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Friday, February 18th, 2011
Whodunnit?
Friday, February 18th, 2011 11:40 amI am toying with the idea of writing a short crime story (1,000 to 2,500 words) for a competition I was pointed at by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thalinoviel. Having written a few 500 word ghost stories over the past few years (yes, I know that having launched the Christmas 2010 challenge, I signally failed to attend to my own party. What can I say, I was side-tracked by an engagement), I quite enjoy the discipline of getting something across in a very few words. Five hundred words is quite hard1, I would imagine a maximum of 2,500 would be easier in that it allows more room for manoeuvre and misdirection, but possibly harder in avoiding irrelevant flim-flam.
The story challenge requires a sense of locality. It does not need to be the area I live in now, but I need to state the locality it is set in, so that it can be judged against that place and whether or not I convey the feel of it to the reader. I need a couple or more characters that I can create and give personalities and I need a crime with a twist for the denouement.
I think I would set the story in Telford, where I grew up, or Newport (Shropshire) where I went to school, by preference. I think I can do all that reasonably convincingly. There are people who read this journal who know the locales well enough to tell me if I have succeeded, but I need a crime with a twist and that’s the hard bit.
I must think about it a little more.
Annoyingly, I am not allowed to publish (including self-publish, including on this LJ, I guess,) ahead of the competition winners being announced, which would be June. So if I come up with any ideas, I may email drafts to certain people for comment.
IF I end up writing anything at all.
1Spare a thought, then, for Budgie Barnett (budgie_uk) with his self-imposed 200 word limit. See note of his “Fast Fiction Challenge” here.
thalinoviel. Having written a few 500 word ghost stories over the past few years (yes, I know that having launched the Christmas 2010 challenge, I signally failed to attend to my own party. What can I say, I was side-tracked by an engagement), I quite enjoy the discipline of getting something across in a very few words. Five hundred words is quite hard1, I would imagine a maximum of 2,500 would be easier in that it allows more room for manoeuvre and misdirection, but possibly harder in avoiding irrelevant flim-flam. The story challenge requires a sense of locality. It does not need to be the area I live in now, but I need to state the locality it is set in, so that it can be judged against that place and whether or not I convey the feel of it to the reader. I need a couple or more characters that I can create and give personalities and I need a crime with a twist for the denouement.
I think I would set the story in Telford, where I grew up, or Newport (Shropshire) where I went to school, by preference. I think I can do all that reasonably convincingly. There are people who read this journal who know the locales well enough to tell me if I have succeeded, but I need a crime with a twist and that’s the hard bit.
I must think about it a little more.
Annoyingly, I am not allowed to publish (including self-publish, including on this LJ, I guess,) ahead of the competition winners being announced, which would be June. So if I come up with any ideas, I may email drafts to certain people for comment.
IF I end up writing anything at all.
1Spare a thought, then, for Budgie Barnett (
budgie_uk) with his self-imposed 200 word limit. See note of his “Fast Fiction Challenge” here. Whodunnit?
Friday, February 18th, 2011 11:40 amI am toying with the idea of writing a short crime story (1,000 to 2,500 words) for a competition I was pointed at by thalinoviel. Having written a few 500 word ghost stories over the past few years (yes, I know that having launched the Christmas 2010 challenge, I signally failed to attend to my own party. What can I say, I was side-tracked by an engagement), I quite enjoy the discipline of getting something across in a very few words. Five hundred words is quite hard1, I would imagine a maximum of 2,500 would be easier in that it allows more room for manoeuvre and misdirection, but possibly harder in avoiding irrelevant flim-flam.
The story challenge requires a sense of locality. It does not need to be the area I live in now, but I need to state the locality it is set in, so that it can be judged against that place and whether or not I convey the feel of it to the reader. I need a couple or more characters that I can create and give personalities and I need a crime with a twist for the denouement.
I think I would set the story in Telford, where I grew up, or Newport (Shropshire) where I went to school, by preference. I think I can do all that reasonably convincingly. There are people who read this journal who know the locales well enough to tell me if I have succeeded, but I need a crime with a twist and that’s the hard bit.
I must think about it a little more.
Annoyingly, I am not allowed to publish (including self-publish, including on this LJ, I guess,) ahead of the competition winners being announced, which would be June. So if I come up with any ideas, I may email drafts to certain people for comment.
IF I end up writing anything at all.
1Spare a thought, then, for Budgie Barnett (budgie_uk) with his self-imposed 200 word limit. See note of his “Fast Fiction Challenge” here.
thalinoviel. Having written a few 500 word ghost stories over the past few years (yes, I know that having launched the Christmas 2010 challenge, I signally failed to attend to my own party. What can I say, I was side-tracked by an engagement), I quite enjoy the discipline of getting something across in a very few words. Five hundred words is quite hard1, I would imagine a maximum of 2,500 would be easier in that it allows more room for manoeuvre and misdirection, but possibly harder in avoiding irrelevant flim-flam. The story challenge requires a sense of locality. It does not need to be the area I live in now, but I need to state the locality it is set in, so that it can be judged against that place and whether or not I convey the feel of it to the reader. I need a couple or more characters that I can create and give personalities and I need a crime with a twist for the denouement.
I think I would set the story in Telford, where I grew up, or Newport (Shropshire) where I went to school, by preference. I think I can do all that reasonably convincingly. There are people who read this journal who know the locales well enough to tell me if I have succeeded, but I need a crime with a twist and that’s the hard bit.
I must think about it a little more.
Annoyingly, I am not allowed to publish (including self-publish, including on this LJ, I guess,) ahead of the competition winners being announced, which would be June. So if I come up with any ideas, I may email drafts to certain people for comment.
IF I end up writing anything at all.
1Spare a thought, then, for Budgie Barnett (
budgie_uk) with his self-imposed 200 word limit. See note of his “Fast Fiction Challenge” here.