I was snoring in the middle of my peaceful sleep, dreaming about... (
nevermind... *grins*) when my mobile phone suddenly rang. On the other line was Meia, my girlfriend. She was literally screaming (as in 'fan girl' screaming).
She told me that Ben Faraday won in the Soompi SSB!
Read 100 Goodbyes in Soompi ForumsRead 100 Goodbyes (unabridged version) in Fictionpress (soon - currently editing grammar errs...)Haha, it was totally unexpected. With all the good entries, when the 18 stories were first posted, I initially felt that my entry was a little out of place with all its 'silliness'... To be honest, I haven't gone online recently because of some projects for school which I had to finish with my group so I really haven't dropped by to check the forums to see if there were people voting for #3, and I feel kinda guilty of not being able to vote too. But I've finished reading the submitted stories, which I have downloaded into my
Palm.
Wow, brilliant people with amazing talents and thoughts... God surely is giving.
During the writing process,
I had difficulty cutting down the piece to 2500 words.
First thing was a huge amount of deletion in the first part. Ben should have been further described as a "dumb, fat guy who separates himself from the world because he feels that everyone dislikes him ... a guy that would lock himself everyday in his apartment, if not making/executing suicide plans, caught with food and popcorn, slouching on a sofa, and preoccupied the whole day with watching DVDs - hence, his movie-like monologues like the part where he says - - "
To the tides of Death, I shall submerge myself..." which pretty much sounds like Sailor Moon preparing to make a magic attack". (LOL... but you get the idea...).
The initial plan was to present 5 scenes depicting the last 5 needle pricks, but I ended up deleting the other two - -
The deleted scenes were the following:
5) A train station scene, where Ben meets a run-away teen, crying and guilty from running away from home (like the Bible story - the Prodigal Son... but this one's a Prodigal Daughter bound for home). The female teen wanted to go home already, but she has no money left. Ben helped her by lending her money and sending for a cab to take her back to her home. As she rides the cab, she thanks Ben for his help and told him "
to stay if you could stay rather than leave with uncertainty and regret it in the last hour..." and waves goodbye.
4) Where Ben helps an old man cross the street - and the old man will say that he hopes that more people should be as kind as he was, then says goodbye to him.
I also deleted some of his suicide attempts like the voodoo doll scene, drinking expired poison, jumping to a snake pit in a zoo, but the snake goes to him and acted all friendly like Puss in Boots of
Shrek...
About the inspiration, it all came from a crazy mixture of ideas. A reviewer actually mentioned about reminding her of 'Death Note'. Actually, that's where the idea of 'Death' first occurred to me (I was reading the manga the night before I started
100 Goodbyes). I'm glad that someone pointed it out. Then, the evening when I worked on the piece, Meia & I were watching Brad Pitt's movie '
Troy' on DVD. After watching the movie, we went to dinner and mentioned it during our conversation. I mistakenly said '
300' instead of '
Troy'. So yeah, part of Ben was me... okay, fine. I'm dumb
sometimes, but I'm not a mermaid and I have an original Lacoste! *grins*
And the briefs?
Uh... nevermind
that... I'll leave it to your imagination *grins*.
And there's something I need to apologize about, BTW. I made a mistake about the dinosaur. I actually found out that there IS a dinosaur that floats! (LOL!)
Okay guys, I'd like you to meet
Mr. tPod. Nah, kidding. Above is a
non-avian therapod dinosaur.And yeah, it floats...
But the T-rex definitely does NOT float (lol...)
Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070524091023.htmTo those who voted for 100 Goodbyes, namely:
T w e e !kc_chuaPsstChiiOrange OgreSoompiSnoopilenaaa._rootless. (although the vote was not counted...)And to everyone who made comments for my work, I greatly appreciate it. Thanks a lot and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I hope that in one way or another, my piece inspired you to think positively of life. Every hour of this life may be difficult. Problems may wound you, but don't let these wounds kill you in the end by giving up on everything. Remember that every person has a purpose, even those who are not blessed with physical features of that of Kwon Boa or Brad Pitt. All we have to do is bring out our
goodness to inspire others, and you'll be surprised that one way or another, people will come to love you naturally.
Ahhh, what a beautiful world.
Kudos to all the writers of the other stories. You all made me happy today ^_^.
-hiro
The goal is to create a <= 2,500 word story which conveys the month's theme (See image above). I am happy to win again for this month's round (which was unexpected hehe...). There are fewer voters for this month's round compared to April, but there are 18 participants (and all works were good I may say). 
