Challenge Dear Diary Challenge 2017 | 11/30: 2018 Challenge Discussion Now Open

Raissa Baiard: Okay, I think we made things harder for that idea (sorry! ) , but -- an entry can be no more than a couple of sentences. Not all the entries for a character have to be the same length. Does that make it sound more reasonable to attempt?

 

I am definitely going to think about this... if I can come up with someone.

 

Kaagi is almost finished with his 2016 diary and will return

 

Yes. My idea was for a companion piece/sequel to my OTP challenge entry (which means I'll have to hurry up and finish it ) featuring the diaries of a teenaged Mara Jade, Ezra Bridger....and a certain fresh-off-the-moisture-farm pilot

 

I'm thinking about coming back for the DDC; I did it in 2014 and 2015 and took a break this year to focus more on my fics, which in the end didn't matter seeing that I haven't finished any of them yet, and because I didn't have a character or a story in mind to tell until after the cutoff.

 

I

LIKE THAT'S JUST YOUR OPINION THERE US TEENAGERS DON'T DO DRAMA. OLD WERMO LOOK AT HER WHAT SHE WANTS NOW OH MY TENTACLES CRY ME A WHOLE OF KAMINO.



And I am excited about there being two angsty teenager diaries at works - yours and mine.

 

Okay, I'm in! I got a bunny. Prequel era. :-D

 

Don't mind me. I'm just thinking in word form.

I've hit a minor issue in terms of diary planning. I actually can't watch The West Wing anymore . The only Canadian streaming service that I used it took it off. I've tried more questionable methods and I guess between the age of the show, and the fact that I think it's readily available on a number of US streaming, it just isn't available online, and what I have found is cut off at like the 30 or 35 minute mark . And I don't risk my computer to the really questionable methods. I was thinking about buying the whole series on DVD anyways and this kinda forces me to, but I don't want to drop the $120 until the new year.

So I don't think I'm going to scrap the diary, even though I only re-watched and made notes on about half the episodes I need to (and I didn't get to some of the really important episodes). But I pretty much have to write the first few entries, which were going to 'transition' events from the show into the fic, totally from memory.


TL;DR : 2016 kicks Briannakin in the pants ONE MORE TIME. BUT I'M REFUSING TO LET IT WIN (even if a SW diary would be so much easier at this point).

 

Don't you give up on that Diary, Bri, I'll transcribe the episodes for you if I have to! (I actually think I've seen the transcripts are online somewhere).


I still haven't decided for sure which one I'm going to do and I want to start planning soon. *mumbles to self- You can't do both. You can't do both. You can't do both.*

 

I'm pretty sure the universe is out to get this diary. Yes there is a website with the transcripts but all but 3 episodes of season 6 are missing and everything after episode 14 of season 7 is missing . I got to episode 8 of season 7 of my re-watch, so I can read though some of the transcripts to fill in some of what I need. Plus YouTube has a ton of clips of scenes. The price of the complete DVD set actually fluctuates quite a bit on Amazon - today it's only $109. Back in October it was down to like $80 and I should have got it But maybe it will drop again after Christmas.

Anyways. What if you write down all your ideas for each diary and see which one you think you have more ideas/material for?

 

Do art work/photos count towards the number of posts? As if my idea wasn't already strange enough, I'm considering illustrating it with action figures (if I can find my Luke...)

Also, any words of advice from the veterans for a newbie?

 

Raissa Baiard: Do art work/photos count towards the number of posts? As if my idea wasn't already strange enough, I'm considering illustrating it with action figures (if I can find my Luke...)

That would be fine, so long as you have a minimum of one sentence of text. That could easily be added in the form of a caption, which I believe most pictures would have anyway.

 

While we're at this...some of rule #2 is a bit...nonsensical. No writing, (seemingly not even) privately, before January 01st? Why exactly?

Also, since I (might) want to do a non-conventional format, with 24 (perhaps) not being enough and 52 being too much, I was wondering if anybody ever did a DDC on a ten day schedule?

 

Regarding the January 1st start, I think it makes sense. The goal is to write a diary in a year, and having the same starting point kinda evens the playing field. Of course there's no way to really enforce it. I mean, I've been planning since September but I think the mad rush to get a couple entries done the first few days of January is part of the fun. If we can start writing whenever, we are all just arbitrarily writing diaries.

 

Ewok Poet, the 24 thing is just a minimum if you're doing one person's POV. Is this nonconventional format thingy a multi-POV diary?

 

Nah, one person. It's just that I saw diaries that had two entries per month, four entries per month, but never really three.

As for the other issue - my first two chapters are a recycle of what was originally supposed to be an entry to the current OC challenge. I can't actually un-write them.

 

Ewok Poet: While we're at this...some of rule #2 is a bit...nonsensical. No writing, (seemingly not even) privately, before January 01st? Why exactly?

That rule has been in the challenge since there were rules for it, and I know the host who wrote them, MsLanna, posted several times about her reasoning: basically, she thought an important part of the challenge was posting an in-progress work, and she didn't want someone to have their whole diary written up beforehand, so all they needed to do was post at certain intervals throughout the year.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if nanonwrimo (which traditionally required that one start a brand new novel on November 1) had something to do with it.

But basically, this is how I see it: if you start writing your diary in private before 1/1/2017--but you don't admit to this in public--how is anyone going to know?

--

All that said: just because a rule has always been a certain way in the past does not mean that it can't, or shouldn't, be altered. Let's put this to a vote. If you have a stake in this rule, post and tell us if you think it is fine as it stands (Briannakin's preference here has already been noted), or if you think it ought to be changed in some fashion.

 

Perhaps the word "nonsensical" from my previous reply was a bit too hard (I'm foggy these days, sorry ), but how about something that says that outlining, planning, writing notes is OK? Would that make sense?

Thank you.

 

I like the idea of having to start no earlier than a certain date; it fits with other challenges here, where one usually cannot start in advance due to having to fit a specific prompt. As there is no such unknown prompt here, a fixed starting date makes sense as a substitute. That said, I would suggest setting the starting date a little earlier, maybe in early or mid-December.

An important thing to consider, IMO, is that someone may not realize that a particular diary idea they have that sounds great in the pre-January planning phase (it's been said in past DDC threads that all forms of planning and plotting are allowed in advance, just not writing of the actual entries to be posted) might not actually work when it goes to the writing phase. There have been a couple of times that I've started on a DDC entry, only to never post anything because I realize after writing a few entries that it won't work the way I had envisioned, and by that time, I've wasted too much of January on that idea, and there's not enough time left to find a way to fix it or start completely over with something different, so I end up abandoning the DDC completely. And considering that this is something that people can only get into once per year, I think it's important to give them some advance writing time for that "trial and error" phase, so that there is time to scrap an idea or two when they don't work out and still have time to try something else without having to sit out for an entire year.

 

I won't be able to participate in 2017, what with all the fics I abandoned half-way in 2016, but I will get back to this challenge some day!

FWIW, I think that there should be a clear time frame to write the diary -- there's no point in making this a competitive challenge if there are no clear cut-off dates for starting anf finishing. However, we might want to rephrase rule #2 to include words such as "planning" and "outlining" to make it clear that you can do the ground work before 01 January, but you can't start actually writing until 01 January.

We could also add a clause to say that, if someone has written something before 01 January, they are encouraged to post it either as a standalone vignette or as an intro to their diary, but that the actual post count begins on 01 January.

 

For multiple narrators: each narrator has to have 24 posts each, but do they have to have the same number of posts per month?
In other words, if I have three narrators, does each character have to have 2 posts per month, or can they have differing numbers per month as long I post 6 posts a month and each has 24 total posts?

I'm trying to decide if this story would work better in the DDC or as straight narrative.

 

Ewok Poet, jcgoble3, Chyntuck, and Raissa Baiard, just letting you know that I've seen your posts! I haven't talked to Pandora yet; she'll probably be around sometime tonight but I don't know for sure. Anyway, we'll definitely consider all your posts. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

I can understand some peoples' difficulty with setting up their DDC and since my two have been from the POV of an OC and the Force and weren't constrained by Canon beyond my AUs I can't fully relate. Not to mention my next planned DDC is going to be pre Saga by quite a bit and involve a metric ton of OCs with probably a guest appearance of by Yoda.

Really though the start date is a matter of personal honor; we are asked to not start writing until January 1st at a certain time but only the writer knows if they started before they were supposed to. Should the start date be moved? I don't know but I think that taking part in a challenge that requires one to post at minimum two chapters a month for an entire year calls for at least some planning and forethought.

 

Just some quick thoughts now that I'm on an actual computer. I'm not trying to sway the hosts one way or the other - just some thoughts that have be brewing.

I totally understand Ewok Poet 's situation of wanting to recycle already written material (heck, my 2014 diary was basically a re-write of one of my first fics that never got posted and ended up getting lost - I wrote everything that year, but many of the scenes were re-typed from vague memories). I agree with Chyntuck with allowing some sort of prologue to be allowed to account for such situations - or for people who want to start earlier than Jan 1st to see if their idea will work. The "prologue entries" wouldn't count towards the final 24 entries goal, but it would allow for a longer "trial and error" phase to those that want it.

And, I totally agree with Lady_Misty - even the "start date" is more of a "guideline" than an actual rule, because, as with many challenges here, it's all up to personal honor to say "I did not start writing before January 1st".

And I do agree that the rules should specify that "planning"/"outlining" pre-start date is fine (I think even NANO allows this and I know people do it for this challenge).


Also, just another thing to consider (and I am drawing from my experience with hosting several challenges), is that it's December 26th. It's less than a week from the current start date. I'm all for experimenting with rules, but I'm not sure changing the start date rules would make THAT big of an impact at this point.

 

I am now around, and I have caught up with reading your posts. I shall be talking with Kahara quite soon, and--as she said a few posts up--we'll be taking all your posts into consideration. Thanks for writing in, everyone.