The 750 Word Project

[KeithD]

Read Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants." Do that.

I see no value in putting these writer's challenges in front of the Lit readers.

I remember that Hemingway piece.

I think there's value at Literotica, which is rewarding wordiness, in exercises that encourage being concise and making words count.

 

[8letters]

Ok then. Try this.

Tell your story in one scene. Just one. No background, no context. Just done in the dialog and interaction between two (or more, if you are inclined) people.

So you've got to a) give context, b) give back story, c) explain the current situation and d) resolve it, all in one conversation between people, in one place.

No flash backs, no excerpts, just dialog (and internal thought, if you want to).


This sounds easy - and some people will think it easy, and then when they read their stuff, they'll realise how un-natural some of the dialog will be. People don't normally talk to each other deliberately recapping things both of them would already know (the start of the movie Gravity pisses me off because it does exactly that - where the George Clooney character does scene exposition that everyone would already know.)

What do you guys think?

The next story I was planning on writing would qualify for this. One long scene in the driveway of a farm house, based on a picture a friend sent me.

 

[jezzaz]

Read Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants." Do that.

I see no value in putting these writer's challenges in front of the Lit readers.

Then don’t do it. Pretty simple, really.

 

[oggbashan]

One I wrote earlier...

That block was once our proudest achievement.”

“It was?”

“Yes, my foreign friend, it was. When it was built it was a symbol of our new modern future. One day all of us would live in buildings like that with running hot and cold water, electricity, bathrooms and even central heating. Now no one dares to live in it. It is a target. The largest target around. As soon as we evacuated it, it wasn’t a target anymore so there it stands, an empty reminder of our shattered hopes.”

“How long has it been empty?”

“Nearly as long as this futile civil war has been going on. Their artillery smashed everything nearby four years ago. Why they didn’t destroy it then I’ll never know.”

“Perhaps it was a symbol to them too?”

“I suppose that might been why they left it alone. It was the last thing built before the country split into all these factions. Or maybe they wanted to capture it intact. The front line is in another town now. This part is peaceful for the moment.”

“So why don’t people move back in? Even as it is, it must be more comfortable than under plastic sheets in the refugee camps.”

“We are afraid that we would bring the war back here. We may be uncomfortable but we are alive. Alive under plastic is better than dead under a pile of concrete. The fence keeps our children away from the rubble. Inside the fence are hundreds of dead mingled with the debris. Looking through that fence reminds us how fragile our lives are. Will you write about us?”

“I will. Whether it will be printed I don’t know.”

“I understand. The world has moved on. This is yesterday’s war.”

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

Read Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants." Do that.

I will, thanks for the recommendation.

I see no value in putting these writer's challenges in front of the Lit readers.

Oh, I dunno. Everytime I publish something new, I see a bump in all of my other stories. I assume it's because people read the new thing, like it, and go see what else I've written. I don't get paid for this; I write for the eyeballs. Whether they love it or hate it, I want people to read what I write. So if publishing a writing exercise gets more eyeballs on my stories, that's value to me.

 

[8letters]

Today's the day to get your story in. The instructions from the OP:

Post on Feb 1. Make sure it's tagged with the words "The 750 Project" and ensure that in the 'story notes to administrator', you put the words "story for 750 Word project", so the admins know to hold the posting of that story till Feb 4.

We are using Word to calculate word count, and it needs to be 750 words exactly - no more, no less. That is not counting any header you may put in, just the actual text of the story part.

 

[oggbashan]

I have just hit submit on my second one.

This is 15 episodes, each of 50 words = 750 words (plus a few for the title).

 

[Hypoxia]

I see no value in putting these writer's challenges in front of the Lit readers.

Posting on LIT is performance art. For whom do we perform: readers, or only ourselves? Singing with a stringed instrument, I have a lousy stage presence, because I mostly play what amuses ME despite what listeners may like. LIT authors are quite welcome to write for their own self-satisfying reasons without regard to reader response. Nobody is *forced* to read such stuff on this masturbatory public-access stage.

 

[yukonnights]

Turns out my biggest challenge wasn't writing the piece...it was not having a Word program to write mine on. Using a Mac, I had exactly 150 words...which I converted over to RTF. Turns out, in the Word.doc scan that's 13 words short. I resubmitted, but wonder now if the 13 words I added will come through as 13 words on Word.doc review

The good news is, I had 13 more words to use.

I've never had a rejected story. I fixed it, typed (resubmitted) in front of the same Title, and added a similar note in the "notes" field. Is that the correct way to do that?

ETA: I did that earlier on a fresh submission page...in other words, a complete download of the corrected story. I just checked the notice again, and found the original submission below the notice...I fixed that one a asked the earlier one to be disregarded. In other words, I think I boo-booed on the first one

 

[JamesMiehoff]

That was fun. It kept me busy for an hour.

Hardest part was getting the story up to 750 words.

After the first try, I looked at the word counter ready to machete the content and it said I was up to a whopping 127 words.

It took me longer to pad it up to 750 words than it did to write the first draft.

Slapped a title and copyright on it and shoved all 778 words into the inbox.

Let's see what happens.

James

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

Read Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants." Do that.

That was a subtle, thought-provoking bit of a story. I haven't had to put that kind of effort into my reading comprehension since college; I must be out of practice. I should read more classics.

But I disagree that the story was all one scene. I'd argue that at the end, when the man went into the bar - that was a new scene. A short one, I'll grant, but a scene change was necessary to give the girl time alone to make her own decision.

I can see how someone could argue that it is a one scene story though. How you define a "scene" makes a difference. Which I think proves my point - writing a whole story in one scene is a tricky thing to do. If you have to split hairs and make an argument that Hemmingway pulled it off, it can't be that easy.

 

[NotWise]

I can see how someone could argue that it is a one scene story though. How you define a "scene" makes a difference. Which I think proves my point - writing a whole story in one scene is a tricky thing to do. If you have to split hairs and make an argument that Hemmingway pulled it off, it can't be that easy.

Point taken. To me it's all one scene because it's all at the railroad station waiting for the train.

If you're going to write an erotic story in one scene, then what is that scene going to be?

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

If you're going to write an erotic story in one scene, then what is that scene going to be?

That's the question isn't it? I don't have an answer to the challenge yet myself. I'll wait until jezzaz formalizes the parameters for the event before I decide if I'll even try to come up with one. I'll be interested to see what other folks come with in any case.

 

[NotWise]

That's the question isn't it? I don't have an answer to the challenge yet myself. I'll wait until jezzaz formalizes the parameters for the event before I decide if I'll even try to come up with one. I'll be interested to see what other folks come with in any case.

That definition could take some work. Chloe can correct me if she's reading, but I think she put something like 70k words into one biker bar scene, or maybe that's just a legend already.

 

[YDB95]

If you're going to write an erotic story in one scene, then what is that scene going to be?

I had no problem keeping my 750 word story in the bedroom. It never occurred to me that that would be a challenge.

 

[Hypoxia]

I've a fave old SF vignette circa 1964 titled (IIRC) Those Who Can, Do. It all happens between the closing and opening of a classroom door. The college classroom fills on opening day. A new student contemptuously tells the prof, "I don't need to study," and performs magic: gals' clothes disappear, guys sprout horns, books sprout wings, yada yada. The professor waves his hands and the magic is undone. The student is respectful after that. All in one 1k-word scene.

That seems a one-scene formula. Everything happens in one place. No cheating.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

...That seems a one-scene formula. Everything happens in one place. No cheating.

I had no problem keeping my 750 word story in the bedroom. It never occurred to me that that would be a challenge.

Don't confuse "scene" with "setting". You can have multiple scenes take place without ever changing the setting. I haven't read either of the stories you're referencing though (I look forward to yours, YDB95), so you might be right.

Or maybe what I think of as a "scene" is out of step with everyone else.

 

[oggbashan]

Dramatic Unities

Restriction of scene can be stifling:

The classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities are rules for drama derived from a passage in Aristotle's Poetics. In their neoclassical form they are as follows:

unity of action: a play should have one action that it follows, with minimal subplots.
unity of time: the action in a play should occur over a period of no more than 24 hours.
unity of place: a play should exist in a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_unities

 

[oggbashan]

How many authors and how many entries will there be?

Both of mine are marked for posting on the 4th.

 

[AfterDusk]

How many authors and how many entries will there be?

Both of mine are marked for posting on the 4th.

I just have one submitted.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

How many authors and how many entries will there be?

Both of mine are marked for posting on the 4th.

Looks like the list is already up. I count 70 entries here - https://www.literotica.com/s/the-750-word-project-coming-soon

 

[oggbashan]

Looks like the list is already up. I count 70 entries here - https://www.literotica.com/s/the-750-word-project-coming-soon

But the stories aren't yet posted.

 

[NotWise]

Looks like the list is already up. I count 70 entries here - https://www.literotica.com/s/the-750-word-project-coming-soon

Seventy entries and sixty-four authors.

 

[yukonnights]

Looks like the list is already up. I count 70 entries here - https://www.literotica.com/s/the-750-word-project-coming-soon

Thanks for the link...looks like my resubmitted one made it through to this list anyway This will be really interesting to see how everyone approached the challenge...another learning experience, no doubt.

 

[Hypoxia]

...That seems a one-scene formula. Everything happens in one place.

Don't confuse "scene" with "setting". You can have multiple scenes take place without ever changing the setting.

Okay, I should have said: Everything happens continuously in one place. The scene starts when the door closes. Events in the room occur without interruption or time tricks like flash-backs or -forwards or blackouts -- only a steady temporal flow. The scene ends when the door opens.

That's an outline sketch. Sure, the door could open and close several times in the scene, with players moving in and out, but the viewpoint remains within the room, unbroken.

Wikipedia supports me: In filmmaking and video production, a scene is generally thought of as the action in a single location and continuous time. Continuity makes the scene.