In the interest of clarification...Finish the Phrase prompts

[tamingmods.livejournal.com]

We've discussed this again and have come to the decision that for just this type of prompt we require it to be used nearly verbatim.   None of the mods thought it would be an issue as this is always how we've expected phrases to be used, but in the interest of clarity, we thought we'd do a post and spell out what the expectations are.

Verb tense changes will be allowed: is/was, have/has etc

"I see great minds as having purpose, little minds having none at all," Enid finished eloquently.

 

You can parse it separately. For Ex:

"You know what they say, 'great minds have purposes." Johnny said with a shrug.

"What - and little minds have fishes?" Mark replied. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

For this one, your phrase would be 'great minds have purposes, little minds have fishes'

or
 

You know, part of my job is I have to look at how things fit The Big Picture. Great minds have purposes. Little minds have - in my opinion - something less.

For this one, the phrase would be: Great minds have purposes, little minds have - in my opinion - something less.

 

Very minor modifications to the phrase are allowed.

Great minds have purposes, little ones...not so much.

 

What's not allowed:

A piece that doesn't have your phrase at all.

Again, the mods don't see this as a deviation from what you would do with a provided phrase, like 'the early bird gets pneumonia' but we hope this clears things up.

If you've done different things with other phrases provided, you will be allowed to continue doing it that way for those. We're not going to stop you if you've been doing it differently.

We'd also like you to post your phrase in your entry above the cut, so people can see what you've done with it. And because they are done above the cut, we have to ask that as you complete the phrase you don't use it to make political or pornographic statements. People don't always hold your views and we welcome everyone. There are tons of places available where you can express your opinion, including inside your piece - but it's not appropriate for the phrase itself.

I hope this clears things up, and that everyone has a great day.

~tamingmods (calypso)

ETA: 
Thanks to aleathiel for the clarification on how to state the phrase in your post out of the context of the fic: 

Title
Fandom
Rating


"Great minds have purposes, little minds have potatoes"

LJ Cut/Link to fic

Fic Text

Comments

[delilahdraken]

First, many thanks for explaining this. It's a great help, especially as I'm not a native speaker of English and thus sometimes interprete certain words in a different way than someonw would who grew up with the language.

Though I, after re-reading the rules, still cannot find where it is mentioned that the writers are expected to use the prompt word (for the normal prompts) exactly as it is given. But, as you you've said here that we're allowed to continue using a 'broader interpretation' for our stories, I'll put my initial confusion as caused by the language barrier.

That said, I'm now a bit confused as to what you exactly mean with the last two paragraphs of this post. Do you mean with it that we're supposed to not use lj-cut html tags when posting our stories? It would clutter this community/the writer's journal horribly if we were to do that. Also many writers don't post their stories directly here, but via a link placed.

Or is this bit of confusion also caused by being used to think in a different language than English?

My apologies for the long reply.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Hi *waves*

Not a mod but I think I can help. On the regular prompts I'll tell you how it was explained to me by the founder when I joined. The prompt is supposed to "inspire" your fic but you didn't have to actually use the word. That's why I asked for clarification on this one because I don't like to go "out of character" with my boys to use a prompt. As I understand it though these prompts are special circumstances and we are supposed to use them for an extra challenge.

Also, as for the LJ cut, I would assume they just want us to put the phrase in the post above the cut or outside the link as well as in the fic just so people can see what we used. But that's just my interpretation.

Also, I must say, you do VERY well for English being your second language!

[delilahdraken]

Thanks. The explanation made things clearer for me.

You really think that? And here I always thought it is so obvious that I only learned English in school. I was told many times that I use too complex sentence structures to make credible English texts.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I think you do a GREAT job! And as for being to complex, I don't think so. I think you write very well. I can't even imagine writing in another language like that. That is really awesome.

You may have mentioned this before but what is your native language?

[delilahdraken]

Well, then a big thank you again to you. *blushes*

As for the complex thing: one of the first lessons I learned in school about the language is that "English does not use such long sentences as we do". For example in my native German a sentence would look like that: He, who was usually at this time driving his father's car into a town that was rumoured to have housed a million serial killers and thus accumulated much fame for an annual movie festival, slept.

Of course, that is an over-simplification about how German works, but it shows that it's in our language rhythm to use a, for an English speaker, sometimes... strange word order with too few full stops. At least, that's what I was taught.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

You know, that so reminds me of classic Greek. I minored in that in college and it's very much the same way. You can't write English the way they did Greek, going pages before giving you a verb. LOL And you're right, English isn't written that way, however I wouldn't say all sentences should be straight forward and simple. I think that my background in Greek as helped to make my writing a little more complex and varied, but I bet you do this naturally.

I think some variation in word order makes things more interesting when used sparingly. Thanks for pointing that out about German though, I had no idea it was kind of like Greek.

[delilahdraken]

Now I envy you. Classic Greek would have been very interesting to learn. I only had the displeasure of having to learn Latin in grammar school; I never learned more the most basic and that even is so bad that I can't even translate simple sentences. The way you describe Greek sounds a bit like Latin. Is there also no clear word order in Greek like it is in Latin?

You mean that I use sometimes German grammar for English texts? Yeah, that does come naturally. I have to 'throttle' my instincts even, so that not every sentence is 100 words with 20 commas. It's one of my weaknesses in writing. I tend to blame it on my grandfather who taught me to read with Hemmingway and Homer (German translations of it at least).

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

LOVED GREEK! lol and yes in Greek there is absolutely no clear word order. That's what made it such a challenge because somethings even the subject would be ambiguous and you had to figure our who/what they were talking about. Greek can be written as very very specific or very, very vague in ways you cannot do or even really translate to English and I found that very fascinating.

And you aren't the only one who has to cut down on the long sentences. I tend to blame it on the Greek too because sometimes I seriously have to cut sentences in half or more. But that's what edits are for, right? :D

[tigerstriped86.livejournal.com]

I've got to say that I'm also surprised to hear that English is not your first language. I just assumed it was. Well...you know what they say about assumption.

I actually learned Mandarin in college and that gave me great insight into cultures, languages, and even some of my more worldly characters who've seen more places and been through more. I'm learning Scottish right now. I like dipping my toes in the language pool occasionally.

So, let me tell you, you're doing fantastic.

[delilahdraken]

It did help. Thanks.

[delilahdraken]

Thanks again.