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The D&D 800 Words or Less Writing Challenge
The Green Eyed Monster
i blame hip hopRegistered User regular
i blame hip hopRegistered User regular
So I propose thusly:
(1) We will create a topic, then
(2) Contestants (this is any member here) will write 800 words or less on that topic, then
(3) The people will pick a winner.
It's little more than a writing exercise, that I encourage everyone to partake in. 800 words isn't that much, the topics should be easy to write on, and overall the name of the game should be fun and practicing writing.
So who will choose the topics, and what will our deadlines be? I say we have one submission deadline a month, and one voting deadline a month. So there will be a monthly winner, basically, of the D&D 800 Words or Less Writing Challenge. As for who will choose the topics, that will be me, because I was brilliant enough to come up with this fucking thread in the first place. You are more than welcome to suggest ideas to me via inbox or via public threads or chat or wherever it is you want to lobby ideas to me at, but I will always, 100% of the time, get the final say on what the topic is, because I was the one brilliant enough to come up with this thread. Sorry it wasn't you. Voting for winners will be done in some popular fashion, to be determined later.
SO TO BEGIN (herein lie the original rules):
I will put you all under deadline -- first month's submissions are due April 20th, (sort of) the middle of the month, and voting on the winners is due by May 1st (when you will get a new topic, next month submissions due May 15th, to get back to the middle, voting June 1st, when you get a new topic, etc.), 800 words or less.
YOUR TOPIC:
Eulogize the modship of The Cat.
Whatever you post in this thread inside a quote as "MY SUBMISSION" will be taken as your final submission. No revisions, 800 words or less (801 words I swear to god you are DQ'd). All other chatter is very welcome, and encouraged. Let us know you're planning to participate, make commentary on other people's submissions, tell me my topic choices are terrible, etc. Please participate, I think this can be really fun.
Voting TBD later, all submissions due by April 20th. If this is too much of a mess, or the mods would prefer a different topic, let me know, but I'm trusting we can all keep this clean, fun, professional, above the board, and have a grand ol' time with it. Enjoy yourselves, D&D.
EXAMPLE:
(1) We will create a topic, then
(2) Contestants (this is any member here) will write 800 words or less on that topic, then
(3) The people will pick a winner.
It's little more than a writing exercise, that I encourage everyone to partake in. 800 words isn't that much, the topics should be easy to write on, and overall the name of the game should be fun and practicing writing.
So who will choose the topics, and what will our deadlines be? I say we have one submission deadline a month, and one voting deadline a month. So there will be a monthly winner, basically, of the D&D 800 Words or Less Writing Challenge. As for who will choose the topics, that will be me, because I was brilliant enough to come up with this fucking thread in the first place. You are more than welcome to suggest ideas to me via inbox or via public threads or chat or wherever it is you want to lobby ideas to me at, but I will always, 100% of the time, get the final say on what the topic is, because I was the one brilliant enough to come up with this thread. Sorry it wasn't you. Voting for winners will be done in some popular fashion, to be determined later.
SO TO BEGIN (herein lie the original rules):
I will put you all under deadline -- first month's submissions are due April 20th, (sort of) the middle of the month, and voting on the winners is due by May 1st (when you will get a new topic, next month submissions due May 15th, to get back to the middle, voting June 1st, when you get a new topic, etc.), 800 words or less.
YOUR TOPIC:
Eulogize the modship of The Cat.
Whatever you post in this thread inside a quote as "MY SUBMISSION" will be taken as your final submission. No revisions, 800 words or less (801 words I swear to god you are DQ'd). All other chatter is very welcome, and encouraged. Let us know you're planning to participate, make commentary on other people's submissions, tell me my topic choices are terrible, etc. Please participate, I think this can be really fun.
Voting TBD later, all submissions due by April 20th. If this is too much of a mess, or the mods would prefer a different topic, let me know, but I'm trusting we can all keep this clean, fun, professional, above the board, and have a grand ol' time with it. Enjoy yourselves, D&D.
EXAMPLE:
MY SUBMISSION wrote:Man, thank god that shit's over.
The Green Eyed Monster on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
What you post here as your entry is your final entry.
So talk about the topic all you want, but when you're ready to make your entry into the Challenge, don't waffle. Post that shit up and move on.
The passing of The Cat's modship as the end of an era.
The passing of The Cat's modship as a signal of greater malaise.
The passing of The Cat's modship as the glorious birth of a new season (but be nice, kiddies, be tasteful).
A simple remembrance of what The Cat did here and what she meant (which is all an awful lot more than one could fit in 800 words).
I think more or less everyone who posts here on a regular basis has the tools to hand in something entertaining and readable, so let's do this! Let's have some fun!
Talking about a mod? Come on, this forum is called Debate and Discourse, why not a topic about US politics, or international relations, or a contentious social issue, or a scientific principal, or a technological development. Or just a movie we've all seen. Talking about The Cat seems like the worst topic possible.
I've always wanted to give a eulogy. It's like the whole Best Man thing. I don't really like weddings, but I want to be a Best Man just so I can give a speech.
If it's not your topic, it's not your topic. Part of my interest in it is just forcing yourself to write about something, whether or not it's the topic closest to your heart or not. It's a writing exercise. It's a challenge. If you don't like this one, I'll put another up next month.
... and then I come to the situation where I don't really have anything at the moment, so I'd basically be putting in the effort of a creative writing prompt, on top of the effort of an investigative journalism prompt, on top of the effort of the fact it's for something framed as a 'challenge.'
I don't think it's a poor topic, but my not participating is entirely based on the topic. I think it's a neat idea for a recurring forum thang, but at least for this month's I myself am going to sit out.
Maybe people who are working on participating, or will participate at a later date, should give a bit of a shout-out? If the surge of interest was larger, you might be able to get a bit of a bandwagon effect going at least. If everyone got in on it, I being Oboro would probably end up contradicting my post here and getting in on it too anyway. @_@
EDIT: I think, the succinct take on what I just said, is that this is an exceedingly difficult challenge to start off with.
I think 800 words is short, I think it's doable, it just takes the motivation and setting an afternoon aside to get it done. I want to write more this summer, I feel like doing this is doing curls or something, going for a short jog. If you really want to write, you have to be able to just crank something out.
So anyway I'm going to submit something even if no one else does. I have a target audience, I have a deadline, I have a topic -- it's practice, and it's fun for me.
Just because 800 words is the limit doesn't mean you have to hit it, either. If you want to just submit something that is 50 words or so that you like, please do. I just wanted to put an upper cap on it so people had some boundaries to help guide their writing.
unless I completely forget I'll write something by the end of the week. I like the idea.
He's just trying to impress her. A real topic would indeed be sweet.
I'd prefer, though, if the next topic went up soon after submissions closed rather than when voting closed, to give a bigger window of time to do it. I assume the reason you set up the timing the way you did was to avoid mixing of one month's voting with the next month's submissions... maybe announce the topic but not accept submissions until voting is done?
Ouch.
Instead, cel, we should all write essays on whether or not video game characters feel real pain, if digital pain is a real thing felt by digital people.
I know what you're thinking: "of course they do; this will be terribly one-sided."
But really I think it would be interesting anyway.
It wasn't a big deal. I would have preferred to have had it completely correct.