'Caught In The Act' Story Challenge 2017

I might have said it, but I didn't do it

Somebody did though .... Come on, own up ... WHO WAS IT?

48 to go now I'm afraid as we had several very late entries, a number of which had issues that needed to be resolved (two are still outstanding).

We had provided a full 28 days for entries to be submitted so it's very frustrating to be left to deal with a whole bunch submitted at the very last minute or in some cases after the deadline has passed.

Anything over 2 hours late to accommodate the times zones perhaps should not be entered, especially if for a reason they have to be worked on. Just my opinion and likely unfair to some others thinking.

Thought I smelt a rat

Agreed. I was saying that I'd read 5 so I only had 43 left to read. But I do understand your frustration of accommodating late entries.

Hotspur
Thought I smelt a rat

You only thought that was a rat...........Flopsy, was that you?

I'm willing to bet that a fair number of these late entries were 90% written well in time and it was the finishing off and tidying up that was left to the last minute.

I know mine was...or I should say is, because I never got 'round to finishing it.

I have at least eight, almost finished, stories on my HD which will probably never see the light of day.

Why in God's name do we do that?

(Memo to self...get a grip and stop being so bloody lazy)

Asked and answered in the same post.

I know for me, I'd given it to a friend to read and was waiting for his feedback so I could make changes.

That said, it's got to be really frustrating to have to do so much at the last minute--I'm grateful for those of you here that do.

Yep, know the feeling. You get within sight of the finish line and then it just peters out and collapses. Or you realize you've just written yourself into a huge flaw in the plot that ruins your plans. Or you get an idea for a different story that you'd rather work on while the muse inspires you. I'm a fairly prolific writer but I've got a HD file of half-finished stories that will probably remain that way because I don't want to deal with trying to complete them. Rather than doing the difficult work I'd rather move on to whatever bright and shiny object attracts my attention instead. I imagine it's much worse if you're actually writing to make a living rather than as a hobby; unfinished stories = $0 income.

Yes, but each of those unfinished stories represents a story inspiration that you (at least once) thought worthy of writing and publishing. Further, those words are your own work, to be used any way you desire. I would rather seek inspiration from my own words rather than by reading things written by others. I have a similar file of unfinished stories, and when I need story ideas my "unfinished" file is one place I look. Often the fix to what once seemed like an intractable problem with a plot becomes quite obvious when you take a fresh look at it.