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Friday, October 2, 2009

The Friday Challenge - 10/2/09

Looks like we had quite a turn out for this challenge, including snowdog's entry, which showed up only a few hours after the challenge was posted. As these entries don't really have titles, the name of the writer will the link to their entry.

snowdog

Vidad

Giraffe

Practical Mystic

Wes

Miko

rycamor

As always, even if you haven't submitted an entry this week—even if you never submit an entry in any week—you're invited to read, comment on, and vote for your favorite. Don't be shy about leaving feedback on the authors' sites, either. Writers thrive on knowing that someone out there is actually reading their words. The winner will be announced on Sunday.

And now for this week's challenge.

"The Climax"
Arisia requested some more challenges like the "Chapter 5" challenge that ran back in June. I've been giving that some thought and think I have something similar yet sufficiently different that it won't feel like a repeat.

You've been working on your novel for months on end, adding a few thousand words each week. Now, after nearly a year, you've got everything set for the big finish. All the characters and events you've been writing about for nearly a year exist solely to reach this point. You're finally ready for the big finish! It's time to write the rousing climax to your story!

Just to make sure I'm being clear about this, I'm not asking for the final chapter of the book. Using Star Wars as an example, Luke's trench run to destroy the Deathstar is the climax of the story. If you prefer The Lord of the Rings, the climax is when the One Ring is destroyed. Tolkein still had a lot of story left to tell, but he was wrapping everything up once the One Ring was gone and Sauron toppled.

Now it's your chance to skip writing all that beginning and middle stuff, scrap all that character development junk and get right to the big action piece in your novel! If you feel we readers will be lost, feel free to put a short synopsis of what has come before to bring us up to speed.

As always, we are playing by the loosely enforced Official Rules of the Friday Challenge and playing for whatever is behind Door #3. The deadline for this contest is midnight Central time, Thursday, 10/8/09.

Now, before I set you all free to start writing, I'd like to introduce a bit of change in the way entries may be submitted. If you're comfortable posting your entries on your blog and aren't worried about submitting them for publication in the future, please feel free to continue as you have been doing. If you're foolish brave enough to posting entirely in the comments section, soldier on. Just be aware that the Challenger Badge of Courage has already been awarded to Waterboy.

There is now a third option for posting -- drop.io. This is a website specifically designed to allow people to post documents into an online repository accessible only by those who know the URL and the password. Even better, you don't even have to bother going to drop.io to upload your document. You can attach it to an email addressed to the Friday Challenge drop and it will automatically be added to the repository. I have setup a drop for us to use and encourage any or all of you to take advantage of it. Later, when documents have been added to the drop, readers may add comments, just as they do on blogs.

Here's the URL for the drop:

http://drop.io/FridayChallenge

You may login as a guest using the password "challenge" (all lower case). You'll know you're in the right place because I added the logo Vidad designed for this site to the drop. I'll also be adding the link for the drop to this site, probably under the list of tabby wranglers. If you wish to submit a document by email, send the email to the address fridaychallenge dot drop at drop dot io. The site is incredibly easy to use, too.

One last word on documents sent to the drop. To insure everyone can open and read your document, I recommend submitting either a simple text file or using one of the many free applications that convert files to the PDF format. I've set the drop to list files in chronological order but it would also help if everyone began their file name with the date. I suggest the format yyyy-mm-dd, using the date on which the challenge was posted. A file submitted for this challenge would be titled "2009-10-01 My Title."

If you have any questions about using the drop, please don't hesitate to contact me at my tabby.wrangler email address.

Now, get busy writing the climax to that novel!
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