They know. They know and they don't care. I don't know how all of this
will turn out but I'll tell you one thing, it's got to stop! There are others like
me, and we're not going to survive this mandating much longer !

It used to be that you had the freedom to express yourself however you
wished. It was up to you to do whatever it took to get your ideas across.
Not any more ! No, now they want "minimums", just to qualify ! Yeah, can
you believe it, "minimums"! God, I can hardly bear it anymore ! They're
sapping the freaking life right out of us . . . just so they can get their
"minimum" daily allowance . . . of words. Yes . . I said words. What the hell
is wrong with them ? Don't they know how it works ?

Everytime, and I mean "every"-time, . it takes its toll. For some reason
there's a limit . . . on the number of words I can provide . . before the pain
becomes unbearable !

I want to be a writer, I really do ! But this lifestyle is killing me ! I believe
it's stress, stress caused by continuous new requirements to provide
"minimum" contributions . . when in fact . . the very process of extruding
a certain number of words is . . to me . . life-threatening ! At the rate I'm
going, I'll probably die soon from longwinded-ness and this verbose style !

Rarely have I ever passed two hundred words without having to resort to
my favorite adult beverage . . a glass of fine red wine. It relaxes me, and
lets me continue without any of the usual fears. Three hundred words and
I'm having anxiety attacks ! My body stiffens up and my breathing gets
difficult. I begin to drink more of my fine wine, and I drink it faster. Aspirin
becomes the "go-to" guy ! Yet it rarely eases the pain.

I'm still recovering from a story I submitted a couple of months ago, where
the "minimum" entry had to be a thousand words. Are you freaking kidding
me ? A thousand words ? Mandatory ? I remember passing out and
evidently I fell to the floor, suffering a serious concussion and a broken
nose. Thought I was a goner that day !

Why do they continue to put restrictions on our submittals ? Don't they
know how it works ? For every "extra" word they demand from us, ancient
authors haunt our dreams, sitting beside us as we compose, and scrapping
their nails across some unseen blackboard somewhere, trying to tell us to
keep it simple, and keep it short. I've begun to hear strange voices in my
head, especially when I'm writing, that ask me things like "Don't you know
what a short story is, stupid ?"

To say that I'm worried about it would be an understatement ! I'm scared !
Scared as hell ! Just picking up the pen is enough to set things off. One
time, yeah . . this one time, I was writing a very cool horror story when
suddenly I found myself jabbing the pen over and over again into my other
hand, . . for no apparent reason. ( But I think it had to do with being a
bit too wordy! ) Another time I actually stabbed myself in the forehead with
my pen . . because something was telling me it was time to stop.

My head hurts now. I mean it really hurts . . badly ! They've done it to us
again. No submissions under five hundred words ! It's driving me . . . over
the edge . . . crazy. Crazy I tell you ! When I hit four hundred words this
time . . I had to bang my head against the damn wall to let out . . more
words ! I felt their reluctance to appear.

Why can't we say the same thing, only in simpler terms ? With less words ?
eg.- Someone could say, " He went to the bathroom and did his duty."
eg.- I could say . . "He shat !"
See how simple that is ? Not a lot of double-talk there !

A few tidbits to think about.
"Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means"
K. Kawana
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
Leonardo da Vinci

"Simplicity is the direct result of profound thought."
Anon

This has got to be a freaking conspiracy ! They demand from us works of
compound, and nothing profound. They continue to require works that may
be inflated . . in proportion to the sense or content.

There are others like me . . out here in storyland . . screaming in the dark,
night after night . . saying . ."Please, Jesus, just give me twenty-five more
words, will you ? That's not too much to ask is it, . .just twenty-five more
words . . just twenty-five measly words . . to meet the minimum ?"

I'm thinking the next contest should have a minimum of 50,000 words. I like reading short stories so much.

Whaddaya think?






[edit on 19/11/09 by masqua]

Made me laugh. What a nice read. Good Luck in the contest!

I wouldn't mind a 50,000 word limit though.

I hope I didn't miss the boat here. I wrote about my favorite topic
here at ATS, . . writing. It was supposed to be a comical take-off of
the requirements for qualifying to write a story . "The Flow" . . .
being the rules, my take, being . . ."against the flow".
But then I started reading everyone elses' stories and now I realize
that maybe I should've chosen a more substanial topic.

Maybe I'll change it down the road.

Originally posted by SIEGE
Maybe I'll change it down the road.

You can change it ten times (a suggested maximum only) if you like.



Just post your new story and U2U me. I'll take the [AFWC] off the ones you've decided not to submit

... I know how you feel . My story is exactly 500 words ,

.... and really , only the last 200 were necessary !

it seems most stories are written in reverse order .

... the ending worked out first , the beginning and middle ,

an agonizing , drawn out , lead up .

..... and as for 50 ,000 ?

NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !

I agree with the OP 100%. I stab myself and blackout if I have to be long winded too. HEY! there should be a section for Short Short stories. 50 words MAXIMUM.

Very funny and unique offering!!

For those of us afflicted with verbositis, however, it's no laughing manner. What, I have to pare my ramblings down to 500???? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


Good job, very creative!