LitWit Challenge 3.6: 1,000 words (updated with Yucch-meter)
We have writing contests and we post pictures of rugby players, so here’s the Weekly LitWit Challenge with the photo of a rugby player.
That’s Oliver Saunders, a member of the Philippine rugby team since 2007. He is the fly half and the designated kicker. Oliver is the eldest of the Filipino-English Saunders triplets (they’re not really triplets).
This photo was shot in Noel’s hallway. It’s too yellow because I did not adjust the white balance on the camera. The carpet is a Persian runner obtained at an auction to benefit the In Touch hotline for the troubled and depressed. The poster of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet was defaced by Ricky. The evil Barbie was designed by James. The cactus died because somebody sat on it. Those are eucalyptus leaves. If you want to get literary-criticky about it, Baz Luhrmann, eucalyptus and Oliver are all from Australia.
Now ignore all the aforementioned details.
This is LitWit Challenge 3.6: In 1,000 words or less, write us a story about this picture. What happened here? Who is that and why is he sitting on the carpet in the hallway? As always we accept entries in all genres—mystery thriller, science fiction, etc, bonus points if the story involves rugby (the sport).
The prize:
Which I will present to you personally. We’ll do coffee with my five favorite entries.
Deadline: 11.59 pm (Manila time) Saturday, 18 September 2010. Post your stories in Comments.
Any questions?
The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore. So here’s national rugby player Matt Saunders reading a book he chose himself.
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I just came from the bookstore, where the staff showed me a stack of unclaimed prizes for the Weekly LitWit Challenge. We can’t be clogging their shelf space, and I don’t have serfs to deliver your prizes or make other arrangements (even if you offer to pay for them, there being a shortage of slaves). So here’s what’s going to happen. We’ll give you until 15 October to have your prizes picked up (If you live abroad, send someone, there are no documents required). If they still haven’t been claimed by that time, we’ll give them away to other contestants.
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Wednesday. Our first entry has arrived, and with it the word of the day: “Agalmatophilia” by Qsdn. So that’s what it’s called. We do not require the entries to include all the elements in the photo, but Qsdn wove them into the tale anyway. “Agalmatophilia” is short, intense and twisted (in Seiko movie terms, Machete by way of Blusang Itim). Looks like we’re going to need stronger stuff for the prize presentation.
Who wants the Borges and who will join us for drinks? The bar has been set, we await the challengers.
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angus25 has taken up the gauntlet. His entry doesn’t have a plot, but there is an attempt to include rugby. For a moment I thought there would be an incest angle, yikes, but he stopped at repressed gayness. That’ll probably get you beaten, but some people are into that. I’m kidding, thanks for joining the contest.
Where are your stories?
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Thursday.
cochise_miz: Short and evocative, yes. And the most wholesome story we have received so far this week. I wonder if the tone of this week’s entries would be different if we had used another photo from the series.
stellalehua: Thank you for that song co-written by David Byrne. If you win you’ll have to share the prize. Nooooo, don’t say that about the knee! Your country needs those knees. Quick, say something nice about them.
cdlaclos: Taroush! According to our consultants your story has the ring of authenticity. Except for one vital detail: the shirt is from Collezione C2 (Rhett, daarling, love the shirts).
jake: Somebody’s been reading…Denis Johnson? Raymond Carver? Tobias Wolff?
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Friday.
sad_ism: I’m impressed. Borges? Calvino?
The stuff about multiverses reminded me of this photo:
Jake Letts, scrum half, at the multiversal mirror.
Observe the bubbles in the mirror: you can see the photographer. I was very pleased with myself until I realized that at the center of the picture is a roll of toilet paper. Reminding me that my best efforts all go to shit (That sounds depressing, add haha), haha.
Elizabeth assigned this LitWit Challenge to her students in the creative writing elective at their high school. She submitted the entries by Janely, Carem, and Charmaine.
Janely, I like your science-fiction approach to the assignment. Although we call it fiction, the science underlying the plot has to be solid so I would suggest reading more on DNA, chromosomes, and how they work. Genetic engineering is the subject of some terrific novels: the one that immediately comes to mind is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. You could watch the film version Blade Runner, and if you like it, read the novel. There’s also the film Gattaca. Novels and movies about genetically-engineered humans are interesting because they raise the question of what makes a human being. Are clones less human because they are not natural-born? What is humanity anyway?
As for your story, you gave away the plot in the first paragraph. Stories tend to be more enjoyable if there is some kind of build-up: you reveal the information in stages, and towards the end you drop the whammy. Good try, keep writing.
Carem, your story has the makings of a twisted psycho-thriller. Perhaps the parents’ death was not an accident? That would explain the need for life-size dummies. You also crammed too much information in the first paragraph instead of doling it out in stages. You could start with a description of the grandfather and his house, then the absent parents, then the grandchildren. Then you introduce the traumatic event and how the children deal with it. After that, if you want to make it a thriller, you raise doubts about the accident.
It is interesting to note that your classmates looked at the photo and saw perfection, but you saw a disorder. Maybe you have a different way of seeing things. Always useful for writing.
Charmaine, I like how your structured your story, you know how to build up the tension. But if there was a car crash and stitches were required, why isn’t the patient in the hospital? Did he escape from the hospital? Amnesia is a tricky plot device, but when handled well it can produce something like Mulholland Drive by David Lynch. The neurologist Oliver Sacks has written many fascinating books about amnesia and other neurological conditions. In The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat there is a case study of man whose mind is permanently stuck in the 1940s; he can’t remember anything that happened afterwards.
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Saturday.
Dear Teacher. We are flattered that you would consider our contest a proper assignment for high school children. We appreciate their efforts, really. However, homework is the last thing these contests are intended for. They are an amusement, an outlet for imaginative people with too much time on their hands.
Also it cramps our style, knowing that children are reading our stories. We do not want to have to apologize for our twisted thoughts. We enjoy having them.
From hereon readers have to be 18 years or older to participate in the Weekly LitWit Challenge. That’s it.
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kindler: Although we are fans of Bob Fosse, have seen All That Jazz many times, and agree that Baz Luhrmann is just not on that level, I cannot think of anyone less like Joel Grey than our model. Unless your speaker is the Barbie. (And I suspect Joel Grey would not disparage Elton and Madonna, who have not only advanced the interests of gays in showbiz but are in a position to hire him.)
Momelia: You’re going to cast me as the serial killer, aren’t you. No.
jediknight: You have a good ear. Your characters talk like real people do. Well, real people in America. I have a gay friend named Jesus. We call him Chus.
Readers, you have about three hours left to submit your story for a shot at the Borges and an invitation to drinks on Saturday. So far we have tales of sexual attraction to dolls, repressed homosexuality, the morning after a night of debauchery, Talking Heads, photographers and macho dancers, advice to lovelorn friends, alternate universes, engineered superhumans, abandoned children, amnesia, narcolepsy, crime, Joel Grey, and closet queens who call themselves Jessica. What else have you got?
This afternoon I had merienda at Cibo with one of last week’s winners, jake. We were expecting miss_o, who didn’t show. Jake has read 2666 all the way to the end. He already had a copy of Open by Andre Agassi so I gave him The Moustache/The Class Trip, two short novels in French by Emmanuel Carrere translated into English. As proof of the meeting I asked a waiter to snap a photo—trust me, this is not a common occurrence—but jake doesn’t want his picture posted. Turnabout! Here is edited proof that I will meet this week’s winners on Saturday.
45 minutes to deadline.
dibee: Excellent twist on the three wishes story. Twilight Zone-y. Reminds me of the episode where the devil appears to a physicist and offers to grant him a wish. Ever read John Collier? An influence on many writers including Ray Bradbury.
Momelia: This morning I woke up with a dry throat and nasal congestion. I went out for brunch, drank three pots of tea and felt better, but by 5pm I had a fever. It went away after a long nap, but my nose was still clogged. Then I read your story and the laughter propelled the trapped snot out of my nose. Thank you! Since you describe yourself in your blog as my female impersonator, then the PK in your story is you. (Amsterdam is not a country.)
sarcasm: Ooh, drama. Your details are so specific. I hope this story has nothing to do with real life.
pantas_magoria: Because you asked nicely, and because I just took cold meds that cause a pleasant wooziness, I will extend the deadline until 12 noon tomorrow.
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