Crystal Sunshyne
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*dies of dehumblement after a fatal episode of complimented-by-talented-writers syndrome*
I am grateful that my writing is liked. Truly.
Superficially this may be a competition, but in truth each story contributes to the overall wealth of creativity and any of our insecurities about which one deserves to be liked the most are unnecessary. Especially where lack of participation is lamented and where the only reward is the sharing of written work, it should not be forgotten that the purpose of creativity is not comparison but expression. Each contribution is a unique artistic combination of the given story elements that deserves to be appreciated in its own right.
First of all, the first entry should not be completely discounted because of its format or whatever the reason; “New Scrolls” looks like it was fun to write, and that is more or less the point of participating.
The second story is very sweet and beautiful. There may be a couple of minor linguistic edits I might suggest, but I really liked the idea behind “See the Stars”. I like characters who can share compatible silences, and I can relate to the feeling of missing someone enough to want to wish oneself to them. It is nice to imagine having wishing stones that can, even accidentally, grant such a wish, but realistically every granted wish has a price; a character who is strong enough to escape the warped version of reality their heart desires in order to return home unscathed is admirable.
I am not really familiar with Darker Than Black, but I still enjoyed the fanfiction. I was progressively deeper immersed into Hei’s story the more of “Whispers” I read, from his alias to his true nature as a Contractor and then to his past… until the random couple walk past commenting on the beauty of the shooting star without knowing its significance, and I was implicitly reminded of that aspect of life that makes even the most dramatic personal plotlines generally unknown to the rest of the world. And, as a reader, I feel simultaneously part of the story and part of that “rest of the world” that doesn’t really understand. I really liked that ending.
Finally, I feel I almost don’t need to explain the worth of “Pro Patria Mori” because it is obviously well liked, but I will. War is a noble yet brutal subject that has been explored by many great writings and still benefits from more. I enjoyed the style of the verse as well. I like rhymes that also alliterate (even if it’s accidental), like ‘safe’ and ‘strafe’, especially when one of them is a word I was previously unfamiliar with. Collecting awesome words is one of my hobbies, so I always appreciate writings that introduce me to new vocabulary; ‘vim’ is another one I don’t remember whether I had previously been well acquainted with, but it’s a good word. Anyway, in addition to my random linguistic thoughts about it, it is a good poem overall. Perhaps I should not have compared this work to my poetry, though; to be fair, I do make a conscious choice to sacrifice rhythm for alliteration and acrosticity, but I still admire poems where you can feel the consistent pace of the flowing words.
I want to say that I am not as insecure about my own writing as I seem, but honestly if you have read this particular story you can probably tell that there is a side of me that is insecure about life in general. The Warrior Poetess is a character (or a version of my fictional self) who I created in order to fight that insecurity when it was at its worst. She stars in other stories I am writing; the part of my character’s history where she is accepted at the Institute InVerse and studies to become a great warrior poetess existed as a vague idea in my head for a while but was never really written. For this contest, I wanted to write something unrelated to my other work, something built from scratch based on the random story elements, but given this particular combination of elements I immediately saw Warrior Poetess and I couldn’t resist finally freeing her from my mind. I actually debated whether or not I should share her because this might be one of my writings that are too close to my heart to release to the mercy of the world, but once written she wanted to be shared out of respect for the contest that inspired her so I had to let her.
Part of what I wanted to express in this story is the way that it is sometimes easier to see the value of others than to appreciate oneself; I think this is generally a good thing unless in excess. I placed two characters that have been previously only communicating at a distance in a situation where they both had separate motivations to conceal their identity when they met in person, so they each spoke their admiration for the other without knowing whom they addressed and heard themselves praised without fully believing the kind words they were offered. As for Ice Crystal, she represents the side of me that I truly fear more than anything because she delights in trying to destroy me. I believe that writing has the power to transform thoughts and perceptions, to a certain extent, and one of my most helpful mental transformations through writing was learning to be able to see the side of me that sometimes feels like she is falling apart through the eyes of the part of me that is strong enough to put her back together. This story metaphorically expresses my own experience and my complicated, sometimes emotionally abusive (but less so, more recently) relationship with myself. I wrote what I wrote with the help of a concept initially created in order to restore the inner balance necessary for my continued existence.
Aaand I wrote too much. That is all. Thank you.
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