Discarding a story over a minor detail...

You are one of our classic storytellers. Forget about the moon, stars, planets, constellations, etc.

Connie Willis has made a few historical howlers in her Time Travelling Historian series. They've still been highly praised and won awards. She generally explains them away by saying that as the historians come from 2060, that their presence has altered history enough that the small changes don't really get noticed by them. It's effectively created an alternate time stream.

Here's the plot that I've abandoned - and anyone who wishes to can use it:

Summer 2001, in a flyover state:
A former dot com billionaire (who is down to about 700 million after the crash) decides that he is going to go into organic apples. He moves his family (and a few hangers on) to a "flyover state" where the land will be cheaper. The struggling orchard he ends buying has a designated "green space" (one that used to be farmland before the land was exhausted and allowed to grow over) joined to it. Basically a piece of land that has to be left as is, but since it's attached to the main orchard he gets a tax break on the land. To ensure that he doesn't log, cultivate, or other violate the green space covenants a couple of rangers do "random" patrols of the area. It's "random" rather than random because each ranger swings by on Tuesday and Thursday (one in the morning and one in the afternoon), mostly because the rest of their schedules are fixed and they have no other times to do the patrols. Not that the wood on that scrub land is worth much as it is mostly covered by gnarled and stunted poplar trees.

On the designated green space are few historic buildings (with plaques and everything) that previous owners have maintained - not that the stone buildings require much upkeep. Built in the 1800s and lived in (without modernisation) until the early 1950s, there are the ruins of a carriage house (the wood parts have long ago rotted away, leaving the stone stall walls standing), a stone farmhouse, and a stone "wood house". The latter would be a woodshed, but no one feels comfortable calling such a solidly built building with thick stone wallsa shed. The place is a long walk in, the dirt road is now overgrown with poplar trees, and the local teens have hangouts that are easier to access so few bother going out the old farmhouse.

The wood house is basically one large two story room , with a small room in one corner and a loft over that room. Yes, that was the room where paddlings (and strappings, etc) once happened, and there are a couple of old punishment frames / paddling benches there. They are a bit large for kids, giving rise to rumours that the men of the house used the frames to keep their women in check while others assert that they were used with older teens who otherwise might struggle. In the loft there's a mini office (used mostly by the artisans who are occasionally hired to maintain the buildings) with a locked filing cabinet that mostly hold maintenance records.

The rangers insist on giving the new owners and his family (and hangers on and their families) a tour of the farmhouse - mostly because they've found that they can avoid a missing persons search when they show the new owners how to get there. included on the tour are the teenage children, who the rangers feel are the most likely to get lost trying to find the place. The house tour is boring (since the house is more or empty - only things like the old stove and water pump left) so the teens wander off in ones and twos, each stumbling over that room in the wood house and having reactions to it. When the main group reaches that room the teens all pretend ignorance of the place and one of the rangers relates the rumours based around the room. That it was used on full grown women, or rebellious teens, and rumours about how mischief during a scout camp out near the site in 1982 led to an entire troop being spanked there - but the ranger points out that the story only started being told in the early 1990s, always with the source being a brother's friend's cousin's sister's boyfriend's older brother who had been sworn to secrecy for a decade or more. Other urban legends are told, then the story of the Spanking Ghost is told. The spanking ghost (some say it's a woman, others a man) died during the Spanish flu outbreak in 1920 - taking sick after promising a spanking but before delivering it. Now it is said that on the night of the full moon, if a bare bottom is one of the frames, the ghost will return and give a spanking... Only some stories say gibbous waning, third quarter, new moon, etc.

Then the tour goes to the only wooden building that has been kept up - the outhouse (a three hole model) with a working pump beside it. The various artisans have kept it in repair. A ranger asks if the new owners will post the 'no trespassing, including kids' signs that various owners have posted since at least the 1970s. Basically, kids, tweens, and young teens often ignore regular no trespassing signs, so the owners post a poster of a bottom bent over one of the frames with the words "trespassers will be paddled". Of course no one really expects the paddlings to happen (maybe one or two did in the 70s, but that was a generation ago) but the signs remind kids that the no trespassing bit applies to them as well. One ranger goes to fetch an old sign while the other points out the best place to camp - setting the tent up in the remains of one of the stalls so you have cover from weather on three sides. The ranger returns with a poster that made in 1999 (by some Y2K nuts who thought they might have to live in the farmhouse when the world crashed) that shows a bottom in jeans and a paddle. After it is passed around one of the teens is asked to return it to the filing cabinat in the loft. Going up there, the teen finds that there were previous posts (3 made in 90s, 3 in 80s, 3 in 70s, a couple from the 60s - each made from different owners). The 1990s one are all basically the same, but a couple of the 80s ones have the model in underwear while the 70s ones show red bare bottoms. Others call for the teen before the teen can look through other folders, so closes and locks the filings cabinet. The new owners agree to make a new one, with one of the teens posing for it.

Then came various misunderstandings that lead various people to be paddled, strapped, etc over the frames. One person keeps going out to temp the ghost, falling asleep in position during the night of the full moon, and the night of the gibbous waning, but on the night of the half moon falls asleep only to wake up secured to the frame being paddled - either by a ghost or someone dressed in a historic costume. Afterwards, tears are wiped from the face using a drugged rag so that the teen wakes in the tent, wondering if it had all been a dream and now obsessed with proving that ghost exists.

More misunderstandings happen, and as the group is ready to fall apart they watch the twin towers fall - and decide that little things like unwanted paddlings pale compared to real disasters.

And while no one else would notice when the moon rose and set in 2001 - knowing about the mistake ruins it for me. While I post stories, I write first for myself and I can't stay focused on writing this story knowing about the flawed detail. Again, if anyone wants to run with the plot (or parts of it) then go for it.

Darn, I just had a great idea for the cheater's challenge. An author writes a a "based on truth life experience" type novel and a reader spots a minor flaw (such as getting the date of the full moon being off). The author is given a choice - take a spanking or be exposed as several other authors (such as James Frey, Matt McCarthy, Michael Gambino, and others) have been.

After the woman agrees to be spanked, another fan discovers the error, then another, and scores of them get to spank her.

It's terrible to get a great idea after the contest is closed

Yes, it is. I have another belated idea for a cheating story also, but I may wait as most readers have probably had their fill of cheating for now. I don't think I could have used it in challenge anyway, because it will probably have to take place in the country of Westsylvania, which might have given away who wrote it.

Surely since the plot revolves round legends which are to say the least disputed it shouldn't be too hard to correct the moon phases, but I suspect that there are other reasons to be dissatisfied with it. I've written stuff and rather than think objectively that this or that is wrong, there is a sense that it isn't working as a story and hence the enthusiasm wanes. It's more a vague feeling of dissatisfaction with the way it has turned out.

I would never use another person's plot - not knowingly, anyway. I think you should try to salvage it.