Writing Challenge Comments, Questions, Answers

How many votes should each voter be allowed in the Writing Challenge?

  • One

    Votes: 20 57.1%

  • Two

    Votes: 15 42.9%
  • Total voters
    35
  • Poll closed .
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I see the post monster struck my previous post here. Here goes again.

Congrats Boneman! You were my choice of a winner from the very beginning.

I have already had one person find what I'd hidden in this month's entry. :)
 
I don't think your post disappeared, Parson -- it looks like you put it in the Favorite Stories thread.

We may have too many threads on this contest going ...
 
Thank you all for the congrats that have been posted in various places - for those who don't know, it was tie between Mouse and I, until the last voter couldn't choose between them and flipped a coin. It came down my way, and I think equal congrats should go to Mouse, it could just as easily have fallen her way.

You'd think, haven chosen the theme, that I'd be straining for the starter's gun to post a story I'd honed in the last week or so, wouldn't you? Well, I keep reading excellent entries in the May entry - the bar has definitely been raised - and I haven't got a clue what to do!
 
Boneman, I guess you're feeling the same as me this time? Got to make the story even better!

I was going to do what some people have done and write a few, then enter the one I thought best. But I sat down, wrote one (it was quite late at night) and then thought bugger it, I'll post it. And that was that. I had words to spare this time so added some in! The thing I deliberated most over was the title of the bloody thing. I still don't like it now!

I think with voting, a lot of the stories are too clever for me and I don't quite 'get' them. I'm nought but a humble pirate.

Thanks everyone for the congrats too, by the way.
 
First of all, groweling admiration and big grats to both Boneman and Mouse for the excellent stories in the April challenge. :)

***

I personally found May's challenge harder than April's - maybe because I got my idea for the April challenge as soon as I saw the topic. But "Escape", while every bit as inspiring, had me go through a myriad of options in my mind. When I decided not to use Amilia again (she's a character I played in an epic roleplaying campaign) I found myself with a completely different story in mind than what I had originally thought.

Where I spent maybe 20 minutes on my "Epitaph" for April's challenge, I actually spent hours on "By Chance", tweaking and changing and considering almost every word and exclamation mark.

I have to say, I'm already looking forward to the June challenge - more than I'm looking forward to the poll of this month!
 
Quite right.

I had considered a 'suicide' story, as well. I imagine a lot of us did; the 'Escape' theme lends itself to such macabre ideas, I think. But Robin's got the point across in only... *checking* ... 19 words. Nineteen words!

Maybe she should start her own "20-words or less" competition. Who else will take part, I wonder?
 
And managed to tell a tale at that. Left me wanting to know more. Perhaps another 20 words or so.:D:D

No really, good job.
 
Well, I finally made it! I've been away at a wedding for a few days with no internet access - but it gave me time to try several variations on my idea before posting.

I went with the suicide theme, as many others did, working on the idea of "escaping the past" and "escaping memories". I'd considered making the ending happy, and having the man finally accept his past and make peace with himself... but it didn't have as much impact. Meh.
 
Why thanks guys. I actually wrote it in my head in the shower, but on paper it seemed way to short. So I wrote a longer version. But the first version was much better so I posted it anyway.
 
Voting for May has begun!

The rules for the voting are as follows:



***Any member of the Chrons may cast a vote, even if they did not enter a story for the challenge***

*Please do not vote for yourself*
*You may only cast one vote*
*The poll will end at 11:59 pm on Monday, May 31st 2010 (GMT)*

The winner will decide the challenge theme for June!

Good Luck Everyone!!!

The Stories!

Vote!​
 
I'm going to try to stir up a little interest outside the AW forums. Our members who aren't writers might enjoy the stories, and more people voting might help us avoid another tie.
 
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An excellent idea, Teresa.

Once the voting for this month is over**, we ought to provide a link to the April entries.





** - I'm suggesting a slight delay because I'm worried that those to whom the existence of the competition comes as a surprise may get confused if confronted with 84 stories out of which only 42 are eligible for their vote. (Choosing one out of this month's entries is complicated enough for me.)
 
OK, here is an idea I have been mulling over for all of ... about 35 minutes. Yep, lots of deep thought. So it may be the worst idea ever, but I'm going to propose it anyway. But first, a little background

We've had the Writing Challenge for two months. Each time we've had 42 entries, of which 37 have been written in roughly the first ten days (I didn't calculate to the minute). I don't think there is any way of measuring how quickly the votes mount up, but my perception, possibly flawed, is that most of those occur within the first few days.

My point is, that there are several days in the month when nothing at all is happening, and people are already eager for the new competition to begin, in some cases even before we get to the voting. Of course there are also people who seem to appreciate having more time to narrow down their choices before picking the story they want to vote for. But would they have chosen a different story at the end of five days than the one they would have chosen after eight? I don't know. Perhaps those who vote later than others can tell us the answer to that.

It has been suggested a few times that the Challenges should be fortnightly rather than monthly. But that seems to me to be ... too crowded. Especially if we end up having tie-breaker polls, and of course we may need a few days for the winners to decide on their themes. Really, every three weeks seems about right, although the idea sounds a little odd. It's natural to think of things in monthly, half-monthly, or weekly increments, to divide things neatly according to the calendar. But that's just habit. And what if three weeks is actually the optimum cycle to keep everyone interested and enjoying themselves? Should we be slaves to the calendar?

Of course there is the matter of what to call something that happens every three weeks. When it's monthly, the answer is obvious. But we could just number them and add the name of the theme. Writing Challenge 1, Another World. Writing Challenge 2, Escape. Etc.

Opinions please. Too short a period? Too weird an idea? Something worth discussing?
 
I'm for making it shorter. I was one of the ones campaigning for a fortnightly scedule, after all. As you say, there really are long stretches where nothing is happening, and as far as the voting is concerned, it definitely seems to me that the bulk come in the first few days, with dribs and drabs thereafter. I also don't know that the winner really needs a few days to come up with a theme - I think it's reasonable to expect the frontrunners to have already mulled it over, and to know when the next comp starts so as to log on a kick it off.

I don't see a problem in calling them WC1, WC2, WC3, and so on. The issue is the timeline, but I think that can be resolved by working within weeks. Comp starts on a Sunday, there's fourteen (?) days to submit a story, so entries are open through until midnight the following Saturday. Voting starts the next day, Sunday, and runs for five days until midnight Thursday. That gives us two full days for any tiebreaker poll to run, or alternately for a clear winner to think of a theme. In the case of a tiebreaker, the finalists could PM me or Teresa with their chosen theme, and then we can start the new comp on the Sunday. All times in GMT.

I know voting is a dirty word around these parts, but I reckon we should run a poll to see if people are interested in making the change or staying pat.
 
Karn Maeshalanadae said:
I personally think it might be just a bit confusing, TE.
Click to expand...

I considered that it might lead to confusion, but then I thought: we don't begin on the first day of the month, we haven't established a definite day of the month when the voting starts, and with the possibility of frequent tiebreakers we won't be ending the regular voting on the last day of the month. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I frequently have to count on my knuckles to remind myself whether the current month has 30 days or 31. So it's actually pretty confusing anyway. Mind you, I don't discount the possibility of even more confusion. But as Culhwch demonstrates, we would also always know which day of the week things began and ended. So, it all comes down to what the most people would find the least confusing.

I also realize that the impatience and anticipation might be a good thing. But there is something to be said for keeping up the momentum, too. Again, it's a matter of which seems the most important to the most people.

If there is significant interest in making the change, I don't see anything wrong with running a poll to see if there is enough interest.
 
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