Season 21
Theme 1000 (2)
You can choose your genre and writing style (diary / article / story / poem / extract from a longer work /monologue / news item / blog / recipe – anything goes), but unlike the open page, for these challenges you will need to write that entry on a common theme. Whether you interpret the theme literally or laterally is up to you, but other Alphas must be able to recognise the theme in your work (so not too obtuse).
The 1000 word count is a maximum. You can write a shorter piece if you wish, but not a longer one.
The theme for this time is:
Sunshine
Challenge 6
It’s around this time of year that people’s thoughts often turn to arranging holidays for the summer. With that in mind, your sixth challenge this season is on the topic of travel.
Your task is this:
You’re about to embark on a journey to somewhere you’ve never been before. It might be a real place, or somewhere entirely imaginary. It might even be a figurative journey into the psyche.
Are you taking anyone with you? What made you decide to choose that place? What preparations are necessary for your trip? What do you experience along the way? How does it change you, if at all?
In no more than 300 words, write about this journey, either as a fictional or nonfiction piece.
Challenge 5
This time’s challenge is a straightforward one. You have a word limit of 300 words (maximum!), you have a subject – graffiti – which you can interpret in any way you choose. What you write is entirely down to you. It can take any form (fiction or non-fiction, play, poem, article, diary – whatever you feel like writing).
1st place Fanny 20 points, 2nd place Morgen & Liz 9 points each, 3rd place Mike 8 points
Leader board
Sally 1st place 21 points
Morgen 2nd place 14 marks
Francesca 3rd place 13 marks
Liz 4th place 12 marks
Colette, Fanny and Mike in joint 5th place with 11 marks each
Open Page
The Open Page allows members to share their personal writing with fellow Alphas. It is a much wider – and looser – concept than the challenges as there is no brief. Novel extracts, short stories, flash/micro/macro/nano fiction, fragments, recipes, drama, poetry, non-fiction, biography, memoirs, experimental pieces, rants; articles about writing, words, grammar, politics, ethics, other art forms etc. are all suitable. Find something I haven’t mentioned and submit it to the Open Page!
There’s only one restriction on the Open Page: you should limit the word count to 1,500. Consider the average Alpha attention span!
Your Open Page entry should be preceded by a brief introduction stating the genre of the piece and the word count. Add any other useful information: why and when you wrote it; any particular advice you’d appreciate etc.”
1st place Francesca 12 points, 2nd place Sally 11 points, 3rd place Ros, Christine & Morgen with 7 points each
Leaderboard
1st place Sally on 20 points
2nd place Francesca on 12 points
3rd place Morgen on 11 points
4th place Colette on 10 points
5th place Mike and Liz on 9 points each
Challenge 4
the next challenge is one on Character development –
Your Mission should you choose to accept it is to write 300 words from the point of view of your character about absolutely anything but in a way that gives us a deep insight into his or her personality without using self-description.
Usual rules apply – no more than 300 words – title not included in the word count, but a title would be good.
1st place Liz and Sally with 11 points each, 2nd place Mike 9 points, 3rd place Colette and Francesca 8 points each
Leaderboard
1st place Sally 17 points
2nd place Morgen and Colette with 9 points each
3rd place Francesca, Liz and Mike with 8 points each
Challenge 3
It’s my pleasure to host the next challenge, and that challenge is to –
Write a diary entry the day after the internet was finally turned off and you no longer have access to any of the things it gave you.
Usual rules apply – no more than 300 words – title not included in the word count, and please do try and come up with a title if you can
1st place – Colette 11 marks, 2nd place Jane – 9 marks, 3rd place Martin, Mike, Francesca and Fanny with 7 marks each
Leaderboard
1st place Sally – 13 points
2nd place Morgen – 8 points
3rd place Colette – 7 points
4th place Francesca and Christopher – 6 points each
Theme 1000 #1
Hello fellow Alphanauts
Pin your ears back for here we have something completely different – well, new anyway.
Each season we have the regular 300 word challenges plus a number of extended challenges. We’ve been doing three extended challenges per season, with a maximum word count of 1500 and they were called Open Pages.
This season we’ve mixed it up slightly.
We’ll have one Open Page where anything goes plus two challenges that we’re calling Theme 1000.
They’ll be largely similar in nature to the Open Page challenge, but whilst you can choose your genre and writing style (diary / article / story / poem / extract from a longer work /monologue / news item / blog / recipe – anything goes), for these challenges you will need to write that entry on a common theme. Whether you interpret the theme literally or laterally is up to you, but other Alphas must be able to recognise the theme in your work (so not too obtuse).
The 1000 word count is a maximum. You can write a shorter piece if you wish, but not a longer one.
The theme for this time is:
ACCEPTANCE
1st place Sally 13 points, 2nd place Morgen 12 points, 3rd place Christine 10 points
Leaderboar
1st place Sally – 12 points
2nd place Morgen – 7 points
3rd place Christopher – 5 points
4th place – Christine, Francesca and Ros on 4 points each
Challenge 2
The task is to write a poem about the Sea.
Rules: a maximum of 30 lines, no end of line rhyme.
So you are writing free verse… stanzas of any length.
Please ask if you have any queries.
Use the sea in any way you like… a day out, as a metaphor, mythological…
just go with the tide… enjoy poetry as you’ve never done before… be inspired!
1st place Sally 21 marks, 2nd place Christopher 12 marks, 3rd place Ros 11 marks.
Leaderboard so far
1st place -Sally 8 marks
2nd place – joint – Morgen & Christopher with 4 marks each
3rd place – joint – Francesca and Ros with 3 marks each
Challenge 1
300 words max of prose, inspired by the attached photograph.
1st place Sally – 14 marks, 2nd place Morgen – 12 marks, 3rd place Francesca – 10 marks.