Oh, okay. I just wanted to make sure it didn't die off or something.
Prose That Blows?
Sun, 11/09/2014 - 19:07
#3
Sun, 11/09/2014 - 21:53
#4
a private opinion (of someone who enjoyed reading a lot but never took part):
annual is a comfortable pace for me.
personally, i like the stories of annual PTBs much more.
Mon, 11/10/2014 - 11:36
#5
Honestly I think semi-annual would prolly work better.
Tue, 11/11/2014 - 20:20
#6
As a long time reader of this contest, I love this idea, as I've possibly thought about participating in the next one. Since the holidays are coming up, maybe a Thanksgiving themed one?
Wed, 11/12/2014 - 11:54
#7
Well myself and Notso came to the conclusion that we wouldn't do seasonally themed ones for a few reasons
- Pakona & DblIntegral did most of the seasonal themes when they were running the contest, so I think we'd just be covering old ground now.
- Most seasonal themes (particularly Thanksgiving, and the idea of one end of the year known collectively as 'the holidays') are only relevant in one country, or within one culture.
- Themes in general, seasonal or otherwise, don't necessarily offer anything different from each other in terms of writing skills, which was the original emphasis of PtB. A theme, as I see it, is just the icing on the cake, the aesthetic laid on top of all the substance, and can encourage lazy writing if that's the emphasis of the contest. For most themes you could easily just sketch out the plot, then throw in some props, a bit of scenery, and dress the characters to match the theme. We prefer specific writing-related challenges that actually affect how the story is written, if we come up with a seasonal writing challenge that isn't a seasonal theme we may give it a go but it isn't a priority.
Sun, 11/16/2014 - 16:27
#8
doubleintegral
Yeah, there's a reason that we gave up on seasonal themes pretty early. We came away with two main lessons learned:
1. None of the stories were really all that special
2. Participation wasn't that great
Looking back, I think the bread and butter of the contest needs to involve placing restrictions on what the writer can and can't do. The original 500-word contest was genius because it's really hard to write a full inflation story in 500 words. The "taboo" contest we did also produced some great stories.
Sun, 11/16/2014 - 16:31
#9
doubleintegral
Also, if I remember correctly, I think the contests we did ended up being roughly quarterly. We usually announced a contest and gave people a month to write, then gave two weeks for voting, then announced the winners and waited about a month to announce the next contest. The primary goal there was to induce a lot of writing participation. I think annual is a bit too infrequent, but bi-annual is good.
Tue, 11/18/2014 - 21:30
#10
That makes perfect sense in regards to holiday themes. Is there any clear idea as to when the next one will start?
Thu, 11/20/2014 - 18:43
#11
Maybe next week... I know 'maybe' isn't very clear, but if it starts it will become extremely clear.
Thu, 11/20/2014 - 18:43
#12
Maybe next week... I know 'maybe' isn't very clear, but if it starts it will become extremely clear.
Fri, 12/12/2014 - 22:22
#13
Inflate123
Twice a year sounds good. Keeps it special, lets batteries recharge.
Fri, 12/26/2014 - 00:21
#14
Was a date ever decided on when to start?
Fri, 12/26/2014 - 11:52
#15
no... just whenever I can really, but I've struggled to find any time in the last month or two. The idea's already there, that was agreed with Notso months ago, I just need to write a blog-post and say it's open.
I haven't heard from Notsosupersaiyan in a little while, so I might just post one up based on some ideas we'd agreed on.
if I'm honest, when I first did PtB, I had this idea of it being an annual thing. When others took over the running of it after I had to leave for a while, they then ran it as almost a monthly thing, with each new contest following hot on the heels as the last. Now it's being run by myself and Notsosupersaiyan, I don't know that it will be that frequent... Maybe six-monthly.