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Post by Mikauzoran on Feb 3, 2015 2:34:15 GMT
Meanwhile I'm already buzzing for the next challenge. I was thinking "Tears". That could be really interesting to explore tears of joy, grief, and laughter. I wish these contests had a quicker turnaround. :/ Or maybe if we could have multiple contests? :/ Or if the prompts thread were updated occasionally? I don't know.
I just really wish there was more to do with writing on this forum. It seems like we have a little bit of discussion about our fics and the contest every five or so weeks, but I don't feel like we do enough stuff with the actual fanfic writing for a forum that's supposed to be a writing community. We do a lot of fun stuff, and I really like it here, but I feel like we do more talking about the series and exchange of info than fostering creativity and exchanging ideas/commentary/challenges. :/ Those are my feelings, though. I don't know if anyone else feels the same? Or maybe I'm the only one unsatisfied?
I just thought when I joined that there would be more contests/prompts/inspiration. That's all. :/
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Feb 3, 2015 2:43:07 GMT
Neither the daily word prompts nor the random character relations have been updated recently . . .
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Post by ichthyophobia on Feb 3, 2015 2:47:20 GMT
I know there were a lot of prompts originally. Though I don't think I ever saw more than a few people do them, which might be why they stopped. I do agree that the contests seem to take forever... though I write kind of fast when I have an actual idea, and I know not everyone does.
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Post by Mikauzoran on Feb 3, 2015 3:23:34 GMT
It seems like a lot of people procrastinate because we have all that time. I know a lot of entries come in last minute, so I feel like the contests could have a quicker turnaround time. I'll retract my statement if I'm wrong, but I don't believe it actually takes anyone a full month to write less than five thousand words if they're actually sitting down and trying to write.
I think what's happening is people maybe have an idea at first and then they figure they have all this time to write, so they don't just sit down and get it done. They wait until crunch time. It's the same way with the votes. People wait until the very last minute, and then we end up extending an already pretty long deadline. I think it really slows down the creative process. I feel like we could all be more productive if we only had two or three weeks. We could all produce a lot more work that way, and, as we all know, increasing the amount of work/practice serves to create better writers.
I'm just frustrated because I really came to this forum hoping to be inspired and improve my writing, but it's really not happening. I LOVE doing the contests and the writing prompts! I feel like those kinds of exercises have been really great for me and have seriously helped me improve a lot, but...I just don't feel like Poirot is turning out to be the writing community that it was supposed to be. I wonder if doing more contests/events/challenges would help? Or maybe I just need to go find a different forum that focuses more on writing. :/ But I really like you guys, and I like the atmosphere here. I'm just not getting what I really wanted to out of Poirot, and it's frustrating because everything else here is great.
Perhaps I should talk to Crimson. But she seems busy with real life. :/
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Feb 3, 2015 3:30:57 GMT
No, I think you're right. A lot of people - here and in general - procrastinate, and I think they would probably be able to get the stories done in at most three weeks. And then to have maybe half a week for voting? We also need to pick up on the writing prompts. Since Crimson seems busy and since I'm staff, I think it'll be okay if I continue it for her. Don't leave, Mikau
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Post by Mikauzoran on Feb 3, 2015 3:47:53 GMT
*Sighs in relief* Oh good. I'm so glad. I thought it was just me, and then I was worried that I was being completely unreasonable, but I seriously, SERIOUSLY want to get better at writing, and the only way I'm going to achieve that is through practice and doing different challenges and exercises. I've been able to create some really awesome work that I'm very satisfied with as a result of the contests and even the writing prompts, so I'd really like to do more of that.
I like your idea for the timeline of contests, Natsumi. Since the entries are really short and often posted in advance for people to read and consider, I think that time frame makes sense. Maybe like four days for voting (probably over the weekend) just to give a little bit of extra time to people who have school or work and are busy during the week. I think that sounds reasonable. I really do think that the hold up is really just that people don't get around to things. If the deadlines were less lax, people would probably get around to writing/voting faster. Just like how we've all at one point or another waited until the day before the paper/project/assignment was due to even start it. I think it's in human nature to procrastinate.
Aww! *Tackle hugs Natsumi* Thanks. I'm glad to know I'd be missed. ^o^ I love you guys too!
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Feb 3, 2015 3:52:10 GMT
Okay, I think that's what we'll do then. Speaking of that . . . When's the deadline again? Well, I'm not involved in this contest, so I guess it makes sense as to why I'm not paying attention to that . . . Okay, just updated the word and character relation prompt threads! *glomps Mikau back*
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Post by Crimson Amarone on Feb 3, 2015 3:56:26 GMT
I hope that I'm not letting you guys down in any way. I would like to possibly see if we can have someone who would like to help out with me and Natsumi to help create events and such to really present the active writing community that was intended for Poirot Cafe. I'm sure you've all noticed that I've been pretty busy lately. I know Mikau that you've started your new job and will probably feel the effects of lack of personal/free time that I've been in for the last 7 months or so since graduating and starting a full-time job. (I commute 2 hours each way to work and work 8 and a half hours.) Of course I'm always available to answer PMs usually quickly if anyone needs to reach me with any questions, concerns, help with writing, life problems, whatever. Anyway, Mikau, I also understand that you are looking to be pushed. It is hard to find the level that we want without a lot of feedback and pressure from our peers and even those more experienced than us. I absolutely mean no offense to anyone, I love you all, but I think it comes with being our age. I will definitely try to get back to regularly doing daily and weekly prompts. We can definitely talk over adjusting the timelines for our writing contests. I like having the contests be more regular so that way people who might have missed the last one can participate in the next one. My idea is to have more variety in these contests, 4k-5k contest, 10k contests, etc. Or something like that. I know we had the idea to do the group writing project, which sort of turned into the RP. The problem with the RP is it is dependent on the same people coming back to RP their character. I'm sure it's harder for newcomers to find a good opportunity to jump in. The original idea of the group story was that anyone could play any character(s) and be able to jump in almost at anytime. I still think this idea is doable, so this is also something we can do to address this issue. Thank you for helping me pick up my slack Natsumi. We can talk more about this if you want.
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Post by Mikauzoran on Feb 3, 2015 4:22:14 GMT
Nah. You're not letting us down. We understand that you're a busy lady with real life to deal with.
As for my lack of free time...yeah. I have weekends, but on weekdays I get up, get ready, work, prepare for the next day's work, and then spend a little time with my pups/writing before I do it all over again, so I definitely feel you. My lunch break is the most time I have all day to myself. So you're fine, and I think we all totally understand. This forum is really great, and you're doing an awesome job, Crimson.
I'd say that I could help with staff, but I know that's unrealistic considering my lack of free time. I wouldn't be able to do a good job in any kind of official capacity, but I'd definitely be interested in bouncing around ideas. Maybe we should start a new thread for this. :/ Well, maybe I could try to help with staff. What do you need? What would I have to do? I'm just afraid of failing terribly and disappointing people and not being able to keep up with my duties and letting people down. ^.^; But I have been trying to advertise through my fics, though. The Ponies fic is a walking advertisement. ^.^;
But, like I said in the prompts thread, they don't have to be every day. I think weekly is a good start, and then if people start doing them and wanting more, we can increase, but there's no sense using your time on something people aren't going to participate in.
I also think the group fic and the varying lengths of contests would be good. Shortening the time from beginning to deadline would also be good to increase productivity and time management skills.
I don't really have any more ideas at this point other than what I said above. :/ I'll let you know, though. For now I have to go to sleep.
Oh, and Natsumi, Competition Four ends on February eighth, so this coming Sunday.
Thanks so much for taking my feedback and suggestions! I feel like I should say something really Japanesey like "Let's all work together to make Poirot the best writing community it can be!" Yeah. Let's go with that.
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Post by Crimson Amarone on Feb 3, 2015 12:47:50 GMT
The daily prompts actually got pretty good attention and response. I thought the weekly character interaction prompts sounded fun, but those didn't seem to get as much writing out of it. I understand that it can be a little challenging writing random characters interacting, but I think that's the point. Breaking out of a comfort zone to write non-main characters more than just a few lines here and there.
At this stage there isn't too too much work for staff. You can read over the help wanted thread for more info about that. I believe you would be fine being part of the staff if you want. You are on a lot and participate a great deal.
The tasks for staff are largely moderating the boards, helping with events and posting prompts, and if up to it, helping advertise.
What Id really like to see take off more is beta reading services. It's kind of hard to get really thoughtful feedback constantly for your fics from multiple people. But being able to match up with a beta and offering to be a beta is something I hope more people would do here.
I'll see about coming up with a schedule for more events when I get the chance. February is a short month, so maybe we can try to have the next 4k contest be over closer to the end of the month so it's not as long. Then we can maybe have another contest going on at the same time but stating and ending at a differnt time for something fm like a 10k.
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Post by Mikauzoran on Feb 5, 2015 2:07:18 GMT
Okay. So I was thinking, and could we maybe have like a prompts thread and a contests thread and then have maybe a separate thread for submissions instead of lumping all of the fics together? I think it would make it easier, more organized.
As for writing contests, I was thinking about different length fics. We can keep with the 5,000 and under and 10,000 and under ideas, but what about shorter fics? Like 1,000 and under? Or even five sentence fics? I've done five sentence fics before, and they're really good practice. We could also do, instead of just one theme like we're doing now, run two themed contests, one starting at the beginning of the month and going until the end (The first three weeks for writing and then the last week for voting?) and then the other one starting around the fifteenth and finishing up just before the fifteenth of the next month so that the next contest could start on the fifteenth. Does that make any sense?
As far as prompts go, there are all sorts of things we can do. Caption prompts are fun (when you look at a picture and write dialogue or maybe just a line or two of what the character in the picture is saying/thinking). There's also picture prompts where you write a fic based on a pic or a photo or some fanart or something. We're already doing random words, but how about phrases and quotes or scenarios?
Those are some of my ideas. I'll let you know if I come up with anything else, but what do you guys think?
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Feb 5, 2015 2:35:23 GMT
You mean sub-boards? Yeah, that sounds like it'll be much better and less messy ^-^
The timing thing is good. I've never heard of five sentence fics before. That'd be interesting.
I like all the ideas ^-^
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Post by Mikauzoran on Feb 5, 2015 4:01:58 GMT
Yes! That's the word. "Sub-boards". I think it would be easier, especially for the people wanting to look at the submissions for voting, if all of the contest fics were in their own place.
I also think having regular start/end dates for the contests would be helpful. Then everyone would know for sure when the next contest would be, when they have to have submissions in by.
Five sentence fics are a ton of fun! Capturing a scene in five sentences can be a beautiful, challenging thing. It's kind of an art form, like haiku (in Japanese, because haiku in English don't have the same stringent rules that make Japanese haiku all the more impressive).
I'm really glad that you like the ideas. They're all practices that I've found helpful in the past, so I think it would be cool to have stuff like that in a Prompts section.
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neonquincy1217
God
Note to self: Be kind to yourself. Be patient. Embrace the random. Life is not instant noodles. :))
Posts: 1,339
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Post by neonquincy1217 on Feb 5, 2015 5:30:00 GMT
Wow, five-sentence fics... That sounds like fun~ :3
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Post by StarlightDragons on Feb 5, 2015 5:54:14 GMT
oh, I've heard of that! and something similar, actually - six-word stories anyone know what those are? for example, there's one that I've always remembered: For sale; baby shoes, never worn. five sentence fics sound like fun!
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