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Post by nucleusofswarm on Feb 6, 2021 1:59:04 GMT
To begin, congrats to last year's winner Eugenie (hope we hear more from you) on Free Speech. Now, let's do the ol' soft-shoe-shuffle!
As many will still be facing lockdown for a while yet, I'd say never a better chance to dive into the imagination pool and develop some new ideas for stories. Just like past years, this thread is all about offering writing advice and answering questions you may have about writing a Short Trip. Past winners and runners up, as always, are welcome to share wisdom.
A quick refresher on preferred guidelines from ex-producer Ian (a lot of these have shown to still be applicable, and they're just good story pointers too): 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) 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 Temporal Logbook or other Who opportunity.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2021 8:22:22 GMT
A brainstorming tactic I've found reliable -- and, doubly rewarding, fun -- is something you've probably already seen elsewhere in places like Doctor Who Magazine and on this forum. It's called a serial swap. Placing one Doctor and companion team in a story meant for another, one that the replacements never encountered. Preferably using examples outside of the archetype -- i.e. running against the style of what you've come to expect from that TARDIS crew -- to provide a strong contrast.
Here are three examples:
"Driven off-course by the intervention of the Time Lords, a brooding Doctor is pitted against the followers of Kane in a quest into the icy night of Svartos. Something in the lower levels has been killing his men. Something that the Doctor believes his own people want destroyed. However, Sarah's acquaintance with a young barmaid, ripped from her own time on Earth, shows such missions are rarely so straightforward. Has the Doctor been employed by his own people to assassinate an innocent?" - The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane in (the Seventh Doctor's) Dragonfire.
"Earth, 1965. Home at last for schoolteachers, Ian and Barbara. However, there's little time for rest. Vicki, appalled by the shortsightedness of her ancestors, becomes involved in a battle between environmental activists and the local refinery. People at Green Chemicals have begun to die. A terrible sickness ravaging its workers. The Doctor's companions believe it to be the product of nuclear waste, but the traveller himself isn't so sure. He can sense a malevolence out of the corner of his eye. Is it time to say goodbye to his friends?" - The First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki in (the Third Doctor's) The Green Death.
"A casualty on New Year's Eve. One to mark the millennium for Grace Holloway. A frantic old man, blistered by gunfire, conviction in his eyes, who dies under her care. Disgusted by the hospital's attempts to conceal his death, she throws off her role as a surgeon, only to gain a link with a quick-witted little man. A relative of the deceased, or so he claims, with a terrible warning -- and that same conviction. Something has gone badly wrong with the TARDIS. Everyone on Earth is looking to a new future beyond the threshold of midnight. They may not get it..." - The Second Doctor, Polly and Ben in (the Eighth Doctor's) The TV Movie.
Pick out what you could keep the same and what you'd have to change. With the characters, the settings and/or the way the story is told. This can be a good way to pin down things like a character's personality, their reactions, motvations, and so on. Narrowing it all down into an understanding you can use for the briefer format of a Short Trip.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Feb 6, 2021 12:02:51 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2021 15:30:48 GMT
Okay... first of all, after BF announced Free Speech as last year's winning Short Trip, as well as listening to it several times, I've decided that I'll no longer be submitting Tenth Doctor entries to allow room for other incarnations/eras which haven't won yet. So my entry for this year will feature... the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, focusing on the latter's expertise in journalism on a human colony with numerous obstacles in between.
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Post by Jeedai on Feb 6, 2021 20:57:12 GMT
First Doctor and Steven for me, working off an idea I had for last year but didn't develop.
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Post by doctorkernow on Feb 7, 2021 0:45:34 GMT
Hello again.
I usually write Sixth Doctor stories but I might stray outside my comfort zone and try a different Doctor.
Have fun my fellow wordsmiths and all the best.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Feb 7, 2021 1:13:46 GMT
For the first re-up, we have 'Degrassi Kids' writer Mike McPhaden chiming in on common problems in first time writing (mainly on TV pilots, but these are cross-transferable to short stories too). Many veteran writers chip in with food for thought on your stories, so do read the thread, including this tip from Jamie Mathieson that I think epitomizes the winning stories:
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Post by theillusiveman on Feb 7, 2021 1:45:51 GMT
Are short trips still happening?
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Feb 7, 2021 1:55:31 GMT
Are short trips still happening? Well they certainly haven't said they're not. Besides, never a bad time to flex creative muscles.
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Post by theillusiveman on Feb 7, 2021 2:08:07 GMT
Are short trips still happening? Well they certainly haven't said they're not. Besides, never a bad time to flex creative muscles. Just there has been no official announcement Mind you I wish that big finish could do something different I’m kinda bored with the whole short trips concept and feel that they could do something more
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2021 11:13:44 GMT
Well they certainly haven't said they're not. Besides, never a bad time to flex creative muscles. Just there has been no official announcement Mind you I wish that big finish could do something different I’m kinda bored with the whole short trips concept and feel that they could do something more I think it'd be better if they do download-only anthologies with just winning Paul Spragg entries, rather than have six stories in a single release like with the forthcoming Volume 11. Twelve Short Trips featuring each incarnation, in chronological order, but split into two or three volumes for every few months in the same year.
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Post by theillusiveman on Feb 7, 2021 12:45:16 GMT
Just there has been no official announcement Mind you I wish that big finish could do something different I’m kinda bored with the whole short trips concept and feel that they could do something more I think it'd be better if they do download-only anthologies with just winning Paul Spragg entries, rather than have six stories in a single release like with the forthcoming Volume 11. Twelve Short Trips featuring each incarnation, in chronological order, but split into two or three volumes for every few months in the same year. Honestly i perfer the one per month release date
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2021 13:45:45 GMT
I think it'd be better if they do download-only anthologies with just winning Paul Spragg entries, rather than have six stories in a single release like with the forthcoming Volume 11. Twelve Short Trips featuring each incarnation, in chronological order, but split into two or three volumes for every few months in the same year. Honestly i perfer the one per month release date Same. If only they had kept that format, they could've used some runner-up entries like with the Subscribers range.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Feb 7, 2021 14:57:59 GMT
Like every year, I will happily shill for the great advice of C. Robert Cargill (Sea of Rust, Doctor Strange, used to work at Spill.com) over on Twitter. Follow him on there, he regularly hands out detailed tips and all for free: He also has a podcast called Write Along, which is exactly what it sounds like, discussing different writing methods. writealongpodcast.com/
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Feb 13, 2021 1:34:28 GMT
Transplanting this over from the 'From the Pros' thread, because 1) the sheer novelty and 2) a lot of genuinely helpful advice on this thread from a veteran writer who has done a lot of fantasy, horror and sci-fi.
Need more convincing?
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Feb 25, 2021 23:20:36 GMT
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Mar 8, 2021 11:26:04 GMT
Novelist Gareth Powell offers a myriad of advice in this thread, both craft and career-wise:
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Mar 14, 2021 18:04:04 GMT
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Apr 8, 2021 11:18:36 GMT
I imagine there will be exchanging of stories or asking for notes or a second pair of eyes on stories, so do be respectful and mindful. Do as Lisa and Sarah Dollard advise:
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2021 22:01:13 GMT
I imagine there will be exchanging of stories or asking for notes or a second pair of eyes on stories, so do be respectful and mindful. Do as Lisa and Sarah Dollard advise: As an addendum: When revising, it can be very useful to treat your own reactions to feedback as a separate set of notes in and of themselves. It can be a good way of measuring how confident you are in particular ideas or sequences. If something doesn't quite land and you can re-explain it to yourself as: "What I actually meant was [X]," that's a possible way of rewriting the sequence so it's closer to your original intent.
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