August 2017 WW Circular - Write Wise Blog

August 2017 WW Circular

Over three years ago, I published an article in which we discussed our favourite Write Wise entries. Given how much time has passed, I thought it might be interesting to look back and see if our favourites have changed. I've selected my favourite titles on a per-author basis at the bottom of this article. I'd love to hear your views!

Yesterday, I patched the site to better handle non-UTF-8 encoding (which could be found in some of our older stories). The non-UTF-8 encoding was causing problems with our new reader, such that certain stories were not loading properly. This has now been fixed.

Also, I'm very happy to announce the opening of the 2017 Writing Challenge! The challenge will be accepting entries until the 20th December 2017. The 2015 and 2016 challenges both produced interesting stories and I'm looking forward to seeing what this year's challenge brings!

Let me know if you have any thoughts on Write Wise or its running. We're a community-driven site, so all feedback is taken into account when making key site decisions.

My WW Favourites

Cogworld: Tales of Peter Jepson

My favourite story of Falcon's is Cogworld: Tales of Peter Jepson. Memorable characters -- especially Jepson -- and a well-developed backstory made this a great story. I really enjoyed Cogworld and this story expanded on that universe very well.

Clandestine - Part One

My favourite story of Jordan's is Clandestine (I'm counting this two-parter as one story, given the tight coupling of the two). The characters in this story were especially memorable (especially the creepy Charlie) and the entire story has a sense of dread about it. Despite (when combined) making the biggest word count on the site, I found these stories flowed in very quickly.

My favourite story of Bris's remains Stanley.

Do let me know what your own lists would be.

Written by Aaron, Thursday 31 August 2017

Log In to Leave a Comment

Brisingr  7 year(s) ago (86 months)

Yikes! Way to make me feel old, can’t believe it has been so long since that last list was made. You have all come on leaps and bounds in your story telling over the last couple of years, putting out some really great stories.

Aaron: I always enjoyed reading the Holloway series, with its rich set of characters, intriguing mysteries and overall great storylines. If I had to pick a favourite it would either be ‘The Sidmond Moor’.

Falcon: I would have said William Litt: Legends up until around a week ago, as I’m a sucker for a western story. However, the Oddesy of the rogues may just have trumped it for me. It was just a better overall story with more interesting characters and a more compelling plot.

Jordan: It is difficult to choose but I think I enjoyed the killers series the most, with Sonder being the standout of the series for me. I really liked the characters in this series and the development between the two main leads.

P.S. The love blockade is dead, get over it! :)

 
Falcon  7 year(s) ago (86 months)

Numerous great stories have been written by this small community since the previous article was published back in 2013 and it was a good idea to revisit this topic. It is always interesting to see what we consider to be each other's greatest works and what old favourites still stand the test of time.

Joh has a nice collection of varied stories that cover plenty of genres from detective fiction to the supernatural and western settings. I hold the Killers series to be one of his finest projects. The trilogy is a dark, gritty and graphic affair with interesting characters who have complex relations with each other. While I like all three of them, I consider the second instalment Sonder to be the best one.

As for Aaron's list, I believe that the Holloway series is undoubtedly an excellent contribution to the site and that the spin off entry, Demons, would be my favourite of his. It was a very interesting concept to advance the Holloway adventures into a different era and therefore creating a new generation of characters, as well as a different lead protagonist, for a semi-original entity that is founded upon previous instalments. As with the original series, it was full of interesting and colourful characters that kept readers entertained.

I stand by the decision I made a few years ago when I stated that Stanley was my favourite entry for Bris from his catalogue of seven books. While it was a small entry, as most were back then, it had a lot of charm to it and is the pinnacle of his works in my opinion.

I already have something in mind regarding the 2017 Writing Challenge that I hope you all enjoy. I look forward to what everyone will produce for us this December.

P.S. I'm still waiting for the Love Blockade to be released.

 
Joh  7 year(s) ago (86 months)

Crazy how long ago that last "favourites" post was - it doesn't seem like that long ago.

I think my favourite stories from Falcon would probably be Odyssey of the Rogues, Cogworld: Tales of Peter Jepson and the first Scoundrel Squad. These three stand out as being a particularly good blend of interesting characters, well thought-out plots and strong action.

My favourite stories from Aaron would probably be Truth and Demons. These two were exceptionally well-written and had very strong characters and engaging storylines. The Holloway series also deserves a mention as the main characters in this series were always a lot of fun to read.

My favourite stories from Bris would probably be Stanley and Obsession. I thought both of these stories were very good reads and very fresh stories.

I'm looking forward to the 2017 Writing Challenge in December. I don't have any current stories in the works, but hopefully will have a story for the December challenge. (Would like to enter the Open challenge again before then, but that will depend on if I get any story ideas that I am happy with.)