The Lost Cities challenge and other awesome things all the cool kids are clicking on · 10:31am Sep 7th, 2015
Hey folks,
If you've been following the Writeoff group (which you should be), you'll already know that we're in the finals of a great round based on the prompt "Distant Shores." My own (still anonymous) story is in the finals, and we'll know in a few days how it did.
The Writeoff has turned into something of an incubator for Lost Cities-style stories lately. In fact, I think every one of the past several rounds has had some sort of Lost Cities story, and now they're starting to get posted to Fimfiction. The latest is Keskiyonnon, by the inestimable Bradel, who tackles the fabled lost city of the Breezies:
Keskiyönnon
Northwest of Canterlot, perched high in the boughs of an ancient oak tree, there is a city of soaring towers and deep shadows.
So what is the Lost Cities challenge? Pretty simple, actually. Tell a story about a place:
- Without any characters
- any dialogue
- any action
- Using only description
- exposition
- supposition
... and somehow make it interesting enough for people to read. As always, this last part is the hardest.
The current round's Lost Cities-style story is Far Kobresia, which has an interesting twist at the end. It's also the first Lost City to make it to the finals! I don't know who the author is, but I'll be giving them a high-five after the results come out.
Unless they beat my story, that is. Man, that would be depressing. And confusing.
And while we're on the topic of the Writeoff, here's an outstanding story that just got posted today by a very trustworthy rodent. It did not make the finals, which is unfortunate, because it was one of the better stories from the round. Its style is a tad old-fashioned, and I don't think modern readers have much patience for stories that evoke Edgar Allen Poe or George Orwell. But if you give The Wealth of the World a chance, I think you'll be as impressed by it as I am:
The Wealth of the World
In the 19th century of Princess Celestia's rule, Equestria experienced an acceleration of its progress and prosperity as the first westward expansion began. Yet there were some ponies who took this call to progress as a warrant for ever more radical reform. In 1858, 148 ponies left Equestria to realize that radical dream. This is their story.
Finally, this showed up in my mail today!
A rather good reading by ChefSandy. Very crisp voice, with the energy you need for dramatic reading. If you're thinking of getting into readings, you could do much worse than to check him out.
I think Daetrin is contemplating a Lost Cities-style fic with regards to the ancient civilisations in his Apotheverse. Specifically, the haunted island or the icy ruins beneath the Dragon country. That would be sweet.
Also, very trustworthy rodent is totally not a masked ferret alt. Nope. No way.
I'm kind of shocked by this myself. When I did the writeoff draft of the above-mentioned story (right around the same time DuncanR came out with the excellent and blog-aforementioned "The Seal of Wax and Glass"), this didn't even seem to be a thing, but it's definitely taken off lately. Given that "Lost Cities" is one of the most successful instances of experimental storytelling in the fandom, though, I do think it makes an awfully good challenge for writers. I certainly liked the original when I read it, but the act of trying to write something similar really increased my respect for the difficulty bar you set in trying to tell stories that way. Working through one of my own was a great learning experience.
(And all y'all should try it, too! Especially if you've got any interest in the technical mechanics of storytelling.)
3375018
It's not exactly experimental storytelling, but I concur that it is difficult to get it right (and I love the style).
I may try something like that, once I find someone to iron out the creeping grammar horrors that seem to ubiquitously infest my stories.
3375025
After the recent discussion of Slavoj Žižek on the Writeoff chat, I'm seriously tempted to start trawling for SZ's super-user by calling everything "experimental storytelling" and seeing who bites.
3375027
It could work, some people can't really resist some kinds of bait, I seem to be among them.
I'm not SZ, just to be clear.
Regarding this storytelling style, Calvino did it in '72 with a slight narrative framework around each city, got a major publisher, a lot of reprints and is actually read by a large audience, so it really isn't very experimental anymore. Borges did it a few times, Lovecraft did it with mixed results, and I am sure there are tons of others I forgot.
I am also extremely ignorant about the classics, so I am some kind of lowest common denominator regarding literature.
3375009
Oh my god, I can only hope. :O
3375009
3375064
I have an alt? *blink blink* But i'm already Alexmagnet's alter ego...can you be more than two people, if one's a person and one's a mustelid?
Also, CiG, I think you're the one person with enough clout, skill, and ego to write stuff that would eventually morph into something that would take over the writeoffs. Curse your futuresight!
3375166
Also, ferrets aren't rodents. CHECKMATE, ATHEISTS >:B
I'd never heard of a "Lost Cities" challenge until now, despite being in the writeoffs for a while. I don't think I've read any stories like that either.
Kobresia is on my slate.
thanks for the plug.
Eventually we're going to run out of species though. Yes, Gardez, my "Lost Cities" challenge will be the lost city of twittermites, or perhaps that weird Sasquatch thing that inexplicably appeared in the comics that one time.
3375304
The Lost City of Ponies Whose Cutie Marks Involved a Horseshoe, Solyrna.
Actually, The Wealth of the World sounds exactly like my cup of tea. Thanks for the rec!
3375304
Well, there's nothing that says there can't be repeats. Or made-up stuff entirely.
I actually have a lost cities story planned. It would have been my entry into the last writeoff, but I felt like it wasn't closely related enough to the prompt. Or maybe I was just putting off writing it because I knew it would be hard.
3375513
Yes, that's the other route to avoid reduplication, impossibly narrow distinctions. The lost city of blue unicorns! Naturally, as 3375597 says, there's no specific rule against doubling up, but one worries about retreading old territory.
3375304
Has anybody done yaks yet? Yaks are cool.
3376060
Impossible. Yaks smash. Any lost cities they deemed to be less than perfect would have no appreciable remains for a stentorian-voiced narrator to muse over.
In fact, I'll write the Yak version now:
* * *
At the northern tip of the Equestrian landmass, far beyond the Crystal Empire and the modern Yak capital city of Llamasbad, there lies a large pile of mineral gravel.
The end.
* * *
EDIT: I suppose the Yaks named their capital city "Llamasbad" to express their feelings about llamas.
3376060 3376289
Ironically, Far Kobresia is a yak Lost Cities. (Well, sort of. I can't explain my equivocation without spoilers.) Worth reading if you've got some time.
3377300
Thanks for the rec! I am pleased to note it is not incompatible with my version!
3375304
3375597
Or maybe sequels:
To the current stories wherein Trenderhoof and his long-suffering assistants traipse through the various lost cities and wreak vast amounts of havoc?
Mike, Considering
3378222
I am now imagining a meta-narrative struggle between the stentorian-voiced narrator and the horrible wheezy Trenderhoof, the former trying to maintain the gravity and tragedy of the fallen cities and the latter just vapidly praising their authenticity. In my head, it's hilarious. Dunno how it would work in practice.
Also funny would be one where Pinkie Pie keeps breaking into her friends' houses and musing over them as though they were abandoned.
* * *
"Cast your eyes south and find a garishly-decorated building of blue and pink and lavender. The interior is filled with mirrors, as though its occupants enjoyed looking at themselves, either for reasons of vanity or the meticulous intolerance of any fault."
"Pinkie, darling. I'm not sure what game this is, but I'm trying to work and am furthermore frightfully busy, so if you could--"
"Glance for a moment at the strange needle-bearing machine along one wall, chugging ceaselessly away, dropping stitch after stitch into a seemingly-endless stream of fabric."
"Pinkie. Dear. If you please--"
"In fact, don't just glance at it. Look at it real close. Reeeally reeeally close. Stick your face right in there and take a nice long gawk at the needle going up and down and up and down and up and down."
"Pinkie Pie--"
"Watch even closer. Sit your rump down on top of the strange, lumpy, marshmallow-like cushion with spiraling purple fringe, being careful to avoid the hard, glowing point at one end--"
"Sweet Celestia, Pinkie Pie, get off my head!"
"Hear the moan of the wind through this ancient structure, a wind that might be imagined to form words..."
* * *
3378387
I actually had something similar to that in a half-written Writeoff draft. it was a Lost Cities meta-parody involving Rarity being overly dramatic over little problems, imagining them leading to the literal end of Ponyville. I think your idea with Pinkie is more entertaining though.
3378387
In my mind:
The whole thing would be a contest between Trenderhoof and some Pony version of Huell Howser, the two of them racing each other through the various Lost Sites, trying to produce the deepest and most-movingly profound reports on those places, and destroying them all in the process. I'm hoping, though, that nobody outside of California knows who Huell Howser is so I won't feel under any obligation to actually follow through on this...
Mike Again
3378714
Luckily for you, I'm not outside California!
3378387
This is gold (though maybe not California's Gold) and I personally would love to see more. Or, really anything that could be summed up as Pinkie Pie channels David Attenborough.
Actually, y'know what? I think this may call for GhostOfHeraclitus.
3379669
Hush! Do not speak the name of the Lord of Footnotes, lest ye summon him!
Ahem.
3388058
The, uh, first Lost Cities story to make it to the final round in a short story competition!
And are you ever gonna post that thing? C'mon, I have a brand to build here.
Ya know, with the rate these things are coming in, someone could do a decently cool archaeologist fic about... Oh wait, didn't I have an archaeologist character sitting around somewhere?
Hmmm.
I recently read Foehn's Aletheia and I feel it's amazing. Not as descriptive and implied as your originals Cold, but its idea is stellar. It's a bit more expanded than it was it the writeoff, which does wonders to mend its most cited flaw from the writeoff version's reviews. It's currently sitting at 127 views and I think that's, at the minimum, an order of magnitude of what it deserves.
Could you link it in the Lost Cities description where the others are? Or is it missing some criteria? I don't know too much about how this challenge works...
Anyways, you're awesome Cold in Gardez and I apologize for not being honest with how I favorite your stories. If I was, my bookshelf would be your stories section
And what would be the point of that