The Official Writing Challenge
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Member
Date
12/13/05
I appreciate your willingness to open up the ending for input, but in all honesty, God gave you this insight and the intent. He charged you with the choice of ending to carry through His message into the hearts of us the readers. I want to encourage you to seek His counsel and write it the way He tells you. That would be the best ending. Have faith in being the Lord's scribe.
No fair!! I was greedily reading and waiting for the conclusion! I have to agree with Steve! Sorry!
But, on the other hand, this reminds me of those books popular with the younger set where they read to a certain point, then choose where to go next (go to page __), and so on. They actually can determine the course of the story! Was that your intention? Or this a Christmas gift for your fellow FW's?
A suggestion: Remove all the adjectives and adverbs from your story, then replace only those that are necessary to the flow of the story. That will tighten the story up without destroying it.
I could see Willow becoming more and more obsessed with the vision (isn't that how we can be led into idolatry or sorcery and allow that obsession tear us from the Lord?), Only recognizing the bondage later. Just my two cents worth.
12/17/05
I thought it was great! Much more imaginative then I could have come up with!
12/17/05
I am torn in my opinion. On one hand, I wanted the ending handed to me. On the other hand, it's nice to be able to determine the ending especially when it may go differently from the way I may have wanted it to go in the first place.

All that said, I like the story. There's a lot of suspense to make your reader want to keep reading!
12/18/05
Thanks for the creative story and the invitation to join in your fun! The best part of writing is seeing how others are touched by it. So, I'll take you up on your invitation: How about instead of having Owen come back to Willow, we put Willow into battle with Owen until the "wounded tree" is resurrected to its initial beauty?
12/18/05
I enjoyed this piece. What I want to thank you most for is taking a chance. It's easy to look at it like you walked away with the task incomplete, but I applaud you for saying "my writing will be different". Everyone like to read something that engages them. You made it mandatory for the reader to get involved. Bravo!
12/19/05
Great sense of place. A character we immediately care for. This is a very imaginative and compelling story that opens up heaps of possibilities. I love it! Trust yourself to go the full distance with this. Yeggy
12/19/05
Sometimes Too many adverbs and adjectives take away from the story instead of adding to it; as for the ending...Readers read to be entertained, informed or enlightened; if this "controversial"(?)or "questionable" ending satisfied them...then you succeeded in pleasing the Reader. A poll as to Readers' satisfaction with this type of ending...might be interesting. Sorry, my vote would be negative. But bravo for being creative.
12/21/05
Thanks for your thoughtful responses and suggestions. The story, "Willow" does have a conclusion. If you're interested, it'll appear in article submissions sometime in January. Happy Holidays and GOD BLESS YOU ALL.