Amph SFF Writers' Guild Writing Contest Discussion

I disagree again, A Guild is supposed to have projects and events. A Guild is not merely a community.

-The Scummy-

 

Yeah, the Contest was so we could workshop and discuss topics

dkt

 

How come I get the feeling another new board is in order...

 

Coruscant, guild members are still going to get all of that from the guild thread. Really, nothing has changed in this regard. And people who enter the contest will still get something out of it, and can surely request critiques from the judges if they want to do that. Again, nothing has really changed. The contest just happens to be in a new thread, which is freeing up space for discussion in the guild thread.

 

But we can do that in the main thread easilly. They have even taken the Guild's name off! And a Guild is NOT merely a discussion thread, it is supposed to have activities.

The Guild is internal, we do not need offshoot threads. It is wastefull and I can say that when I created it it was meant to be more then mere discussion.

-The Scummy-

 

I think this is a really great idea.

Coruscant, what precisely about your idea meant it had to be tethered to one location? Furthermore, outside of being possessive of an idea, what exactly are the negative effects on both the original guild, and this forum, in introducing the idea here?

E_S

 

Would it make any difference if this thread was "The SFF Writing Guild presents: the SFF Writing Contest (Discussion)", and/or it was posted by a prominent "Guild" member?

The way I'm understanding it, this thread was created to discuss the rules and regulations to be used in the contest, so that the "Writers Guild" thread could focus on workshopping and discussing various writing topics in the meantime. Which is exactly what that thread exists for. This forum is not super-busy. A thread that was last replied to over two days ago is still in the first 50 threads, meaning it is on the first or second page for most members. Also, "social" type threads (where there is always something new to discuss) tend to stay towards the top of a forum anyways, and the members aren't going to neglect the thread simply because it is not on the top of the page.

Also - be glad the opportunity exists to have multiple threads related to writing Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories. It would have been entirely possible for the moderators to completely forbid that type of discussion in this forum.

 

Would it make any difference if this thread was "The SFF Writing Guild presents: the SFF Writing Contest (Discussion)", and/or it was posted by a prominent "Guild" member?

Honestly I would like it if we at least got credit, taking our name out of the thread was a bit of a surprise, but that is not my issue. (though it would be nice)

The way I'm understanding it, this thread was created to discuss the rules and regulations to be used in the contest, so that the "Writers Guild" thread could focus on workshopping and discussing various writing topics in the meantime. Which is exactly what that thread exists for. This forum is not super-busy. A thread that was last replied to over two days ago is still in the first 50 threads, meaning it is on the first or second page for most members. Also, "social" type threads (where there is always something new to discuss) tend to stay towards the top of a forum anyways, and the members aren't going to neglect the thread simply because it is not on the top of the page.

Aye, but it is not a social thread. I made it as a "Guild" purposely to allow for competitions and the like, and I don't see the discussion of the contest as taking away from it.

Also - be glad the opportunity exists to have multiple threads related to writing Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories. It would have been entirely possible for the moderators to completely forbid that type of discussion in this forum.

I don't mean to be ungratefull.



All in all though I have to say I just don't want the Guild stretched out over several threads. It seems unneccessary, and I don't want the threads to wither. (one thing I really don't want though is the possible third thread mentioned in the Guild, but that is not relevent for this discussion)

-The Scummy-

 

Unnecessary, but definitely beneficial. I found it somewhat annoying that the Writing Guild thread was crammed with discussion of the contest rather than discussion of actual writing. This is much better in my opinion.

 

I agree with Bacon. I really don't think thread traffic is going to be an issue at all, I'm sure everyone who is interested will post in both or all three threads. I know I will be.

 

I'll copy/paste a post I made in The Guild.

I suppose we can play the waiting game and see if this arrangement works, but lets not make a third thread and if either threads gets low traffic we can talk about locking the contest thread then, fair?


Let us try this, we will wait and see to see if anything happens traffic-wise. If nothing happens we will allow this arrangement to keep. But no third thread. (please, no third thread.)

-The Scummy-

 

"K.I.S.S." was not meant as an insult of any kind.

 

"Aye, but it is not a social thread. I made it as a "Guild" purposely to allow for competitions and the like, and I don't see the discussion of the contest as taking away from it."

But, at least right now, it isn't even discussing anything that has to do with writing. Someone who is interested in discussing various aspects of writing, but doesn't care one bit about any sort of contest, would not be interested in the discussion that was taking place. The discussion wasn't focusing on anything that had to do with improving writing. In every other contest that I can remember, it had a dedicated thread and was not thrown on top of a different discussion. I'd also wager that, not only were there people interested in writing help/discussion who don't care about helping plan a contest (similar to Bacon's comments), but that there also were people who might be interested in a contest but might not care to read other "guild posts", for one reason or another. It could be that they aren't comfortable recieving help, they don't have time to give other people help (and thus might feel bad about only asking for help and not giving help in return), or they get feedback through other channels, such as from a writing teacher or professor at school.

Also, I purposely put "social" in quotes for a reason. I realize it isn't a social thread, but it is a thread that can discuss many different aspects, and will always have new material to examine. And, chances are, there will be a select group of users who are responsible for most of the activity in the thread (which definitely isn't a bad thing, especially when they are being helpful and cooperative).

 

Ok, I see your point, Let us try this, we will wait and see to see if anything happens traffic-wise. If nothing happens we will allow this to keep. But no third thread. (please, no third thread.) This is fair, as long as this thread is used exclusively for the Contest. Overall this has probably been blown out of proportion.

-The Scummy-

 

Sounds like a good solution to me.

 

This sounds like a great idea! I would love to see what happens with it

 

This is saddening.

We writers are settling for less, when we could shoot for so much more. We're letting the contest fall to the comforts of judges and readers and people who follow a darker side of simplicity. I have my own ideas of simplicity as well. Earlier in the idea process, a user had suggested the contest occur every fortnight. I immediately panned the idea, emphasizing that too much energy would lead to burnout. However, I am not in favor of making matters needlessly simple.

I will return later with an expansive, in-depth post rehashing several aspects of the debate

 

I suggest that the complaints about the nature of the thread be taken to Communications.

In the short term, I realize that we're not going to please everyone. If this doesn't work out so well, it can be modified, changed, rearranged or gotten rid of and something new can be tried. Right now, it looks like most people are willing to give this a try as is. Let's cut away the sniping and move it to the proper forum, and reserve this thread for it's purpose: telling great stories.

 

Coruscant a re-hashing is hardly necessary. Everybody else has compromised on this issue and we have all decided to give it a try. Why start up a debate again?

Since we seem to have the basic idea of the contest settled, we should start talking about more specifics, like who the judges will be and and how topics will be chosen, stuff like that.

 

Was anything decided on whether or not someone could win in back-to-back contests?

If not, then perhaps the previous winner could pick the topic for the next contest. To ensure that the topic is something that other people would enjoy, perhaps all the "non-winners" could each come up with an idea, and the winner could choose from that list. Obviously that can't work for the first contest... maybe a list could be created by potential writers, and the final choice could be made by Sapient or some other impartial source. I guess it also depends on how specific everyone wants the topics to be -- if they are too restrictive, they will stifle some creativity, but if they are too generic, writers can enter pre-existing works that they have had months or years to clean up.

 

Was anything decided on whether or not someone could win in back-to-back contests?

Early in the Guild thread, we had agreed that a winner could win back-to-back but after the second time could only particpate as a judge. He could still submit and get numbers but could not win. After that, he could joing again and win. IIRC, if that happens, he may judge only. And it stays like that for all cases afterward (in other words, it doesn't "expand" so to speak).

(BTW, I'm taking the debate to Comms, per Raven's post)

 

Was anything decided on whether or not someone could win in back-to-back contests?

Win two in a row and you take a break I believe.

if they are too restrictive, they will stifle some creativity, but if they are too generic, writers can enter pre-existing works that they have had months or years to clean up.

I agree to a degree, but I would rather it be generic then too restrictive. I hardly want something I have to force.

-The Scummy-

 

Any contest should have it's own thread. I'm not really interested in a guild, but the competition does interest me. And, I'm sure I'm not the only one. This would be an excellent way to build this fledgling community.

It looks like some people are complaining about their unoriginal idea (writing contest) being taken away. It's petty. As someone else said, having more than one thread for writers is something to be celebrated. Put that above your 'mine, mine, mine!' attitude.

The idea of themes is an excellent one. Perhaps not every time, but sometimes. To expand on the stuff the lovely Tracy already mentioned, maybe stuff set in existing universes...although the fear is it simply turns into fanfic.

 

I also have no interest in the guild, so a seperate thread is a good ide to me as well.

 

Alright, to get back to categorical grading... I had made a compromise somewhere in the now ballooned Guild thread. Should we go ahead with that?

I believe it was that judges would grade on a 10-point system, totalling 90 points from all 9 judges. Additionally, for each entrant, they wrote a brief but detailed paragraph of what they liked, didn't like, why, what could use improvement as far as technique, etc...

EDIT: Just to clear things up, the competition should only be sponsored not restricted to the Guild. I'm willing to compromise that discussion can expand out of the central thread, but the title needs to be changed to emphasize the fact this contest originated from the Guild and was fathered by it.

The idea for a short story competition may be unoriginal, but the ways of going about it on a messageboard being devised by myself, Scummy, and Dorkman were more "thinking caps on" so to speak.

Also, I'm going to accumulate all the agreements made in the Guild and repost them here, along with the disagreements. I'd recommend the list be copy+pasted into the original post of this thread after approval.