A Picture is Worth a Thousand FAWCs

Congrats TxTallTales! I really enjoyed that one!

Oh, yeah! Are we supposed to guess before the big reveal? Or are we kind of skipping that part?

sheablue said:

Oh, yeah! Are we supposed to guess before the big reveal? Or are we kind of skipping that part?

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I'll go first. Because I'm cocky.

Soul Eaters- SheaBlue
Harmony and Dissonance- sr71plt
Fly Me- MistressLynn
Wave!- sr71plt
Booty Hideaway- sr71plt
Green Flash- MSTarot
For Her- xelliebabex

Comgrat TTT. Well done.

Yeah, I kind of had that one figured out also.

TxRad said:

Comgrat TTT. Well done.

Yeah, I kind of had that one figured out also.

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Plus someone in the comments section kind of gave that away.

Ok, I'll guess too, even though I'm not as familiar with y'all styles to guess with any confidence ...

Anything for Iris -- TxTallTales
Booty Hideaway -- xelliebabex
Fly Me -- sr71plt
For Her -- patientlee
Harmony and Dissonance -- sr71plt
The Green Flash --MSTarot
The Soul Eaters -- MistressLynn
Wallpaper -- MistressLynn
Wave! -- sr71plt

As far as guessing, yes, someone fingered TTT in the comments section, and that seemed a reasonable ID. As I haven't read any of these authors outside of the this exercise, I couldn't hazard a guess on the others. But I thought I'd be able to tell which one was patientlee's as a comment (taken down now?) mentioned that the tags didn't go with the story and patientlee mentioned that herself on the forum. But I can't find that comment now.

That said, in terms of the exercise, I'd give highest marks to whoever wrote "Booty Hideaway" (and it wasn't me), because I think that one was a good story and did the best in fulfilling the exercise requirement--writing to the image provided.

I was disappointed in how some of the others related the story to the image--which was the point of the exercise, and I'd prefer an exercise that had voting turned off and urged readers to comment on how the story did/didn't respond to the exercise until voting was turned on after the exercise discussion was over. Readers obviously (to me) aren't keeping the exercise in mind when they are voting on these stories.

sr71plt said:

As far as guessing, yes, someone fingered TTT in the comments section, and that seemed a reasonable ID. As I haven't read any of these authors outside of the this exercise, I couldn't hazard a guess on the others. But I thought I'd be able to tell which one was patientlee's as a comment (taken down now?) mentioned that the tags didn't go with the story and patientlee mentioned that herself on the forum. But I can't find that comment now.

That said, in terms of the exercise, I'd give highest marks to whoever wrote "Booty Hideaway" (and it wasn't me), because I think that one was a good story and did the best in fulfilling the exercise requirement--writing to the image provided.

I was disappointed in how some of the others related the story to the image--which was the point of the exercise, and I'd prefer an exercise that had voting turned off and urged readers to comment on how the story did/didn't respond to the exercise until voting was turned on after the exercise discussion was over. Readers obviously (to me) aren't keeping the exercise in mind when they are voting on these stories.

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Nah. I'm more subtle than that. I was interested in the tags though. I think the number of reads in relation to the tags showed me that people do search using tags.

sr71plt said:

As far as guessing, yes, someone fingered TTT in the comments section, and that seemed a reasonable ID. As I haven't read any of these authors outside of the this exercise, I couldn't hazard a guess on the others. But I thought I'd be able to tell which one was patientlee's as a comment (taken down now?) mentioned that the tags didn't go with the story and patientlee mentioned that herself on the forum. But I can't find that comment now.

That said, in terms of the exercise, I'd give highest marks to whoever wrote "Booty Hideaway" (and it wasn't me), because I think that one was a good story and did the best in fulfilling the exercise requirement--writing to the image provided.

I was disappointed in how some of the others related the story to the image--which was the point of the exercise, and I'd prefer an exercise that had voting turned off and urged readers to comment on how the story did/didn't respond to the exercise until voting was turned on after the exercise discussion was over. Readers obviously (to me) aren't keeping the exercise in mind when they are voting on these stories.

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I see where you're coming from, but I'll have to disagree with how the authors handled the picture in the stories.

When I dove in to read, I honestly thought everyone was going to sort of use that scene in a very literal way, as in that very scene, that beach, that woman in red, that sitting guy, that bungalow, etc. etc. I expected the stories to kind of have a similar beginning or concept idea, and spin off from there.

What I found, was that the authors took that picture and used it for inspiration. They used elements of that particular picture and spun them into unique storylines, and very different and unique methods of storytelling.

Some elements, such as those characters in the picture, were used kind of symbolically, as inspiration for characters in the story. The setting itself inspired a range of different storylines, some hinging on a tropical disaster that could easily take place in such a locale, while others used a very similar setting with the clear water and white sandy bottoms, straw top bungalows, swimming, etc.

So while I can agree that the picture itself took stories in some varied directions, in each one I saw different degrees of the use of the picture. For me, as a reader, they were evident. Each story used it well enough that even if I didn't know FAWC was going on, and if I for some crazy ass reason I wandered into Chain Stories, I would have read them and been like, "What the hell is up with all the tropical stories and white sandy beaches lately?"

To each their own opinion, but this reader thought the picture was used well and uniquely by each contestant.

Naw, I think a few of the authors already had stories and just tacked the theme in somewhere. And I think you underrated that in your comments--in fact, shunted it aside here and there as if it wasn't the central point of the exercise. And, as I stated, I think most of the voting--such as it was--didn't take what the exercise was about into consideration at all. And, thus, I think the point of the exercise is being bastardized and watered down by emphasizing rewarding on the basis of open voting. Both of these I found disappointing. But, having (re)stated that, I'd like to see the discussion on other aspects of the exercise.

sr71plt said:

Naw, I think a few of the authors already had stories and just tacked the theme in somewhere. And I think you underrated that in your comments--in fact, shunted it aside here and there as if it wasn't the central point of the exercise. And, as I stated, I think most of the voting--such as it was--didn't take what the exercise was about into consideration at all. Both of these I found disappointing. But, having (re)stated that, I'd like to see the discussion on other aspects of the exercise.

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What specific types of things would you like to have seen done with the picture? Like just for discussion's sake, not bucking your opinion, I'm just curious. Could you elaborate on some specific things you think could've been done better with the picture?

(I know you stated that you think some were prewritten with blanks filled in but is there more than that? Not trying to argue, BTW, just discussing it further)

SecondCircle said:

What specific types of things would you like to have seen done with the picture? Like just for discussion's sake, not bucking your opinion, I'm just curious. Could you elaborate on some specific things you think could've been done better with the picture?

(I know you stated that you think some were prewritten with blanks filled in but is there more than that? Not trying to argue, BTW, just discussing it further)

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Don't really want to get into particulars. Anyone who looks can see what stories started off with a token mention of the locale and then wafted off. I pointed to "Booty Hideway" as integrating the theme best. What it did was not just use the locale, but use the photo itself as well as the locale (they ended up there) and wove the image throughout the whole story--which was a good "real" story. A comment knocked it for not being PC on how overweight girls thought of themselves--and acted out from that. But what was written was real, not some PC pie in the sky--and there's absolutely nothing wrong with an overweight person having the goal of trimming down (and becoming more healthy).

Now, that's my opinion--and I'd be interested in a exercise in future that actually covered the exercise before throwing it open to general voting--or else I see no reason to section it off. An idea can just be thrown out and we all can dump our stories in response into the general file and have a discussion going here on the forum on the exercise elements.

Congrats TTT!


Truthfully, I don't know who wrote what, but here's my guesses.

Anything for Iris -- TxTallTales
Booty Hideaway -- Mistress Lynn
Fly Me -- sr71plt
Harmony and Dissonance -- Patientlee
The Green Flash -- Patientlee
The Soul Eaters -- MsTarot
Wallpaper -- Sheablue
Wave! -- sr71plt

I'll give you a hint. There was a punctuation error near the bottom of page 2- a missed period.

patientlee said:

I'll give you a hint. There was a punctuation error near the bottom of page 2- a missed period.

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Missing periods can cause great trouble.

TxRad said:

Missing periods can cause great trouble.

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Hee hee.

Thanks for the congrats.

As you may have figured out, I ditched my original choice for NaNoWriMo, and went Rebel with Anything For Iris. The first 4800 words were started before NaNo officially started, so those don't count. sr71plt's comment about if it went to 50K words it would be fine made me redo the outline, turning it into a full length novel, with terrorists, kidnapping, and of course IRIS saving the day. It's past 45K words so far, (only 40K official) and I'm thinking four-five chapters before it's done. Talk about getting carried away.

The original outline was a little exhibitionist tale, no IRIS. I don't know where IRIS came from, but it took over. Maybe because I do a lot of SCUBA diving with my daughter. I researched the picture. The descriptions, names, restaurants and amenities are those of Club Med Kani, pictured in photo. I noticed somebody else picked up on where the picture was from.

I saw the scores changed drastically after the sweep. I know the day before, I'd dropped to an even 4.50. Must have been a big sweep.


Here are my guesses:

Anything for Iris -- TxTallTales
Booty Hideaway -- MSTarot
Fly Me -- xelliebabex
For Her -- MistressLynn
Harmony and Dissonance -- sr71plt
The Green Flash -- MSTarot
The Soul Eaters -- SheaBlue
Wallpaper -- patientlee
Wave! -- sr71plt

Congrats,Tx Tall Tales.

I didn't make it through the list, even though there weren't many entries. No matter how well I plan my days, I'm falling behind. Of course, the power outage didn't help.

Sorry to have jumped in and then out, but we're having a very hectic few days. Personal issues I'd rather not discuss on this forum (I've done that in the past and was sorry for it). If you can all wait a few more days, I'll post the names then. Otherwise, I'll post them to the comments tonight.

I'll check back in a few hours, time permitting.

FAWCker said:

Sorry to have jumped in and then out, but we're having a very hectic few days. Personal issues I'd rather not discuss on this forum (I've done that in the past and was sorry for it). If you can all wait a few more days, I'll post the names then. Otherwise, I'll post them to the comments tonight.

I'll check back in a few hours, time permitting.

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Take your time.

Take care.

FAWCker said:

Sorry to have jumped in and then out, but we're having a very hectic few days. Personal issues I'd rather not discuss on this forum (I've done that in the past and was sorry for it). If you can all wait a few more days, I'll post the names then. Otherwise, I'll post them to the comments tonight.

I'll check back in a few hours, time permitting.

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Youre such a slacker. You have time to write 2-3 posts but no time to list the names.

I haven't said so yet, but congrats to triple T. I think it was a deserving win.

I'm taking the liberty of getting the ball rolling here. Slyc's busy, and he doesn't even have a story in this one.

I wrote Wallpaper.

Who's next?

patientlee said:

I'm taking the liberty of getting the ball rolling here. Slyc's busy, and he doesn't even have a story in this one.

I wrote Wallpaper.

Who's next?

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Ha! Missed period indeed....

First to JBJ: There's no time schedule for the wrap-up of this exercise.

Then for the reveal and a bit of background.

I wrote "Fly Me," "Harmony and Dissonance," and "Wave!" in that order.

"Harmony and Dissonance" was written as "that's obvious" camouflage for a third one. (I thought "Wave!" would be the sleeper as having been written by me.) I figured it would be assumed that I'd slip in another one having done a GM one--with GM quite obviously not being favorably treated in an exercise such as this, where the category isn't GM and most of the readers either aren't going to read it or are going to slam it just because it dares to be there.

The multiple filing started to unravel with Xelliebabex suggesting that the authors of two be identified. That didn't give me heartburn, because I could honestly say I didn't write two of them--and I objected because I thought it was a bad idea to reveal that, not because I was the one who did it. I had done two before. But such an identification would negate most of the reason for an author attempting to further camouflage his/her entries. Then the jig on that was up on the 13th when Patientlee correctly suggested that one author wrote three.

I'm surprised both that, of those who made full-list guesses--not all fingered me for "Harmony and Dissonance" but that all did for "Wave!" which I thought would be my surprise entry. Sheablue got all of mine correctly identified.

"Fly Me" was the first one that came into my mind and that was written. There's a very similar "huts over the water" resort hotel to the one in the photograph in Phataya Beach, Thailand. And it's a favorite of airline pilots and stewards to cavort in (I've cavorted with them myself). I laughed when one of the commenters queried whether airline folks did this a lot. Well, yes they do--and I played with that in my story. I thought that locating it in Thailand would bring it too close to my story field, as a lot of my stories use Thailand as a base--I lived there for six years at two different times. So, I moved it to another beach resort area in Malaysia.

"Harmony and Dissonance" was the second one I wrote--as I do write GM, and I don't see why GM stories should not be included in the exercises just because they are going to be slammed for being there. And I pulled out all stops, making it very much a story that I write in all aspects. I've even written a couple of these characters before. So, I didn't think it would fool anyone who had any idea what I mainly write (I say mainly write, because I'll bet I have more straight stories on file here than most anyone else--more in this exercise than anyone else, certainly).

I'll admit that I wanted to spit nails when I saw a commenter saying the content of this one was crap. It's a GM story. It's what's real on the GM scene I'm used to (which is of the more macho end of the spectrum--I don't write much about the limp-wristed end). The story was knocked for the characters lacking emotion. Well, the macho end of the GM world doesn't consist of women with penises. It's a whole different mindset. And I was particularly irked because the content--the contrasting of characters--was a purposeful character study of four types of GM males. Lars is a Alpha Top, which gets off on topping out on whatever fetish they have and not thinking much of anyone but themselves. Amnad is an aesthetic GM, getting off on how beautiful it all can be. Krit is highly emotionsl (which, the "crap" commenter totally lost), caught up in the desire of homosexuality but fighting it and being torn apart emotionally by doing so. The others floating around--the servants and the transvestite--represent that large group of subs, who get off on notching their belts with a collection of Alpha Tops who have "done" them.

This is all to say that I certainly won't try a literary GM story in these exercises again, and I'll be transferring this story over to its category as soon as possible.

"Wave!" was the result of my looking at the photo and thinking, "what can I do to stand this one on its head?" So, I took the tranquility of the photo and swept it away with a tsunami. TxRad later came up with an idea that I'm sorry I didn't think of myself earlier--taking that tranquil scene and floating an unconscious shipwrecked seaman into it.

A note on the tagging--beyond no sort of tagging is going to save a GM one in a Chain Story category exercise. I was surprised that "Wave!" with just the Loving Wife tag, was found by the Loving Wife chompers. So, some of them do search on tags, I guess.