A World of Scribbles (original) (raw)

| Hi folks! It’s been pretty quiet here in the community for the last few months, and muchtooarrogant and I have been discussing the future of worldofscribble. We’re both trying to figure out the best direction for this space, and how to juggle that with lots of real-life obligations and time constraints. So! We’re going to take a pause from posting writing challenges for a little while, and instead challenge you, our community members, to help us understand what you’d like out of this community. We’d really like to promote more participation and activity here! In the next few days and weeks we’ll be posting many polls and discussion questions in the hopes of learning what’s worked for you, and what you’d like us to change or do differently. I hope you’ll speak up and share your words with us - even if you’ve never commented in the community before! We really do want to hear from you, so that we can create a great space that encourages creative writing. If you have any questions for us, or thoughts right away on what would help you to feel more engaged, comment here and let us know!Tags:announcement, discussion This is where you can talk, wax poetic, complain, or otherwise regale us with stories about moments when you or your characters weren't at your/their best. I know it's happened to all of us, those days when nothing seems destined to go right, but have you ever written a story about one of those awful moments in time? Here's your opportunity.All the best, and I hope you enjoy writing on this week's topic.DanTags:discussion Greetings all. My apologies for posting this so late, my work schedule's been quite hectic of late. That plus a fair amount of absent mindedness on my part takes us to where we are now, a tardy writing challenge post.Because my partner in crime, lrig_rorrim, won the last writing challenges we voted on, I asked her to compose our intro for this week. One of the best ways to get to know someone - whether that someone is your neighbor next door or a fictional vampire fruitbat you're writing a novella about - is to take a look at the times when they're not at their best. Sure, so-and-so is a real sweetheart most of the time, but what happens when patience is exhausted, when they've got a black eye and a dark shadow hovering overhead and just can't take it anymore? I love exploring the mistakes my characters make, and putting them through the gauntlet to see where they'll stumble and fall. Of course, that's on my better days…Since I wasn't at my best in posting this on time, I have extended the usual writing deadline until next Sunday, February 24, at 11:59 PM CST. Please post an entry in your own journal, and then link it here.Good luck and good writing.DanTags:writing challenge Hey everyone! Here is the discussion topic for the Random Writing Challenge this week. Questions, comments, brainstorming, discussion, and other randomalia about the random topic go here!What do you think of the topic this week? The genre of children’s literature is very broad, and presents a lot of different possibilities - fables, just-so stories, fairy tales, bedtime stories, silly stories, adventure tales, and so much more. I don’t have kids myself, but I know quite a few, and I think I’ll try to write something specifically for one of them - that’ll help to narrow the field a little bit, because of course they each have wildly differing tastes and preferences.Good luck, and I hope you all have fun with it!Tags:discussion topic Welcome to this week’s Random Writing Challenge! How this works: Every other Monday I roll a 100-sided die, choose the corresponding challenge for the community from this giant table, and post it here for you! Anyone who is interested writes to the challenge, posts the entry in their personal journal, and then responds to this post with a comment containing a link to their entry. The deadline is Wednesday evening.This week’s roll is…1919. Genre: children’s storyWrite a story appropriate for children. Use as many words as you’re inclined, and have fun!Your entries are due by 11:59 p.m. CST on Saturday February 23rd. Post in your journal, and then comment here with a link to your entry. Remember to give your piece a title!Tags:random, recurring feature, writing challenge Hey everyone! This is just a reminder that the deadline for the Timed Writing Challenges is tomorrow night! There's also a poll to vote in, featuring some nifty things to read that were posted last week.And here is a silly little survey, because everyone likes clicky boxes to click. Click away! Have you been reading anything awesome lately? Yes! And I will tell you all about it in the comments! Alas, no. But I might find some awesome things to read in the comments! Yes! But I am going to hoard my awesome things all to myself, fwahaha. Maybe. I'll get back to you later on that. Have you been writing anything awesome lately? Yes! And I will link you to my awesome things in the comments! Alas, no. But I'm going to get right on that! Ahahahahahaha you think I can judge my own writing as awesome. I am my own harshest critic, you know? There have been things, and they have been written by me, but I am not going to make any statements as to the amount of awesome in them. ARGH I have too many things to do that are not writing! It is most distressing! Any words of wisdom, whimsy, warning, or writerly advice for us? Tags:reminder What do you think of this week's Poetry-Random mash-up? I think that "table" is a very handy word, in a lot of ways! It’s a homophone, so if you’re still feeling like you might want to do something homophonic, you’ve got that option! It also rhymes nicely with a lot of things, so if you’d like to write a limerick or something else with some end rhymes, you can incorporate this word pretty easily. It would also be pretty easy to incorporate something with such a small syllable count into a tanka or haiku. Though I don't find the word "table" particularly inspirational, that's part of why I'm definitely going to be writing a poem using it. There's an air of mystery that surrounds poetry, and a pervasive suggestion that you should only write a poem when you're "inspired". I don't agree with this at all - poetry is writing, and writing improves through repetition and practice. Do I particularly like to write to any given prompt? Probably not. But I almost always enjoy having written. Trying new things stretches creative muscles and makes the brain work in new and different ways. Taking something commonplace, like a table, and putting it as the central image in a poem seems like a good way to start examining the mundane and making it extraordinary by use of language. Then again, maybe I'll get stuck and just put a table in a single image and shove it in a corner of the poem, hoping it'll be forgotten. We'll see.If you get stuck, or have questions or comments about this week's Poetry Exercise, this is the place for you. Comment here for input, brainstorming help, and wishes that I'd rolled a different number.Tags:discussion topic Welcome to the Poetry Exercise!This last week, we had an extra dose of poetry and no Random Writing Challenge. Now it’s time for more poetry, but I’m feeling kind of capricious and random (I do that), and so I’d like to take elements of both challenges, and combine them. After all, part of the point of the poetry exercise is to stretch your poetic muscles by trying new and unexpected things!If you take a look at the giant table that we use for the Random Writing Challenge, you’ll see that it also has a list of words over to the side, under column F. I decided this week to roll a 100-sided die, and choose the word corresponding to the number from the Random Writing Challenge word list.This week’s roll is…10 10. TableYour exercise this week is to use the word "table" in a poem. It can be included incidentally or be the central focus of the piece. Your poem can be any length, any style. Your entries are due by 11:59 p.m. CST on Monday February 18th. Post in your journal, and then comment here with a link to your entry. Remember to give your piece a title!Tags:poetry exercise, recurring feature, writing challenge Greetings, and welcome to our first ballot for February.First, a quick note. Although lrig_rorrim and I discussed the following change, I don't believe either one of us officially mentioned it in AWOS. The change we decided to make was to extend the writing deadlines for most of our challenges. In practice, what this means is that, regardless of when a prompt begins, you should usually have at least seven days to post your submissions. For example, the recent Timed Writing Feature which was posted on February 8 has February 15 as its deadline. In addition, this will also result in less crowded ballots, as some of the challenges will now cross over from one voting period to another. Never fear, we shall get around to voting on all of the eligible ones eventually. You'll notice that the ballot's availability was also extended, although its only up for six days, just in case we have to arrange a tie breaker.And now, to this week's ballot. I regret to inform you that there won't be a Poetry Exercise to vote on this time around because lrig_rorrim was the only one who shared a homophone poem with us. Her entry, entitled Here, can be found here. Read, it's fun.There was also a bit of an adventure regarding my entry for the What's In A Place challenge. As usual, I was writing it at the very last minute, and actually posted it one minute before the deadline in my own journal. Then, my computer stopped working, forcing me to reboot, and when I finally linked it here in AWOS, it was eight minutes late. I asked for a ruling from the generous lrig_rorrim, and she told me to go ahead and put it on the ballot. Please keep in mind, if more than one entry per category gains your admiration, you're encouraged to vote for as many of them as you like. If you're competing, you can vote for your own stuff too. The only thing I ask is that you do your very best to vote in every category, not just the one which has your writing in it. Thank you!This ballot will close on Friday, February 15 at 11:59 PM CST. Get out there, read, comment, and vote! What's In A Place for February 1 Writing Challenge for February 3 Tags:announcement, voting Previous 10 EntriesTop of Page | | | 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