So it’s Day two and time once more to Blog like a Boss.

Q1. Who’s your favorite Trek blogger and why?

A1. Um, um ai yi yi that is an unfair question it so hard to choice between all of the fine Trek Blog out there. I mean everybody does a good job with providing a unique voice and viewpoint on the greater Trek fan-verse.

 

I would sum them up but Jespah has already beaten me to it, so for a good review of the main movers and shakers in the Ad Astra Trek Blog sphere go have a look at it here: –

http://jespah.adastrafanfic.net/2014/06/30/blogging-community-trek/

 

As you can tell I’m trying to delay answering the question.

So I’m going to be honest and say it a tie for me and which is my favorite depends upon my mood when I read them, so fanfare please for: –

Barking up the Muse Tree by Jespah

http://jespah.adastrafanfic.net/

&

Miranda Fave Meanders

http://mirandafave.adastrafanfic.net/

=/\=

So why did I pick these two?

Well Jespah is one of the most regular updaters and she put a lot of effort into her cross-promotion of her works and other writing venues and her character analysis blogs always provide food for thought.

 

As for MF, he writes some of the most amusing trek stuff but when he put his serious analysis head on, he puts together well thought out and good analysis of his topic especially in his boldly reading reviews.

=/\= 

Anyway that all I’ve got for you today.

So till next time take care and trek safely across your quadrant.

False Bill

Captain’s Log Star-date 67460.1

The USS False Bill is enjoying a rare break at space-dock and so we are now all in reflection mood and preparing for the forthcoming Hogmanay event. We have no orders or questions to answer from the Admiralty at the moment.

Private Log Star-date 67460.1

It hard to believe that it’s now 533 star days since stardate 66927.1 (or 198 days or so since the 17th June in the old earth calendar) when I first join the elite Ad Astra Captains Table. In that time I’ve learn more about the Federation, it allies and even its enemies.

I’ve met amazing fellow captains and their crews made new friends from around the Milky Way listen to their story and their morale dilemmas, their victories and sometimes their defeats.

I’m not sure what has been my favourite moment or story of these first six months but the favourite thing has been the kind and helpful productive atmosphere of the forums.

The regularly weekly free write, the grammar workshop and the monthly challenges that you’ve all help to make the forums as well as the archives something special and have helped me to explore my writing faults and my characters more believable.

This December I’ve seen the true spirit of Christmas as each C/O has created personal gifts of stories of story reviews for their fellow captains or offer sage advice in the Stuff the Stocking Forum set-up by Admiral SL Walker.

So thank you all, for all your advice what ever it has be. So all I can say for the next year is may it be better it all ways and —

Space: The final frontier


These are the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise


Its five-year mission


To explore strange new worlds


To seek out new life and new civilizations

To boldly go where no one has gone before.

 

Regards,

False Bill

So here I’m gently patrolling this quiet ad astra sector, waiting for my next orders from the admiralty, when from the officer at the tactical station gives the call “Long blog with pictures directly ahead sir,”

“Break out the Hot Drinks Yeoman!”

“Captain, I’m also detecting NaNoWriMo on long range sense, impact in T-minus twelve days,”

“All stop, shields full intensity and deflectors full intensity, Yellow Alert! Brace for impact!” is the only response.

I can already feel the vague worry starting to build that once more I must face this challenge. I’m sure Q is behind it!

Well actually there is one other response which is to ignore this strange writing phenomenon that is getting stronger year by year but what sort of writer would that make me?

“A sane one?”

“Thank you Jalke’i, as your sarcasm will help me to prepare for writing 1,167 words a days in November,”

Now while those Orion Pirates gag and carry Jalke’i off and lock her in a deep dudgeon for the next month, I can carry on with this Blog post.

NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month to give it the full name is something that happens every November since 1999, with the aim of encouraging more people to write a novel length story, but showing that it can be a fun also.

 

The full back-story and the briefing can be found on there website from here: –http://nanowrimo.org/about

In short it’s a daily short write that link together so something akin like tackling an Ad Astra Forum WFW every day. A mere 1,1667 words so it only about two and half side of A4, just how hard can it be?

 

Well I can only speak for myself on my past experience but it’s very hard. It does all depending upon how cooperative one muse feels like been on each day in November.

 

So let me explain my writing history with NaNoWriMo, so you know my road to this re-match.

I’ve personally tried NaNoWriMo since 2009, the first time I had no self confidence and so didn’t sign up official and just did some minor scribing and then after a week realises as I had hand written it all, I had no easy way to check my word count beyond a manual count and the thought of doing that on a week worth of writing combine with my lack of belief, fuel by the nay Sayers both real and my own characters lead by my inner editor kill off the first project. I did try typing it the following year but again my inner nay Sayers and a lack of time become the excuse to kill off project number two.

 

I realise something had to change for 2011. So I decide that I would be more serious with this project and thus took the bold step to sign up to the website and hold myself accountable for success or the more likely the failure.

So I sign up and set off on the story “2764 Ab Urbe Condita” as the synopsis still says on my NaNoWriMo profile this story was a steam-punk story in a crumbling Roman Empire, sadly this story only got to 27,437 words. Which isn’t to bad but it’s a long way short of 50,000.

So what did I learn from this failure and what lessons did I learn that I could now share with you, if you wish to tackle this challenge?

The first thing I learnt was that I didn’t sort out my research in advance, I should of at least re-watch TOS episode Bread and Circuses again as the struggle to come up with the right words and feel for this story. Having to stop and to research a new Roman name or title each time another bit part character walk on stage and then trying to decide which bits of Roman culture to keep and which to modernise while not lose the favour just slowed the writing. Then due to an under-develop plot line wandering off into different sub plots, which hinder my main plot development.

I guess it proves the old adage, write what you know and if you don’t know then ensure you have your notes ready and to hand.

Then the other delay was the dread real world kept getting in my way. I let work and travel to/from, plus the weekly shop and meeting with friends all eat up my time.

In short I didn’t make a plan and I didn’t stick to the writing. I let all the distractions win out, whether I should of or not.

 

Looking back now I feel like I’d try to run when I should have walked. So I came aware of the realisation to succeed that I need to do some prep work in October before November started.

So last year I decide to think in advance about what to do, I look at what I was writing with the most ease and enjoy writing, which back then were my mock Viking saga stories from the fantasy land of Okoumene. So I decide I write a story featuring my favourite two characters, the neo-Viking shaman Oweodry and the mysterious giant grasshopper Cardinal Theta.

Now both these characters like to run their mouths and I found there voices easy to write. Putting them together for the first time in what was intended to be the two of them having a simple go kill big bad evil giant wolf story which I would then back fill with lots of short story from them and the other minor character around the camp fire at night time. Plus if I was struggling to progress the story an Orc or something could attack and I then have a quick hundred words of the Viking fighting it off.

 

I then change my word count ideas, I would still try to do 1,667 but aim to increase up to 2,000 words on a normal week day, when the muse was flowing but I had to force myself to write on the train into the office, at lunchtime and on the train journey home again, now this at best only give me 700 words, but it did mean that I only had to write another 1,000 words after I cooked dinner.

 

Then at the weekends I would try to do double the normal amount i.e. 3,334 to 4,000 words. I would tell everybody this was what I was attempting and so I would be less available for other things and the pressure of others asking how it going to keep me on target.

Then Bizarrely last year I had a late camping fest weekend away arrange for November and so I had to come up with a solution for that lost time. As I would need to write longhand, cut off from the joys of technology. So what I did was take a big old fashion A4 pad and force myself to write just ten words a line to keep better track of my score. Then I would focus during my travelling and waiting for transfer time to keep write. I would get up early despite the hangover and write maybe a few hundred words, I knew I wasn’t near my daily word limit but I felt that as long as I did something I would be able to make up the difference in a future weekend.

 

In reality much to my surprise I did manage to make my word limits during this weekend but I don’t recommend writing with a hangover and no coffee in the great outdoors.

I also plan my weekly shop like military raids, to ensure that I got everything for the week ahead and wouldn’t run out of anything I need, and thus not lose writing time to wandering the store lanes or having to go down the corner shop for emergency supplies.

 

Then in advance of writing I set-up my small Viking cast and their enemies and on 1^st of November set them lose.

I had great days, I had bad days but on 29^th of November I was confident that I was now over my 50,000 words and so I submit Tales of Okoumene for Validation and it came back as a winner validate at 51,038 words!

Mission accomplished.

 

Looking back now the story still has plot holes and some ideas that need to be re-visited and re-edited and I do hope to go back and tidy it up but I achieve my objective.

Was it easy?

No! There were times I felt like jacking it in but the characters would let me. So that remain my key thing for this year, I have to care about my central character and know they will insist I keep on to the end of the novel.

Did it require me to keep good discipline for once?

O Yes.

Did I get a great sense of accomplishment from finally beating the 50,000 words?

YES! It was party time for FalseBill the sense of accomplishment and the winner e-mails from NaNoWriMo felt like cream on strawberries.

=/\=

Then it was over and I got back to my normal routine, but I still felt like I was on air. I had write a short novel, it wasn’t very good and being my first draft it has more grammar errors than you can shake a stick at but it was my work and I had done something productive to release my inner artisan.Then I realise having done it once I would have to try again, to prove it was a fluke, but now I face the dilemma what to write next?

 

So many ideas were fighting for space and time and each seems great but yet none of them were a novel. I mean each of my Star Trek crews was saying I should write them. However my other characters were saying that they hadn’t been getting to much attention since I join Ad Astra, thus it was now there turn. So I banished them all to the Brig and those that still didn’t get the hint were gagged and sent to the Orion slavers holding pen.

(O to point out that this is approximately the 1,670 word mark, i.e. your minimum day write target)

Is it just me or do other authors get lip from their characters, when they not getting story time?

 

Then I had an idea, twisting last year attempt I will write November tales a tale for each day, so I can write a series of little stories using all my various writing characters, so all I need to work out is what villain or events links all these stories together, the Chilo are trying to volunteer but I think they going to stay in the SLWalker/Ad Astra toy box this time around.

Anyway I’m not sure how much help this Blog will be to any of you who are looking to face this year NaNoWriMo Challenge, all I can say is I will be endeavour to repeat the feat again.

My top six tips are: –

1.  Know you need to make time to write, every day even if it not the target value.
2. Ensure you know your main character, can hear their voice and they know their mind, even if you don’t.
3. Be aware that there is a writing wall for novel writing, and so just like people who run a marathon warn you of the wall, it will hurt to hit it but you must push on or you have only half a story. So have some emergency plot twist ready for that moment.
4. As we say in the forums Don’t Edit It To Death Just Write (DEITDJW), so follow the flow of the story and if your main star decide to stop to smell the roses, let them and see what they want to do, Your Characters can and will surprise you. Accept this it can be a great source of new ideas.
5. You will suffer from writers block accept it, go have a drink, go look at a pretty picture for inspiration or check your NaNoWriMo messages.
6. They no shame in failing to met the target.

=/\=

All the Ad Astra Writers who are declaring that they’re taking part can be found via this link.

http://forums.adastrafanfic.com/index.php?/topic/2141-nanowrimo/

Don’t be afraid after all as Will Riker said long ago “fear is the only enemy,” so be bold and join this year adventure, after all they’re no shame in trying and failing, but winning is so much fun.

 

I would point out there are 2090 words before this point, i.e. this is the sort of length you might need to think writing on a daily basis to slay this monster, once you allow for lose word days.

=/\=

Thanks for reading, as always feel free to comment and maybe I see you out here in the sector of space known only as the Land of Fiction.

Take care, till next time 

False Bill

Well the latest Starfleet communiqué from Admiral SLWalker requires an investigation of a strange temporal anomaly from outside federation space.

The orders can be viewed here: –

http://boldlyreading.com/2013/09/09/blog-prompt-8-branching-out-to-other-fandoms/

 

Q1. Do you have any other fandoms you participate in aside Star Trek?

A1. I don’t participate in many other fandoms, I mean I do write the occasional Dr. Who/Torchwood, Super-heroes and once even attempting a bit of Discworld, however unlike Star Trek and Ad Astra I can’t find an forum/archive fandoms where I feel like I want to put my attempts up.

 

Q2. Are there any you’re interested in?

A2. Yes, those I write I like to write plus Stargate and Xena, okay it a guilt secret, but again I struggle to find any good single source sites, I will skip over fanfiction.net which with good intentions try to be to broad and thus you can never find what you want or any consistent themes.

Q3. Any original work you do?

A3. Yes the occasional Fantasy Viking Saga and the rare Steampunk story. Again these remain hidden away in the depth of my remote hard drive.

Q4. And do you ever find something you do there inspires something you do here?

A4. Always. As the practice of writing to Kes7 weekly free writes and the type of characters allows me to think of some-things that helps one of my other stories worlds.

Well as always thanks to trekcore for the Star Trek Pictures and other free screen cap archives for the others.

Thanks for reading, hope it shed a little light on the mystery that is alternative fandoms.

till next time Thanks for reading and stay safe.

Well it was Admiral Jespah who set the Ad Astra Blog question this time, clearly Miranda Fave is still in the B’Moth Sector looking for me after the last blog reply and it such a hum dinger that I’ve had to think for most of the week on my answers to her questions. You can view the original questions here: –

http://boldlyreading.com/2013/08/06/blog-prompt-6-writing-complex-evil-characters/

 

Well after the wait I hope that

a) that this blog is something someone wants to reads and

b) someone will like it on some level

c) don’t feel that I’ve reveal myself to be evil, well I do speak with a British accent which is a usually indication in Hollywood movies of a villain.

For once one out of three won’t cut it on this blog. So without further ado, as Admiral Jespah is of course reveal to be a Excalbian continuing their experiments to understand the human philosophies of “good” and “evil” as last seen in “The Savage Curtain,” [TOS].

I’ll try to answer the questions and not end up in a pool of lava.

 

Q1. How do you write evil characters that are not mere caricatures?

A1. In all honestly, to avoid creating mere caricatures is a task with great difficulty for me but I find that also apply to my good characters as well.

I think the key thing in writing character is to ensure that I try to bear in mind the following two quotes,

The first by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

“If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility”.

The second by Aleksandra Solzhenitsyn,

“…the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

In other words, just as my heroes and heroines need to have vices to break their all star good guy caricature so my villains and villainess need their virtues and reasons why they believe their actions are good, even if they’re perhaps a little warped.

To be honest this is still a work in progress with my writing but perhaps the other piece of good advice I’ve found for this one is from Decipher old Star Trek Role-play game narrator’s guide, “…focus on the character’s motivation. Why is the NPC doing what he does?”

After all Sela reasons for opposing the federation are different from Gul Dukat opposition to it, and the way they go about achieving there goal are thus different.

Q2. Do you find ways to garner sympathy, even for the wicked (or the devil, perhaps?)?

A2. I do try to ensure my regular villains garner sympathy and this is part of the reason that I put a dead Chilo in a MU Agony Booth for my Titan WFW bit story. Because from the round robins the Chilo are a great villain to write but I don’t think till Trekfan put one in a Hank disguise and expanded on their reason for hating everybody did they become a more than two dimensions monsters and became the great villains they are.  On the wider sympathy topic, I do want to try and to do little scenes with my antagonists to try and show their reasons for been in opposition to my ‘heroes’. I admit that my two stories in the archive aren’t the best example of this, but something else for me to work on for future stories, me thinks.

Q3. Do you surprise your readers by turning a character from good to evil, or evil to good?

A3. Not yet, as for the future, I’m going to keep you guessing. Insert evil laugh here.

Q4. How grey is the shading?

A4. Going back to the Solzhenitsyn quote, I do try to put a lot of grey in my shading for both my heroes and villains. By the same note, for me one of Trek greatest strengths is while they’re great shades of grey (not that novel) in Trek, especially DS9, the extremes of the rainbow are bolder at either end and thus the shades in between are bolder in their relief. To try and clarify that, since Kirk or Picard are such the undoubted good guys to their enemies like Kor or Borg Queen villains that when we get the Romulans or the Ferengi and the Cardassians with characters like Sela, Quark and Garak who to call them good or evil outright fails to do them or the actors playing them justice when cast in the light or darkness of the extremes of the Trek-verse.

 

Bonus questions!

Q5. Which evil characters have you enjoyed writing the most?

A5. The last one, whoever it might of being, there is a strange joy in writing characters who can broadly be classified as evil, as they can say and do things you would never do. It a good relief after a day of toying the line at work in putting a villain in a similar situation in space and let them doing ‘evil’.

Q6. Which evil character, created by another author, have you enjoyed reading the most?

A6. The Chilo. SLWalker had a genius idea and all the writers of Ad Astra over the two multiverse round robins have taken them from unbelievable monsters to a great villain with strange powers, ideas and strategies to achieve their objectives.

Q7. Which canon evil character do you enjoy watching or reading the most?

A7. Q, if he still counts as an evil character and not a strange and scary teacher in your mind. For he is to me the old saying ultimate powers corrupts ultimately personified. He has seemingly ultimate power and is yet so self serving and self justifying in his actions but his chasing Kathryn Janeway and mating with Lady Q, have put him in a different context, so I’m not 100% convinced calling him an evil cannon character is still fair now as it was during the TNG Era. Perhaps that just a sign, that the show writers making the comic trickster more sympatric as they found such joy to have him on the screen and in text of books.

 

Well those are my answer to this prompt, please comment, but apologises if I don’t seem to answer, for some strange reasons, I can’t see my Blog comments other than in the disquis summary, Must be doing something wrong but that just me, a real D’oh with technology.

 

Now if you wonder what started this topic, might I refer you to Jespah excellent story ‘Paving stones from good intentions’ which can be read here: –

http://www.adastrafanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=1223&chapter=1

 

And the forum comments on that story, which I believe were the driver for this blog prompt.

http://forums.adastrafanfic.com/index.php?/topic/2069-boldly-reading-book-club-1-discussion-thread/

 

Well that me done for now, I hope you enjoy this or at least found something to philosophise over later in your own blog or stories.

Thou one question for you other Trek Bloggers, is that everybody else seems to be able to source great Trek pictures to liven their blog’s up, what is the secret source of these pictures?

Well bye for now. Thanks as always for reading.

Well the next challenge ‘Prompt #5’ is in from Miranda Fave and it is “I think this next prompt is a little harder to do. I want you to sell yourself. Sell your story. Sell your character.

Just write about a story/series/character of yours you want to shine a light on.” =/\=

A ‘little harder’ blog challenge you say Admiral? Try a lot harder, tis a hard sell that the Admiral MF seeks. So sell my story or myself, which seems harsh, well here goes.

 

So I need to convince myself so that I can convince you my two stories in the archive, are some of the best work in the Ad Astra archive. that they are well worth your time and effort to go and see.  Umm argh, give me a moment, while I try to think of something…

Hang on, in the mean time while you wait for a compelling reason, some holding music for you: –

I am a lineman for the county


And I drive the main road


Searchin’ in the sun for another overload

I hear you singin’ in the wire

I can hear you through the whine


And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line

Right got it, It Read One Read the Other For Free, yes they’re both nice and short, I mean you’ve got Lily Fitzroy screwing up a first contact in a different way for 3511 words and then why there is an AOS Nausicaan in Starfleet back story for a mere 1381.

They can be viewed here: –

• http://www.adastrafanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=1649

• http://www.adastrafanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=1593

Um… O I know they’re both single story with no other link stories calling for you to spend the rest of the day reading if you like them. Well not yet anywhere, oh yes that another reason, if there is every a future part two you can say you were here at the start!

 

O, Oh, I know, I know it’s a rare attempt to see something written by me without any major grammatical errors in it, thank to Little Black Dog.

Pretty please with all the works on top. Okay now the attempt at guilt for a sale Kallachit doesn’t even have five reviews. He feeling unloved; go on for a quick read and a mere five words review you could make his day and mine. Go on make it your good deed for the day.

 

If you a real sucker for punishment further works by me, and some other actually good authors can be found on the Ad Astra Weekly Free Writes at: –

http://forums.adastrafanfic.com/index.php?/forum/17-the-weekly-prompts/

No sale? Okay I fully understand. O well Miranda Fave still wants a sale, hang on I should be able to sell bits of myself to that Vidiian physician for…

 

…Wait what do you mean the Phage has been cured by the Think Tank?

Okay how much for a one-way ticket to the B’Moth Sector, before Admiral MF gets back?

 

Anyway Thanks for Reading.

Free-for-All Blog Prompt #4 (should you choose to accept it) asked by Miranda Fave

“For your fourth blog prompt I am going to ask you to consider the setting.

So tell me,

Q1. How do you choose your settings – be it planet, ship, ship class, heck Trek era even?

Q2. How does the setting shape your story?

Q3. What world building lengths do you seek as a writer / as a reader?

Q4. Do you like descriptions and to paint the scene or do you leave it to the imagination of the reader?”

+++++

=/\=

Well I do choose to accept the challenge, so here’s at it!

Q1. How do you choose your settings?

How I chose my setting with difficulties, I all think picking the Trek Era has a lot of bearing on the other choices. For me I currently break trek into the nine following eras: –

1. Phoenix Rising Era (2151 to 2160)

NX-ENT to Coalition of worlds / Romulan War Era

2. Early Federation (2161 to 2252)

Foundation of the federation to the Federation / Axanar War

3. Cold war Era (2253 to 2293)

After the Axanar War to Khitomer Accords [TOS/TAS/AOS era]

4. The Dark Night (2253 to 2363)

Khitomer Accords aftermath to launch of Enterprise-D [between TOS and TNG]

5.Age of Diplomacy (2363 to 2370)

Enterprise D Launch to the destruction of the Odyssey by the Jem’Hadar [TNG/DS9]

6. Age of War (2370 via 2387)

From the destruction of the USS Odyssey by the Jem’Hadar up to the Hobus Supernova. [DS9/VOY/NEMESIS]

7. Typhon Pack/Age of Restoration (2387 to 2397)

From the Hobus Supernova till the start of the Third Klingon/Federation war.

8. STO ERA (2397-2409+)

From the start of the Third Federation/Klingon war into present Star Trek Online Era.

=/\=

So if I want to do a full out war story, I’m likely to stick in the Age of War or STO Era’s. If the story depends on the story as a fast or swashbuckling attitude to solve then story I’m likely to go to Early Fed or TOS era, while if I want to touch on a morale dilemma I go to the none war eras. Of course those rules aren’t hard and fast, for me the scene is depend upon the characters I want to write at the time.

 

As Captain’s Fitzroy, Pike, Ha’rris or Kirk I would expect to see in frontier settings opposite to Galayski, Trieres I see in more developed settings, While Gorrim and Riker would be into the unknown.

 

As for picking ships that is the hardest thing for me, but the Era does tend to drive that

As era one would be NX Cruiser while era nine I’ve got a pick of over seventeen federation ships. I go for a ship that a) fits the era and b) suits the Captain style. I.e. Emmylou commands Excelsior to reflect her tactical verity while her husband Scott commands a defiant class as he a fighter.

 

Q2. How does the setting shape your story?

The setting shapes and influences the type of story to a large extend, by determine what resources the commander has to call on. In a frontier town been raid by the Nausciaans the heroes can’t used technobabble to save the day as there not going to be any fancy equipment to spring on the pirates.

 

While if you on a starship or starbase, you going to have highly training individuals with access to top grade equipment and so you might be able to stop the raiders with some new equipment.

 

Q3. What world building lengths do you seek as a writer / as a reader?

I’m not sure if I fully understand this question. I build my world in metric or imperial lengths depending upon which I think suit the story audience. 😉

If you mean do I create the world first and plan every building and it contents before I start my stories then no I prefer to have a vague impression and build on it as the story progresses.

 

Q4. Do you like descriptions and to paint the scene or do you leave it to the imagination of the reader?

Well for me less is more. In descriptions I’m full paid up members that you should show not tell with stories but scenario is my exception, I think you should keep it simple, as people imagination can create more vivid scenes and less likely to break reader emersion. So unless there is a reason to describe the room in story then I prefer to keep to the minimum.

Take these two examples (written DEITDJW): –

 

Alpha.

Captain Lily Fitzroy kicked in the wooden cabin door her phase laser pistol drawn.

She quickly scanned the room; it was like something out of history. The walls were wood with no insulation, an old fashion stove in the corner and a family wooden table set for a meal with four chairs around it, as she entered the room to search for the missing colonists. She spotted a rag doll, and other stuff toys on the floor, she step carefully to avoid them as she went to the other door which lead to the corridor into the bedrooms.

 

Beta.

Captain Lily Fitzroy Kicked in the old wood door to the wooden cabin she had found in the woods away from the main colony. The sight that greeted her was a room about six by four feet. There was a large Plexiglas window on the west wall. The window allowed plenty of sunlight to light up the room. Now Lily could see the room was like something out of the history books. The walls were made up of a wooden tree trunk stacked vertically with no modern insulation between them. The centre of the room had an average height table, made of wood that looked like it was a normal flat back construction style. There were four places set out, each had a stainless steel knife and folk and spoon next to a plate, there was half-eaten cold food on each plate. As Lily enter further into the room with the pistol drawn to continue her search for the missing colonists, She notice that was a old charred black metal heater sat in the back right corner of the room, the dying ambers inside providing the rooms only heat and some extra light via the grill face. She saw that a worn rag doll lay on the floor under one of the chairs, it appear to wear a simple approximation of an old Starfleet uniform. She notice in the centre of the room there were more stuff toys, one was a faded green dinosaur which looked like it need re-stuffing, and a Orange Cat with a mass smile on it face, the eyes were two black beads that seem to catch the light and mock Lily, the Colonists had disappeared like the Cheshire Cat of Lewis tales. Lily had to step carefully to reach the light screen door that separates the room from the corridor to the two bedrooms.

 

So Alpha is 98 words while beta is 311 words but to me the image painted is very similar so which is the better one?

It all personal choice, but if it an action scene with Lily in hot pursuit then I say Alpha would be my choice, while If Lily is searching an abandon Colony for missing people unaware of any remaining danger beta might be better choice.

 

Well that MF Challenge four answer and in only one thousand and two hundred forty-two words.

Anyway thanks for reading, hope you like it.

Till next time.

Regards,