2011-02-28, 04:27 | Link #1 |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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EMDAS 2011 - March (Confliction) Entry Thread
Welcome to the March EMDAS Writing Competition!(Rules - READ FIRST!) Theme: Confliction! "All men are enemies. All animals are comrades." George Orwell, Animal Farm This month's theme is "Confliction"! For this theme, a character in your entry must go through a conflict, a fight against something. Internal or external conflict, it matters not. Entries! (March 1-15) For the first two weeks of the competition, all entrants may post their draft entries on this page and receive suggestions and criticism without any consequences. Nothing posted during this entry period will be taken as your final entry. Constant posting of small edits and similar drafts are frowned against, as it clutters up the pages and gets in the way of other entries.
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Last edited by Hiroi Sekai; 2011-03-13 at 16:17. |
2011-03-03, 14:43 | Link #2 |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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First Entry!
My first entry! Took a few days because I couldn't think of anything>.>
Spoiler for One Man:
Intended moral: Humanity can be cruel and life can be unforgiving. If we don't support each other, then who will? One man's words can make a world of difference. Word count: 601 It's merely a first draft, so any c&c would be quite helpful. Best of luck to everyone!
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Last edited by Hiroi Sekai; 2011-03-13 at 23:47. |
2011-03-05, 13:21 | Link #3 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Singapore
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Hi papermario, just read your entry. Is that supposed to be the complete story? It seems to be missing some elements otherwise.
Anyway, caught some bugs with the contest post. Most likely due to copypasta . I'll be writing something for this soon, but nothing's done yet and I'm only at about 350 words. The title is Skirmish. |
2011-03-05, 13:49 | Link #4 | |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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Quote:
And thanks for mentioning that; I'll fix that right now. Can't wait to read your entry!
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Last edited by Hiroi Sekai; 2011-03-09 at 16:53. |
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2011-03-05, 23:13 | Link #5 |
~Official Slacker~
Author
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Xanadu
Age: 29
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Papermario has done it yet again with another interesting story that could be quite a competition to match makes me even more curious on what I should write up, hmmm..
Same as Papermario! I can't wait to read your entry as well lordshadowisle
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2011-03-07, 16:58 | Link #6 |
The Interstellar Medium
Author
Join Date: May 2008
Location: [SWE]
Age: 34
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Totally missed this EMDAS thing. Interesting. Not new to writing (done fanfiction) but haven't written for a good while. This will be good practice.
Hopefully it's all according to rules and theme. Spoiler for Decisions V.1:
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2011-03-07, 17:38 | Link #7 | |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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Quote:
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2011-03-07, 20:17 | Link #9 |
~Official Slacker~
Author
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Xanadu
Age: 29
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It was a good read, and expected a military decision making from your avatar but that seems like I am a know it all so let's just leave it at that there is also plenty of time left to do some edits, that's the advantage of early entries and disadvantage of late entries if they rushed into making the story.
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2011-03-08, 16:44 | Link #10 | ||
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The whole stories goes at full speed and is rather fragmanted. But it reflects the mental state the 'one man' is in, so I rather like it. I find it quite hard to say what to improve - I actually think it works well as a short piece. A fast but hard ride Maybe giving one example of how humanity gave him the cold shoulder after his loss would emphasize the significance of the last guy caring about him. But the scene on the sidewalk kinda did that already, so. The "*pant*" felt out of place to me, but might simply be me. This one depressed me kinda. Quote:
... I might post a story myself this time *coughs* |
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2011-03-08, 21:35 | Link #11 | ||
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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Quote:
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2011-03-09, 05:07 | Link #12 | ||
The Interstellar Medium
Author
Join Date: May 2008
Location: [SWE]
Age: 34
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While I'm a big military story junkie myself, I mostly like them for experiencing the human aspect in them, if written right. I'm not *that* interested in the hardware. Perhaps that's why it fell into your tastes.
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2011-03-09, 06:06 | Link #13 |
In scientific terms only.
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Blargh! No decent ideas here, but I'll tread old ground.
Spoiler for Carry the Dying King:
Word count o' 764 (sans that title) according to Microsoft Word. Final entry and whatnot. Last edited by WordShaker; 2011-03-14 at 01:15. Reason: That there wordin' needed fixin'. |
2011-03-09, 06:50 | Link #14 |
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The conflict might not be so obvious, but the ideas I had that fit it to a T ... I didn't like them so much and didn't finish 'em. So here! Spoiler for Flickering Light v1.2:
Thanks to Moczo for going error hunting <3 Knowing me I'll still rework it, so critique and suggestions are welcomed of course. I left many things ambigious on purpose, but maybe it doesn't make as much sense to others. Dialogues are my enemy in English so I always try to write them to improve (I raised an eyebrow at the ban of italics and bold btw ) Edit: - fixed some typos, thx wassupimviet! [10.03.11] Last edited by zebra; 2011-03-09 at 19:40. |
2011-03-09, 07:03 | Link #15 | ||
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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Quote:
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2011-03-09, 07:35 | Link #16 | |
In scientific terms only.
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I've also always liked these sort of stories, too. I like the idea of one person passing on some sort of higher wisdom to another simply in how they act, rather than through a lecture or something. It really hits home for me. There are one or two slight spelling mistakes ("laugher" and "immediatly" specifically), but no big deal. Be damned if I didn't say that the way the story flowed pulled me right in, though. Great stuff, all in all. That's right, I'm really a 34-year old salaryman. Last edited by WordShaker; 2011-03-09 at 08:01. Reason: Pfft, one word changes the entire meaning of the sentence. Fixed! |
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2011-03-09, 07:56 | Link #17 |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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That would actually bring forth some legitimate shock. Not for the reason that you'd be over twice the supposed age, but because 34 year old salarymen of our area would actually never have knowledge of that word.>.> I went through high school seeing the supposedly well-educated teachers misspell words over and over; it was no simple mistake.
Either way, I guess what I'm saying is that I have a strong respect for those who can use proper grammar and spell words correctly. If you don't know something, you look it up, you expand your knowledge, and that's what's so admirable. Wow, listen to me talk. That's what I get for playing a VN with dark music so late at night. I'll be posting an updated draft of my entry tomorrow, hopefully.
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2011-03-09, 19:35 | Link #18 | |||
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We can't know for sure what kind of king he really was, since it's all his point of view. Everything's so dark and brutal yet he tries to see the silver linen on the horizon in a way. His people hate him for all the blood shed, he claims he did his best, but it doesn't matter since everyone is equal in death. Good stuff. Quote:
I don't think the limitations make any sense, personally. The 1,5k limit yes, but bold and italics? Sure, I can do without, but it's such basic formatting that I find it very weird that it's forbidden in a contest that pretty much asks for very different styles. I actually made sure there aren't any rules regarding paragraphs, breaks and tabs and the like since it was so out of place for me xD Quote:
Also thanks for pointing out the errors, will fix 'em now~ |
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2011-03-10, 18:05 | Link #19 |
sleepyhead
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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Emperor of One
Origins, File 10 "All great wars had their weapons. Sometimes, it was the weapons that made the war. The last war was no different. After discovering the first forms of Velocity Altering Technology (VAT) the warmongers of the time took no time to make it into a weapon. And thus the the barriers came to be. According to the (natural) laws of physics as first discovered by Newton, every body remains in a state of constant velocity unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force. This simple law of nature indirectly makes bullets kill, explosions hurt and was the foundation for all so called modern weapons before the war. With the advent of barriers the threat of bullets was no more. Guns became nothing more then toys. It was not just guns that became obsolete, explosions relied on shock waves, shock waves relied on speed, velocity and speed went hand in hand, and so the shock wave was nullified by the barriers and explosions became far less effective where barriers were present. They would still burn, but the thunder that made them so deadly was no more. Bombs, feared for decades since their invention, became no more dangerous then fireworks. Some thought this new technology heralded a new era of piece and prosperity. But the world doesn't work that way. As horrible as the old weapons were, they were part of the old balance, the old stalemate. With them gone, the balance was lost. It didn't take long for men to find new ways to kill themselves for differences. The technology of peace had several flaws, and they were soon exploited. Radiation, such as electromagnetic radiation, was not bound by the barrier, so any laser weapons would still be as effective as always. Fortunately at that time they were not even pathetically effective. Standard nuclear warheads had the same problem as bombs, their thunder was no more, however they would burn everything anyway so their devastation was still feared and the radiation fallout no less horrible. Even worse, most were converted to neutron bombs, so the fallout behind them would be unbearable even in specialized suits for years. With most of the high tech approaches failing mankind resorted to more simple solutions. And so the era of blunt weapons come back once more. Soldiers again wore armor, took up swords and went to fight bloody close quarters battles. It wasn't long before technology was brought in and the armor became more sophisticated, the swords more deadly, and the soldiers less human. The artillery went back to the old ways as well. It no longer relied on precise shells and explosives but instead of just hurling ever heavier shells, since the barriers could do nothing against pure mass. The limitations on how effective the barriers were on velocity was always, and still is, proportionate to the objects mass. And so the war began. It is lost to us when exactly the war started, or who started it. But what we do know is that it was in the name of freedom, and democracy. And thus the flames of the endless hell were brought to consume this world. Men fraught their wars everywhere. For many decades the great war didn't even have anything that could be called sides, nor countries or alliances for that matter. It was all just chaos. Whatever framework to society there was before, was burned to ashes in nuclear fire. Zealots with weapons would rise up, and kill each other for whatever excuse they could find. Death had no honor, death had no purpose, it was all just for the great vain of the world and mankind's arrogance fueled it ever onwards. More death brought even more death with it, and the vicious circle carried on for years. Inevitably chaos gave way to ordered chaos. Cities rose in the ruins of the old ones, build up on people's fears. For protection great flying fortresses were build to guard against the madness of the world around them. By hovering over cities they were hard to hit by artillery fire, because of gravity pulling projectiles down to earth, and thus battles against them were harsh and long. It is ironic how man takes a few steps forward and several back. Inevitably cities took over other cities though various means, all rinsed in blood, and in time two major factions emerged. One called itself the Empire and preached order, another called itself the Republic and preached peace; yet both did not have either. In the end the Empire lost, and the world came to settle in a tangible peace, but the mighty Republic payed a heavy price for it's victory and now stands as a mere shell of it's former self. Even now, 39 years after the war has ended, death still lingers. The war was not kind. Many weapons were used, horrible weapons. And each day new horrors are discovered from the those dark day. One can not even walk outside the cities with out potentially falling prey to madmen or sleeping weapons, or worse. The old ruins and installations scattered all over the world are all potential lairs of horrors. The majority of the population is living in cities, or ruins of old cities. The life expediency of anyone living outside the cities is not even a year. The rest of the world, the so called outside world, is split into yellow zones and red zones. The administration tries to clean out the old threat but judging by the death toll the efforts seem to be counter productive and more symbolic and political then anything. In ages past people earned for our current state where you can just walk outside 'the village' and fight monsters; the relics of the technologies lost in the war, such as nanotech and and the abominations of bioengineering. They would write about them in fairy tails and create games about them. In these stories heroes would rise up and fight, but in our age heroes seem to be nowhere in sight, and whatever heroic acts have been recorded from the war are more acts of self preservation and desperation. One has to wonder what would our ancestors think of us now if they only knew. What—" "Ahem! … are you done reading that piece of trivia yet?" said Kou with a bored look and taping his finger on the table.Kou ignores her, and just heads to the nearby bookshelf. The top row is littered with archives of the war. "Ahem. Well, first let me introduce myself—"Kou pauses for a moment, but then goes back and sits on the sofa. "Before we get started, are you sure you don't want some tea. I can have Walter bring you any flavor you wish in no time." said IsoldeKou paused and appeared reluctant. Isolde starts tapping the phone with her left hand. "Mr Kurou…please." Word count: 1499 Status: Final Entry This is part 2. Part 1 was the submission for the previous contest. Criticism, Critique and Opinions welcome.
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Last edited by felix; 2011-03-13 at 11:16. |
2011-03-10, 18:56 | Link #20 |
sleepyhead
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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Whew finally managed to read them all. Carry the Dying King and Decisions were the most accessible, but I think zebra got the best of the theme; albeit my head is still spinning from it. I'm such a simpleton. Oh and I don't really get Mario's entry. But I think that's intentional with his.
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Tags |
2011, competition, emdas, march, writing |
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