Friday, July 6, 2007

Northern Attack's 2007 Writing Contest - Week 5

It took me quite awhile to pick my 3 favorite entries from challenge #4. Once again I had 2 favorites and 3 more close behind. But after reading all the entries many times I was finally able to choose my 3. One nice thing about challenge #4 was that slightly more people posted entries than had posted entries for challenge #3. Hopefully this trend continues for the rest of the contest.

Earlier today I posted my entry for challenge #5. I thought this was the toughest challenge yet. Whereas with last week's challenge the big task was getting the content to fit the constraints of a limerick, the big challenge this week was coming up with content that fit the characters, made sense, and was interesting. I'm not sure if my entry accomplished any of those 3 things. Two other problems I had along the way were 1) my first draft was too long by 50 words, and 2) in my first draft Jim had most of the dialogue. Fixing the first problem wasn't as tough as I thought it might be, as I just had to cut 2 things and then got rid of the rest messing with wording. Although I did have some other things I wanted to include, after I did the word count and saw 300, I just stopped with what I had and started editing there. And I had an even easier time fixing the second problem. As a non-writer, I find my solution hilarious, although I'm sure real writers would cringe at what I did, which I consider a testament to how bad I am at writing dialogue: I simply changed the attribution of a few lines from Jim to Pam, without changing any of the actual dialogue. That I could do this without having anything else is pretty cool, not to mention depressing. Anyway, here's my entry.

Challenge #5 - It's A Date

Nighttime, Jim and Pam standing outside.

Jim: A lot has changed since your original documentary stopped filming.

Pam: I've been staying at home with the kids and trying to paint.

Jim: She's being modest. Her painting has really taken off. She was even featured in Fine Arts Aficionado Monthly.

Pam: And after the documentary started airing, Dwight sold a bunch of Dwight bobbleheads on his website. He used the money to open up a restaurant with Angela, which opened last week.

The camera pans to reveal a brick building with a large “Dwangela's” sign. They walk into the restaurant.

Mose: Ah, you're finally here. Follow me.

Mose leads them to the party room, where Dwight and Angela are already seated at opposite ends of the long banquet table. They all greet each other. Jim and Pam take seats across from each other in the middle of the table. Jim motions to Pam to look behind her. She turns and sees one of Angela's baby posters.

Pam: Classy!

Jim: Um, do you serve soft shell crab?

Dwight rolls his eyes.

Dwight: They'll have Dwangela specials. Four Dwangela specials. Pronto!

Pam: What's the Dwangela special?

Angela: A beet salad, followed by a beet burger with a side of roasted beets. Beet wine to drink, and for dessert, a slice of beet cake. It's all vegetarian.

Jim and Pam grin at each other.

After dinner, Jim and Pam say goodnight to Dwight and Angela, then walk outside.

Jim: That was... interesting.

Pam: Definitely.

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