re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- April, May, & June
I still haven't had the chance to sit down and take in all the entries this month, but by next weekend, things will have calmed down a bit. I'll have plenty of time to read them all and choose a favourite before the end of the month. If the rest are as good as the first half-dozen or so, it's going to be another very difficult choice.
As for the debate about rules -- I think it simply comes down to each entrant to write something they feel conforms to the theme, and to any additional stipulated requirements (which, let's face it, are hardly taxing). So, this month, that means stories inspired (in any way, literal or figurative) by the concept of 'Transformation'. And it means stories in the genres of Science Fiction and/or Fantasy. Whether or not something fits either genre is, again, something for each writer/voter to decide.
I would hope that everyone who votes would consider the remit of the challenge when deciding where to place their vote. Since we are our own judges, there can be no objective measure of this. And anyway, this is hardly the most formal or serious of contests. It is, in the first instance, about enjoyment, participation -- fun.
But without a theme, and without a few rules, it would be a pointless exercise, I think. Thus, we have a word limit (which, I must say, has worked out very well, despite my arguing for a slightly more generous one in the beginning). And we have the requirement that pieces be stories, and not just descriptive text. This is not rigidly enforced, and again, it comes down to each person to judge whether they think their favourite entries fulfil this criterion. Personally, I do tend to favour pieces with a strong narrative thread. But people have both written, and voted for, either what I would term 'vignettes', or, indeed, altogether more abstract works, and it's not for me to say that those are 'unacceptable'. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed many of them, but I do take strong cognisance of the idea of 'story' in my own deliberations.
