Reflections on Reflections · 3:19am Jan 25th, 2015
I'm never doing that again.
Okay, not really.
But that was quite a strange ordeal.
See, what happens when you stress out and rush to get something done with an insanely short deadline is that you start to make mistakes. It didn't help that I wasn't sleeping well, and that the closer it got to the deadline I started to panic.
Anyway, long story short, I'm stupid.
In addition to Crack Javelin and Dinoguy1000, I'd like to thank very much Esle Ynopemos and Antsan for giving me a different perspective, one that I thought I couldn't fix due to time constraints. But it turns out I had the time and blah blah blah.
Basically, the story has a new ending now. it's not completely different, but the tone's a lot more focused and it provides a better balance between some elements and the pacing. It's still keeping in with my vision and what I wanted for the story, but I think it's more effective over-all not to derail the reading itself. It also allows for MUCH more freedom of interpretation. There's enough clues there to give a good image to people who can pick out the details, but it spells nothing out in of itself. Which is really, how it should have been.
If you've already read All In Bad Taste, I just wanted to let you know that there are changes (for better or worse). If you haven't yet read it, then I'm just posting this to let you know that there will probably be some odd talk about some things in the comments that don't necessarily apply any longer.
Either way, PHEW!
Next time there's a competition on, someone tell me on Skype, PLEASE.
Yeah, DannyJ. Do your fucking job.
Hey, I was trying to talk to you for months before the contest, and in our last conversation before that you said that you'd quit writing forever.
Do YOUR fucking job and go back to scaring little kids.
You heard me. Clown on, ye fucking clown-man.
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I QUIT BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU
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i.imgur.com/s71aPws.gif
The new ending does feel more deep and professional. I guess a story is considered to be better when it leaves the reader in the dark with things so that it can be more thought provoking and all that fancy stuff. But I don't know. The first ending with dialogue and more descriptions, even if it was kind of an exposition dump, was still good to me. It irks me a bit when there are too many implied things or loose ends that I have to decide for myself. I guess I just like my stories to be a bit more concrete.
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Well, there's no argument about if it's 'better' or not because I don't believe in that. I believe that everything has a place and time. Telling VS showing is only something that should be done on a case by case basis. That said, though, after enough prompting came in to make me sit down and have a serious think about it, I had the opportunity to help capture the mood more with the changes. Something I think works better to the tone and flow of the story.
In fact, my two usual suspect editors also had no problem with the exposition explosion ending, but to us, both methods would have worked.
I made a call that others informed me wasn't working, so I went with the other option. Usually I DO get these flashes to change things quite often during any one of my story-writing processes, and I have done before, but in this case I thought the contest ended a day before it actually did, and therefore I kind of 'shut my brain off' near the tail end of writing it, if that makes sense. With more time and more feedback I was able to re-tool and readjust it to fit for a more intense ending that is by all accounts preferable for this kind of story. Sorta like a twist ending to a Twilight Zone episode. It's always quick, to the point, and mysterious. If it went on and on and talked shit forever, it would be illuminating, but emotionally unsatisfying. So, that's what happened.
Now, I know for a sure that there's always gonna be people wanting the details and there's always gonna be people wanting the mood.
But I do want to make a stronger impact.
Be it a particularly selfish reason, it IS for a contest, after all, so I'd better bring my A game, ya know?
But regardless, thanks for actually coming back to me with your thoughts. It indeed gives me a broader perspective of this.
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Eh, I guess you're right. The mood is better kept in the second ending. Your Twilight Zone comparison helped me to see that.
And thank you for giving me your thoughts on my thoughts. Not everyone spares the time to do that.
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Yeah, but you're Mr. Spiffy, man. How could I NOT?
I look forward to reading your new, improved story.
I don't look forward to crying a corner when I finally admit that I sold all my free time to the man and will never read your new, improved story. Or anybody's new, improved story. Or anybody's old, terrible story.