May #BlogBattle: Extract

/ Gary

May 2023 Blog Battle

Right-click & ‘Save As’ one or both of these images to share on social media!

Our word this month is:

Extract

You can start writing at any time, but make sure you post your story by the

19th of May

to have a link shared here and on social media.

Once you’ve posted your story to your blog, put a link to it in the comments section, and we’ll add your story to the Battle Stories Line-up post that goes live the 3rd Friday of the month (the same as the post-by date).

Make sure to check back and read some of the stories of your fellow battlers. Leave comments to encourage these writers. And go a step further in supporting one another by sharing each other’s stories on your own blog or social media, whatever you’re most comfortable with!

Basic Rules:

The Prompt Word will be given the First FRIDAY of every month.

Post your story by the 3rd Friday of the same month (this is the same date as the Stories post goes live).

RULES

  1. up to 2000 words max (give or take a few)
  2. fictional tale (or true if you really want)
  3. Any genre that fits within PG-13 (or less)-type Content – let’s keep this family friendly!
  4. Your story must contain the randomly chosen word(s) and/or be centered around the word meaning in a way that shows it is clearly related.
  5. Go for the entertainment value!
  6. Put a link back to your #BlogBattle Short Story in the comments section
  7. Please tweet and otherwise share your battler buddies’ stories across social media.
    1. Use the hashtag #BlogBattle when tweeting all the stories so we can cross-share.
  8. Have fun!
Any photos included with the prompt are only for your benefit as a pinch of inspiration. They don’t need to dictate your theme or story genre. Only the Word of the Month counts! Photos are thanks to public domain photo sharing sites like Unsplash and Pixabay.
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33 thoughts on “May #BlogBattle: Extract”

  1. For all those that wished me a successful hernia operation I am now home and it went very well. Just very sore but I want to thank you all for the supportive words. I really appreciate that so much

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        • Tried to post this Roger but it said cannot be posted 😳 more blasted gremlins

          And so it unfolds Roger. You answered my time question above as I was wondering like Abe. I’m thinking your world build is increasing in complexity too. The wonders of BB in WIP dodging. I also noted the loss of staff too with the same note about troubles with locals, almost put tribbles in there by mistake 😂

          Tell me, how much of this WIP is in progress? Or are you like me, buried with back story?

          Also seems like we are hitting caves this time round too 😂

          Nice follow up, but if I were to make one suggestion it would be to punch it in Grammarly and compare the result to here. With me it’s eyewatering watching the culling process in action.

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          • I hold my hands up here Gary, there was an idea but not a true buzz, and I slipped into that Cold War vibe I mentioned to Abe. (and John Le Carre…..that is a bad habit of mine, because he’s way above of my league)
            One thing I’ll have to bear in mind is that although I spent 6-8 years in that world, and thus know it pretty well (although it still surprises me, and characters lecture me about sub-texts) not everyone will know what I am talking about. Trying to be careful, but it does slip in.
            Yeah I will take up on your suggestion to re-visit Grammarly, it did serve me well years back….Can’t remember why it fell off my radar…probably stubborn impatience on my behalf…..
            Ah well, never too old to learn.😃.
            Thanks for the imput.

            Liked by 1 person

          • And for absolute tightness John Grisham. I am having to scrutinize Grammarly suggestions heavily. My style is unorthodox I admit but it tries to tense swap and seems over focused on passive sentences. I hate those yes, but it’s not simply changing a verb of focussing on the highlighted section. Also if flags, say, “he” as reader may be confused to who it refers to. I don’t get that if the entire paragraph only has one person in it who, in this case, is a bloke. Obviously I hate word repetition. So stock transition words of but, nevertheless, finally and however I tend to dismiss. Using the flags more to identify a place needing attention. I do like it though. Mass corrections on punctuation is a boon. I’m also considering Atticus. Seems that can do massive amounts of interior formatting and file exports compatible with the indie scene publishing.

            You hit it there too. Being familiar one has to consider a new reader wondering what the heck is going on. It’s the same reasoning saying self editing is tough as you know it so well, errors get missed 😂

            Liked by 1 person

          • Thanks for all the tips there Gary, I’ll visit Atticus.
            When I was working through Vol !! of the III volume set I was also reading histories of several wars and how tangled every was with no one truly in control all of the time. Thus this ‘bright idea’ arose to have readers experience that in my series, with numerous players, allies at odds with each other, no one sure of what was truly going on and the central characters just struggling on with it.
            I have a feeling that’s why lots of folk took up the Kindle ‘free offer’ promotions I opted for, but there was but one review…….a lot of readers might have just given up.
            Oh well…..
            Back to the drawing board.

            Liked by 1 person

          • No worries Roger. FYI I just tried it as the app. It’s like everything Scrivener looked complicated about. Import splits every chapter, adds in copyright blurbs. Has it’s own proof and editor. Formats export to everything from Amazon to IngramSpark. I just ran a few chapters on it and am sold. It even displays the look on mobile devices in the format section. It has just removed a major headache 😳

            So, now FYI, I fire it through Grammarly, Hemmingway, and now will pull it through Atticus. It leaves me with a nascent word master manuscript for agents etc and the option to go direct out if I want.

            Re your tangled web… It sounds like it needs a bit of untangling. It’s why I said run it through Grammarly and see what it pulls out for clarity and ease of read. What you don’t want is anyone to zone out before they get into the guts of a good story..but who am I to advise 🤔

            Liked by 1 person

          • On my tangled web good points there Gary, I may have got into deep on the complexity issues.
            They work well when an historian is trying to convey to the reader the scope of the issues involved (and it was fun writing that into a world build) but as you suggest it might have zoned out folk…. I guess I’ll never know….
            I’ll start with Grammarly on this project 🙂

            Liked by 1 person

          • Just be wary of it’s suggestions on rewriting sentences. Some transition words are stock phrases which aren’t always helpful. I use it to flag points to revisit. It also had a tendency to change tenses if you just hit accept without review of what it’s doing. Right now I’m using Atticus as it’s really easy 😂

            Liked by 1 person

          • Been tinkering and it appears Grammarly is integrated into Atticus if you’re logged in via a browser. Dead easy to upload a manuscript, Atticus breaks it into chapters and Grammarly checks the text. How easy is that! I’ve now already done 3 manuscripts so just short of cover design 🤔

            Liked by 1 person

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  10. OK, much to my surprise, here’s mine…

    Sin Seer

    In one of those strange coincidences, I saw something on the tv and thought “there’s a story there”, and then I thought that said story belonged in one of my urban fantasy novels, and then the prompt turned up and fitted the story…
    The rest, as they say, is the weird stuff that follows strange coincidences.

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  11. Pingback: Sin Seer | Mark-Huntley-James

    • Tried to leave a comment on your site, Gary, but it wouldn’t let me. Briefly, it was impressive how useful that dragon stone was, and I suspect oracles and such like to use fancy language because it helps to hedge their predictions! Maybe the site will let me say more later.

      Liked by 1 person

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      • Odd but I’ve seen a few sites do that Abe. If it happens again let me know and I’ll contact support to investigate. I ought to stop BB back story tales as it’s making the world build even harder haha.

        Thanks for following diverting your comment too. I’m behind this month as I have a hernia op next week so been trying to catch up jobs before I get stuck for up to 6 weeks recovery. No doubt that will provide ample catch up time 😳

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          • Just seen it Abe, will reply properly tomorrow. And thanks for the good wishes. It’s taken two and a half years to get this op date so it’s part can’t wait and part what the heck do you do during a five or six week recovery with no lifting anything…. Oh yes… write 😂

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