This Challenge is now Closed to NEW entries - continuations of existing ones are accepted though
Apologies for the repeat submission of this journal, but the original keeps dropping it's custom skin and reverting to 'no skin' for NO REASON and I'm trying to fix it!
There's something highly personal and exciting about being put into the shoes of the character in a story, not simply as a passive bystander, but as the driving force behind every action they make. We're gripped with the thrill of the unknown, when forced to shoulder the burden of knowledge, that every choice we make can either lead to success (be it, escaping the room, finding the treasure, or just snaring the heart of that perfect fictional partner...). We endure the highs and sense of accomplishment our labours bear, or if you've ever read Fighting Fantasy novels, the devastating lows of making the wrong choice and falling down some godforsaken pit somewhere or being turned to stone for stealing that glittering goblet you didn't really need but couldn't pass up. We all make mistakes right?
We've all come across them at one point or other, and whether you love 'em or hate 'em, 'choose your own adventure' stories are eternal.
And so for this Writing Challenge, we're trying something a little more 'community' related, putting you in the driver's seat as it were, and giving you the opportunity to lead the story down whatever twists and turns you'd like to throw at your hapless victims.
Your TaskWe're throwing you in to the thick of things with the first step of your journey - and leaving you with a few choices at the end.
It's up to you, to pick one, and write the next step of the adventure.At the end of each 'round' we'll be holding a poll to determine which outcome your fellow members and participants believe is the one they'd like to progress the story with - and from there, the next round will begin, using the 'winning' extract as the new starting point.
It is entirely possible to 'win' consecutive rounds. This activity is open to everyone and we may even (optimistically) end up with more than one path where the story diverged into separate 'takes' - each of which is exciting in its own right.
After a cave-in separated you from Urqhart and the rest of your companions, you and Race have been left to fend for yourself in the dark. Our next segment was written by
keeper-loves-writing and introduces the possibility that a lot more than you expect may have been hidden from you all along.
Be sure to visit the original source of this segment and leave your comments or thoughts“Shut up” you whisper-beg him for the trillionth time. “Shut up, shut up,
shut up or I'll kill you!”
He throws a bitter hateful laugh at you, nothing more than one resentful “Ha!”, but it stops you dead-cold in your tracks. It stops everything except for the tapping, so loud, so near, almost there and you feel the panic rise in your throat. Because you can't do that. None of that. Kill him, outrun these creatures, on their territory, with your injuries and no sense of direction, in the darkness with nothing more than five light sticks to see where …
“Light.”
Light can protect you. They told you that!
“Give me the light sticks!”
You use your free hand to grab the pack, but he yanks it away and starts pulling your arm again, insulting you, cursing you and telling you what a terrible person you are. He is louder than the tapping and somehow that helps. You start shouting back at him because what difference does it make now anyway? Lucky for you, it also distracts him, gives his mind something else to process and lets you reach into the pack. You try to find the light sticks but your hand touches something else. You recognize the wooden shaft of the hatchet and shudder. Race's breath catches in his throat and suddenly the tapping is there. Then his insults turn into terrified screams and he lets go of you to shield himself from the on-coming attack. You grab the pack and rummage for the light sticks, but when you finally find one, it is already too late. A tingling sensation of heat at your back, then something touches it.
You scream, snap the light stick and yank it out of the pack. The shriek fills the tunnel before you even whirl around, but when you do, it turns into an agonized hiss. For a second you catch a glimpse of something that will add an entire new dimension to your nightmares. Then it vanishes – back into the tunnel, into thin air, you don't know and it doesn't matter as long as it's gone. There isn't any tapping anymore either, but you're not sure if this is a good sign or a bad one. Are the Tappers gone or are they just … waiting? Adjusting?
No. They are not adjusting. That would just be unfair. They can't do that.
“It worked.”
Race sounds surprised and somehow that sets you off. You barely manage to keep your voice at a whisper when you turn around and face him. “Yes, it worked! And if you hadn't thrown such a fit, we wouldn't have come so close to dying!”
In the light you can see more of him than you would have wished for, above all how resentful he looks now as he narrows his eyes. “You threatened to kill me.”
He has a point, but you are not going to admit that. You are not going to admit anything. Instead, you keep your voice indifferent. “Me, them, what difference would it have made?”
He grimaces. “You're an asshole.”
“No, you're an asshole.” And a damn ungrateful one, too. You saved his life and this is what you get?
He looks at you, all of a sudden with an almost smug look on his face. “And now?”
How should you know? You already managed to pull off the stunt with the light. What else should you do? As a civilian. As a plain and normal nobody who relied on the promise that Urqhart would do everything in his power to guide you safely through the tunnels. It's not up to you to …
“Are you going to kill me now?” Race interrupts your train of thought and for a moment you are dumbfounded. Then you understand the look on his face. It's not smugness, it's still fear. You look at him, his jammed body, the dust in his hair and the blood on his face and cannot help but pity him. You slowly shake your head. “No. I'm not going to kill you.”
“Good.” His voice is only slightly shaking. “Then get me out of here.”
You raise your eyebrows and he hisses: “What? You said you wouldn't kill me. Leaving me here would mean nothing else!”
He is right and you start wondering whether you made a promise you won't be able to fulfill. “Getting you out of there might take a lot of time and I won't be able to carry you.” But this is not what he wants to hear. You need to come up with something else. “I'll go back and find help.”
That's not so bad. You could actually do that, but he just sneers at you. “You're just going to leave me here.”
You feel offended. At the same time the thought starts creeping into you head that it might not be the worst idea to actually do that. Then you dismiss it. It wouldn't be the right thing. “I'll try to climb back up. Let's see …”
You lift the light, but before you can make out details, Race's voice draws your attention back to him. “No! You are not going to leave me here.”
Paranoid bastard. “I'll just try to find Urqhart and then we'll have a better chance –”
“Urqhart is not going to help us!” he almost shouts and you flinch. “Stop shouting!”
The Tappers might be warded off by the light, but who knows what else is out there – and how close. It reminds you of the fact that a light stick like this only lasts about half an hour and that there are no more than four left in Race's pack. Two hours and a bit. You should get going. Maybe you should try to uncover your own pack. Or really try to climb up there. Or anything else. Just do something.
“Urqhart is not going to help us,” Race insists. “Not when it was his job to get rid off us in the first place.”
“What?”
“Think about it! Why do you think nobody ever hears back from …”
He stops himself as something shifts above your heads. You freeze and try to identify the sounds. It could be anything – shifting rocks and rubble that will cause another slide and bury you for good, another moaning terrifying creature, or exactly what you hoped for: someone who came back to look for you. Isn't that a voice up there? You really, badly want it to be a voice …
Choices
A) Hope that there is someone above you who is there to help you, and make yourself noticed.
B) Keep talking to Race and try to find out what he meant.
C) Reconsider and flee (with or without Race's backpack).
D) Try to find your own backpack in the rubble to have more resources.
E) Try to free Race before whatever/whoever comes down there reaches you.
Well we can't tell you when to stop, but we have a word limit and the hope is that you will stop to offer a choice at a suitable cross-roads in the journey when a choice is required - such as, taking the left path, down a tunnel which smells of sulphur and heat, or the right path down a tunnel of glittering jewelled statues of ominously familiar shape...
Important Things To Bear In Mind
Feel free to expand upon the world in any way you see fit, but remember to also leave room for your fellow collaborators to pick up where you left off, so try not to cement too many details.
You MUST provide at least two choices for the character to make at the end of your segment, giving your fellows a few options to pursue.
You MUST write in the 2nd Person POV. Not sure what this is? Well it is when the reader is invited to take the place of the main character, and the narrator (that's the author) addresses all actions and plot in terms of 'you'.
Limiting factors. Yes all lit needs them. Even superheroes have limits and weaknesses. Your character should have them too. Remember that if your character just fell down a steep slope and twisted an ankle, their mobility will not be 100% and they can't do parkour up the nearest wall...Provide limiters.
Do not kill off the main character. It had to be said! Not just yet anyway. Please don't throw them into impossible-to escape predicaments, provide at least ONE situation which may lead to survival or success. This can be as obvious as you like, or allow wiggle-room for writers to do their thing.
Use resources provided, if they have been. Please don't magic things out of thin air - your character may find useful items, but not 'just have them'. If the character was robbed and stripped naked by a band of robbers, then tossed into a bearpit to fight for their amusement, they can't produce a shank to defend themselves against that rampaging bear...unless they had it hidden somewhere invasively intimate which requires them to squat and cough to dislodge - (at which point I would assume they'd also have extreme internal haemorrhage and be unable to fight a wild animal in mortal combat anyway). See how ridiculous that just sounded?
These are of course, simple guides for you to keep in mind, by no means are we limiting creative freedom as we want you to have fun with this and exercise your situation-writing skills.
Challenge Specifications
Word count - max 2,000 - 4,000
One entry per round please
No pre-existing storilines, worlds, or characters please, use what you're given. This challenge is as much an exercise in decision making as it is working with what your fellow collaborators have provided. You may expand upon the world and setting to your heart's content, but bear reason in mind, we don't want to stint the creativity of others by introducing impossible concepts or dead-ends.
Please submit entries to the Writing Challenges folder and ensure you mention that it's for the activity - so admin know! All other group rules apply.
This Round Ends
Saturday April 28th 2018
Extension on demand
A Note on The last ChallengeOur
previous challenge is still open to collaborators currently in it, despite the introduction of the new one. All challenges will remain open beyond their end date.
I didn't participate in this one but I will in the next.