[Interest Check] Writing Competitions

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While not having word limit may spin creative webs to some writers, it may also completely sink down the drain. I think that with any writing contests, a word count limit and theme are almost a necessity - not to hinder the creative minds of our writers, but to keep things balanced between writers and readers / judges. I don't know much about writing, but that's the general gist I get just by observing other writing competitions. Monthly is probably not enough time too. So bi-monthly or every 3 months?
 
If we open more than one theme per event, we'll give those who are more avid writers something to do for the two months, while giving those who like to ponder a bit, more time to compose their entry.
 
The set date for when we do it doesn't matter to me at all, we can chuck in a poll, or see if people come to an agreement here if need be. I've not been too active in writing myself, so I will not be judging how much time is needed. I 100% agree with you on the word count @Mitsuki.

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Edit: I honestly think 1 story per person would make the competition more fair due to there's a lot of reading involved, unless you mean giving themes in advance, in which due to the time in between I think it's easy to forget about. So, I dunno, let me know what you guys think.
 
Six said:
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Edit: I honestly think 1 story per person would make the competition more fair due to there's a lot of reading involved, unless you mean giving themes in advance, in which due to the time in between I think it's easy to forget about. So, I dunno, let me know what you guys think.
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Yes, I did mean giving the themes in advance. Basically in the rules thread a selection of three themes could be given and people can enter either one or two stories depending. They would of course have to pick two separate themes if they want to submit more than one story. Like what's sort of done in SOTW, the participants can make suggestions for themes beforehand.

This would only work if it was a bi-monthly event though.
 
Mitsuki said:
While not having word limit may spin creative webs to some writers, it may also completely sink down the drain. I think that with any writing contests, a word count limit and theme is almost a necessity - not to hinder the creative minds of our writers, but to keep things balanced between writers and readers / judges.
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This. It really is a balancing act (for both the entrants and judges), and it can evolve (and be "perfected") as the contest continues.


Anyway, as far as monthly/bi-monthly, that's still fine. No more than 3 months, I'd say, though. There is such a thing as "too long". :lew:
 
I have no issue with giving themes in advance, but I do want to know what everyone else thinks. It's one theme a month and it's not like it's a weekly update. I don't want to risk people forgetting about it, and miss potential entries being submitted.

So, thoughts, guys?

And I agree, Rowe, no more than that. Guaranteed people will forget. :lew:
 
Theme(s) in advance are actually a great idea, and should maybe remain a staple throughout.

Along with what Galadín said, a lot of what's done with SOTW could be implemented.
 
I kind of meant more than one theme per event but alright. I was thinking that having the event monthly was a little too much but in acknowledgement for those who work more quickly or are inspired, we could have more than one theme per event for them to write and submit for.

Anyways, I've said my two cents already. :lew:
 
I have to go with monthly. I think bi-monthly is kinda forgetting the event. I say start August first, and as far as giving a theme ahead... I actually disagree. (This coming from someone doing school again). You don't go into a test 100% knowing what everything is right away. I say August 1st (or whenever) give all the requirements. Then they have a month to come up with the idea
 
I personally agree, Shace.

Anyway:

To clarify, what I and I assume Rowe thought was the following:

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Guidelines Thread

-- August
Theme: Bubble Bath
Word Count: ~3,000
Style rule: Fan Fiction only.
Due date: Sept 1st

-- October
Theme: Bubble Bath
Word Count: ~3,000
Style rule: Fan Fiction only.
Due date: November 1st

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This is not what was meant then?

Like I said, I don't think writing multiple entries for one competitions is a good idea, mainly because that would mean more to read, less chance people are going to, which means we're gonna miss votes. I think one entry per person is fair, personally. We can always change that if others would actually prefer the idea. If that's even what was meant.
 
Six said:
To clarify, what I and I assume Rowe thought was the following:

_____

Guidelines Thread

-- August
Theme: Bubble Bath
Word Count: ~3,000
Style rule: Fan Fiction only.
Due date: Sept 1st

-- October
Theme: Bubble Bath
Word Count: ~3,000
Style rule: Fan Fiction only.
Due date: November 1st
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Yeah, this is what I understood.

Regarding the multiple entries, I have to say no (to start, at least). This will likely be something that can be evolved into, if it ever is.

Apologies, Galadín. I may have misunderstood you before. (Which is totally likely. :lew:)
 
Six said:
U]_____

Guidelines Thread
[/U]
-- August
Theme: Bubble Bath
Word Count: ~3,000
Style rule: Fan Fiction only.
Due date: Sept 1st

-- October
Theme: Bubble Bath
Word Count: ~3,000
Style rule: Fan Fiction only.
Due date: November 1st
Click to expand...

I personally think it shouldn't have a month in advance. But I will do whatever most people agree with.
 
One step at a time, so I think no monthly advanced with themes would keep things simplified. I doubt people would be able to submit entries in advanced anyway...and there's nothing wrong with it, imo (we do this for SOTW) but this is creative writing we're talking about, so it's to be expected that a lot more time will factor in. SOTW and writing are a bit different, so I would advice against taking a lot of the elements from SOTW guidelines and bringing it here.

Even the most avid writers will experience fatigue, so I say start slow and work from there.
 
That's what I thought too. Not just that, but it's a lot easier to forget about with a monthly due date (for example).

On that same note, I also only think one entry per person, and one theme a month (let's say month for now). Not multiple.

SOTW is a graphics competition, it doesn't require the plot, writing, editing that stories do. So I agree, let's make this competition its own. :)
 
I worry that if it is every three months and the competition only allows for 2,000-3,000 words then people might forget about it. 3,000 words isn’t very long (although a lot more goes into creative writing than just filling the word count, so we still need to allow time). Some of the posts in the debate section are almost almost that length, and some of the articles that are published on our homepage are about this long too.

So monthly or bi-monthly seems more reasonable. I don't think we could afford anything else. If we are too infrequent with these competitions then people will forget about them.

I can see, however, that we need to have a word limit for the sake of judging. If we didn’t then nobody would be able to judge it. Perhaps whatever starts off as a shorter entry for the competition could always be continued by the author and posted elsewhere on the forum afterwards.
 
Definitely saying no to that "style rule". At present we don't have that many writers here where we can start introducing something like that; if one or two people don't like it (e.g. Fan Fiction), there goes 50% of the entries right there.
 
It was an example post. Rowe and I didn't get what you meant anymore. "Multiple themes and themes in advance."

All styles will be allowed, we will have a word count and we will also have themes, specific and broad.
 
Six said:
It was an example post. Rowe and I didn't get what you meant anymore. "Multiple themes and themes in advance."

All styles will be allowed, we will have a word count and we will also have themes, specific and broad.
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I see, well to clarify I didn't say anything about a style rule, I was just referring to giving people the choice between more than one theme for each event.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out.
 
I don't think anyone said you did. I was just giving a rough draft of the themes in advance to see if that's what was meant, because people referred to using the SOTW template.

____


Also, agreed Dionysos, it's easily looked over or forgotten. We want to avoid that at all cost. I'll do my best. :D
 
I like the bi-monthly timeline but monthly seems easier to keep track of and also makes it more predictable. I also think that a theme and word-count are required to make a challenge/contest flow a little smoother. That's just my experience with other challenges I've taken part in. I do think that giving loose types of writing (i.e.: poetry, fan fiction, etc) is a good idea. That way, every writer can enter and not just those of us who write fan fiction.

I don't particularly care either way about releasing themes in advance. I've seen a lot of 100 Theme lists online for various fandoms and most of the themes are revealed from the get-go. Granted, those usually don't have a time limit (because 100 drabbles is a LOT to get through) but there is always that option as well. I personally work best with vague themes (like the bubble bath one) vs "write a story about chocobos running through the forest" type theme. I feel like that's too constricting and could end up limiting creativity.

I'm excited for this to kick off though. I always welcome writing challenges ;)
 
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