Challenge The Kessel Run 2023 | 12 Weeks, 11 Prompts, 1 Wild Fanfic Challenge | Thanks for another great Run!

For clarification, do the prompt words need to be present within the drabble itself? For instance, does the word "juggernaut" have to be in the 2xdrabble, or is it strictly a prompt?

 

Thanks @Findswoman! Actually, I'm going to go with "Englishman who took confiscated land in Ireland during the Cromwellian plantation". I just spent an hour reading about the Cromwellian plantation (I tend to get sidetracked that way) and I think that I should put that knowledge to good use.

@pronker Brownie points for you if you manage to fit that wrestler in a story (which I think you're perfectly capable of, and that's intended as a compliment)

 

Yay for sidetracking! The term 'plantation' for Cromwell's "reign" was entirely new to me; I look forward to whatever story derives from that definition.

 

I figured you'd like these. I honestly would have just done regular drabbles again if we hadn't just come off of the UDC. I thought mixing it up a bit would help people who might otherwise have drabble fatigue.

I love this question; it's always fascinating to dig into the various definitions of words and their histories. This is what I gleaned from my very brief foray into the word "undertaker": most of the dictionaries and sources I looked at regarded the words "undertaker", "mortician", and "funeral director" to be basically equivalent, meaning (as Finds pointed out) one whose business is to prepare the dead for burial and to arrange and manage funerals. However I think the dictionaries sort of fail to capture the impressions these words give off. Mortician is a more modern invention, and from what I gather, it was specifically used to replace undertaker as a more professional-sounding alternative, reflecting the increased training and more modern practices of the business. Undertaker is not as widely used these days and is considered more old-fashioned, and to me it's always had a bit more of a grim, macabre feel to it. This may not be true for other native-English-speakers, but that's my take on it! Of course, "undertaker" can also simply mean someone who undertakes, which can mean to take upon oneself, to put oneself under obligation to perform, to accept as a charge or responsibility, or to guarantee or promise. All of those meanings, as well as the one concerning the burial of the dead, are very much represented in the show that I was alluding to with the prompt.

With that said, feel free to interpret these prompts in whatever way best suits your creative purposes!

I hadn't known about that particular usage of the word until now! And I can definitely relate to getting sidetracked easily and tumbling down a rabbit hole of internet research.

lol, since real-person fic is against board policy, I'm going to say no; but I suppose a character inspired by that persona could count...

Nope, not that one!

No, the prompt words do not have to be included in the text of the drabbles themselves, as long as the drabbles represent some aspect of the meaning of the word. Using the prompt words as titles or headings for the drabbles is sufficient. (That's usually the route I choose to go.) However, you are certainly free to include the prompt words within the text of the drabbles if you wish!

 

*pulls up a chair to await Gabri's reaction*

 

What the heck, why is my response to the main thread as long as my reader replies today

My immediate reaction: what exactly do you think I can do with the word undertaker - ohhhhh

Yes But I'm guessing I'm ineligible for this particular game

Mira, literally only you would ever, under any circumstances, describe 200 words as "verbose"

Oooh. Thank you for asking this question, Thumper, I wouldn't have thought to do so and this makes things easier

I deserve this

No, you know what? Last year I used up the get out of jail free prompt early on specifically to avoid drabbles, but if I had realized that a poetry prompt was coming later, I would have written the darned drabbles and avoided the poetry, and look what I would have missed out on if I did. I'd spent my whole life believing myself incapable of writing poetry, but I wasn't. I did write a poem, and I love it, and I'm so proud of it, and I came this close to not having that experience. So in the true Kessel Run spirit of rising to the challenge of trying new things, I'm going to do it. I'm going to write double drabbles. The shortest story I've ever written is 400 words (thanks to last year's KR ), so - yeah Nevertheless:

Mira, why are you taunting me like this, where is my bee fic, write faster

 

Well, Week 4 entry is posted.

Winds of Change: Witness to Attack

 

Question: does it matter how you put the three words? Like, all in the same double Drabble, one in each, in the exact order, etc? Or whatever you want to do? What is the answer???!!! what, What WHAT!!!??!??!?!?!

Sorry, I can be a little dramatic at times.

 

You will write three separate double drabbles, one per word prompt, and each of those double drabbles will be 200 words long. So you'll write 200 words answering the prompt "juggernaut", another 200 words answering the prompt "shepherd", and another 200 words answering the prompt "undertaker" (they do not need to in that order). The prompt words do not need to appear in the body of your drabbles, though they should at least appear as a header for each drabble. For some specific examples of how to format your drabbles, you can check out any of the threads indexed for Ultimate Drabble Challenge X, or you can look at the drabbles people posted for last year's Kessel Run. There are several links on pages 4 & 5 of that thread that will take you straight to the participants' drabbles. I hope that helps, and if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

 

Well, the rabbit hole of internet research paid off! For week 5, I give you A Draft Memo for Sate Pestage.

 

My entry is done. Who'd've thunk I'd be drabbling. Huh. https://boards.theforce.net/threads/victory-kessel-run-challenge-2023.50058618/

 

Hi @Vek Talis, it looks like you wrote regular drabbles for your entry. We're actually doing double drabbles this week, which means each one needs to be exactly 200 words, for a grand total of 600 words. Don't worry, you still have until next Monday to finish your entry!

 

If you wanted accuracy, you should have told me.

 

This was the first thing that popped into my head and I don't even watch wrestling.

As someone who sometimes has to pad drabbles with filler to hit 100 words I will never not be amazed by all the fic writers who can write so many words so effortlessly.

And that's not meant to be funny or snarky or anything, I honestly mean it. Writing longfic is such a special talent.

 

Oh my gosh, I have always felt exactly the same way. I'm not even joking. I've always been a vignette-only person. Then I started writing Reclamation in January 2020 and I don't even know what happened, it won't stop, and then Renewal, and suddenly my vigs are 8000 words instead of 3000, and I so honestly have no idea at all how this shift occurred. This is not who I was ten years ago, and I wouldn't have believed it was who I could have been, and I didn't even try to become this, just all of a sudden one day the words wouldn't stop coming. (But not effortlessly, let me assure you! Oh, no indeed )

So for my own part, at least, I absolutely cannot claim any special talent here, nor even any deliberate attempt. This just happened to me one day. And believe me, if it happened to me, it can happen to anyone. Life is full of surprises

 

All right. It's fixed.

 

DRL had started to catch up with me, so I am bowing out. There are fantastic entries this year I have loved reading.

 

Sorry to see you go, Nehru. Hope you can kick DRL's behind.

 

Me too! It’s a bit hard right now with work and other hobbies calling me away.

 

You can do it!

 

I'm trying to avoid thinking about Darth RL, so here's my Week 5 set, "An Echo in the Quiet Sea."