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Post by J.A. Prentice on Mar 22, 2018 17:46:09 GMT
Before we know it, it will be time for this year’s Paul Spragg competition. I thought I’d put some thoughts down that might help those of you who will be entering. If it’s run as before, you’ll submit two pages: a one page synopsis and the first page of the story proper. The synopsis should cover the major characters, the overall theme of the story, and the major plot beats. Try not favour one part of the story over the others in the synopsis. I received this feedback from a friend who beta-read my submission. Cover the entire story in equal detail. You may not have the space to fully flesh out motivations here, but try to make clear why things are happening. In my submission, the Doctor’s second visit clearly had to happen after The Three Doctors. The other two visits were much more loosey-goosey as far as the Doctor’s motivation was concerned. After selecting my story, Ian Atkins suggested that we set the first visit after the Silurians, and the third after Jo’s departure. That helped the story a lot, and I learned something about the importance of clear motivation. As for the one page excerpt, I suggest ending the page with something that leaves the reader wanting more. My excerpt ended with the Doctor smiling as the thugs decide to have a go at him. I’m not going to speculate as to what kind of story Big Finish is looking for, so I’m sorry I can’t provide any guidance there. I know no more than anyone else. If you’re selected, then here are some further tips. The story has to be not much longer than 5K words. My first draft was on the order of 5.7K, but Ian gamefully made suggestions where we could cut. One scene in particular that had to be cut broke my heart. But, although it provided further character development, but it wasn’t essential for advancing the plot, so out it went. In addition to George Carlin’s seven words, there are words that cannot be used in Doctor Who. “Bloody” is one, as in “bloody mad”. “Sod” is another, as in “poor sod”. Interesting to speculate what some of the others might be. Those words appeared in my original draft. Out they went. You may discover some others :-)Symbology is a fun thing to play with. In Landbound, the pub has a blue door, which of course, brings to mind the notion that the pub is analogous to the Doctor’s “landbound” TARDIS. To strengthen this, Ian suggested we have a wall of decorative plates inside that would be analogous to the “round things” in the TARDIS. Loved that. And that’s it. If anything else comes to mind, I’ll post it. Best of luck. I could swear (pun unintended) that I've heard worse language than that in Doctor Who. ("The b-tch is back," anyone?)
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Post by TinDogPodcast on Mar 26, 2018 16:20:35 GMT
My head I'd empty this year.
Maybe times shadow has put me off.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2018 19:26:49 GMT
I'm submitting not one but two this year. Won't give away too much at this point, but all I want to say is that they are both very personal to me and full of emotions. And the former submission, however, is a tribute to my father (a Classic Who fan) who died of cancer just over 20 years ago - just want to give you all a heads-up.
Hope for the best, and submit what you can! (PS: Will bring up something on the forum, within the coming weeks.)
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Post by mark687 on Apr 19, 2018 19:36:46 GMT
I'm submitting not one but two this year. Won't give away too much at this point, but all I want to say is that they are both very personal to me and full of emotions. And the former submission, however, is a tribute to my father (a Classic Who fan) who died of cancer just over 20 years ago - just want to give you all a heads-up. Hope for the best, and submit what you can! (PS: Will bring up something on the forum, within the coming weeks.) Best of luck to you
Regards
mark687
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Post by Max Kashevsky on Apr 19, 2018 20:16:48 GMT
I'm submitting not one but two this year. Won't give away too much at this point, but all I want to say is that they are both very personal to me and full of emotions. And the former submission, however, is a tribute to my father (a Classic Who fan) who died of cancer just over 20 years ago - just want to give you all a heads-up. That sounds fantastic! Good luck!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2018 15:08:57 GMT
Much appreciated, guys, and all the best to you too! Quick question: for those who entered in 2016 and/or 2017, did any of you incorporate historical settings and/or figures (e.g. scientists, world leaders, actors)?
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Post by selimpensfiction on Apr 20, 2018 15:26:53 GMT
No, my characters were all fictional.
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Post by J.A. Prentice on Apr 20, 2018 19:23:29 GMT
Much appreciated, guys, and all the best to you too! Quick question: for those who entered in 2016 and/or 2017, did any of you incorporate historical settings and/or figures (e.g. scientists, world leaders, actors)? I did do a draft for a story with Akhenaten but felt it wouldn't fit into a Short Trip and abandoned it. I used a few historical settings, but not any specific events/figures.
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Post by constonks on Apr 20, 2018 20:17:33 GMT
Much appreciated, guys, and all the best to you too! Quick question: for those who entered in 2016 and/or 2017, did any of you incorporate historical settings and/or figures (e.g. scientists, world leaders, actors)? Out of the five stories I submitted over those two years, four were set in the late 20th century and one in the 40th. Lots of DW characters between 'em, but no historical ones. I did briefly consider a story about Madame Nostradamus (with a working title of Witty Little Knitter that did not in any way fit the story, but amused me nonetheless) - I believe I wrote the sample but not the synopsis for that one. It was a little too ambitious in places but mostly I just liked my other ideas more.
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Post by Ian McArdell on Apr 20, 2018 20:46:43 GMT
For the one I submitted in 2016, there was a 1960's setting, but no notable historical characters - it was set around a historic though (with some famous figures in the background, so to speak). I keep meaning to go back and write the whole thing, because I rather loved it. Last year, it was a character piece with revisiting an an old companion.
It's really tempting to do a take on a big historical figure though... maybe this year...
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Post by Max Kashevsky on Apr 20, 2018 20:54:13 GMT
The Short Trips haven't had many historical figures recently, have they?
Nic Ford's "The Night Before Christmas", December's Subscriber ST, features the poet Clement Clarke Moore. I haven't listened to it, but I hear it's a very good take.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Apr 21, 2018 12:18:55 GMT
My Characters were completely original in last years entry. will be the same this year
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Apr 23, 2018 13:20:07 GMT
To go back to an earlier point, it's important to stress readability. Not just merely proof reading/reading aloud so nothing is unintelligible or clumsy, but also dynamism. Your story is being read aloud: how do you use words to keep a listener hooked? 'The' and 'and' can become sentence fillers really quickly, so be mindful of that too.
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Post by butler on Apr 24, 2018 5:01:00 GMT
New year, new chances, new horizons and an all new competition in a few months time. What better time to just bounce around little ideas in your head, or get bits of advice or experience. Doesn't matter if this is your first or thirteenth try. Courtesy of an interview with The Raconteur Roundtable, here's some suggestions from Ian on what to do: 1) Story must be emotionally moving. Preferably with some type of extra 'kick' at the end to really hit it home i.e. the daughter in Forever Fallen. 2) Intimate over epic, and character driven. A chance to really get inside someone's head, and it doesn't have to be the Doctor or companion. 3) Optimistic. Not necessarily sappy or a happy happy ending, but something to do with overcoming or perservering. 4) Ideally, not a comedy or too 'jokey'. The implication being it's not appropriate for a memorial competition, and the writer comes off as not taking the opportunity seriously. 5) Proof read/read aloud so nothing is unintelligible or clumsy. 6) Death and bereavement, while effective, were a really common theme in submissions, and made reading them more emotionally taxing, given the contest's tragic origins. 7) Ian prefers smaller to larger amounts of submissions per writer. Try to restrain down to 1, 2 max, and save the others that don't fit the above for a future Time Shadows, Temporal Logbook or other Who opportunity. I'll put up some more bits and pieces shortly, but if anyone else want to throw out anything, do so. Maybe some of our runners up or even our own Selim and Josh may wish to say a few words to newcomers? This is very useful information. I now feel a bit better about my 2016 entries getting nowhere, given that they were light-hearted, fast-paced romps with lots of action. In hindsight, I couldn't have missed the point any harder if I'd tried! I've got two ideas for this year. One takes place entirely within a single room and is quite weighty, a "sci-fi ethics" sort of thing. The other is a bit more humorous but does have a serious question at its core, one that I think has been overlooked in DW stories until now. I didn't do any kind of pitch in my e-mails either, my thinking being that Ian would want to just get on and read the summary itself. This time I'm thinking I'll treat the e-mail as if I were writing the blurb for my story on the Big Finish website.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2018 6:50:26 GMT
To go back to an earlier point, it's important to stress readability. Not just merely proof reading/reading aloud so nothing is unintelligible or clumsy, but also dynamism. Your story is being read aloud: how do you use words to keep a listener hooked? 'The' and 'and' can become sentence fillers really quickly, so be mindful of that too. If you've got the time and are looking at writing for a preexisting character, have a gander at their patois as well. Incorporating some of their verbal quirks into how they tell your story can make for very interesting listening. For example, Leela assuming a particular pronunciation from a sign and using it consistently in her head until the Doctor corrects her. Or Zoe calling the 21st-century WiFi she's using by its futuristic equivalent (ethercomm?). There's a lot you can do with this kind of POV in terms of creative language to strengthen the dynamic feel and really utilise the actor reading it.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2018 8:56:35 GMT
Forgot to ask; has anyone submitted using first-person narrative?
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Post by constonks on Apr 26, 2018 2:03:03 GMT
Forgot to ask; has anyone submitted using first-person narrative? Two of five, I believe, although another two had very clear POV characters, both children, that influenced the style of the narration.
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Post by J.A. Prentice on Apr 26, 2018 3:29:30 GMT
Forgot to ask; has anyone submitted using first-person narrative? I did one that I wrote as if it were an official UNIT report with the main character narrating the events.
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Post by selimpensfiction on May 1, 2018 18:40:46 GMT
Before we know it, it will be time for this year’s Paul Spragg competition. I thought I’d put some thoughts down that might help those of you who will be entering. If it’s run as before, you’ll submit two pages: a one page synopsis and the first page of the story proper. The synopsis should cover the major characters, the overall theme of the story, and the major plot beats. Try not favour one part of the story over the others in the synopsis. I received this feedback from a friend who beta-read my submission. Cover the entire story in equal detail. You may not have the space to fully flesh out motivations here, but try to make clear why things are happening. In my submission, the Doctor’s second visit clearly had to happen after The Three Doctors. The other two visits were much more loosey-goosey as far as the Doctor’s motivation was concerned. After selecting my story, Ian Atkins suggested that we set the first visit after the Silurians, and the third after Jo’s departure. That helped the story a lot, and I learned something about the importance of clear motivation. As for the one page excerpt, I suggest ending the page with something that leaves the reader wanting more. My excerpt ended with the Doctor smiling as the thugs decide to have a go at him. I’m not going to speculate as to what kind of story Big Finish is looking for, so I’m sorry I can’t provide any guidance there. I know no more than anyone else. If you’re selected, then here are some further tips. The story has to be not much longer than 5K words. My first draft was on the order of 5.7K, but Ian gamefully made suggestions where we could cut. One scene in particular that had to be cut broke my heart. But, although it provided further character development, but it wasn’t essential for advancing the plot, so out it went. In addition to George Carlin’s seven words, there are words that cannot be used in Doctor Who. “Bloody” is one, as in “bloody mad”. “Sod” is another, as in “poor sod”. Interesting to speculate what some of the others might be. Those words appeared in my original draft. Out they went. You may discover some others :-) Symbology is a fun thing to play with. In Landbound, the pub has a blue door, which of course, brings to mind the notion that the pub is analogous to the Doctor’s “landbound” TARDIS. To strengthen this, Ian suggested we have a wall of decorative plates inside that would be analogous to the “round things” in the TARDIS. Loved that. And that’s it. If anything else comes to mind, I’ll post it. Best of luck. Oh yes. I made the mistake of including a bit of dialog in the synopsis. Don't do that. There should be no dialog in the synopsis at all.
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Post by TinDogPodcast on May 3, 2018 15:58:25 GMT
Probably not entering this year.
@janeoftheair is really taking a lot of my time.
And getting @geekmyths published is proving... troublsome
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