Following prompts

Falcon

It requires inspiration and discipline at the best of times to sculpt a creative work which engages the reader. Prompts curtail that creativity and corral the imagination into a specific theme: force the writer to refine his or her natural leanings.
It is therefore somewhat perturbing when a subject matter for a competition specified is seemingly trundled over by the proclaimed winner.
Let's take the Stiff Upper Lip prompt. Define. It is where a character is seen to prevail through adversity without complaint or dwelling on the hardships experienced.
In the winning short, the wrong perspective is chosen. An out and out mistake, because although we may seem to be uncomplaining, everyone feels sorry for themselves inside at least for brief episodes. It is the stoic external which presents the stiff upper lip and this cannot be presented with first person perspective.
It is only natural therefore that every little travail is mentioned and moaned about. Sure the character moves through them, but that is not having a stiff upper lip - that is perseverance. The difference may seem subtle, but it's actually quite profound.
It is thus that we are left with a taste in the mouth which shoppers might connect with a letter to the manufacturer mentioning the Trade Description Act.
We writers? We are expected to sit in silence and not point out the obvious, lest we upset the wayward. This is no reflection on the writer of a worthy and entertaining story in its own right; merely on the failure of judgement to stick to stipulated parameters.

snailmale

The problem of incompetent judges who have their own strange ideas of what they are looking for in a story is the main reason I've so far won bugger-all.

All one can do is maintain a Stiff Upper Lip and keep scribbling

Liz

Hmmm... but look at it another way. People normally describe someone else as having a 'stiff upper lip'. No-one usually describes themselves so. And no-one could possibly tell what someone else is feeling inside. They might be screaming.

To explore what someone who appears to have a stiff upper lip is actually like inside is in my view perfectly in order and doesn't take away from the fact
that they appear to have a stiff upper lip to the world. The reason for it, whether it's a front or an actual stiff upper lip, is immaterial.

Phots Moll

Prompts curtail that creativity and corral the imagination into a specific theme: force the writer to refine his or her natural leanings.

I disagree. Prompts are just that. They get us started, but it's up to us to use them as we see fit. It seems to me that the winner of the competition has done just that and the winning result reflects this.

Mrs Bear

A stiff upper lip is a front, after all - there for appearances when life presents a challenge. Rather like the duck, serene on the surface and paddling like billy-oh underneath.

Phots Moll

*cough* swan *cough*

Mrs Bear

Duck or grouse.

Liz

Which competition is this, PM?

Phots Moll

The stiff upper lip one.

Liz

My upper lip flopped some time ago.

Phots Moll

My bottom one has been known to tremble.

Lizy

My bottom has been known to do likewise.

Sympathies to Falcon, who may be feeling that we are trivialising what he/she clearly finds unacceptable. Not having read the story referred to I can only say that I agree with Photts Moll - a prompt is simply that - a nudge to the creative mind, not a strait-jacket.

Falcon

Yes, Liz, I believe I stipulate the definition in my third paragraph. Sorry to have gone one so long - it's easy to nod off. :P
Spot on, Mrs Bear ... a grouse?? Eh, not a water bird - you're not pouring Mr Bear's favourite tipple into the lake are you?

Phots Moll and Lizy ... ahem - prompts are exactly what I said; otherwise they are redundant. Curtail, corral, specific and refine are control words, not imprisoning ones. Your analogy to a strait-jacket is ludicrous.

If I give you a prompt for a story of "pineapple" - I'd would not accept a tale of a game warden's travails against poachers in Africa just because he ends a testing day with a pina colada on the porch.

Sympathies? Not at all, Lizy, I just feel the need to point out these aberrancies. It's like - why have a queue when people push in ahead.

Each is entitled to be frivolous or sit back and let the ill-mannered push ahead and make faces out the bus windows at you in the rain, while the driver whistles a happy tune.

They don't worry me in free competitions, but if misdefinitions becomes habit which spreads to competitions where a fee is charged, the process could reasonably be regarded as less than honest.

Phots Moll

Phots Moll and Lizy ... ahem - prompts are exactly what I said; otherwise they are redundant.

What you said, exactly, is "Prompts curtail that creativity and corral the imagination into a specific theme: force the writer to refine his or her natural leanings."

You may believe that, but it doesn't make it so. A prompt, in this context, means to inspire, give rise to and assist. It has other definitions, such as aiding an actor's memory and arriving on time, but none which inolve curtailing and corralling.

I further disagree that anything which doesn't force us to write in a particular way or on a set subject is 'redundant'. I believe that anything which helps free our imaginations and encourages us to be original is a good thing.

Pushing into a queue is very bad though. I do agree with you there.

Tiny Nell

I enjoy writing to prompts more than not and am much more likely to enter a writing competition if there is a theme.

To my mind, a prompt is just the planting of a little seed, and from that I would hope to grow something meaningful, the details of which are entirely my own creation.

However, I don't like unwieldy 'prompts'. By that, I mean over-detailed input. I am really turned off by (sorry, Webbo) the ones that crop up in WM where you are given a sentence with which to start a story.

I was a member of an online group where there was a monthly flash competition, but I stopped contributing because the prompt basically gave the outline of the story, e.g. your story must be heart-wrenching, and about Ben and Jane, an old couple who live in x and who discover a y only to find that it is an z.

And, yes, queue-jumping is a no-no.

Mrs Bear

I don't like the sentence prompts, partly because they are often not as I would write them - they're not in my voice. It's like asking me to write in a genre that isn't natural to me, or in the style of a well-known author.

snailmale

A prompt is what you make of it. If the judges don't like the result that's their hard luck.

dora

Wish I could be prompt. Always seem to be late, late, for a very important date.

Lizy

Rabbit.
:-))

Webbo

Noted! (even if I am later to the thread than Dora)
The ones I find particularly unwieldy, and which we're dropping without further ado, are the last line prompts - which have to be so generic as to be pointless.
First line and mid-story sentence do make an appearance next year but we've made them very very open and flat, so I don't think you'd struggle to make them fit any writing voice.

Johnnywriter

Noted! (even if I am later to the thread than Dora)
The ones I find particularly unwieldy, and which we're dropping without further ado, are the last line prompts - which have to be so generic as to be pointless.

First line and mid-story sentence do make an appearance next year but we've made them very very open and flat

Isn't that a little pointless too? What writer would be happy with a 'very very open and flat' sentence in their story?

Phots Moll

I like first line prompts to get me started - we often do things like that in my writing group, but then I rewrite the opening before I submit. Obviously you can't let people do that in a competition.

How about using a line of dialogue as the opening? That would be in the character's voice, not the authors.

I do prefer competitions with some kind of theme or prompt, rather than just writing anything at all in any genre.