Welcome to another edition of the Hive Literary Games. Last week, Literary Game No. 4 asked participants to write a story using 6 unique words or phrases. Those words and phrases were:
- Cornfield
- Truck driver
- Fire
- Become
- Distrust (alternatively: distrusting)
- Savage
For the first time, last week's literary game became a contest. The prize = 2 HBD.
Now, let's look at the entries.
Literary Games No. 4 Contest Entrants
There were three entries into Literary Games No. 4. Below are the entries, in order of publication.
Fire From the Sky by @alonicus
First paragraph:
"Ma ! Pa ! Come quick ! The cornfield is on fire !" the terror in Jonnie's voice was unmistakeable. Fire did that to people. It was an atavistic, violent and unpredictable force which could be temporarily bought to heel but could never be fully controlled.
Burnt From The Roots by @lailawrites
First paragraph:
Danny parked his rig at the farm and cut off the engine. The almost deafening silence greeted him first. No barking dogs, no chickens, only wind blowing through what was left of the CORNFIELD. Half of it was black stubble, burnt to nothing. The other half stood tall and green like nothing had happened.
Being Human, Not Perfect by @beckyroyal
First paragraph:
It was a cool day. The sky was clear and bright with the sun smiling down from between the clouds. Its glorious rays warming our bodies without being harsh. Children could be seen playing happily at the park. They cared less for anything save for their fun.
Be sure to read these stories and vote on them. There are three criteria for selecting the winner.
- Order of submission (first in gets highest score)
- My opinion (subjective)
- Payout amounts (Based on number and weight of upvotes)
These three criteria, equally distributed, ensure fair play. No one can say I'm playing favorites as a combination of my judgment, the Hive community, and order of submission determines the winner. So be sure to read the stories and vote on each according to your voting criteria. The winner will be announced after all stories have completed payout.
Literary Game No. 5
This week's literary game is a story each participant must complete. Below is a ChatGPT-generated first paragraph (with a little human editing). That paragraph is the first paragraph of your story. You'll take that and complete the story. No changing the paragraph!
Your story's first paragraph:
"What did you bury beneath the swing set?" No name. No date. Just the question. The book had not been checked out since 1983. The current borrower, a janitor named Elise, who only reads during lunch breaks in the boiler room, found the sticky note between pages 202 and 203. Now, something stirs in the dirt behind her childhood home, and the swing is creaking. But there’s no wind. And no one’s there.
The Rules:
- Upvote and reblog this post. In future literary games, more entries will increase the amount of the prize.
- Follow me if you haven't already.
- Write a story of any length that begins with the above paragraph.
- Tag your story #literarygames.
- Deadline for all stories: Tuesday, June 24, 12:00 UTC
- Read other participants' stories. Comment on them and upvote them. No self-voting!
- You can post your stories in any writing community as long as you follow that writing community's guidelines.
- After publishing, drop a link to your story in the comments below.
- Above all, have fun!
Like last week, the winning prize is 2 HBD. Stories will be scored on three criteria:
- Order of submission (first submission = highest score; last submission = lowest score)
- Payout (the higher the payout the higher the score)
- My opinion (I'll read each story and rank them)
That's it for this week. May the best story win!
Remember: The winner of Literary Game No. 4 will be announced next Wednesday, after all story payouts have ended.
@lauretb93 @luchyl @babygirl888 @ozd @esbat
Swing set image by Whisk.