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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Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

By Ursa
As to voting for oneself, why do it? The entry is there for all to see (and thus whether it may deserve a lot of votes or not) and the prize is one of esteem. The person to whom this matters most is the story's author, the one person who will know whether it garnered less honest votes than will have been reported.

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Actually the main reason I won't vote for m'self is that I've already seen too many that are betterer than wot mine is!:eek:
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

Can we at least have one that ends on the 6th of May so we can revel in the joys of election night too.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

But then, TEIN, people might not vote here at all, having already been voted out ...

I don't see anything wrong with people contributing more than one story, except that we might end up swamped with too many stories. We'll have a better idea of whether two is a good idea at the end of this month. I imagine that there will be a big decrease in the number of entries in May and June, when this initial burst of enthusiasm wears off, but a decrease from what?

If the polls are actually set up to allow infinite votes, is there a way that it could say at the beginning that people are only to vote for two stories? If there is a way to avoid confusion on that point, I'd trust people to abide by the rule and only vote the prescribed number of times, just as I would trust them to not vote for themselves. But I don't know that I would trust everyone to understand that it's only two if the heading says something like "Check all that apply."
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

Can you lock the thread, and set-up a mandatory 2 votes per a unique IP-address at the end of the month?
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

Teresa Edgerton said:
If the polls are actually set up to allow infinite votes, is there a way that it could say at the beginning that people are only to vote for two stories? If there is a way to avoid confusion on that point, I'd trust people to abide by the rule and only vote the prescribed number of times, just as I would trust them to not vote for themselves. But I don't know that I would trust everyone to understand that it's only two if the heading says something like "Check all that apply."
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I can put anything you like in the question, including how many times you can vote. I like to think we can rely on people to do the honest thing, and it should be obvious if there's vote rigging - the same person winning month after month. Unless it's me, obviously, because my work speaks for my brilliance...
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

Culhwch said:
I like to think we can rely on people to do the honest thing
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Until and unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, I think we should assume that all of our people are honest.

Our community thrives on mutual respect; I sincerely doubt that anyone would imperil that just for the sake of choosing next month's theme.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

Is it alright to comment on which stories we liked particularly in the thread for the stories? I will have to vote for just one story, but there are four right now that I really like, and I'd like to let the authors know.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

I think they make comments of that sort in the Photo Challenge ... I could be wrong, you could look and find out ... and if so, I see no reason why it shouldn't be allowed here. In fact, I think it would be a good idea to encourage people to do it.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

Yeah, we do do that. And usually say who we voted for, and who came close. Not everyone who votes does, though - there's no hard and fast rule.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

Again I think it would be better to have a parallel thread for comments.

Unlike the photography thread it's difficult to tell the entries from the comments.

Also for those intending to vote it might influence the result if they see everyone is happy with

The adventures of Mr Smith.
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Just an opinion.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

Then we would have to move the comments that are already there -- which would be easy enough -- although some of the early comments would not necessarily make sense out of context. We could confine ourselves to moving the one's that name specific titles, though (and the responses).
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

All right. Since we now have a string of comments long enough that it might give people the impression that the contest is over, I am going to move some of them out into their own thread.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

And here it is (pant, pant ... this is a lot of running around for me to be doing at 3 o'clock in the morning)

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/527139-some-of-your-favorite-stories-in-the-writing.html

I hope that people don't get confused by the plethora of threads on this subject. Perhaps we've discussed the future of the Challenge enough by now and can close this one?
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

Thanks for all the efforts you're putting in on our behalf, Teresa.



As for closing this thread, I'm not sure: there may well be other issues that arise (or are first seen) during and after the first month's voting.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

I can’t see in what way having more than one vote per person can simplify the lives of any of us, except the reduced number of disappointments of those who do not receive even one vote (I expect the voting to come almost entirely from the contributors, as in the photos competition, but am willing to be pleasantly surprised if those who durst not, or wouldst not, join in the writing give their opinions). Would this be any worse than the photo competition, except that I suspect numerous here hold scribbling closer to their hearts than snapping*? The chief aim, that one’s work has been perused, and analysed other than in a critiques fashion, will be achieved for all, even if the acclaim is reserved for some. (What, start making a list of potential subjects that would lend themselves to both fantasy and SF interpretations, me? How could you imagine it?)

Since our diversity guarantees you will not only be comparing apples to oranges, but tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs and quite likely tennis balls, too, how can an extra vote do more than give you more agonising time over which deserves it? (As holds for the photo thread, incidentally) Each voter must make his personal decision as to the relative importance of style, originality, message, polish… a reasonable poll would allow us to see who was judged best in each of these categories, as with ice dancing. Fortunately we are not reasonable.

Writing a story that length is not reasonable either, as I whined at my monthly speculative pizza yesterday evening. Scanning the pad next to my telephone I see most of the messages on that are longer than our imposed limit. He wined back to me (he was celebrating the publication of his first novel, and spent much of the meal signing copies, and ordering further bottles) about a competition he had recently entered for a 'pepin'; a story that must be complete and coherent in three hundred symbols, be they letters or punctuation. I shut up, and drank up.

'That feels like a short idea', thought I, having promised to write for this competition. So wrote it. Compact, not too much fat on it: over two hundred words, three times what I needed.

'Oh, expletive deleted,' thinks I. Perhaps throw out two words out of every three, and make it a third word story? Amputate, delete; will anyone be able to follow it?

Well, it's there. I tried.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

chrispenycate said:
Amputate, delete; will anyone be able to follow it?
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Considering that it is already receiving praise (see the new thread), my guess is that people are following it just fine, chris.
 
Re: Writing Challenge Questions, Answers, Comments -- (Formerly: Proposed Competition

I'd prefer only one vote. I don't need two in the photo challenge voting, so why do I need two now? As a voter it's my responsibility to consider each entry until I pick a favourite. Sometimes it's harder than others, but that's a good thing. If I like other entries too, I'm free to state it along with my vote - but I want to have to pick an overall winner, not two. I want to help the person I consider the best to win.


Chrispy said:
So wrote it. Compact, not too much fat on it: over two hundred words, three times what I needed.
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That's what I found, too! It's been a great learning process: I wrote a very condensed story in 174 words, and I was proud of it. After all, it had once harboured desires to grow into a novelette! Then I had to try and condense it down to 75... :eek:

Somehow I got it down to 100, although a fair bit of the less important detail was gone. Then I watched the blood drain out of it as I got to 90 words, and there was nothing I could remove after that which wouldn't murder it completely. Five words later I'd convinced myself that I should bite my tongue and use a couple of ugly adverbs in place of nicer word combinations... And then I extracted my ending quote that tied it all together, along with a line that (upon reflection) was vital to keep in so another part didn't confuse the reader. But... I had made it to 75, and it was alive!

Sure, the insides had been stretched, disfigured, broken, swapped, and beaten - but my story had survived! (Albeit soulless.)

Two things I've learned since? Never try to crunch a long story down if that's what length it should be; just write a different (and short) story instead if you haven't got a big word count to play with. And 2) Never write when you've got a cold and haven't had chance to check it when in a better frame of mind. It seems the "Always let your work rest for a few days before going back to it" rule applies here, as well!



Anyway, it's been a fun learning process. I'm looking forward to trying a new style of writing in the next challenge.



I have to say, though, there's been some excellent entries so far. And yes, thank you, Teresa, for everything!
 
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