Past & Future Story Challenge 2014

I seem to recall that some passed challenger contests were small (maybe not this small) and the volume started to increase during the last days of the deadline. Was I correct? There is still hope.

Hi tamlynn, I'm not trying to pick on you, but you raise one of my recurring bemusements.

I am from an era when boys were raised to believe that you should never hit a girl, and that to do so was down right unmanly. It was also an era when mothers routinely spanked their sons when they were naughty. My bemusement is that given this I would naturally expect that the majority of us would be drawn more toward F/M stories as opposed to M/F, yet that is clearly not the case.

As I prefer, and mostly write F/M; and since I know that these are less popular and reduce my chance of placing in the competition, I have instead written a story that takes place in the far future (much more than the 100 year minimum) in which time there are no longer males or females, or even people in general, and spanking has become a strictly metaphysical phenomenon.

I see my comment on historical accuracy has come in for some opposition. I stand by my guns (or bows, slingshots or spears if pre-late-Medieval). I'm not talking about minor details, but about major facts that affect the whole story. Say a story set in the British Caribbean features slavery at the time the Titanic went down, when in fact it was abolished in the 1830s. Yes, that would reduce my enjoyment of the story - just reduce.

My plea is to check facts that are important and are easily checked. I'd say the same about a story set in an unfamiliar place. If I wrote a story set in San Francisco and didn't know if that city was by the sea, and it mattered to the story, I'd find out.

As for the story numbers, I happen to know some are coming along.

My two cents on the historical accuracy thing is that while historical accuracy is best, an inaccuracy here or there is to be expected. For most of us this is a hobby not a profession so there is only so much time and effort we can devote to a story, so despite our best intentions screw-ups happen. I agree that major things probably should be caught but if they're not, oh well.

If someone doesn't enjoy a story, they can always give it a lower rating. If they really don't like it they don't have to finish it. I guess what I'm trying to say is the more stories the merrier and everyone just relax a little!

I've finally come up with a story idea, but whether I'll get it done in time is another matter!

Nswitch/thereader0987

Since there is no standard rating guide, the rules of scoring are up to each individual. That makes every reader the boss! If you want to grade down for perceived historical inaccuracy, (or grade up for perceived historical accuracy) that is your privilege. As long as you treat every story that you grade the same, all is fair.

As a grader, I have my own pet peeves that I look for, and that I base part of my scoring on. But I'm not likely to tell you what they are.


What are you doing wasting time here in the forum? Open your word processor and get to work!

Okay, here is how to handle all historic inaccuracies:
In 2063, the star drive was invented, followed by a rash of terraforming as mankind settled the stars.
In 2104, an old star ship was bought by the SCA, whose mission now including recreated everything before WWI. They colonalised the planet "It IS historically Accurate" (IIHA for short).
By 2120, IIHA had was completely settled, with people living as they wanted the past to have been like.

There. Set your stories on IIHA, which is over a hundred years in the future and poorly recreates every period there ever was.

(With apologies to Christopher Stasheff whose novels I have just completely ripped off)
Goodgulf

If there are major historical inaccuracies like the ones mentioned elsewhere here you could get around it by setting the story in an alternate history as Goodgulf suggested. That may tip the genre into SF or even Fantasy, but why not?

Fair enough all comments. I'd just like to point out that to check my facts on the abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean took less than a minute: SEARCH: JAMAICA SLAVERY ABOLITION (1833 - a generation before the U.S. and yet most American treatments of the events leading up to the Civil War don't mention it).

Blatant historical/geographical blunders are jarring, certainly, but I think what irritates me more is when crashingly modern speech-idioms are introduced into a period story: a 19th-century character, for example, saying "Yeah, right," or "Fine by me". Though Hollywood-style oldspeak can be almost equally annoying: everyone pre-1750 or so going round saying "Zounds, forsooth" or "La, sirrah!" As ever, it's all a question of developing an ear for speech-patterns; not so difficult, really.

I suppose the answer is to read books written in the period you're setting your story in - or at least historical novels written by writers who've done their research. I agree that Hollywood is a terrible guide to history - if they treated American history the same way they treat European history, you'd have George Washington fighting the Civil War for Independence to free the slaves so he could marry Pocahontas! My nomination for worst anachronism still goes to Mel Gibson's facepaint in "Braveheart" - 2000 years out of period!