Hiya, writers’n’frenz!
This is from SenSho’s first ever Write On! thread, January 1, 2009, and it’s gonna be the basis of our writing challenge/practice for the evening:
smileycreek —Jan 01, 2009 at 11:07:29 AM
A friend and I used to play a writing game
as kids. For some reason we called it Orange Mountain. It was like a Perils of Pauline serial....I'd start a story, write the main character into a corner, then mail it to my friend. She'd bail the character out of the dilemma and put her into a new one and mail it back. We could do this for months on end. It was just sheer fun.
CHALLENGE:
- POST A COMMENT IN THREAD sketching out a protagonist in a pickle. No need for anything about that character at all, and not even anything more about the setting than shows the predicament.
- Then go look for someone else’s such comment, and reply to it, giving something about THEIR protag character that could help the protag get outa the pickle. BUT NO MORE THAN THAT!
- Then go find a reply-comment where others have done those 2 steps, and write the protag’s escape … into ANOTHER pickle!
- Repeat steps 2 or/and 3! :)
<big>Electric pickle.</big> h/t EngineerX
While you’re thinking about the challenge, here’s some bits of news from around the bookworld:
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If you can’t get access to BookLife articles, try going to the PublishersWeekly site to sign up for free emails from PW, and that should do the job.
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h/t jrfrog
and finally
<big>big>Brilliant and grimly funny article in the NewYorkTimesMaganzine</big></big> on Chatbot writing style. It includes the unnerving mention that people in high places and low are increasingly talking and writing like AI! The patterns are right there. Amazing and clear.
This article was free to read when I saw it, but if you find it puts up a paywall, plunk the URL into the searchbar at Archive.Today
This is a must-read!
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Okay, back to the predicament game :)
Write On! will be a regular Thursday night diary (8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific) until it isn’t.
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors (at FB their last post seems to be in October 2023) Absolute Write, Critters.org, and/or Writer Beware.
<big>Click Fiction Works-in-Progress for tonight’s and earlier diaries of fiction chapters, scenes, and excerpts by DK storytellers, AND for the diarist schedule there.</big>
WRITE ON — sign up at the schedule comment in the thread.
Dec4 — WriteOn
Dec 11 — mettle fatigue
Dec18- — strawbale
Dec 25 — mettle fatigue (also FWIP unless someone else FWIP)
Jan 1, 2026 — strawbale
Jan 8 —
Jan 15 — mettle fatigue
Jan 22 —
Jan 29 —
Feb 5 —
Feb 12 —
Feb 19 —
Feb 26 —
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