Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Exercise for Edition - 5


Plot :    Arvind Passey

Judges: Deepa Duraisamy, Arvind Passey & Jayashree Srivatsan

Exercise:
Write a murder story which has an unexpected twist in the last paragraph, which is the first condition. The general tone of the story must evoke a good quality of humour... this is the second condition.
Now, in the above murder story, the characters included need to be one 50-something & two 20-somethings. Of the three characters, one need not be straight (a homosexual or a lesbian... choice is left to the writer). You have the freedom to choose all three males or even all three females. One must be tech-savvy and one needs to be impulsive.
The story must have an early morning walker discover the body of one of the three characters dangling from the mesh of cables and wires about above the ground in that narrow lane leading out from his block of flats to the main road.
No other conditions for the murder story.
It has to be a murder story that gives you the goosebumps and at the same time makes you laugh!

Rules for Exercise 5:

1. This exercise has no limits on POV characters but the narrative style has to be humorous.

2. No major characters other than the 50-year old and two 20-somethings. You can add minor characters as necessary including the early morning walker!

3. The story should not have any loose ends when it concludes and needs to end in a twist.

4. Word range:  Not less than 3000 words.

General ground rules:

1. The entry has to be sent by e-mail to the workshop e-mail id posted on FB along with Exercise declaration.

2. The entry should be in the body of the mail. Do not send as attachment

3. The body of the mail should contain (in order): Title of story, Author Name, Author Intro, Story. If an entry is not complete in all respects it shall not be considered a valid entry.

4. The post shall be carried in this blog. You are required to post in your blog either a link to your post on this blog or your entire post with a link to your post on this blog and give accreditation to Arvind Passey for the plot line. Once your entry is put up, the link to your entry shall be put up on the Indifiction group in FB – and within 48 hours of the link being put up on FB, you are requested to post in your blog and intimate the post link on FB. Otherwise, your entry shall be taken down from the blog.

5. The judges’ decision shall be final and the winners will be required to give the plot line, critique every entry as well as declare the winners of the next edition (Exercise 6). The judges of the previous edition – Nabanita, The Fool and Rajrupa - shall not be declared as winners in this edition even if their entries happen to be the best. This is in order to ensure that the load of judging does not fall disproportionately on a few.

6. Though it is not obligatory, we do request everyone to take the time to read and give constructive criticism on as many posts as they can possibly manage.

7. Please note that there shall be no extensions of deadline. If we face a situation of insufficient entries, we shall still close the exercise and proceed with the next with volunteer judges.

Timelines for Exercise 5:


Exercise 5 begins: Tuesday, 12th February 2013

Exercise 5 concludes: Sunday, 3rd March 2013, 11:59PM

Exercise 5 results/judges comments: Sunday, 10th March 2013

Exercise 6 begins: Sunday 17th March 2013

6 comments:

  1. What is POC characters , the first line in the Rules for Exercise 5

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you mean POV? Point of view. So the story can be from any character's point of view if you want to write in first person, or it doesn't matter even if it's second or 'fly on the wall' perspective. With some earlier editions, we have had restrictions on point of views for specific characters in order to write and improve specific point of views. But this one is open ended. Hope that helps!

      Delete
    2. Thanks, done with my write-up but do not have the email id to send it to. Raised a friend request on FB but not yet come through.
      Whom should I send my fiction to.......?

      Delete
    3. Thanks Deepa, I got that after googling. I completed my story but do not have the email-id to send it to. Raised a request on FB but it not yet gone through. Can wait till tmrw as its the deadline--wondering if I cna get the id to send it to?

      Delete
    4. Sure, just emailed and FB'ed you the details! I have also sent you a request to join the IFW group - invited by email - let me know if you got it else will do it through Facebook! Send your entry today itself if you can!

      Delete
  2. Is there any specified sequence in which the events have to take place or can we use our imagination? Specifically, can we begin by having the morning walker discover the body and then build back to the events?

    ReplyDelete

We love polite people but it is not necessary to be so polite that you will not even point out where we go wrong :) Please feel free to voice your constructive criticism.