Thanks! Forgot to add one word I had as the title but then changed it without re-adding to the story. So I re-sent it over.
Or, you could another story on your own, just because it’s really good exercise. I’ve shamelessly stolen the idea of a random Flickr image, three random words, and a deadline.
Unfortunately, without the “real” deadline, my self-imposed one has passed. Still, I have a story project on the go that I wouldn’t have started otherwise.
Even for the contests where I couldn’t get something finished, I kept the story idea written down to develop at a later time. So these threads are always valuable, even when I don’t participate!
Really glad to have these threads around.
Oh, also - for those who did not finish their stories in the 60 hour time frame.
I usually make this offer privately (and so far, no one has ever taken me up on it.) but I thought this time I’d say it here. If you went over the time limit but would like to submit your finished or almost finished story anyway, for the sake of getting readers’ feedback or just to get a sense of accomplishment, I would be happy to publish it in the Anthology Thread though it would not be in the poll.
The same editing rules would apply, and it would be below the ‘voting collection’ so as not to confuse the readers and voters.
I mention this in case anyone is interested.
I think I’ll probably do this, as there’s just no way I’m going to finish mine on time. There’s too many things going on in my household right now.
Sent to you a few minutes ago.
Rushed, but fits with the story so I will live with it.
Thanks again for doing/organizing this!
Okay, mine has been sent. About three hours before my deadline, by my clock. Let me know if you get it, Le Ministre.
Phew! It’s late and now I need to get some rest!
DMark, Spoons: Yes, both stories arrived with no difficulties. Outstanding! That brings the total up to 8 so far.
And I’m off - keep the stories coming!
Do me a favour - talk amongst yourselves to bump the thread while I’m away from the intarwebs… See you next week.
Finished mine and submitted it yesterday afternoon! Thanks for making the decision to extend the deadline rather than shorten it–I wouldn’t have been able to participate, otherwise.
Just got my reply, so I’m bumping the thread per Le Ministre’s request. See y’all in (hopefully less than) 60 hours.
So now there are 10 stories! Yeah!
The trick is to get others to read them - we haven’t been doing well with getting others to go in and read them.
How about maybe doing like all those song contests on TV now - have the first vote with all 10. Then have another vote with just the top 5 of those and then maybe even go one step further and have a final vote with the top 2 or 3 (hoping people might at least go in and read the top vote getters) for the final?
Interesting idea! My main concern there would be that you’d potentially have a very small group determining those later selections.
I am unsure about the tiered voting. My only suggestion would be to host the stories separately, so that people can view them individually on their own page, if they wish. I personally would find that easier than reading them by scrolling down through the thread. But you could have them in the thread as well, for people who prefer that method.
Just a suggestion, though.
That would be my concern too. We have a hard enough time getting all the Dopers to vote once; would they be willing to do it a few times? I’m thinking probably not.
I’m wondering if we might stir up interest if we have a small, one-sentence descriptor, something like you might see in a TV listing. (“Tonight on Mythbusters, Adam and Jamie investigate more spy car myths; while Kari, Tory, and Grant see if you really can walk on water.”) These things don’t give away the show, but they do sell you on watching it; and maybe this technique will work here too. Just a thought, anyway.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s that hard for people to read the first few sentences to figure out whether or not they’d like to read the whole thing. If the author doesn’t grab them in that span, well, then that says something about the story.
I don’t think we need to have a bunch of voting rounds to garner attention. People know about the thread, it’s just overcoming the inertia it takes to read a bunch of stories. It worked out basically OK last time. If someone could convert the series of stories into a few different e-book formats, I think it might make it easier to read for some people.
I’d hate to think that somebody voted without actually reading the whole story though. I think we’re in this as much for the thoughtful commentary as the the ego boosting votes.
Full disclosure: Finding time and convincing myself to write is a challenge, despite how much I enjoy it.
The past few of these that I’ve gotten the prompts for did not result in inspiration for a story. Aside from my personal baggage/excuses I think the addition of a theme constraint played a role in that, at least for me.
Others don’t seem to have that problem though, so take my $0.02 as you will.
I think the theme can be used as you like it. You can be overt (setting your story in a Fourth of July party, for example), or very tacit (setting your story on a “July long weekend” and writing what you wanted to write anyway).
At any rate, I don’t believe that the theme is a constraint in the sense that the words and the photo are. I hope you can reconsider, ComeToTheDarkSide, as I have long enjoyed your posts on the board, and would like to see what you can do when you write fiction.
The Anthology Thread can be found at this link. Off to add some stories to it…