picking this year's contingency challenge prompt

[brightknightie]

FKFicFest sign-ups will open Wednesday, the 20th LK anniversary. I'll post the rules and the contingency challenge. I haven't yet picked the prompt; if you'd like to share your insights on what would make a good one, please do.

(Review: In the event of <9 players, we'd switch from one-to-one matching to one shared prompt with diverse renderings.)

It might be nice to revisit a classic, like FKFic-L's Asteroid Challenge (from "A More Permanent Hell"), but, fairly, "reruns" didn't go over well when mentioned last year. Neither did canonical "What if?"s. I've been advised to phrase the prompt like a novel blurb, and I'd love to! But leaving authors free to pick the characters and angle dead-ends that: "Somebody does something for some reason, and there's some twist!" If I describe a crime in Toronto in the '90s, the writer may thereby feel constrained from placing her story wholly in Pompeii or Paris, wholly in the past or the future, etc.

If the community had chosen a challenge game, we all would have nominated and elected a prompt! As it is, we're stuck with my feeble best. (I recommend that you get 9+ friends to sign up: problem solved!)

Words/phrases:

• "Reunited"
• "Just in time"
• "Remembered"
• "Out of reach"
• "Gone too far"

Settings:

• Altun Kinal (cf."Dark Knight")
• Mercy Hospital (cf. "Last Act" and "Unreality TV," probably also "I Will Repay")
• Hotel Perceval Convention Center (cf. "Spin Doctor")
• McCallum Neurological Institute (cf."Near Death," possibly also "The Fix")
• Observatory (cf. "A More Permanent Hell")

Scenarios:

• "A mysterious [message/package] arrives..."
• "In a well-guarded hospital room..."
• "Miraculously surviving an accident..."
• "It's almost impossible to live off the grid, yet..."
• "On the verge of a great success..."

Comments

[greerwatson]

To me, the "settings" and "scenarios" are far too constraining. If one has a recipient, after all, they may ask for something that precise; but you'll at least have a choice among three suggestions. I think the thematic prompt ("word/phrase") offers more opportunity for varied interpretations.

[brightknightie]

Some people didn't like the "phrase" prompt idea last year.

So I did my best to generate alternative approaches; I spent many hours on it.

[greerwatson]

You spend a great deal of time on the exchange; and I assure you that it's much appreciated by everyone who participates.