Jim Lodge (an alien life form)
1. What do you look for in a story?
I don’t really LOOK for anything particular in a story. But, if there’s one thing I would want to see in a story, it is uniqueness.
In a world full of exceptionally good writers, how can a simple reader distinguish one from the other? Through (fanfare sounds here) uniqueness! As writers, you guys should always aim for your stories to be as distinctive as possible, just in case you are not planning to see your stories among the ‘I-have-read-this-thing-before’ pool. I bet you would not want your stories to be labeled as ‘unoriginal’, ‘cliché’, or a mere ‘rip-off.’ Sure, sure. There’s nothing wrong with cliché, but if you are going to write your story in someone else’s voice or simply just like anybody else’s, don’t expect it to ‘shine’. I mean, if you put a stone amongst other stones, nobody can tell which one of those is originally yours, unless you point it out to them.
Am I making sense? C’mon. Get the picture.
Of course, extremely unique and original ideas are hard to come by, especially if some of your ‘originals’ are also the ‘originals’ of some other writer. It’s okay, man. Just remember to always put an identity to your work. Mind you: to achieve uniqueness, delivery is the key.
Okay. I lied about the top part. I am not only looking for distinction. I am also looking for (fanfare sounds again) creativity! I know that you know that (Oh. Well that sounded wrong). And like a mantra that never grows old, I will tell you this: BE CREA-EFFING-TIVE!!! Gather your thoughts, explore your limits, try to experiment – in no time, you’ll find your stories much more interesting than they used to.
[Well, yeah. I lied again. I am looking forward to seeing Sci-fi, action, and fantasy genres in your stories. I’d love to see the underrated genres brought to life.]
2. How are you going to judge the entries?
I would judge them by using the following parameters:
§ CREATIVITY: Dude. You really need this, I swear.
§ ORIGINALITY: I’m gonna look and see if the content or the idea of your work is mainly (not purely) original.
§ TECHNICALITY: Meh. Grammatical errors, erroneous contents, wrong word usages, accordance with the given theme, and all that – not important. Really. Go ahead and pass them full of those insignificant little mistakes. Might worth a try. [Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you, ‘Sarcasm!’]
§ CONTENT: Imma be judging according to how a story plot appealed to me. Is the story too bland? Too windy? We’re here to check that out.
3. Any advice for the contestants?
A. Own the story.
Do you still remember that I did mention something about putting an identity to your work, yes? Do that, my friends, so whenever a reader sees your work, he or she would also see you. If you don’t have a writing style, try to have one. If you don’t have a definitive narrative voice, adopt one. If you already have a style and a voice, don’t risk losing it for a new one. You can improve it though, because it defines who you really are in the first place.
B. When writing a fictional character, don’t let the character be you. You have to BE the character.
Imagine. You are a ‘kikay’, conyo-speaking female teenager and you’re going to write a bearded, muscled guy’s POV, and your character goes like:
“’Wag na ‘wag mo ‘kong tatalikuran, you ingrate. At lalong never kang sisigaw sa’kin because it’s too unfashionable!”
See what I mean? Put yourself in the character’s shoes. Imagine yourself as THAT character. If you put your mind at it, you can be anything you wanted to be so long as you can imagine it. By doing so, you’ll find yourself being able to perceive how they perceive – whether it’s a guy, a gal, a chicken, a chair, or a fricking bacterium: it will make your work more believable, or at least, convincing.
C. As soon as you feel the drive to write, DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!
[I’m gonna give you the details about this part some time. Maybe tomorrow? ]
D. Research, research, and more research.
I know, I know. We are leisure writers here. No need for us to be too formal, right, e? But, dude. This is a necessary obligation, especially if you are aiming to write a complex story that requires hard facts. You might be able to run away with all your made-up bullcrap in hardcore fiction stories like fantasy stories, but in action, sci-fi and drama ones? Good luck to you. For instance you’d state that their plane travelled for 50 minutes from this to that, while in fact, it really takes 2 days to do exactly that – THAT IS really going to pose some problems later on as you progress in your work or as a reader reads it.
Research is also a must for your stories’ settings.
E. Refrain from utilizing highfalutin words too excessively, for some reasons that they may conjure erroneous connotations on the readers’ part.
Simply put, AVOID USING BIG WORDS. Keep ‘em simple and understandable. You don’t want your reader to give you that ‘what-on-earth-am-I-reading’ hell. It’s okay to indulge this so called ‘big’ words every now and then, but not so often.
F. Always edit and copyread your work to detect typios, a grammatical errors and speling miskates.
Trivial matter, you think? Believe me. Never let a story be half-assed finished; and by ‘finished’, we have to include ‘editing’ in it.
