How do I know if my short story be accepted I enter it as a short story be some change it to (summary)
Hi, Geraldine--All members' stories will be accepted for the contest. Make sure you post the story, same as usual, then press the "contest" button and follow the prompts to enter the contest.
You may enter more than one story, if you like.
Good luck! JP
I am just checking out what I need to do to enter the short story contest. It sounds like fun. I would like clarification on a few items. When I clicked on the first story submitted it gave me the opportunity to do an inline or regular review. If I post my story to the contest site and other member review it, I am sure they will catch several silly mistakes. Can I continue to make changes in the story through May 31? It appear that some editing software counts words differently than others. How will the number of words be determined?
John--Yes, you may continue to tweak, trim and tease your story right up through May 31. I hope others will see the stories and give feedback, so the stories can be their best. You may also enter more than one story, if you like. Make sure you post the story to Premium Group (so reviewers will get points for reviewing) and Cop Shop group (So people can find our stories). After it's posted, the next step will be to follow the "contest" tab to enter the Cop Shop contest.
As to the word count question, there may be a slight difference--I don't know. Consider the 7500 number a guideline, so we don't wind up with a novella.
Have fun, and good luck!
JP
The piece of a story I posted was originally written in past tense, but I found the immediacy of present tense made it funnier. Just depends on what you're writing about, I guess. JP
Some Useless Trivia
At last! I've been waiting to tell somebody what I found out. I copied the picture so I could study it, and lo and behold, the title popped up--Dante and Beatrice. I've had a chance to read about the two and the time they lived in. The artist painted the picture a few hundred years later, so he got a few things wrong. Funny mistakes, like in Dante's day, prostitutes were required by law to wear yellow only. The goofy poems I wrote were hints, but I guess nobody caught on. Well, it was fun keeping a secret, but it's more enjoyable telling it. JP
POP COP QUIZ #13: Women in Crime
Can you name the movie, the actress and the character?
Example: Bonnie and Clyde, Faye Dunaway as Bonnie (this is not one of the answers)
1. Just released from prison, she goes against her ex-boyfriend and the mob to save a kid marked for death. (made twice)
2. Novice FBI agent consults a killer for advice to catch a serial murderer.
3. With brains, determination and patience a pregnant sheriff unravels a wintry crime.
4. Dumped by her lover, she turns her fury on his wife and daughter and the family bunny.
5. "You're not too bright. I like that in a man."
6. Best-selling writer of crime novels whose fictional murders are being copied by a killer. Unless, of course, she's the killer.
7. Call girl joins film geek on a trip that will see her escape her pimp, be chased by the Mob and become a drug dealer.
8. Nutzoid fan takes drastic action when she discovers her favorite author plans to kill off his best character.
9. Engineer's wife becomes the center of a maelstrom of murder and perversion, after private eye is hired to follow a woman who's pretending to be her.
10. Middle-aged air hostess and drug mule gets a chance to kick back against the system and, perhaps, find a new love in her life.
There you go! Can't wait--I'm really excited about this. JP
Hi, Sol--I can't get in to read your review of my lessons. I keep getting the message to upgrade my membership. Is it a glitch, or do I need to access from a particular place? JP
Hey JP,
Some guidance would be appreciated. And if you do want a "double-cross" you should talk to Sol about changing the rules page, or you might get some irritated writers.
Cheers,
Don
Well, I did give Sol the "double-cross" theme requirement when we set it up, but it must have got lost somewhere along the way. If you don't see it, we'll have to drop it. Let me check. JP
(sigh) Well, it was a good idea, I thought, but I dropped it from the requirements. Blame it on Sol--he's the one who asked for a theme! Thanks for writing--good luck!
"Chop Shop" sounds like a good idea for a story. How could you work a double-cross into that?
Hahaha!--When my class graduated from Whittier College, our speaker was to have been Clare Booth Luce. For some reason, she couldn't make it, so we had to settle for an alumnus--a former politician named Richard Nixon. His name doesn't even appear on the program. Now you know how old I am. Bob Hope received an honorary doctorate at the same time, so the president of the college, realizing how disappointed we must be, asked him to speak, as well. We graduates were quite satisfied with the ceremony. Hope got a laugh out of the graduating class that couldn't remember where they were supposed to sit--thirty numbskulls in mortarboards tried to sit in a row intended for fifteen. (I wasn't one of them.) If she'd been there, Mrs. Luce probably would have enjoyed it, too.
I was in such a hurry to catch up, I missed this part. Forgive me.
1. Well, I'm a real old lady, so I've been concentrating on the time I remember with fondness: mid-twentieth century, which, to my chagrin, is considered historical fiction. So I'm a relic from another time writing about that time. I started with short stories: whatever struck my fancy--crime, fantasy, fictionalized memoirs, but now I'm working on a couple of murder mysteries.
2. Funny you should ask. I started writing when I took journalism in high school. I quit writing when I married a "writer." I just started up again last May, when I joined TNBW.
3. Right now I'm interested in crime writing, so my current favorites are Michael Connelly and Lee Child, although I have favorites among the classics: Charles Dickens, Robert Lois Stevenson, Mark Twain. Incidentally, they wrote crime stories. And humor.
4. While nobody has ever called me a fun, quirky person (not to my face, anyway--I like silence and solitude), I guess my age is quirky--a young man told me recently that I don't "act my age." I still think of myself as a young person. Don't be fooled by that picture--it was taken many, many years ago when I was fifty.
"Head jumping". I don't write first person and I work on avoiding "head jumping", which I think I am managing well.
What is head jumping? That's a new term for me
. Do you mean switching from one character's point of view to another's?
Yes, that's what they tell me is head-jumping. Going along in one POV, and all of a sudden inserting another character's POV. At first I was unaware that I was doing it, but now I can usually spot it. It can be incorporated into the lesson on POV.
Now, my concern is this: I keep hearing I'm writing "too much tell, and not enough show." At the same time, people tell me I don't give enough description. What's that all about? Aren't those two the same thing? I need a discussion of "tell" versus "show." With examples--I learn better with visual stimuli.
You got that right!
For many (many, many) years I have been a fan of Robert Louis Stevenson, and my favorite book of his is "Kidnapped." (I never did like "Treasure Island," I think because I always liked Long John Silver better than Jim Hawkins, which tells me you should never make your villain more interesting than your Main Character.)
The story is a rip-roaring tale of adventure, scheming villains, and stolen inheritance, told in the first person. Young David Balfour relates the entire story as it unfolds before him, and when the author wants us to know the attitudes of the other characters, he lets David befriend them and hear their side of things.
Take heart, Max. If the stats are to be believed, he was only eighteen when WWII ended. He was a child--a victim of Nazi propaganda and probably an enforced enlistee.
I just wanted to refer you this resource http://www.officer.com/
Look what I found: my home town, folks! Where people get really serious about discount shopping. (about three weeks ago)
http://www.officer.com/video/12064033/v … mart-brawl
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/11/us/arizon … awl-video/
The police were called when the brawlers attacked and beat up a female Wal-Mart employee.
Interesting that the brawlers are members of a Christian musical group.
Tom, on Google Chrome, when I've accidentally clicked the back button, I can hit the forward button and it takes me forward again, with the draft review still there (except for the latest comment box I was typing in).
Dirk
The use of the back/ forward buttons is inconsistent. I was happy to see I could use them, and did, but they don't work from every page. I gave up trying. Now if I have a lot to say, I have to compose on my own computer and paste to the message box, which still doesn't solve the problem, but at least I don't have to redo things. Till now, I've assumed it was a problem of my own. JP
Open to all members of Cop Shop
Any genre
Of course, there has to be crime
LENGTH: NO MORE THAN 7500 WORDS
Stories that have not been previously workshopped on TNBW (If they've been sitting around your house, that's fine)
Not previously published
POSTING DATES April 15-May 31 (Designate groups Cop Shop and Prime when posting, then enter contest)
Winner to be announced July 1
Any questions, comments? Post 'em here.
LOL--very good words, CJ! Wouldn't have it any other way. Don't we have instructions that say not to use the review to hype our own work? Strange.
Have you figured out how to post images?
Thanks, Don. Thanks for looking it up to make sure. Now I KNOW we've got the right information, if it agrees with Wikipedia. Has the role of the marshal changed since the days of the Old West?
There's a small, unincorporated community near where I live that has a law enforcement body of officers they call marshals. They seem to do the same thing any other police department does. What's the difference?
Okay Max--I read the rules. This is the place for biting satire, right? This is where we make fun of all the old, established traditions and institutions? Not sure if I have the touch, but I offer my support. JP
p.s. Where did the group name come from? The only Charlies I know are Goodbye, Charlie (movie) and Sorry, Charlie (tuna).
That is one reason I don't read other reviews of a piece until I finish mine. I don't want to be influenced. But when 12 people do point out something (IF they haven't read each other's comments beforehand) then it is a point to look at closely. The hard ones are when 6 say YEA and 6 say NAY.
Right, Janet. If you read other reviews first, you tend to see only what other reviewers have pointed out. It's important to give your own fresh opinion.
One tip that might help new members is to join a couple of suitable groups and get involved in discussions, especially about reviewed works.
You might also offer some examples of good (that is, useful and constructive) reviews, and explain what's good in the review and what's weak, and showing how different reviews may cover different aspects of a work.
Once again, you are asking the newcomer to know enough to take these steps. How are they supposed to know? (I know, I know--flashers, drop-downs, highlighted messages, etc. ad nauseum) Those are things you pick up with time and exposure to the site and its workings. What's wrong with building a kindness into the system?
