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Hearing It's Nice Work if You Can Get It -- Majestic 12
Saying a Lot With a Little
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People are excited about the 15 Hours of Fame contest, and why not? Who among us does not crave the hot, sweet love of the AOL Welcome Screen? But I am being asked:
"Hey! How can I write a prize-winning entry with just 2,500 characters? You're killing me here!"
Well, you know. AOL is going to boost that limit in the near future. In the meantime, take solace in the fact that everyone has the same limit -- and besides, it is possible to write great things, even in a small space. As an example, allow me to submit the following, 1,440-character piece of work:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
"We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
"But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
"It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
Not bad, right? And you have 1,000 more characters to work with.
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for those who want the most bang for their buck, if they don't mind using some buck$ you can get a LOT more into your entry with AOL by PHone which allows you to speak into your journal. The audio entries can be a couple of minutes long. Add that to your 2500 characters and you're got a real story going on.
http://journals.aol.com/viviansullinwank/NwanyiomasJournal/ entries/224 -
Yes, I agree that you can do some great writing in less than 2500 characters. I'd certainly like to see that lifted, but not because I think it will improve my writing.
Anyway, I'm wondering if people would even *want* their journal on the welcome screen. Wouldn't it be weird to have 10,000 strangers coming into your journal? I guess we all want people to read them, but so much traffic could be a difficult thing. So many comments to reply to...
Donna
(My Unvarnished Truth) -
Lincoln spoke for 4 minutes; another speaker at G-burg went almost 4 hours.
I memorised this 'speech' in grade school. Favorite line: 'the world will little note
nor long remember...' YET it is one of the most memorable/memorizable speeches
in History. -
"How about answering a few questions for those of us who are wondering... do you work for aol? If not how were you selected as the guy to get the rest started?"
Yes, I am working for AOL. The details are in my "About Me" section if you want all the gory details. -- JS
10/23/03 4:00 AM