Plot Development
Washed Out & Washed Up. Runner-Up in Not Quite There Yet Challenge.
Watered Down: In old cowboy movies the bad guy wears black and the good guy wears white. Since those days, colours and shades have been added to both antagonists and protagonists - not just to their attire but also to their personalities. But apparently my palette got left out in the rain for this particular story, as all my characters got written in washed-out hues of pedantic boredom.
By Marie Wilson4 months ago in Critique
Mixed Drinks
A male bartender wipes down his bar and prepares for his shift. Patrick, an attractive male,in his early thirties, walks slowly into the bar. He takes off his expensive jacket, drapes it over the backside of the bar stool, and sits at the far right end of the bar. He had an awful day at work and clearly needs to relax and forget his troubles.
By Katie Hoffman4 months ago in Critique
Edisto
The late morning sun was heavenly down on the beach in the light September breeze. Mary Elizabeth stretched and smiled at her children building a sandcastle together before picking up her phone to check her messages to see if anyone else was coming out this week. She got bored sometimes without her girlfriends, didn’t enjoy happy hour quite as much when she was the only adult in the house.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Critique
The Letter I Never Sent
I wrote the letter three times. Or maybe four. I lost count somewhere between page two and the spilled coffee. Each time, I told myself it would be the one that finally made sense. The one that explained everything: why I left, why I stayed, why I never really knew how to feel about any of it.
By Samara Pollyana 4 months ago in Critique
Small Prophets
Introduction I enjoyed Mackenzie Crook's first series, "Detectorists" which I wrote about here: So when "Small Prophets" was announced, I was obviously tempted and was glad I was. If you have access to the BBC's iPlayer, you can watch it here:
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 5 months ago in Critique
The River. Honorable Mention in Not Quite There Yet Challenge. Content Warning.
The air over the river was heavy and still, clouds merging overhead into cumulus fortresses blocking the sun as the battered pontoon boat chugged up the river toward the rapids. Shannon elbowed Katie and said, “Maybe we should go back.”
By Harper Lewis 5 months ago in Critique
MARTA morning . Content Warning.
Tom Jabowski slid from behind the wheel of his Lexus, adjusted his tie, and checked his phone one more time before slipping it into the jacket pocket of his plaza taupe Versace suit and approaching the bus depot. Yesterday was slim pickings, but he had a good feeling today, almost as good as that day back in Manhattan before 9/11 in his twin towers office before those fuckers at the SEC got him disbarred. Now, he was scrambling for cash with a bunch of hicks in Atlanta fucking Georgia who thought the SEC was the strongest conference in NCAA football instead of the Securities and Exchange Commission. So here he was in this shitty life he'd been forced into. He shot a quick text to his wife to see where she was spending her day. Great--at the jewelry store, then lunch with her mom. The coast should be clear until midafternoon.
By Harper Lewis 5 months ago in Critique
Authorship vs Refinement
Much of the confusion surrounding artificial intelligence and writing comes from a failure to distinguish between two fundamentally different acts: originating ideas and refining their expression. These acts are often treated as interchangeable, as though whoever touches the final form must also be the source of the thought itself. That assumption does not reflect how writing has ever worked, nor does it reflect how human thinking actually unfolds.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 months ago in Critique
