The Strange Case of Henry Banner and Danica Carew

[Claire]

This story, the best reinterpretation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a sexual day trip, into the land of wanton indulgence (In my opinion) Very well written with a wonderful pace.

Thanks, glad you liked. Too bad we didn't get to see what your story for the same theme would have looked like.

[Writers_Bloque]

@Claire I could post it later, after the requiem, if you would like.

[Claire]

@Claire I could post it later, after the requiem, if you would like.

Sure, just because the Round of 16 is over doesn't mean you can't post the story you wanted to write for it.

[Mister X]

Oh, someone who remembers Star Trek Voyager! How long ago is that, 30 years? Very nice how you let your readers feel with your protagonists. The change of the point of view is unusual, but it lets the readers know how both of them feel and think. I think it is a litte bit strange that Danica has been Henry's girlfriend for a while and did not notice he is mentally ill.

[Claire]

Oh, someone who remembers Star Trek Voyager! How long ago is that, 30 years? Very nice how you let your readers feel with your protagonists. The change of the point of view is unusual, but it lets the readers know how both of them feel and think. I think it is a litte bit strange that Danica has been Henry's girlfriend for a while and did not notice he is mentally ill.

Glad you liked it! Even I'm not sure to whether Henry is just mentally ill or whether this penomenon is super natural. But the story says that the voice has been much quieter since he got together with Danica. And he seems to have had it under control before he met her. But it's mostly upposed to be a horror story, so there is some suspension of disbelief required for the story to make sense.

[SoftGameHunter]

Ah hell, I wish I'd been around for this contest. But at least I get to read the story. Okay, I read it not realizing how the contest worked, but it sounds like the prompts served this one well. Bless my heart, I read, like, three of the red lines before I realized this was a separate personality entirely, but that's cool. The dawning realization came a lot sooner for me than for poor Danica.

This is why it's important for us newcomers to take the time to read through the stories already here.

[Claire]

@SoftGameHunter I can tell you a bit about the contest. When I launched the forum, I was thinking about new ideas to make things a little more exciting and I thought that a tournament format could be a way to spice things up a little.

So you would sign up as a contestant and get a pen name for the duration of the tournament. Your pen name would be randomly assigned to you based on a list of pen names suggested by the other contestants. Basically, imagine the contestants playing secret santa with pen names. You would suggest a pen name when you signed up as a contestant and that name could be randomly assigned to any other contestant, just not to yourself. So @Blue had to compete under the lovely name @Bukkake Power Wash, I was @Perverted Mimic, and I tortured @LaLia a lot in the firsst tournament by turning her into the @Traumatized Teddy ( #team-teddy ).

Then you would be randomly matched with another contestant and you would both be given the same prompt. In case of my story here that prompt was "Hard as Lightning, Soft as Candlelight". You would then have two weeks to write your story and post it in a hidden sub board on the forum that was only accessible to contestants and where you could only see your own story. Once the writing period was over and voting began, I moved all stories at once to a sub board that was accessible to all.

The winner of a match-up was then decided after one week of voting by comparing the ratings of the stories at that point. The winner would advance to the next round, get a new opponent and promp, and repeat until only one remained at the top.

Sadly, it didn't work partcularly well. Too many authors dropped out and many contestants just advanced to the next round by default because their opponent didn't post a story in time.

We did the same thing earlier in April/May with flash fiction instead of short stories and that seemed to work better. But overall, the tournament format is just too sensitive to people dropping out. Maybe @RapeU will try a flash fiction tournament in the future again, but I would not recommend doing this with short stories again.

[BlueRaven]

A both enjoyed the love making and the abuse. Very good written.
The end was OK for me, there was nothing more to say. How there lives go on after this event is a different story, I would gladly read it if it was told some day.

[Claire]

@BlueRaven I didn't expect anybody to dig up this old contest story. A nice surprise.

I had a lot of fun writing it, but I remember getting really close for the deadline of the contest. As a result, the pacing of the story ended up a little messed up. The ending still feels abrupt to me and I'd consider this one of my weaker stories overall.

I have admittedly never wondered much about how this story would continue. I wanted to explore this supernatural horror, the double personality element, and once I was done with that, I was also mentally done with the story. I highly doubt a relationship could survive something like this, but who knows?

[TromboneDalek]

I enjoyed the sci-fi references throughout and lost it at “wrong fandom.” It does feel rushed at the end. Are you ever planning to add more or leave it as is?
Fun Fact: My AP Bio teacher once left us with a 20 page packet and a substitute teacher and the top of the first page he wrote “Do or do not there is no try.” - Master Yoda and Me.