Dreaming! Don't give it up Zolo!
Group Focus: The Back Scratching Initiative
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I'm going to start singing Celine Dion just to get on mari's nerves.
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Just as a reminder, guys. The next conference is tomorrow at 9 AM Central Time.
We'll be discussing Kitsune's "Spirit Wolf" and I'm going to give a lecture about character dynamics; in particular, the interactions between characters.
Be there or be circle.
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Oh and remember that this does actually mean today, as in July 23rd, for everyone of us on the other side of the ocean. The time zones are incredibly deceptive with this one.
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Like I think about time zones.
Psshhh.
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That's why you have me. I like to keep track of things.
Also, unless anything unexpected happens, I will be there. I managed to change my shift into a morning one, so I'll get home about half an hour before we're supposed to start~
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Ah
That's actually 3pm BST
So I won't be late after all.
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I won't be present in the morning one, but I'll try my best to stay up for the evening conference.
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The conference is starting.
Get your BUTTS down to our HUTS.
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Evening conference is beginning.~
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Here.~
! Count Truffles was dead. He was a portly man, middle of age, thin of hair, and rough of demeanor. His lack of charm or wit was enough to put off the entire neighborhood, but his abundance of wealth was enough to give them second guesses. Count Truffles was a generously extravagant man, and held no shortage of dinner parties at his quaint mansion atop the hill. But now, there would be no more dinner parties or formalities, for the host was now but a lifeless corpse on the floor of his own dining hall.
! After a lingering moment of dead silence, a shrill scream livened up the air. Chatter and tears clamored to become the loudest noise within the ornate room, but still they proved no match for the loudest noise of all: the smell of death. Fear. Uncertainty. Murder.
! Detective Charles Glance bent to one knee and glanced at the corpse.
! “This man is dead.”
! “'Tis not so!” Matilda Honeybottom wept in agony, her source of endless ceremonious cakes now lay unresponsive on the soft, shaggy carpet. Honeybottom fell into her best friend, Juliana Devereaux's arms. The tiny woman nearly collapsed under Matilda's sheer mass.
! “Detective Glance briefly noted the large gaping gunshot wound that bled Count Truffles' prim white undergarments scarlet and soiled.
! “The cause of death… was not natural,” Glance deduced.
! Everyone recalled the loud gunshot that resonated through the room shortly before Count Truffles' unexpected collapse. He had been deep in conversation with Vincente Loudbelly, a marvelously flatulent man who, after seven courses, was still not satiated and demanded another course from the insanely wealthy host.
! “It was clearly murder!” Sabrina Highnose, the most snooty guest at the gathering deduced.
! “Such a leap in logic is unwise, miss,” Glance shook his head. “There is much we need to conider.”
! “There is naught to consider,” Highnose insisted. Her tone was harsh and short. “The murderer was clear. Sir Loudbelly was no doubt responsible for this treachery.” She pointed a dainty finger at the monumental subject of her accusations. “Seize this man, at once.”
! “No,” Gregory House, the neighborhood doctor, shook his head. “The bullet entered Count Truffles' body from the back.”
! “You can't prove that!” Highnose shrieked insolently. “Where is your proof?”
! “The bullet is currently lodged in Sir Loudbelly's stomach, miss,” House pointed at the large man, who collapsed, shaking the earth as his corpse collided with the extravagant carpet.
! “Oh,” Highnose took a step back. “Well, that complicates matters, then.”
! “Someone is clearly a murderer among us, though!” Juliana Devereaux cried from beneath Miss Honeybottom's girth.
! “Indeed,” Glance rose to his feet in conclusion. “Someone among us has killed Count Truffles!”
! A bolt of lightning erupted through the windows as the rattle of thunder followed. The five survivors stood in a circle in shock.
! “Oh,” Glance shook his head. “Vincent Loudbelly too.”
! A second bolt of lightning erupted through the windows as the rattle of thunder followed. The five survivors stood in a circle in shock.
! “Oh, heavens!” Matilda cried. “Lady Devereaux!”
! Everyone turned to the two woman, one of which very much alive, and the other bleeding at the mouth. And very much dead.
! “She has been crush'd!” Honeybottom broke into hysterics.
! A third bolt of lightning erupted through the windows as the rattle of thunder followed. The four survivors stood in a circle in shock.
! “It's obvious now, is it not?” Highnose crossed her petite arms smugly. “Honeybottom is the culprit. She definitely is the one who killed Devereaux. And she most likely slaughtered poor Count Truffles as well.”
! “That is reasonable,” Glance nodded in agreement.
! “How can we say that?” House shouted in protest. “Lady Honeybottom cannot presently be connected to the murder of Count Truffles.”
! “That is also reasonable,” Glance nodded.
! “But she killed Lady Devereaux!” Highnose shrieked. “She has murder in her veins!”
! “No...” Glance came to a sudden realization. “Lady Devereaux's death... was an accident.”
! “I concur,” House nodded. “We still can't say with certainty that Lady Honeybottom shot Count Truffles.”
! “But it is clear,” Glance put his hand to his chin. “One of us was the murderer.”
! “How naïve,” a voice came from behind the bookshelf. Its owner revealed herself to be Catherine Truffles, Lord Truffles' wife. “You people are so self-centered, you refuse to believe that my husband's murderer could have been anyone else.”
! “That is unreasonable,” Glance sighed.
! “Indeed,” House concured.
! “Wait!” Highnose barked. “Is it not obvious? Lady Truffles was the culprit all along!”
! “I did not say that,” Lady Truffles smirked. “But do not forget that I am still in the house. And so are, like, two dozen servants.”
! “I see,” House nodded. “So the murderer could have been one of the other twenty-five people in attendance.”
! “Everyone come down here!” Glance shouted. “Someone in the house, not necessarily one of us, is definitely the culprit!”
! A fourth bolt of lightning erupted through the windows as the rattle of thunder followed. The twenty-nine survivors stood in a circle in shock.
! “This isn't working,” House groaned, pulling out a gun.
! “I concur,” Highnose nodded, pulling her own out as well. “We need to narrow down the culprit list. These extraneous nobodies can't possibly have motive to murder their paycheck.”
! “I also concur,” Lady Truffles smirked, pulling out a gun. “Let's get serious here.”
! Bullets sprayed as two dozen bodies fell to the floor. Now, only the original five named suspects stood living.
! A fifth bolt of lightning erupted through the windows as the rattle of thunder followed. The five survivors stood in a circle in shock.
! “Now then, let us figure out the real culprit!” Highnose barked.
! “Actually,” Glance said suddenly, pounding his fist into his open palm. “All of us have committed murder here.”
! A sixth bolt of lightning erupted through the windows as the rattle of thunder followed. The five survivors stood in a circle in shock.
! “Oh,” everyone said in unison, before Truffles, Highnose, and House all pointed their gun at each other.
! “So we need to kill the actual culprit before they kill us!” Highnose laughed.
! “Indeed,” House nodded.
! “Wait, no, that's-” Truffles began to cry before the three of them pulled the trigger on each other, their corpses forming a triangle on the floor.
! A sixth bolt of lightning erupted through the windows as the rattle of thunder followed. The two survivors stood in a circle in shock.
! “That was too easy,” Glance smirked. “Really, what the hell just happened?”
! He drew his gun finally, pointing it at Lady Honeybottom's catatonic lump of a body. Now no one would learn the truth. Truffles' death at his hands would now remain a secret. He had his revenge against the man who had stolen everything from him. Or something.That was awful.
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I must apologize. I read the first line and couldn't stop laughing, I then decided reading the story wasn't worth suffocating.
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But you have to get to the part featuring me!
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The last line should've been Glance standing in a circle in shock.
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Alright guys so here's the thing, we're going to have a feedback conference on August 10th. I've noticed that activity in our section has dropped sharply so I want to see what we can collectively come up with to re-invigorate the place.
I'll be asking questions and probing for ideas, as well as hinting at some of my own ideas I'm working on behind-the-scenes. Times will be at:
10:30 - 12:00 AM
6:30 - 8:00 PMCentral Time.
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Also, we'll have a regular conference the following Saturday on August 17. I'll reveal the topic and homework near the feedback conference date.
The R&R will be LaCa's "Under Our Ground" though.
Thanks as always for your time everyone.~
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Yikes, surprise conference!
And they're shorter and the times are different. Aargh, change.
I'll be there for the next conference, and hopefully for the regular one also, but that depends on how depressed I am after exam results.
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Hi everyone! After a kind invitation by JJ, I've decided to come and take a look and possibly participate in the next meeting.
But how does this work, exactly? Do I have to prepare anything, write something? -
The reason the conferences are shorter is probably because we more often than not manage to cover everything we want to in a shorter time. It doesn't really mean random banter would be out of the question, just that we don't have to feel bad about getting "off-topic" on allotted conference time since by the time we get to that point the conference will already be technically over. :I
Or that's how I interpret this, at least.
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You interpret it wrong. It's a feedback conference. =P
Though I could stand to shave 30 minutes off of the regular conferences.
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Probably, yeah.
I didn't catch that it was a feedback conference ;D
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Hey guys I just recently came across this. It seems pretty interesting, and I do like to engage in some writing sometimes. Is it alright for a newbie for me to participate?
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So many new voices to listen to :D
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@Mrs.:
Hi everyone! After a kind invitation by JJ, I've decided to come and take a look and possibly participate in the next meeting.
But how does this work, exactly? Do I have to prepare anything, write something?Yes, write a love poem for me :3
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Ack! I hope I can finish chapter five before the next regular conference!
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Okay but what do I do???
aside from writing Wooden a love poem -
Hey guys I just recently came across this. It seems pretty interesting, and I do like to engage in some writing sometimes. Is it alright for a newbie for me to participate?
Of course! Everyone is welcome.~
@Mrs.:
Okay but what do I do???
aside from writing Wooden a love poemTechnically? Nothing.~
I'm offshore right now but if you go on Skype then Kitsu or somebody else can add you to the group. Then you just have to show up during conference hours.
Now, what's optional is that you can do a little writing exercise that I've been making up as we go (there currently isn't one yet) and/or/maybe read the R&R story (someone link this please; I'm on a 3DS).
Those have been getting discussed at the latest conferences. We've also been discussing specific writing topics and there's always a point where the users are encouraged to ask for advice or discuss their own topics of intetest.
But don't be intimidated, it's very casual and user friendly. I'm a pretty unprofessional moderator. >_<
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Well, even if I don't get the fifth chapter done on time, at least I finally got around to editing the first chapter. Took away some redundant parts, tried to clean up messy sentences and make the dialogue more natural. Now I won't have to feel ashamed if any of you want to re-read it for the conference.~
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Thanks jazzy! So we just prepare our own stories and scripts for discussion and feedback? (as well as some fun and laughs I suppose)
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Pretty much, yeah.~
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I ditched a once in a year online friend get-together for this. It had best be good. :I
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Dude… Dryish.
GO TO THAT GET-TOGETHER. X_x
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Pretty much too late already (it's ~350km away from here and traveling takes both time and money), and I seriously need sleep this weekend. I was out of town the whole weekend last week and got no sleep, and it's been so hot all week that I haven't slept at home either. It got so bad that it started affecting my job. God knows I wouldn't get any sleep with a bunch of half-drunk guys of my age making a lot of noise till the late hours.
And I can meet them all separately too, which is probably more enjoyable by far. Maybe. So nyeh. Skype Conference it is.
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Sorry everyone, but I might not be able to attend tomorrow. A minor health emergency in my family occurred this week. Luckily, things appear to be better, but it's prompted me to make a 6 hour drive back to my hometown for the weekend.
I'll still have internet access, but not the benefit of my mancave or as much free time.
Of course, I had very few ideas to bring to the table anyway :P. Hope the conference is productive and I might drop in for a bit.
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The feedback conference is about to start in like five minutes.~
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Next feedback conference in 30 minutes.
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Sorry Jazzy! It's 8:50 here and I wasn't too sure about the timing we were supposed to meet :(
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No worries, it was just a feedback conference.
We're having a regular conference next week.~
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Any ideas come from the feedback conference? I tried reading the text from the morning one, but I might have missed some points.
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Any ideas come from the feedback conference? I tried reading the text from the morning one, but I might have missed some points.
We basically deduced that we're not reaching out to our readers very much and that the lack of activity isn't due to the lack of writing but rather a lack of a relationship between reader and writer. So we're going to attempt to stimulate an air of community and try to get our readers to want to participate more.
Also, Sai suggested a collaborative effort between the writing and art section where artists would draw pictures of some of our OC's in order to make the threads seem more appealing. But I'm not sure how well either side would receive that idea. What do you guys think about it?
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Meanwhile, in Conference Town, the next conference will be on August 17th, 2013, at the following times:
9:30 - 12:00 AM Central Time
7:30 - 10:00 PM Central Time–-
Topic: Emotional impact. Basically, how to make your reader feel stuff.~
Exercise #4: Build an altercation between two characters that usually like each other.
R&R Story: LaCaSiNa's "Under Our Ground".
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Also, to new and interested parties, if you want in on this then get on Skype and be my friend. Then I'll throw you into the group forcibly as if you belong there, like jail.
And stuff. AND THINGS.
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@Jazzy:
We basically deduced that we're not reaching out to our readers very much and that the lack of activity isn't due to the lack of writing but rather a lack of a relationship between reader and writer. So we're going to attempt to stimulate an air of community and try to get our readers to want to participate more.
So, I had an idea on that front.
Maybe we should do some kind of reading exchange? Every other month, instead of the monthly contest, anyone with original content can volunteer their name. Then two volunteers are randomly paired up and are responsible for reviewing each other's content by the usual deadline.
For example, let's say me, Kitsune, Shuhan and Print Error submit our names along with the material we would like to have read (this can be old or new material). Then at the end of each month, the organizer pairs everyone up like so: Mumbling2-Kitsune, Shuhan-Print Error.
Then Kitsune and I could agree to read and write a review of a specified amount of each other's material (let's say two chapters) by the end of the month. Same with Shuhan and Print Error.
Since this can work even if the author hasn't written anything in months and just wants feedback on older material, they can participate in the reading exchange even if real life is kicking their ass at the moment. Of course, they would still have to make time to write reviews, but it might be less taxing than writing their own material.
I guess the flaw in this idea would be that it would exclude those who don't have any written content and it doesn't reach out to people who just want to read. Another issue is that certain members have already reviewed a lot of material and might have trouble finding someone they haven't already given feedback to (this would be a problem mainly for Kitsune, Cuddles and a few others who review often).
Or maybe instead of it being in a monthly format we make it kind of a job board-like thing. We make a separate thread and someone, like me, can post "Hey, I'll read two chapters of anyone's work if they read two chapters of Chimera Phase." Of course, this still doesn't reach out to those who don't have their own content to "trade."
I'm just kind of brainstorming here. What does everyone think?
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Yep Jazzy! I'll be there count on it. Don't want to forgo on earlier promises :P The OC stories sound good, but I think it really depends on the level of content that we publish. More discussion during the skype thing?
Some suggestions (relating to Mumbling's post) would be to prepare a more comprehensive schedule where we all agree to submit works on a certain date, so that it's easier to incorporate the OC thing into the writing program. I'm ok with the organiser planning out the works around but one way to deal with new people (ironically like me) would be to highlight good works agreed on by most of us for them to evaluate. This way, they get to be more involved bit by bit.
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I like the idea of making the Monthly peer reviewed instead of having a Judging panel.
The main reason the Monthly died is because of a lack of judges, but I feel like if everyone who enters is also responsible for reading and reviewing the other entries, there might be a lot more activity in the section.
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I'm down for it if enough interest is generated.~
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I like the idea of making the Monthly peer reviewed instead of having a Judging panel.
My initial thought wasn't to change the Monthly contest and have the peer review/exchange be its own separate thing that's done every other month, basically rotating the two events. However, the Monthly has definitely hit a lull. I still like the competitive aspect of the Monthly. It'd be cool if we could keep that idea alive even if we overhaul the format. I know scores and assigning winners each month isn't supposed to be a serious thing, but there's a certain charm to it.
I think this merits further discussion to hammer out details and to see what else people think. But, I'm definitely up for a test run.
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A little out of topic, but hey, look who managed to churn out another chapter for the conference. (Way to go bragging how it would be ready on Wednesday or Thursday… And then release it on Friday. I suck.)
I'm still not sure whether or not I'll be there tomorrow, because my schedule depends on what happens today. If I can't make it though, would it be too much to ask for someone to include the criticisms of UOG in a post? I would be forever thankful. But believe me, I will do my all to attend at least the evening conference!
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The morning conference is beginning.~
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@Jazzy:
The morning conference is beginning.~
Now? It's midnight on my end through :O
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that's no excuse!
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Now? It's midnight on my end through :O
Yeah, if you want to get added to the conference then get on Skype and friend me.
Look for "KennyT0723" and I'll have a Shantae avatar.