1. Could the castle be modernized and equipped with lasers, air conditioning, and the Internet? Then yes, absolutely.
2. No, but I've been to the Iolani Palace in Hawaii, so...close? Also there's a castle in Kentucky that I've seen from the highway. Haven't been myself though. https://www.thekentuckycastle.com/
3. If I've got the money to afford a castle, I figure I've got enough money to lay out a spread enough such that they can have whatever they want. (Myself, I'm having the castle chef make a pizza).
There's some architectural styles that can keep a building cool WITHOUT a modern HVAC system! Romans had a courtyard with a pool, and the evaporation effect cooling kept a pleasant temperature. That's a whole subgenre of architecture, but if a mans home is his castle you can have any amenity you desire!
And if the chiefest amenity is Pizza, i'm right there with you! LOL!
You know what would be cool, though? A BATCAVE UNDERNEATH A CASTLE. Now, that right there is what I'd do. Complete with a secret tunnel and one of those tubes that you pop into and slides you down into the Batcave and a giant computer and everything.
Tons of story packed in to 250 word, well done. I always find below 300 to be a hard limit to meet - I'll be at 200, and suddenly decide I need more description, or another bit of dialogue. It's a challenge, but i thought you did a great job, especially with the mysterious setup, and the payoff in the last 3-4 lines.
Thank you very much! You can find a lot of microfiction here, but I found I was unhappy with 100 words, and when I started 500 words seemed daunting. 250 is a happy medium. My very first exercise published to Gibberish was TERRIBLE because I didn't have a word count limit. Writing with these strict limit exercises has been very educational for me, a great lesson in how to keep the story moving, and how to reveal just enough world to make it engaging. I will always encourage writing exercises, and I am deeply partial to the 250 words, but whatever you do--hard word count limits will help make you efficient!
One of the challenges now that I have spent a year writing with a hard limit--I'd like to reintroduce description and (more) dialogue, so that I can keep the story moving but also tell the story *visually*. A new challenge for a new year!
My husband calls it stalking, but one of my favorite thing to do is get on Google Maps and poke around the UK for castles. Then I go read up on them in Wikipedia or their website. Castles have definitely been an inspiration in some of my stories that I've written.
I love medieval stuff, so I hope to visit as many castles as I can when I visit Europe. Not sure if I’ll ever turn my home into one although I’ve watched a few Instagram videos about people choosing to buy castles over a traditional home ($1 mil = not a terrible investments compared to house prices in California, lol).
This was a fun read! I did expect the castle to have more words dedicated to it than the couple and their dialogue...so I wished for more details there. Knowing the word limit, what you wrote was still impressive and I thank you for the fun read!
If the Alamo had been a traditional castle, Travis would have thumbed his nose at Santa Anna.
1. Could the castle be modernized and equipped with lasers, air conditioning, and the Internet? Then yes, absolutely.
2. No, but I've been to the Iolani Palace in Hawaii, so...close? Also there's a castle in Kentucky that I've seen from the highway. Haven't been myself though. https://www.thekentuckycastle.com/
3. If I've got the money to afford a castle, I figure I've got enough money to lay out a spread enough such that they can have whatever they want. (Myself, I'm having the castle chef make a pizza).
There's some architectural styles that can keep a building cool WITHOUT a modern HVAC system! Romans had a courtyard with a pool, and the evaporation effect cooling kept a pleasant temperature. That's a whole subgenre of architecture, but if a mans home is his castle you can have any amenity you desire!
And if the chiefest amenity is Pizza, i'm right there with you! LOL!
You know what would be cool, though? A BATCAVE UNDERNEATH A CASTLE. Now, that right there is what I'd do. Complete with a secret tunnel and one of those tubes that you pop into and slides you down into the Batcave and a giant computer and everything.
I like where your heads at!
Tons of story packed in to 250 word, well done. I always find below 300 to be a hard limit to meet - I'll be at 200, and suddenly decide I need more description, or another bit of dialogue. It's a challenge, but i thought you did a great job, especially with the mysterious setup, and the payoff in the last 3-4 lines.
Thank you very much! You can find a lot of microfiction here, but I found I was unhappy with 100 words, and when I started 500 words seemed daunting. 250 is a happy medium. My very first exercise published to Gibberish was TERRIBLE because I didn't have a word count limit. Writing with these strict limit exercises has been very educational for me, a great lesson in how to keep the story moving, and how to reveal just enough world to make it engaging. I will always encourage writing exercises, and I am deeply partial to the 250 words, but whatever you do--hard word count limits will help make you efficient!
One of the challenges now that I have spent a year writing with a hard limit--I'd like to reintroduce description and (more) dialogue, so that I can keep the story moving but also tell the story *visually*. A new challenge for a new year!
My husband calls it stalking, but one of my favorite thing to do is get on Google Maps and poke around the UK for castles. Then I go read up on them in Wikipedia or their website. Castles have definitely been an inspiration in some of my stories that I've written.
I love medieval stuff, so I hope to visit as many castles as I can when I visit Europe. Not sure if I’ll ever turn my home into one although I’ve watched a few Instagram videos about people choosing to buy castles over a traditional home ($1 mil = not a terrible investments compared to house prices in California, lol).
This was a fun read! I did expect the castle to have more words dedicated to it than the couple and their dialogue...so I wished for more details there. Knowing the word limit, what you wrote was still impressive and I thank you for the fun read!