Question for all Mene Authors!
 

I've looked around for writing contests on the forum but haven't actually found any. So I got an idea to hold a weekly contest myself. Now, if I do this, the prizes won't be anything spectacular until I can save enough gold to get some of the better items for prizes or use the gold for prizes too.

Before I get it all set up though, I want to know if anyone would be interested at all, and if there's anybody who would want to help me out with it if I actually get it going. Thought I'd run it by everyone first :sweat:

I think it's a neat idea but what kind of contests are we talking about? Say, write a short story centered around a theme, or write a poem perhaps? With specifics of course, four stanzas or a haiku or something like that.

I was thinking more along the lines of the writing contests that Lise held during the hallowe'en event. I'm already working on a list of possible themes so I don't leave myself floundering :sweat: Poems are a definite possibilities, like I might have one week where the requirement is that a poem about the week's theme be submitted, but I'm not sure since I'm not very good at them so I wouldn't know how to judge them unless I have some help. Haikus...I know nothing of so those are probably out.

Haikus are neat little poems, that don't rhyme and have to be three lines. Each line has to have specific syllables, first line has 5 second has 7 and third has 5. An example is:

Menewsha is great
I love this site very much
I will never leave

So they're always three lines? Maybe it would fit into something like Haiku Month instead of week, since it's so very short. The syllables can always be different though? Just have the first and last line be the same

Technically, haikus are supposed to be about nature.

I think a weekly writing contest would be fun, with different challenges and the such. Do like a poetry week, a best first line week, best description week, best closing paragraph week, best title week. I think you should mostly do stuff that's short, and keep a big variety of things, because I don't think people will want to write a short story every week. That's awful time-consuming, and most writers are working on their own stuff.

Those are really good ideas! I'm still working on my list of themes, but I never thought about just a line or paragraph :D I might steal your ideas >.> And I was thinking of also adopting Lise's 1000 words or less policy (maybe keep it around 5-700 even), so that nobody would need to take too many pains to work on an entry.

I think it would be a fun idea! Dunno if I would enter just because I don't like to have to center my art around something someone else came up with, plus I fail at it, but it would be a fun idea for those who can do that kind of thing.

@lillian: That's the way I felt too! So I was a little disappointed when I looked around and didn't find any kind of ongoing writing contests. Of course, if I end up hosting one, I'm not going to participate myself :) And I agree, there's always a first time for absolutely everything! I was hoping to get a little bit more feedback though, since there's been a lot of views and only very few replies. I got one 'no' vote, but the person who said no didn't comment on their reasons for it, which I found to be very un-constructive :/

I think a thousand words, for a weekly contest, is still a lot. I know that I'd enter every single week if you did mostly line, paragraph, or other short contests, but I'd rarely, if ever, enter if it was always a thousand word thing. I just don't have the time.

Heck, even 100 word things would be fun. XD Flash fiction.

And steal as many of my ideas as you want. XD I'll even give you more if you'd like. Best conversation/dialogue. Best 1st person narration in the style of telling a story of something that happened to you to a friend.

I'd join. I'm not the best writer in the world....but provided that the contest is short blurby things each week (not long stories....maybe do a long one like at the end of every 3 months or something and give us the topic in advance?) ...I would join every week.

Heh, I like the term 'blurby things' I think I might incorporate it into the title of the contest >.>

So wold something like half-drabbles work, Cami? That way it can be something really short pertaining to whatever theme of the week comes up. Apart from the other ideas you had.

Example: Description month (all in 100 words or less)
Week 1: best description of a tired gnome getting home
Week 2: best description of a pirate with an obsession with flamingos
Week 3: best description of a bouncing ball
Week 4: best short story that includes all the themes of the first 3 weeks. (Word length is optional but must be under 500 words)

Something like that is what I had in mind when I first saw your ideas. Thoughts?

Neko: Yeah, I think that sounds like a good idea. And you don't have to participate in the first three weeks to participate in week four, nor do you need to use the descriptions you used in the first three weeks if you'd rather come up with new ones for week four.

Yeah! That way, if someone just wants to participate in the story part, that's what they can do. And if someone just wants to do the short parts, then that's what they can do too! ^_^

I feel somewhat accomplished now d(*_*)d

^-^

You can also do kind of build a story months. Like:

Week1: Best Title (for theme)
Week2: Best opening paragraph (for theme)
Week3: Best Conclusion (for theme)
Week4: Best 500 Word story (for theme)

People don't have to combine them all together, but if they want they can use all of these to make one story over the course of a month.

This is developing so nicely!

Have you also considered how you're going to do the judging? Will you judge it yourself? Have a panel of judges? Have users vote for their favorites (1-3 depending on number of entries, can't vote for self, like User's Pick)?

I've been trying to figure that part out actually. If a lot of menewshans want to participate, it might be really hard for me to do it all myself. And it wouldn't be very fair to everyone if I do it all either. I'd like to have at least one or two co-hosts so all the judging is fair, and honestly the thought of having everyone pick their favorite hadn't even occurred to me :sweat: Thing is, the ones who want to help with judging probably wouldn't be able to actually participate unless there's some sort of rotation worked out. I wanna iron out all the kinks before I actually start the contest.

What if you had the winners from the previous two rounds act as judges. That way you don't always have the same person win, and it's also sort of one of the prizes.

Though, actually, that might not be a great idea because then you have to constantly depend on people who you don't necessarily know and who may disappear immediately after winning.

Yeah, that would definitely be an issue. I think I'd like to have someone I know is going to constantly be on and not disappear. They'd also need to actually be interested in it so there's no issue of willingness. Maybe I can ask for one or two volunteers, heh

Oooh, thanks Knerd! I feel more encouraged now :D

Only thing I can't quite figure out yet is how I would go about actually getting the judges. Should I just put a sort of recruitment thread up somewhere for volunteers? And I think I'd like to have new volunteers every week, that way nobody gets sick of reading and discussing entries. Maybe I should post it somewhere on the thread once I get it worked out *ponders*

I think the new volunteers each week is a good idea. I would volunteer some weeks but not all weeks.

I'm already working on typing out the introduction and how everything's going to work, hopefully we get participants ^_^ Also, my list of themes keeps growing, yay! Most are just single word themes for now, but hopefully it'll tide us over for a whiiiiile~

I've been playing a lot of tetris and AotFG to save gold on my mule so the prizes can be taken care of.

[Edit]

I need votes, my comrades!!

http://www.menewsha.com/forum/commun...st-titles.html