The Reckoning

The closing date for Litopia's latest compo is soon upon us... and I was afraid with all my other wordy-tomfoolery that I wouldn't get it written... but I've done it, and in less than 4 days too - still doesn't beat Osci's 3 hour, drunken writing binge winner (for Litopia's It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time compo), but it's a hell of a change to the constant rewritals I did for Summer Of Love, Winter Kills and ISLAGIATT - each of which took me two plus months to whittle into something presentable.

This time I feel a kind of zenness towards it - and that's without anyone but my wife reading it (I just don't have time for beta-readers). I'm probably too close to it, but for once I like the feel of the prose. Oh yes, definitely hedging towards the wordy, but that's my natural way. What I need to do is level up the action and disperse that wordiness amongst the dialogue. But then, I feel I've done that this time.

Anyhoo, I was looking back over Solvey's thread from Litopia where he'd posted a few questions aimed at getting members to think about the tools they're using when they write. Now, I know that this isn't a prerequisite to winning but I thought I'd apply it here, to help breakdown my short story for The Reckoning - The Lazarus Phenomenon.

Question 1) What pov did you use?
Question 2) Describe your protag with three basic characteristics (e.g. male, late 50's, hates sponsored swimming events).
Question 3) What is your protag's name?
Question 4) How many secondary characters did you use?
Question 5) What was your opening line? Why?
Question 6) How many names did you invent (e.g. place names, character names, shop names, etc.)?
Question 7) How many similes did you use?
Question 8) Did you use devices of sound (e.g. alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia)?
Question 9) What primary/secondary theme/s did you use?
Question 10) Which of these did you intentionally use?: violence, sex, profanity, death, birth, hatred, love.

Answers to follow after the competition has closed.