Party Hard

[Claire]

Since the forum is closing soon, I'm migrating my stories to Archive Of Our Own (AO3) and Literotica. Read the story here:

• Party Hard (AO3)

Please support the story by leaving a kudos on AO3, thanks!

[Claire]

And let's give the contest stories a little push so that they will be seen.

If you want this story to win its match, please give it a rating by clicking on the thumbs up button at the top right. The author of the story should please not rate their own story.

[Vela Nanashi]

First person is good. Scary party drugs? Song interweave is probably good for people who know or like the song, good that you linked to it, so people like me can give it a listen, don't like it though so won't finish listening, auto tune ear rape or similar effect ouch. The horror to be chased while hearing that. Other than the song this felt a bit more complete even for a flash story.

[Claire]

Well, I guess I'm lucky that I never liked Daft Punk's One more time that much or this little story might have ruined it for me.

edit: Let me come back to this first match-up after I read all the stories now.

So in comparison to the other stories, I think this one is clearly the shortest one. Linking the theme to Daft Punk's song is clearly a risk. Personally, I don't care much for that song, so that does little for me. I could see someone who is very familiar with the song have a strong reaction to it, but it might also just fall flat for anyone who doesn't know or care. Still, I appreciate at least the attempt to use the theme in a creative way. But the execution is a gamble.

[John_F_Drake]

I'm torn, because this story didn't do a ton for me personally, but I do like how it did something creative with the idea, something that feels different.

[Claire]

I'm torn, because this story didn't do a ton for me personally, but I do like how it did something creative with the idea, something that feels different.

Thx for the kind words, it was actually the first time ever I wrote a piece of flash fiction. My usual writing style is heavily focused on introspective narration and my stories tend to fall on the longer side of the spectrum. So this was a challenge for me. Did you ever try to write something so short? My approach to the given task was: Don't fight the format, embrace it: the 1000 word restriction is a limit, not a target. And I wanted to include the theme in a creative way that might be not obvious, but nobody reading the story could say that they didn't see the connection. But I believe that I might have overestimated familiarity with the song and I likely would have scored better if I had decided like the others to use the remaining 455 words at my disposal rather than going for a try to do as much as possible with as few words as possible approach.

[Shocker]

You did well in an unfamiliar format. People do tend to equate short, with easy to write, which is not the case. Writing such short stories isn’t my natural inclination either, I like stories to breathe and develop. But I also enjoy the challenge of getting out of my comfort zone, writing a story and then pairing it down sentence for sentence until it still keeps the story intact, but strips all the fluff from it.

You did very well with a challenging theme, I encourage all writers to take the same plunge, it is very educational about your own writing.

[peterfrisk]

For me, it’s a new take on story writing. Mixing in the lyrics from a song was different and sort of a good way to move the story forward. Also liked the 1 person view. Seems suitable in this story.

[Claire]

For me, it’s a new take on story writing. Mixing in the lyrics from a song was different and sort of a good way to move the story forward. Also liked the 1 person view. Seems suitable in this story.

I actually used a song in Venus' Touch, one of my longer stories, to structure a scene before. I was worried that that alone might give away my identity in the contest. I also like first person narrators, though I'm not sure whether I'm able to make good use of them in flash fiction. I appreciate the kind words, and not just for me. I think this tournament style format is a great format, but it is easy to forget about the people who are eliminated early on. So it's really nice to see you show some love even to those who lost their round. They put in just as much effort into their stories as the others.

You did well in an unfamiliar format. People do tend to equate short, with easy to write, which is not the case. Writing such short stories isn’t my natural inclination either, I like stories to breathe and develop. But I also enjoy the challenge of getting out of my comfort zone, writing a story and then pairing it down sentence for sentence until it still keeps the story intact, but strips all the fluff from it.

You did very well with a challenging theme, I encourage all writers to take the same plunge, it is very educational about your own writing.

Thanks, I appreciate the praise. And I couldn't agree more with you that writing something that is short AND compelling is very hard. There is this famous quote that is actually attributed to several different people ( Mark Twain for example), but its origin is actually unclear: "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." I think that is true for flash fiction as well.

[Lucius]

Just another Saturday night in a Berlin club. Quick and to the (flash)point.