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Other Writing - Writing Challenges Discussion [READ]

Popwar Bunny said:
Why would logic fit into Creativity and Interesting or anything for that matter?
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Yes, logic is an important part of writing, and I'm hoping you're not saying it isn't. (I might have misread what you were trying to get at.) If you can't explain how X, Y, and Z happen, you end up with plot holes. Plot holes are bad things because, frankly, they tend to be glaringly obvious and detract from the enjoyability of the story. For example, back to the Team Rocket bit, your reader ends up questioning why Team Rocket didn't just die on the spot. They'll assume you're copping out or are just too insane to create a believable story. Your story will be taken less seriously if you fail to fill in those plot holes, so if you're actually trying to write a serious story, this is just going to hurt what you're trying to pass off. Thus, unless you're writing crack, things like the laws of physics I brought up in the example are just going to generate plot holes and result in a decline of general quality.

Unfortunately, if a judge doesn't know the basic rules to a fandom that might not be shared by other universes (like the fact that Team Rocket never dies), they're going to mistake those things that are just a given to the writer as plot holes.

So, yeah, that's basically my problem in a nutshell. Failure to understand the basics of a fandom = what looks like a plot hole to the reader. I'm worried that that will be a problem.

Edit: That and I'm saying that I really hope you're thinking of including quality (and all the things that fit under that umbrella category) as one of the things you're judging a fic on, rather than just "Did this fic keep us interested?" and "Did this fic meet all the requirements?" Because I personally think if you just stop at those two questions, you'll come up with a crapload of potential winners for each challenge because it's fairly easy to meet both requirements. Yes, I realize you just said you'd include it. But again, logic would fit under the quality category (not the creativity/interest category), and you seemed to imply in your scoring proposal a couple posts back that you were leaving that out (or that creativity/interest would be covering it).
 
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I think you're just getting too deep into the challenges and judging. >:

This isn't going to be a challenge to see who can create the most realistic, plot-filled, logical story. These are just little contests to help writers improve by being able to take what their given and create a story with it. It's just for fun. It's not to be taken seriously and all the judging will do is give someone the ability to create the next challenge goals. It's to help get Other Writing a bit more active than it is now, because it isn't very active, as you can obviously see.

I appreciate your concerns and obviously well-thought out consideration into the entire subject, along with your willingness to post and explain things to me, but the fact of the matter stands that this isn't a professional deal and this isn't to be a perfect writer. Obviously doing well with your logic (no plotholes, no illogical happenings in a logic-set world, etc.) is going to help the readers and judges understand your story better, but as long as the judge can read the story and have a basic understanding of the work, along with the ability to see the writer was able to complete the goal is what the point of having a judge is.

If the judge can't understand the fandom and doesn't understand that Team Rocket is able to live even after being electrocuted and sent flying, then it really won't matter. Obviously the judge will see the flaw in logic, but none of the judges will look too deeply into it. If the writer wrote well, didn't make huge plot mistakes (i.e. Team Rocket was just sent into the air, but now they're magically behind Ash and Pikachu again), and was legible, then the judge isn't going to harass them for having a fandom they cannot relate to. If they can't relate to the fandom, then they can easily give it to another judge or someone with knowledge of the subject. I still have to decide if every judge is going to read every story or if each judge will handle a set amount.

So obviously there's still much to figure out about this and the only other thing we can do if we don't use judges is if only I read them and pick the one I think is best, then have that person create the next challenge. I don't believe anyone would be too savvy on that idea though, because your issue with not knowing fandoms will still..well..still be an issue. :| It honestly doesn't really have to be a big deal, but I'm trying to appease everyone's concerns and wishes, but that's just not going to happen and in the end, I'm the one calling the shots, so I'll decide what will happen.

Edit: Just saw the thing about quality. Yeah, you're right about it not fitting in Creative and Interesting, so I'll include that into the judging criteria for sure. Quality always matters. I don't want people posting plot-holed, grammar-killing, plain stupid entries. Even though I'm sure we'll still get those. XD; Either way, thanks for bringing that up. I'll still consider your issue on the logic, but I'm not seeing it as a concern other than any of the things stated above and or in a previous post.
 
I think there might be another thing you didn't think about when it comes to fandoms. (That is to say I didn't see a mention about this on the posts above.) And this one's a serious issue when it comes to originality.

Let's take a fandom, say, Star Trek. Let's say I've watched all the Star Trek episodes there has ever been. You, the judges, on the other hand, may have seen one of the movies and a random episode, but that's about it. Then, when I participate, I just write the whole script of some lesser-known episode and just make some minor changes, like romulans=zombies, red-shirts=goats and romulan ale=ice cream. You have no way of knowing I have just copied the script of a Star Trek episode. I'd have high chances of getting off with my cheating and maybe even winning the challenge.

That wouldn't be very fair. Then again, the one it harms the most is the writer...

I also see Xanthine's point as a problem. I can give you an example:
(i.e. Team Rocket was just sent into the air, but now they're magically behind Ash and Pikachu again
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What if, in this said fandom, this thing called Team Rocket would indeed have the ability to teleport by default? Then, that example would have no plot holes in it, but the judge would nevertheless think there was one. Also, it would be quite challenging for the author to tell the reader that it is possible for Team Rocket to teleport without doing it in an unnatural way (i.e. Team Rocket then hit Ash in the head from behind (they can teleport, if you didn't know that)). Obviously the judges aren't supposed to spend days on one piece of fiction trying to decide whether or not it has plot holes or is illogical or whatever, but this would still prove to be a problem. Not knowing Team Rocket can teleport could be a fatal blow for the storyline of the story. Maybe.

But I can see a resolution to this problem (well, sorta)!
If the judges could list the fandoms they know and then everyone could limit their writing to only those fandoms or then simply suffer the consequences. The usability of this methods, then again, is highly dependant on the fact whether or not you're going to have one judge read a set amount of stories or a group of judges read them.
That, or you can limit this thing to original fiction.

As for how the winner is decided: what if you had both judges and voting? :laugh: Then you could have both a winner and a "reader's choice". Obviously I'm not seriously telling this would be a good idea, it just occurred to me that it would be possible.

That said, I would definitely like to participate. I hope you get all problems solved!
 
Would anyone be interested if I worked on this idea a bit? I'm interested in seeing this come to pass, but I was wondering if anyone else would like to see this happen.

The basic premise will be the same, of course. And I'm willing to listen to concerns, questions, comments, and ideas.
 
I would like to see this happen! Very much so! I can also offer my assistance, if you'd happen to need some. Go for it!

Also, what's with all the deleted spam? Someone posted a post in a minute for ten minutes? What the... And here I thought this section doesn't have any spamming weirdos.
 
I would really like to see this branch of the Pokemon Community really take off. I'm willing to help in any way I can to do so :)
 
I have a challange I'd like to see. This would be for a InuYasha/Pokemon X-over.

Rules:

1: Must take place in Fudual Japan (Inu's world)
2: Must involve a Male Pikachu (Can be Ash Ketchum's or not. You decide)
3: There must be a love story centered around Pika/Kirara
4: Other pairings must be Inu/Sango and Kagome/Miroku
5: There must be some sort of convo with Shippo and one of the girls involving babies and where they come from.

That's it. I'd really like to see someone do this. I don't think I made the rules too hard. :)
 
Rii said:
I have a challange I'd like to see. This would be for a InuYasha/Pokemon X-over.

Rules:

1: Must take place in Fudual Japan (Inu's world)
2: Must involve a Male Pikachu (Can be Ash Ketchum's or not. You decide)
3: There must be a love story centered around Pika/Kirara
4: Other pairings must be Inu/Sango and Kagome/Miroku
5: There must be some sort of convo with Shippo and one of the girls involving babies and where they come from.

That's it. I'd really like to see someone do this. I don't think I made the rules too hard. :)
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Except you kind of did make the rules "too hard".

See, one of the reasons why I haven't posted a challenge yet is because I'm trying to find a challenge that is open-ended to fit all the various fandoms and original works, since this is the "Other Writing" section.

Your challenge, on the other hand, is only for those writers who follow both Inuyasha and Pokemon. And then after that you want people to follow your specifications of which characters are involved, and who is shipped with who, and in the fifth step, who says what to whom.

It's too...specific.

That's what I'm looking for with challenges. Not "how challenging can I make this by ostracizing people who don't follow my fandoms and don't write to my specifications", but "write a story around this simple idea".

Pretty much what I'm looking on doing is what I did in PFF&P. One-word prompts that everyone writes around.

The fun part about this, though?

The prompts come from the other people. I'm not going to pick the prompts. You people can give them to me, and I'll post them.

Hop to it everyone!
 
Astinus said:
The prompts come from the other people. I'm not going to pick the prompts. You people can give them to me, and I'll post them.

Hop to it everyone!
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You're trusting the people who make a point in mentioning sex at least once every page in both lounges to come up with prompts? XD

Okay, seriously, since it's February, we could go cliché and say "love," "Valentine's Day," or "candy" as possible prompts. If not "groundhogs."
 
Not that I can't see your point or anything Astinus. But I figure what's the point of a challange without it being challanging. That's why I put in the rules to make it challanging without being overly so. ;) Trust me I could have added in a lot more. lol
 
What I am looking for is still challenging because it causes people to come up with a story based around an idea they didn't think of. For instance, if the prompt is "birth", then the stories written are centered around a birth that the writer would probably have never thought of otherwise, and they have a limited amount of time to write it in.

Also, the prompts I want aren't going to be limited to a set amount of people. The idea for these challenges was to bring more activity to this section. If the proposes challenges are too fandom-specific, then how will that bring more activity to this section?

I said your challenge is too specific. It requires that the writers have to have knowledge of Inuyasha characters, Pokemon characters, Inuyasha plot, Pokemon plot, and that they have to write very specific pairings that they might not want to write. So those who don't fit the Inuyasha/Pokemon/shipping these two specific characters group can't write anything for the prompt, and that's not fair.

I want to bring activity to this section. I want to do so by allowing everyone who wants to write the chance to write by having prompts that are open to interpretation. Make things too challenging or specific, and no one will want to write.

And let's say that people want to get constructive criticism on their stories. With your challenge, the only reviewers that could actually read the story and understand it are those rare people who know both Inuyasha and Pokemon and like to read shipping fics about four specific characters and who have the time, the will, and the knowledge to leave constructive criticism. How many people do you know of that would fit all those qualities? While, with the open-to-interpretation-and-everyone prompts, the stories won't require a lot of previous knowledge unless they are fanfic for another fandom, but it could be either Naruto, or Kingdom Hearts, or Digimon, or anything else. And that means that more people can read and enjoy and review these fics.

So I'm trying to encompass everyone with these prompts. Not just a few select probably-don't-even exist people.

Trust me I could have added in a lot more.
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So, just as a question, you want to see a fic where everything you want to see happen happens, but you don't want to write it yourself? So you're going to "force", in a sense, people to write fics to please you and probably only you, instead of allowing them to write the fics that they want to write?
 
Actually I don't see how I am forcing anyone. If you don't want to take my challange then don't. But I am not bending anyone's will to write this. I am simply asking that is all. And trust me if I wanted to write this myself I could, and probably do a darn good job of it too. ;)

And my challange is directed at those who have seen both. It would be rather pointless for someone to try who has only seen Inuyasha or Pokemon. I don't recall seeing in the rules stipulations on what we can or cannot post as a challange.

If there was a rule like that I apoligize for not getting it. But the way I see it this is my challange to issue or not. Whether anyone agrees is up to them. If they were writing the fics they wanted to write as you say it really wouldn't be much of a challange, and be kinda pointless to look up challanges. :P
 
Rii said:
And my challange is directed at those who have seen both. It would be rather pointless for someone to try who has only seen Inuyasha or Pokemon. I don't recall seeing in the rules stipulations on what we can or cannot post as a challange.
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Because I would like to think that people wouldn't post challenges that are fandom-specific in a non-fandom-specific forum? Other Writing covers a wide spectrum of fandoms, including original work. If a challenge is specific in any way as to what needs to be included fandom-wise, then people who do not understand those fandoms can not participate. And that's not fair. It's different in PFF&P, where I could post a Pokemon-specific prompt because that's a Pokemon-specific forum. That's not what Other Writing is. OW is a forum for all stories from all fandoms, not just two.

The original purpose of these challenges is to bring more activity to this section. To bring more activity to this section, the challenges have to appeal to the widest amount of people possible. To do that, the challenges can't exclude anyone by mentioning that a particular fandom that not everyone is in or has knowledge about has to be included in the challenge.

I'm not sure how to explain it any further because I feel like I'm just repeating things.

I'm just trying to appeal to the masses here.

And there are no rules as to what to include because this is really still in the discussion stages, and I just decided to allow others to submit their own prompts so I'm not the only one giving them.

If they were writing the fics they wanted to write as you say it really wouldn't be much of a challange, and be kinda pointless to look up challanges. :P
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They look up the challenge to get an idea that they might not normally get. I look up prompt communities (which is what this is based around) to get ideas for fics that I wouldn't normally think of. It's a way to stretch my imagination. And I'm not the only one who does these kind of "challenges", since prompt communities are extremely popular.

For example, take a look at the prompt lists for fanfic50, a prompt community for all fanfics/original work. The prompts are all open to interpretation for all fandoms. Note the amount of members that are participating: 270. Why don't those 270 people write the fics if they feel like writing them? I can't speak for everyone, but I do know what I would never have thought up half the fics I've written if I didn't find those prompt communities.

...And on just skimming the thread, Popwar Bunny was talking about prompts that are open to all fandoms. Which is what I'm asking for...so...the "open to all fandoms" as always been here.
 
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Hey Rii. I'll give it a try if you don't mind. It might take a little time before I can get it posted though.
 
I'd participate in this happily! I love to write and this sounds like fun. Strangely I enjoy having a prompt, it stretches your mind.

Rules:

1: Must take place in Fudual Japan (Inu's world)
2: Must involve a Male Pikachu (Can be Ash Ketchum's or not. You decide)
3: There must be a love story centered around Pika/Kirara
4: Other pairings must be Inu/Sango and Kagome/Miroku
5: There must be some sort of convo with Shippo and one of the girls involving babies and where they come from.
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Technically I could do that. But I have to agree that it is far to specific and fandom oriented. It would be possible to turn 'Valentine's Day' into a fanfic about Pikachu falling in love with Kirara but you can also make it original if you so choose. I think it would be far more open if the prompts were cabable of being either fanfics or complete original stories.

If someone sets this up and gets it started I'd be here in a flash. It would be awesome to see this fly and have a prompt.
 
O_O

Um...okay. XD I'll do a test run with "Valentine's Day/Love" for this, and see how things go. I'll go start the thread at midnight, and get more into specifics there.

This thread will still be for discussions/questions and hey, submitting prompts as well. And I need to go drag someone over here.
 
Whoo! I'm totally in.

But a suggestion. If you have the power and are allowed to sticky another topic, you might want to create a submission topic for sake of organization. Or use the Test Run topic. That way each prompt is headed by the Prompt Info post (which would be that first post you made).

In Example...

YOUR PROMPT POST
User entry post
User entry post
User entry post
Last user entry post
THE JUDGING/WINNER
NEW PROMPT POST
User entry post
Etc....

Or have them PMed to you if you're going to be the only judge?

Just a thought really.

-Nubi
 
Right now I doubt that I'm going to be drowning in submissions for new prompts. And I don't really care where anyone submits them to me at this point in time because everything is moving so slowly with this.

Besides, I was thinking of having the chosen prompts in one thread, so that they are easier to find (with all stories/poems for that prompt in the post for easy access).

And right now I'm thinking of having all prompts be submitted to me in PM, so that way, I don't publicly humiliate/glorify someone for choosing a better prompt than other people.

And I'm not going to get into the fact that I'm not judging any of the submitted stories/poems. XD

So yeah...

ALL PROMPTS MUST BE SUBMITTED TO ASTINUS BY PM!

...Now to edit the sticky post.
 
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