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

Hi everyone, this is Kahara. Pandora and I read and talked about all of your posts. Here's what we have concluded:

1) We're strongly recommending that anyone who has posts that were already written up beforehand use them as an extra, rather than as entries that count towards the competition. However, since that needed clarification, we're also going to save making exact definitions on pre-written posts for the 2018 challenge.

2) We're going to make it clearer in this year's rules that planning a diary is allowed before January 1st, since that was the intention in the first place and everyone has been in favor of it.

3) Though we don't want to make it impossible to do a three-POV diary, we're going to stick with the idea that each POV character has an independent update schedule. So each character needs to make at least one post per month, within the variation allowed by the rules. (See below.)

It is worth noting that you are allowed to miss a post 3 times in the year (as long as you make it up later), so there is some flexibility. You could vary the makeup of the POV's a little bit some months, but it may be complicated to track who's up to date -- it's really up to you, though.

We'd like to thank Ewok Poet and Raissa Baiard for bringing their questions here. We also want to thank jcgoble3, Chyntuck (the pre-written entries as extras idea came from her), Lady_Misty, and Briannakin for providing their perspectives. Your insight was very helpful in this!

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Raissa Baiard made a request for advice on writing a DDC story from anyone who has participated in the past. Please come and share your tips, everyone who's done a challenge diary before!

 

So the opening post can be counted as an extra pist if it comes from a previously posted entry?

 

leiamoody: Yes, it can. (Side note, but there's no maximum limit on the number of posts. Not sure if that's why you were asking, just covering the bases and so on.)

 

What happens if the rewrite is significant? As if, the story was aborted at 400 words and then split in two entries, each of which ended up being 800 words?

 

Ewok Poet: If the rewrite is significant enough that you essentially have a new text, then I don't see any reason why you shouldn't just count the two entries towards the competition.

 

Just to make sure I understand: as long as each character makes ONE entry per month, I'm okay? But I still need to make 6 posts per month (three times the standard 2 entries for one narrator)?

 

Raissa Baiard: As I understand it, you need to make enough posts to have 24 for each character at the end of the year. Each character needs at least one post per month, and they can't miss one of their (usually) 2 posts per month more than 3 times. So everyone will usually have 2 posts per month, adding up to 6 because of your 3 characters. And missed posts have to be made up later. Does that help? (I'm going to direct your question to Pandora as well.)

 

Raissa Baiard: What Kahara said. And I will emphasis this: while the competition rules require that you only have one post per character each month, given that you will need to have a total of 72 entries for the year, it would be advisable to post twice.

 

I'm thinking that I might take my ideas and make it a first-person story instead of entering the challenge. I am really not sure how this will end so it might be better to develop it without the challenge parameters.

 

divapilot, we'd like to have you in the challenge of course. But if something else works better, then definitely I'd say go for it!

 

Okay. I swear I saw this question and I kept meaning to answer, but we all know about DRL.

My tips and advice? Honestly, Raissa Baiard I think a 3 person diary might be a lot to bite off in your first attempt at the DDC, but you are also a pretty seasoned writer, so I'm not going to try and dissuade you if your muse is set on the idea.

I think you need a plan, but also be flexible. This is a pretty long fic - my entries have tended to be on the shorter side, and yet I still often end up with a 30,000 word fic. Know where you are going and maybe have several story arcs in mind. But also be aware your muse and interests might change over the next few months. Know where you are going to end and have some idea about how to get there, but also leave room for ideas that might randomly hit you.

I have done the "flying by the seat of my pants" method for the DDC. Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails miserably. I "pantsed" my first diary, and although I did end up finishing it, it also made an unexpected (but fun) turn to an AU about 6 months in, but that's okay.

You can either write this as a normal fic (IE just work on this fic till you are done writing then just update as required) OR you can get some entries written, leave it for a few months, then return to writing it. I've done both and I personally enjoy having a fic to come back to every few months - I often finish writing around September. But I do suggest making sure you always have some sort of buffer.

Overall, I suggest just to have fun.

 

No word has been said about diaries that take place in a Star Wars Alternate Universe. What if I want to keep a diary of an SWAU character?

 

My last diary was entirely AU in the SW universe. You don't have to adhere to canon. (Or to cannons. Which could get icky really fast.)

 

I'm thinking on a character I play on the MMORPG "Star Wars Combine". I play a gand character. My avatar here is the avatar I use within the Combine. I once tried to keep a diary on SW Combine's forums, but I lost interest. So maybe a more competitive environment would be a better incentive to keep going, something that the Combine lacks.

 

Bagliun Edar: Yes, an AU and/or original character is perfectly fine.

 

A tiny bit of light shined on me on an otherwise dismal day. I can watch The West Wing again! My sister bought me an android TV box for Christmas and through some morally grey (but completely legal) means, I can search for TV shows across many different streaming services and play them on my TV. I searched for a random episode and it seems to be not having the same problems I was having with episodes being cut 15 minutes short.

Which is nice because escaping to Star Wars is still a bit painful, so I'm kinda glad as of January 1st, I can just immerse myself in a diary that takes place in 2007 when life was good.

So I'm not sure if I'll start writing right away (for a few years, I would often sit down at like 1 am January 1st and write that first entry - it was just fun to start a new year with a new fic) or if I'll spend the first few days of January finishing my already lengthy research.

 

I don't know if I am going to do the DDC this year. I haven't finished my 2016 DDC. I got in the required amount of posts, but the title is "Secrets Revealed" and I didn't get to the uncovering of the secrets. So I have the choice of continuing the 2016 DDC as a regular story and not as a DDC or start a 2017 DDC and title it something like "Secrets Really Revealed". I could title it "Secrets Revealed Part 2" but a 2017 DDC would be part five of Talon Tantiss' ongoing diaries. What to do?

I will have to sleep on this.

 

Well, I'm going to give the DDC a go this year If worse comes to worse, I'll just take it out of competition.

 

Well, a goal of mine is to challenge myself this year with my writing, so....I'm in!!

 

It is now 2017 where I live--and that means the game/the diary challenge is officially afoot.

It also means that the voting is now open for your favorite diary of 2016. To quote the pertinent rule—invite your readers, and everyone you know, to participate.

*Send your vote in a PM to the sock.

*Voting will close on January 15, 2017 at 12:01 AM North America Mountain Time. (Check with the world clock here.)

*This probably goes without saying, but you may not vote for yourself.

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As a refresher, here is the list of eligible diaries:

The Force is guiding me, Kaagi Adin by earlybird-obi-wan

Letters Never Sent by Ewok Poet

The Journal of Talon Tantiss Part four by Jedi Lover

diary of Nick Roberts by earlybird-Obi-Wan

The Journal of the Former Emperor's Hand by Carlos Danger

 

By inviting people to vote, can we do that in our story thread?

 

Same question: what methods are considered acceptable?

Also, the list of diaries is not up to date and what would help, a lot, would be a separate listing of diaries eligible for this honour in the announcement post.

 

Not the host but... you can post in you story thread something like "don't forget to vote for this story if it was your favourite DDC" or "please remember to PM the Diary_Challenge_Sock before January 15th with your favourite diary". And you can insert the whole list of eligible diaries if you wish. Basically, don't spam people (or your story thread), but a reminder is fine.

I know this is probably the busiest time for the hosts for this thread, but yes, an official list of every diary that is eligible is nice to have (when you get the time to put it together!).


Anyways. As for me, I WILL start writing today! Just as soon as I have a nap

 

Isn't the list the five surviving diaries on the first page.