fast. Not much more than that, okay?

Yeah, I think that is about the limit. There are many good stories out there, which have varied lengths in chapter size. I think a variation between two and 6 pages would do no harm. I had the time and didn't delay the proceedings. And I probably have the shortest and the longest chapter now

[panyasan]

We've also gotten gripes about the cliffhangers. Our readers need to realize that Round Robins are not like normal stories. They're more in the nature of a writing "game" and should be thought of as such. If we start taking this too seriously it'll stop being fun. I personally do not have the time or energy for another lengthy writing project. Two pages is doable, maybe up to four. But if our readers start expecting fifteen page chapters in the middle of flu season I'm going to have to bow out. We need to keep this manageable and fun.

I sort of saw this "game" as a relay race (I hope I got the English term right) - you write a chapter and give your "stick" to some one else. Hence the cliffies.

[Kotik]

We've also gotten gripes about the cliffhangers. Our readers need to realize that Round Robins are not like normal stories. They're more in the nature of a writing "game" and should be thought of as such. If we start taking this too seriously it'll stop being fun. I personally do not have the time or energy for another lengthy writing project. Two pages is doable, maybe up to four. But if our readers start expecting fifteen page chapters in the middle of flu season I'm going to have to bow out. We need to keep this manageable and fun.

I sort of saw this "game" as a relay race (I hope I got the English term right) - you write a chapter and give your "stick" to some one else. Hence the cliffies.

Yeah, that's what makes it interesting. We all have different styles and different ideas and what makes it so interesting for me is the fact that a great portion of the plot is designed by other writers, so I have to work with what happened in the other chapters.
The cliffies, well that's a matter of preference. Some of them were actually rather good. I opted to end both my chapter without a cliffhanger, since it isn't really my writing style. I can't do them very good.

[aadarshinah]

The cliffhangeris a fine art. You need to do it in a way that keeps people interested without appearing trite, overused, unrealistic, or otherwise out-of-place. It has to keep people interested in what comes next, a la Scheherazade, but the moment it becomes predictable in and of itself, you get a problem. It's called the Zeigarnik effect and keeps people coming back for more.

There are basically (as far as I can tell) two ways to do this:

1: You make people curious as to what comes next. Take Chapters 1 & 2 of this story. The endings leave us with questions, with Semper Fi we are left wondering "Why Andoria?" and so on, and with In Extremis we get "Why is Weytahn being attacked?" "Who's attacking?" and so on. One of my fav fic examples of it is in one of Rigel's Endevour stories, where it's revealed that Malcolm's still alive. It's all very, "what?" and "how?" and "why?" etc.


2: You make people emotionally invested in the outcome. Take most the following chapters, which I, sadly, admit to being one of. This is the kind that is rather overdone in most TV shows - the what-can-we-do-next-to-keep-people-watching; the helicopter crash in the parking lot in ER sticks out in my mind the most - but can be done well. But you basically have, in this story, over the chapters: people being shot at, attacked, arrested, and blown up. It's like, oh, the end of the TNG "Best of Both Worlds" episode where it ends with the order to fire on the borg cube though Picard is still on it, or a lot of the Dominon War episodes...

I'm more of a fan of the question-cliffie myself - I love to theorize after shows; it's one of the many reasons I miss Dollhouse. Too few shows make me think these days - but, again, it's a matter of how they're done and how they fit in the context of the show/movie/story.

[Kotik]

Latest Update:

1, Semper Fidelis by Kotik, posted
2, In Extremis by Distracted , posted
3, Igni Ferroque by aadarshinah, posted
4, Horror Gelus, by Enerdhil, posted
5, Negotium Periculosum by Ginamr, posted
6, Copula inter Duos by Lady Rainbow , posted
7, Declivia Andoriae Cautione Requirunt , posted
8, Luctor et Emergo by Kotik, sent for publishing
9, tba by Distracted work in progress
10, tba by aadarshinah

Cheers