The Winners -- A Challenge of Inspiration

Friends, authors, Prosermen, lend me your corneas!

It is with great honor I bestow upon blah, blah, blah, let's get down to the winners, right?!

No way! These participants deserve far more than "Here's who won..." This challenge was freaking awesome! It had a terrible and ironic flaw from the very onset, which I admit, I created myself using an unparalleled lack of foresight, but the potential for greatness revealed itself very early on as well. Please, these are your people. Indulge me.

@InvisibleWriter submitted a brilliant initial entry, "what once was," that was just dripping with talent! The painful scorn of fading love and the inevitable landslide sheered from a mountain of unreciprocated dreams. Alas, the flaw in the challenge revealed itself right away (and I'll further address that below).

Then, @Akitoyu added "A Leap of Faith," another absolutely brilliant write from a voyeur's point of view, looking downward upon a troubled dancer in a storm, so careless with life itself that even death appeared a welcome end to a broken heart. Akito clearly showed up ready to win, but @Mariah came down hard with "The Letter." What a tantalizing approach--a secret letter wrought with vulnerability, seeking clarification of her suspicions: a possible suitor's not-so-covert hints of infatuation, but the letter itself is a calculated risk as it threatens to upset a delicate balance between two peoples.

Then things got interesting. The Letter was, as it demanded, answered post haste by one @DustyGrein with "The Reply." Lady H's suspicions were confirmed, and her vulnerabilities returned as Lord B expressed his will to risk everything at the chance of his infatuation being reciprocated with a single kiss. Fantastic! To bear witness to the birth of such an eloquent love story!

Enter @ChrisSadhill

His Part two to Akito's "Leap of Faith" was out of this world. The perspective of the sullen dancer-- imploring death's release from heartache's pain by taunting any higher power to strike down what was left of an empty soul, only to have death mock the plea, further heightening the rage, before revealing the voyeur's silhouette and clearing a path toward new love.

As if things weren't heating up enough, @U submitted "Something in the Eyes (Part 01). @U, who is rumored to be closely related to @A , kept me soaring this way and that as I shared, for a moment, the aftermath of a life lived in penned fantasies and fictional dreams. An invitation was extended to @Mavia to supplement the downtrodden writer's plea for help, and what an answer to receive! As a child, I had Heather Locklear pinned to my wall. As an adult, I now have this paragraph:

......... --I will fill you. With tireless wings I will lift your blackened carcass as if the weight were meaningless. And I'll breath a single kiss of passion forlorn into your wordless abyss till the color floods back into your fingertips, back into your ankles, elbows, and knees, back to your mind, ventricles, and entrails and all your lifegiving forces-- readied like paint for the making. And when we're fully connected in broadest of daylight, you'll come to your senses. You'll stand with me willingly, forcefully, giving... like it never happened. --@Mavia

@DanPhantom123 took me on an unexpected comedic journey reminiscent of both Alice's Restaurant and Alice in Wonderland! What else can one say, at the end of it all, but "what a trip!" This is an excellent example what happens when psychedelics, video games, and keyboards mix. So. Freakin. Fun! The brilliant mind of @DustyGrein graced this entry with a follow-up prescription, and with the right amount of counteracting drugs, and professional supervision, we think DanPhantom123 will be juuuuust fine.

Right when I thought it was time to put a fork in this challenge, a last-minute entry was submitted by @Fabulam desperately asking, "What do I do Now?" And there's a twist! Read the damn thing! Holy balls! I really, really wanted--aw, hell--I hoped, someone would respond to this slice of genius.

Enter @ChrisSadhill

I can't do it--I'd need the powers of @TheWolfeDen to give this piece the proper wrap up. Just go there. Read it. I only wish there had been more time for these two writers to develop this quid pro quo before the challenge ended. Fan-freakin-tastic!

So who wins, dammit?!

That's easy. I win! It's been such a pleasure reading these entries, I'm just thrilled to death! The winners, for the purpose of choosing winners, are Akitoyu, for "Leap of Faith," and ChrisSadhill for the reply, "Leap of Faith, part 2."

For their wonderful entries, everyone else will receive a whopping $5 donation as well. This isn't some everybody-gets-a-trophy proposition--this is for putting in the effort to create great writing! Thanks to all of you, I am anxiously looking forward to creating A Challenge of Inspiration II!

Now, as for the near-fatal flaw in the challenge, here's where I screwed up:

It seems wherever I go, I always end up looking for ways to circumvent the parameters of my world. After submitting my very first challenge entry on theProse., I wanted to submit another, taking the prompt in an entirely different direction. Alas, editing a challenge entry isn't even allowed, let alone creating a second one. I cheated the system in creating A Challenge of Inspiration, allowing an initial entry to be built upon by multiple respondents, and allowing authors to respond to multiple initial entries. But I really shot myself in the foot by suggesting the initial author tag a fellow Proser, unintentionally implying the invitation simultaneously uninvited all others. The idea, as the title suggests, is that each entry might inspire as many Prosers as possible to compose an appropriate response. Alas, I implied a parameter to my parameter-breaking challenge.

So! In future such challenges, if you read something that inspires you to respond, click on Write, and compose a response. Put a link to the initial challenge entry at the bottom, or in the comments, so people can find it; and place a link to your post in the comments of the initial entry so people can find your response.

Thank you all so very much for picking up the ball and running with it--I enjoyed the heck out of this!

Your friend,

LeCrae