Future of MWCs ???

[gumOnShoe]

[ITT August Comp/Need for New organizer/Your Opinions on MWCs/Need for Judges/General Brainstorming]

Due to various things, I'll be running low on precious precious time, so you'll see postings from me a lot less even in regards to MWCs.

This is a place where I want everyone whose participated or thought of doing so to throw in some input. So, if you have any opinions on the way its been going that's not "bitching" feel free to post it here, especially if you want to see it continue.

So, here's the deal. I want these to keep running, but I'll need a little more help from the masses or from judges of the past.

If anyone would like to organize the August competition, they should pm me and might as well start brainstorming ideas.

If anyone would like to judge the August competition, they should also pm me.

It would be cool to have another competition open this weekend, but I won't have anytime to dedicate to organizing until probably this weekend. So if someone who I know is trustworthy would like to step forward, that would be awesome. Totally understand if you don't want to though.

It is entirely likely that the Sept. contest will be a poetry contest. I'm working out the details of that now with another user, so if you have any interest in poetry or consider yourself a good judge you should post here or pm me with your credentials and whatnot.

[Lost-Chances]

At 8/4/09 09:21 PM, Twilight wrote: the judges are fair.

Are they now?

[TheLameSauce]

i like the contests. in a way, they're the reason i keep coming here.

[idiot-buster]

l would really like to get into this thing this month, i would love to judge this months and next month since it was my idea for the poetry. I love to write it and have become very good at most types of poety. So that should be alot of fun, and so should this months.

[Lost-Chances]

At 8/4/09 09:26 PM, Twilight wrote:

At 8/4/09 09:25 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 8/4/09 09:21 PM, Twilight wrote: the judges are fair.

Are they now?

To me they are.

"| [03/10] |
Poorly written, bad story, minimal island and I don't like you."

Fair.

I've always known that BBS politics have lead to downgrading of stories by me and ignoring any half-decent topics by me, but I guess this was really the final confirmation. Honestly, I don't care about being voted low or high, or losing or winning. Really, but if you can't judge my stories without being bias due to personal opinion on me, why should I waste my time?

[Maverick-Alex]

Never done it, might give it a try this time.

[RapeMuffin]

I, for one, love the MWCs and will continuing to submit my writings on the monthly.

As for judging, I will volunteer to help with the August contest. It can be a bummer to be removed from a chance at placement/honorable mention, but if the alternative is to not have a contest this month, I will definitely be a judge.

In terms of brainstorming a topic, I will get on that right away. We've already drawn inspiration from flash, photgraphs and audio - why not try and use the new Art Portal? Or even a thread in the BBS? Just throwing stuff out there.

We could even do something vague, like the 'Island theme' contest - just set basic parameters (a story about dinosaurs....go!) and let people write within those wide guidelines again.

[RapeMuffin]

At 8/4/09 09:30 PM, Lost-Chances wrote: "| [03/10] |
Poorly written, bad story, minimal island and I don't like you."

Wait - Fyndir released his comments? Where are they?

[Lost-Chances]

At 8/4/09 09:34 PM, Fyndir wrote: Your story was severely downgraded because your first and only mention of an Island was in the last couple of paragraphs,

Sorry, stupid me, I should of made it blatantly clear Ys was an ISLAND.

the confusing geography of them refueling in Dover when travelling to France,

Guess where a major port from England to France is in one word.

with no mention of WHY they were coming from England,

I should of breached the word limit with mention why.

the generic storyline also lost you some points

A squad raiding some tomb is pretty generic. Just me a while so I can write some war-stories and fan-fics.

and the poor dialogue lost you even more.

Oh, it wasn't just bad, it was poor.

I'd love to get more involved with the MWCs, even if I'm not actually judging them. I'm still slowly working on my own thing at the moment, and I have a bit of a silly fear that's saying that might distract me from what I want to write. Due to this, I'm not entirely up for judging the new contest I'm afraid. I enjoy reading through the contest entries every month, and as much I want to see writing becoming bigger on Newgrounds, I can't honestly dedicate myself on that part right now. Previous judges are probably far better candidates for this than me, so I would say contact them directly, if you haven't already of course.

I've said before that we're still trying to get the ball rolling on these things, and that's alright. I'm not a perfect writer at all, and really not many people here are if we're being honest. With that in mind, these contest might work brilliantly for someone who wants to develop themselves creatively, or more strictly, build on their technique, etc.

I might PM you with some ideas when I'm thinking a little more properly on this, but keep in mind that I do have one or two ideas about the next contest. With any luck, I'll get them to you tomorrow, so I don't hold up the next contest. I'm not sure though, my ideas need fine-tuning a little bit if they're going to be used for real. Other users have some good ideas too, and you know where to look for that. I'll support whoever ends up doing it, and it would help if there were some mod support as there has been in the previous competitions. It's not something that needs to be done quickly, but it feels more... standardised, and possibly worth keeping more of an eye on if they seem to be recognised more officially. I don't know. I sanyone alright for just watching over stuff, if you think it's a pressing issue?

A poetry contest would be interesting I think, though more (hopefully non-creatively-restrictive) rules would probably need to be worked out. I'd like to see variations between modern and traditional styles of poetry (which we will probably see inevitably), but it would be cool to see people play around with it. It's the first time poetry would be used as a main theme overall, if I get this correctly, so it might be slightly experimental. That's alright though, because it might pave the way for greater poetry contests. Hell, with absolutely no offense to you or anyone else closely involved with the MWCs, this is probably the backstage thing about them at the moment.We can play around... so to speak.

Anyway, you might see a PM from me soon, but I'm a little stuck. Anyway, I'm here if you need anyone for future contests. I take things to the serious extreme.

[Lost-Chances]

At 8/4/09 09:49 PM, Fyndir wrote:

At 8/4/09 09:41 PM, Lost-Chances wrote: Sorry, stupid me, I should of made it blatantly clear Ys was an ISLAND.

"Ys, also spelled Is or Ker-Is in Breton, and Ker-Ys in French (ker means city in Breton), is a mythical city that was built on the coast of Brittany and later swallowed by the ocean. Most versions of the legend place the city in the Douarnenez Bay."

No, it wasn't an island.

If you're going to write about something which exists outside of your story then stick to the major details of it.

It's like someone writing about Luxembourg and claiming it's an island, it's not.

"In others, Ys was founded more than 2000 years before Gradlon's reign in a then-dry location off the current coast of the Bay of Douarnenez, but the Breton coast had slowly given way to the sea so that Ys was under it at each high tide when Gradlon's reign began."

What?

[Lost-Chances]

At 8/4/09 09:53 PM, Fyndir wrote:

At 8/4/09 09:49 PM, Lost-Chances wrote: What?

So, your bizarre and confusing claim here is that a city which was built on the coast is now an island?

It was built on the coast, not on 'a tract of land completely surrounded by water, and not large enough to be called a continent', you are wrong, you failed at writing a good story set on an island, get over it.

So Wikipedia is now lying? "off the current coast of the Bay of Douarnenez" isn't an island but a magical city that is connected by invisible land.

[gumOnShoe]

L-C, if a city is built on a coast and the ocean starts to rise in level or the land starts to recede that doesn't make the city on an Island. Even the bit you quoted made it sound like the city merely sunk as beach level rose up above it. Not that I had any real involvement with that contest, but it seems, to put it nicer, you missinterpreted the articles you read.

I'm keeping note of who has volunteered and whatnot.

[Tri-Nitro-Toluene]

'Sup?

I can probably help with the organising to an extent possibly as a judge on occasions as well.

[Podburrys]

I'm happy to volunteer to judge August. Poetry is a wonderful expression that allows so much creativity, and with my experience as a Professional Writing and Editing student, I can help. I'm a decent critique, to which some may agree.

I keep sounding more and more pompus and I don't know why :'O

[TacticalShoe]

I wouldn't have any interest in judging due to personal reasons, but I'm always up for brainstorming contest ideas.

[Lost-Chances]

At 8/4/09 10:00 PM, Fyndir wrote: In your story you said a tiny part of it was sticking up out of the sea, and they then abseil down into the city, that does not qualify as an island because the land is under the sea.

So you're saying that I'm trying to say the surface of a tunnel was an island?

In the legend, at the time the city existed, it was on the edge of the coast, and was not an island.

Apparently not according to Wikipedia.

What you're doing right now is scrabbling around and trying to justify your poorly written story, because you're desperate to prove that the judging it unfair, since in your head you're some grand victim and not simply a shitty writer.

And what you're attempting to do is justify that my story wasn't just bad, but absolutely poor. A diabolical mess that shouldn't of even been created. That there was nothing good at all in it. The crazy thing about everything you've managed to point out is that I've run it by at least five people, very likely more, and not one mentioned problems with speech, problems with geography, problems with a generic story-line and problems with the logic of coming from England as opposed to France. Not one. Generally, it was well received with the people that read it.

So, the chances that someone comes along and hates the living hell out of it and "magically" finds all these flaws is so minuscule it's not even worth talking about.

[Peaceblossom]

I'm absolutely loving the contests. I've only participated in one, but at least reading the entries has kept me reading and analyzing... I'm loving every second of it. Furthermore, I'd like to see these continue because as I tell my friends and coworkers about them, they seem to want to participate.

I'm also going to go ahead and say that a poetry contest (with prizes at least) sounds like a poorly thought out idea. Sure, poetry is fun, and I'm certain that there are excellent poets on Newgrounds. My concern is that there will be pieces that have deep thought and meaning, and then there will be "deep" pieces that don't actually mean anything. My overall problem with a poetry contest would be the pieces that win... I think the winning pieces would be written more like catchy lyrics than poetically significant works. The main message I tried to convey with my June MWC submission is that everything should be justified with poetic significance, and a poetry contest would likely lack that significance in winning entries.

not really sure if any of that made sense. =/

Anyway, I'm excited to see what August has in store, and I'm excited to participate in the next contest... whenever that may be.

[Lost-Chances]

At 8/5/09 08:03 AM, Fyndir wrote: Yet it happened, possibly because I'm critical of entries to the contest, which is what I feel is my role as a judge.

Critical wouldn't be the word I'd use.

Your story, and your justification for why nothing in it is wrong, is inconsistent.

Wikipedia states that the city was built on the coast, and that the sea level rose, the only point at which is could potentially be considered an island is during the time when the tide was high AND the city was fully operational with the sea being kept out, but even then the level of the land was lower than the level of the sea, and it was the man-made walls keeping the sea out, therefore it would not be a true island.

"An artificial island is an island that has been constructed by humans rather than formed by natural means. They are created by expanding existing islets, construction on existing reefs, or amalgamating several natural islets into a bigger island."

A man-made island is still an island, surprisingly.

At the time your story was set there was no island there, because the gates of the city were open (as per the legend) and the entire area was under the sea, apart from the entrance to a corridor leading downwards.

Therefore it was an island in the same way that Rapture (from the game Bioshock) was an island, which is to say, not at all an island, in any way.

So what differs from Rapture's "island" and this "island"? Just out of interest.

As I said, get over yourself, I have no personal like or dislike for you, I simply found your story to be lacking on a number of levels.

P.S. Why would the pilot be speaking French if the expedition was coming from England, as you claimed earlier?

I figured it'd be blatantly obvious that they're not from one area of the world.

P.P.S. Why would the expedition be coming from England instead of France?

Any guesses where Carter may live?

P.P.P.S. Why do you remind me so much of DavidZX right now?

Oh cool, I like where this is going.

[JackPhantasm]

space

the past

war

we should do one of those three

[JackPhantasm]

rules: cannot be written in English

[Gagsy]

This thread is lol alright.

Politics in reading a story. Snort.

Also I would love for the MWCs to continue. I've only joined two but I always read about them and try to keep up with the entries. Really good stuff.

I would probably be interested in judging too. Better reading then writer.

[RapeMuffin]

At 8/5/09 08:29 AM, Gagsy wrote: I would probably be interested in judging too. Better reading then writer.

D:

Then who will write the "pedophilia entry" every month??

[pyromaniac616]

I would like tos see a writing competition with the theme of Crime and Mystery.

okay, that is mainly because I have already written one, but that doesn't matter.

Or a generally sci-fi one.

[Gagsy]

At 8/5/09 08:38 AM, RapeMuffin wrote:

Then who will write the "pedophilia entry" every month??

My work will continue!

[Podburrys]

At 8/5/09 08:39 AM, pyromaniac616 wrote: I would like tos see a writing competition with the theme of Crime and Mystery.

okay, that is mainly because I have already written one, but that doesn't matter.

Or a generally sci-fi one.

Actually, a mystery or twist story contest doesn't sound too bad...

[RapeMuffin]

At 8/5/09 08:40 AM, Gagsy wrote:

At 8/5/09 08:38 AM, RapeMuffin wrote:

Then who will write the "pedophilia entry" every month??

My work will continue!

Yipee!

[TacticalShoe]

I actually agree with Jack in regards to the one-word topics. If we had contests that centered on writing an entry based upon "greed" or "vanity," I would be more inclined to write because I have freedom to do whatever I want.

At 8/5/09 09:01 AM, TacticalShoe wrote: I actually agree with Jack in regards to the one-word topics. If we had contests that centered on writing an entry based upon "greed" or "vanity," I would be more inclined to write because I have freedom to do whatever I want.

I agree with that too. Although strictly one-worded themes might not be completely ideal all of the time, you can be a lot more creative if the theme is solid, yet open. You'll know that this in itself might actually be more of a challenge, as the writer needs to be thinking ahead and developing their ideas... but it would be a fun challenge that would hopefully inspire a variation of decent entries in the long run. Establishing an entirely new style isn't really compulsory for most short pieces of writing at this stage in my opinion, but the need to create something at least relatively fresh would come out in the winners, I think. Maybe I'm rambling.

This was actually my concern with the island theme at first. I was thinking that it was just too rigid to get any good entries out of. I was pleasantly surprised again, so that was cool. Anyway, being more general might be quite good I think.

You know, now that we bring this up, I'd like to see one of these upcoming poetry contest ideas with one-worded themes. Perhaps it might be more sensible to try them as an experiment first, I don't know. I do think that theme format is ideal for poetry though.

[TacticalShoe]

At 8/5/09 09:16 AM, Scarab wrote:

You know, now that we bring this up, I'd like to see one of these upcoming poetry contest ideas with one-worded themes. Perhaps it might be more sensible to try them as an experiment first, I don't know. I do think that theme format is ideal for poetry though.

Oh yes, of course. I remember when we actually ran poetry contests on here and one-word themes were used for each one, if memory serves.

I also would like to see more room for creativity in the contests, though, because I had some great ideas for the island contest, but when I found out that the island had to be an actual island, I quit.