Concepts for the seventh TVTropes writing contest

"Outside Your Comfort Zone" sounds lovely.

If difficult to enforce.

~glares~

Although I never post here anymore, I was planning on just kind of becoming "that guy who shows up to judge," so I by default don't like that one.

As to the no-spec fic one... eh. At this point, I don't care what you people hand me as long as it's readable.

Flyboy, for one entry, you literally just said "Well then. That was... most interesting..."

Judges need to give actual feedback.

For the fanfiction contest, I just posted one-or-two-line assessments and gave longer critiques on request. I don't see why that's a problem, although "most interesting" is probably indeed a little too vague.

That's because I really didn't know what to say about it, and "the grammar/spelling was good and it was well-written" didn't seem like quite enough to do it justice. And, indeed, I would be happy with giving a more detailed reasoning/critique if asked. I've already given two as it is.

edited 12th Apr '12 1:35:28 PM by Flyboy

Well, being able to think of meaningful things to say about every entry is a necessary judging skill.

I really hope that I wasn't too harsh, because I really think I was, and I really want to apologise to Fallen Legend for just not being nice and...

I don't know. I like being vicious when people genuinely deserve to get called out, but I really think that I should have been more constructive with that one instead of going full flame-thrower on it.

You can always go back and add more constructive criticism.

But I don't even know where to start!

*crack...*

Here's an idea about enforcement for the "comfort zone" idea: There's an additional judging party (who need not be blind, perhaps the pass-along person) to whom the entrants must submit three pieces of previous work they consider to be within their "comfort zone." They needn't be long; short excerpts should work. This person could contrast the pieces and see if they do seem different enough.

Of course, that's a heck of a job...

@JHM: Personally, I don't think you were overly harsh, although it seemed like you were trying to find something negative in every entry - even #3, which by all opinions (including mine) was nearly perfect, had that warning about not letting it go to the author's head.

I definitely don't think you were too harsh on Fallen Legend. At the risk of being rude, every story he's submitted to the contests has been the lowest-graded (at least as far I as remember), yet he never really seems to learn anything from it. I mean, if - by your own admission - you need help with knowing how to Show, Don't Tell, it might not really be a good idea to submit your work for contests. And while I actually admire that he does, it's not a good idea to go easy on him.

edited 12th Apr '12 8:48:08 PM by nrjxll

@JHM: I agree with nrj, at least about my own entry. (I haven't read the rest of the entries yet, so I can't really say.) While I can't say I liked your critique—nobody really likes being criticized—what you said had merit, and was actually something I'd had reservations about when I submitted it. (Had those reservations emerged sooner than the day before the new deadline, I probably would have reworked it somewhat, to be honest.) Also, you didn't phrase your critiques in a mean way.

edited 12th Apr '12 9:25:13 PM by Nocturna

^^ She (he?) is improving, just slowly. (There is one consistent flaw in her writing, but I think that's better addressed in a PM.)

edited 12th Apr '12 9:35:09 PM by feotakahari

I do kind of like the idea of "Outside your comfort zone" as a theme, though I'm not sure how that'd get implemented.

Actually, that line about not letting things go to the writer's head was coming from a positive place. I think that humility and self-criticism are essential to great writing because they force the writer to constantly try to top their previous work, hence sustaining the power of their corpus. That story was just lovely, and I want to see Freezair sustain that level of excellence. (Seeing as she is one of the more refreshingly humble people here, I think it's a given regardless of what I say, but the sentiment remains.)

That's the part that's bugging me: S/he is clearly writing from an earnest place, and I really want to respond from that same place, but... it's so damned hard sometimes. Especially when I'm tired; then I just get all snarky and metaphorical and go all HL Mencken on everyone's ass. (Black flag raised, throats slit, no pun left unmade.)

Thank you. Hearing that actually means a lot to me.

edited 12th Apr '12 10:48:51 PM by JHM

Your intentions might have been positive, but (and as you suggest, maybe it's just how you write) it sounded like an attempt to find something to pick at.

That aside, your criticism was fair, as I said - I didn't mean to sound like I was complaining.

edited 12th Apr '12 10:49:00 PM by nrjxll

I guess it partly was. I'm of the strong belief that one should be most critical of what one loves the most. It's a matter of mutual honesty, in a way. Sometimes I get too intense.

Also, I'm almost never as harsh as I was writing those summaries. It must be something I've been holding back for too long...

I don't really do sincerity that much either, but I tend to view that as a flaw - modern society is, I think, too 'ironic', and it bothers me a lot.

Incidentally, this is seriously off-topic as far as planning the next contest goes.

It's not so much ironic as just flat-out insincere and pretentious. "Irony" is the façade that people use to make people think that they're clever and original when really they neither understand irony or have anything new to say. Speaking as someone who loves old-school postmodernism, this pop cultural misappropriation and misinterpretation of its ideas—as the Situationists would put it, the assimilation of the vanguard by the spectacle—just infuriates and disgusts me.

You're right, though: This is a totally unnecessary derail. Let's panic later, get back to business.

I want JHM as a judge on the next contest that I participate in simply because I want my work to be ripped apart intelligently.

Besides that, for a theme, uh, I don't think "challenge yourself" is a great theme for a writing contest. Maybe a writing challenge, as the theme's name might suggest, or a writing exercise, but I'm in the contest to submit the best that I can do (and have my best get destroyed, which...hasn't happened yet, refer to the previous paragraph), and limiting myself won't let me do that. But, I don't know. It's a very personal complaint, and it certainly is not a general reason as to why the theme would be bad.

I think we should get a few concrete themes running as well. The painting idea sounds okay.

I also think that we should wait a good while before the next contest starts. I don't know if it's just me, but having these things every two months kinda...makes them lose their significance. It burns you out. I'd be willing to wait until, hell, late summer, or maybe even fall, before rolling out the next one. It would also give people who participated in the contest time to reflect on their concrit and improve, and also time to work on those projects that I'm fairly certain people laid off to participate.

It's not "challenge yourself", it's "write outside your (genre) comfort zone". Two different things.

Which is a challenge, no? It's harder, by definition, to write outside your comfort zone. I'm imposing a limit on myself—no comfort zone—in the hopes of bettering my writing. Which is a challenge. I think.

edited 12th Apr '12 11:20:23 PM by Chubert

Well, yes, but it's one that's much more specific then "challenge yourself".

It is.

I'm not sure how hardcore I might be next time. I'm usually more genial than this with my critiques. I'm never dishonest, though; if you really offend me, you will know.