April | Week Three, Act III | Reading List and Voting Poll

[eadard00dlesandcheese]

Ho Flames! What cheer?

We are down to the third Act, the final scenes of retaliation, recovery, and revelation. RicoChey inspired us with another quote of the Bard - "The Devil can cite scripture for his purpose."

This was taken from The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene III and was spoken by Antonio against the money lender Shylock. [ASIDE] Another instance of Shakespeare influencing our modern language. Shylock is now used as a slang term for loan sharks that charge impossible interest rates and are ruthless in their pursuit of repayment. Prior to Shakespeare's use of it, the word or name shylock had never been heard.[]

In the scene, Shylock is rationalizing his profession by making an example to Antonio on why interest should be due the money lender and retells a story from the Bible to make his point. Antonio, who professes to never lend money for the purpose of gaining a profit, says his piece about the devil to his friend Bassanio directly after. Thus begins the drama in The Merchant of Venice which erupts around a cultural conflict that was highly discussed in Shakespeare's time.

Where did our writers find their conflict? Was it personal, cultural, internal? Let's slip in to find out.

Your reading list:

Title: Ilya's story.
Author: bluegerl
Words 1995.
Warnings. I suppose. It is a gangster story.

Title: Cite the Dying
Author: Kathy/darlinleo
Word Count: 265
Cento Poetry

Title: Willa the Wisp Act 3
Author: skyllairae
Word Count: 744
Warnings: none

Title: The Devil You Never Consider
Author: jlly_Tami
Word Count: 2,680
Warnings: None

JFF

Title: A King Falls.
Author: bluegerl
Word Count: 712
Warnings: a death, of course.

The polls close by 11:45pm on Wednesday (EDT).
With this competition the goal is to write a four part story, so we will suspend weekly eliminations and choose the best, complete work that meets the three acts and an epilogue criteria at the end of the month. There will be a poll each week to provide feedback for the writer on how well received their story was, but the votes that choose a winner will not happen until May 1st.

Remember when you are voting to consider how well the writer has met the criteria given.

The contest is now closed to new competitors, but we encourage any latecomers to submit as JFF if their inner bard is provoked by a prompt.

Be sure to spread some comment love, let your fellow writers know they are appreciated. If it's an off-site blog and you have trouble with commenting, feel free to share your comments here and we'll pass them along. In fact, I encourage you to share some [constructive] public thoughts below with the community. Let's talk about what we read, together.

We love it when our Embers write, but we also need the community to come together and read what's being submitted. Even if you didn't have time to write this week, please take a few minutes to read and encourage your friends to read as well. Share our fire!

VOTING POLL

Manic Monday

[ricochey]

Good morn’, Flames.

The voting for Week Three is open.

The topic has been launched for Week Four — what shape does your Epilogue take?

The last few days of APAD are ticking away — check it out here.

My biggest writing project was meant to be a massive collaboration between myself and a friend. That friendship has since fallen apart and the rights (and work) have all been passed onto me. It’s looking like it’s gonna take at least five books to cover, so it’s going to be a huge undertaking every step of the way.

This happens to me fairly routinely. People come to me — “Hey, Cheyenne, you know how you can do that writing thing? Well how I about I tell you an idea and you just, like, write it?” It’s happened at least four times, and the pitch is identical every time. They tell me what they want, and I do the labor. The only reason the first one took on such a life of its own is because I contributed a great deal of the intellectual material, so it still feels like my own. The other endeavors, however, feel a lot like work.

The most recent project comes from my own boyfriend, who can write a bit, but apparently not enough. He has a brilliant mind and a vivid imagination, so stepping inside his ideas is always enjoyable. What isn’t enjoyable is trying to make sense of the timeline of his ideas. He’s one of those people who thinks “a guy shows up and saves everyone with a magic weapon” is sufficient to fill the bulk of 400 pages, because “that’s what happens!” It takes a lot of interrogation to get him to put fine detail on every single thought he has. As a writer (and a talker), I have difficulty tolerating his succinct nature. As a man of few words, he has difficulty understanding what my problem is. We’re a match made in heaven. I’m looking forward to the project, but this hang up may kill me.

Have you ever, or are you currently collaborating to complete a literary project? If not, have you ever considered it? Why or why not? What might be most difficult for you?