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Congratulations to Sharpspark and Winston, and to all the other finalists too. My retrospective will follow this evening or tomorrow.
It has been a nice competition as usual. Thank you all.
It has been a nice competition as usual. Thank you all.
... so that happened. Congrats to the medalists, and all participants!
Please consider a policy limiting entries to 1-3 per author in the future, though. I think this round, shall we say, exposed certain vulnerabilities in the system! All in good fun this time, I think, but, er, yeah.
Please consider a policy limiting entries to 1-3 per author in the future, though. I think this round, shall we say, exposed certain vulnerabilities in the system! All in good fun this time, I think, but, er, yeah.
>>Ranmilia
Yeah. I'm on the fence about recommending a policy change, but... yeah. That's a lotta entries!
On the other hoof, this helps tie together the phenomenon of twist endings that I kept seeing in the stories I read. Sharp Spark wrote some fabulous 2/3rds of stories that stumbled in their third acts. I could see many of them cleaning up nicely, though.
But how does one find sufficient time to write that many stories in a 24-hour period?!
Yeah. I'm on the fence about recommending a policy change, but... yeah. That's a lotta entries!
On the other hoof, this helps tie together the phenomenon of twist endings that I kept seeing in the stories I read. Sharp Spark wrote some fabulous 2/3rds of stories that stumbled in their third acts. I could see many of them cleaning up nicely, though.
But how does one find sufficient time to write that many stories in a 24-hour period?!
Congratulations to all the participants, and to the finalists: Sharpspark, Orbiting_kettle and Winston. I'll be positing my retrospective sometime in the next day or two; though I crashed and burned a bit this time, I learned quite a bit from this round and hope to share some thoughts.
See you all on the next round!
See you all on the next round!
>>Ranmilia
>>CoffeeMinion
More than half those entries made the finals, meaning almost a third of all finalists were written by the same person. Considering how contentious can be (but especially in the prelims), that's more than a little discouraging.
>>CoffeeMinion
More than half those entries made the finals, meaning almost a third of all finalists were written by the same person. Considering how contentious can be (but especially in the prelims), that's more than a little discouraging.
>>Posh
Together, Haze and I wrote 25 fics, which increased the size of the finals by 13. We then took 12 spots. So if we hadn't entered this round, there would be one less person in finals. Just saying.
Also, yes, we both wrote every fic within 24 hours. I was thinking of potential ideas for a week beforehand, but didn't start any stories until the day of. It took the full day but less total time than I thought, though I was really drained by the end. I don't plan on repeating this stunt, as I will be returning to my pony retirement.
Together, Haze and I wrote 25 fics, which increased the size of the finals by 13. We then took 12 spots. So if we hadn't entered this round, there would be one less person in finals. Just saying.
Also, yes, we both wrote every fic within 24 hours. I was thinking of potential ideas for a week beforehand, but didn't start any stories until the day of. It took the full day but less total time than I thought, though I was really drained by the end. I don't plan on repeating this stunt, as I will be returning to my pony retirement.
>>sharpspark
You know what, I think I'm just going to dispense with any saltiness and applaud the insanity here. I mean, holy crap, that's a lot of stories!
I think if everyone did this every time, it would get pretty hard for average folks to join in and not get lost in the avalanche. But it's certainly memorable having it happen once or twice!
You know what, I think I'm just going to dispense with any saltiness and applaud the insanity here. I mean, holy crap, that's a lot of stories!
I think if everyone did this every time, it would get pretty hard for average folks to join in and not get lost in the avalanche. But it's certainly memorable having it happen once or twice!
>>Ranmilia
>>Posh
>>sharpspark
>>CoffeeMinion
We've had previous rounds where people put in a lot of entries. I've put 6 entries in back in the day with Best Laid Plans, and I put 4 entries into Famous Last Words. I think Pascoite put in 8 entries once, and I seem to recall one other random round where someone went into the double digits.
And heck, this round, Orbiting_Kettle, myself, and Monokeras each wrote two stories and got them both into the finals.
My only real concern is if people just try to vomit out as many words as possible, rather than just having a lot of story ideas. If people have a lot of ideas, I'm cool with them writing them all.
>>Posh
>>sharpspark
>>CoffeeMinion
We've had previous rounds where people put in a lot of entries. I've put 6 entries in back in the day with Best Laid Plans, and I put 4 entries into Famous Last Words. I think Pascoite put in 8 entries once, and I seem to recall one other random round where someone went into the double digits.
And heck, this round, Orbiting_Kettle, myself, and Monokeras each wrote two stories and got them both into the finals.
My only real concern is if people just try to vomit out as many words as possible, rather than just having a lot of story ideas. If people have a lot of ideas, I'm cool with them writing them all.
>>sharpspark
>>TitaniumDragon
I sound saltier than I actually am, and I apologize for that. I AM impressed that sharpspark put together so many excellent entries in so short an amount of time, and I certainly don't want to stop people from submitting multiple entries.
I guess I just worry about the playing field being skewed toward those who DO enter pony-plethoras.
>>TitaniumDragon
I sound saltier than I actually am, and I apologize for that. I AM impressed that sharpspark put together so many excellent entries in so short an amount of time, and I certainly don't want to stop people from submitting multiple entries.
I guess I just worry about the playing field being skewed toward those who DO enter pony-plethoras.
>>Posh
It's probably kinda the nature of the beast, though; we can put a boundary on the amount of time for the Writeoff itself but there's not necessarily equality in the amount of time a given person might spend writing during a given Writeoff. I mean, I assume it'd take most of a 24 hour period to write 10+ even remotely presentable stories, though that could always vary...
You and me should totally bro out and write like 10 each next time, though.
It's probably kinda the nature of the beast, though; we can put a boundary on the amount of time for the Writeoff itself but there's not necessarily equality in the amount of time a given person might spend writing during a given Writeoff. I mean, I assume it'd take most of a 24 hour period to write 10+ even remotely presentable stories, though that could always vary...
You and me should totally bro out and write like 10 each next time, though.
>>CoffeeMinion Man, I can barely throw together one passable entry in twenty-four hours. You really think I can get ten done? :P
>>sharpspark
>>CoffeeMinion
>>Posh
>>TitaniumDragon
I do have an issue with this, but it's part of a larger problem I've had with the Writeoffs for a while—one that I know for a fact that several other participants (and former participants) share with me, and one I may actually have a potential solution for.
Currently I'm on Drax's couch prior to BronyCon. I will post about this on Fimfiction's The Writeoff Association forum once I am alone in my hotel suite Thursday evening and not distracted as buck by medication and other people. I think it will be useful, but either way it is a discussion that needs to be had.
>>CoffeeMinion
>>Posh
>>TitaniumDragon
I do have an issue with this, but it's part of a larger problem I've had with the Writeoffs for a while—one that I know for a fact that several other participants (and former participants) share with me, and one I may actually have a potential solution for.
Currently I'm on Drax's couch prior to BronyCon. I will post about this on Fimfiction's The Writeoff Association forum once I am alone in my hotel suite Thursday evening and not distracted as buck by medication and other people. I think it will be useful, but either way it is a discussion that needs to be had.
>>Trick_Question
Please post it here too, or at least a link! I don't go to FIMFiction or have an account there, which is a little unfortunate when that's apparently the venue used for official discussions. The same goes for what Roger said he would post about formats.
Please post it here too, or at least a link! I don't go to FIMFiction or have an account there, which is a little unfortunate when that's apparently the venue used for official discussions. The same goes for what Roger said he would post about formats.
Hail to the medalists!
A few words about my two usual pieces of crap:
Cheerilee’s Ordinary Evening
>>sharpspark
>>Posh
>>Haze
>>Trick_Question
>>Ranmilia
>>Fenton
>>CoffeeMinion
>>AndrewRogue
>>TitaniumDragon
I wanted to depicted a depressed, sex-deprived Cheerilee, but at the same time had the idea that sometimes a small fillip or flick can pull someone from the depths of depression up to the heights of joy. Like, a naive token of love from a pupil. Maybe I went a bit over the top! :)
Explorers We
>>sharpspark
>>AndrewRogue
>>Fenton
>>Posh
>>Trick_Question
>>TheCyanRecluse
>>Ranmilia
>>TitaniumDragon
This is originally one of Philip K. Dick’s short stories, I borrowed the title even though the actual story is far to be the same. I said I wouldn’t write pony fic anymore, so my goal here was to wedge an OF into a pony round. Got this idea: “what if pony aliens visited Earth, someone discovered this and the cartoon was just a way to get people used to that idea before letting the cat out of the bag”? However, yeah, the end was too obscure. When I wrote Postman the clues were singled out for being too “on the nose”, so here I took the opposite approach, but no one got that Bergeron was suggesting a cartoon show. Except Trick (and maybe Hat). I agree the smile was a bit enigmatic, but again, any sort of explicit clue might’ve been frowned upon. Also, since Cass always told me I should not rely on a final twist, I tried to pull off a story that would make sense even if the twist was too obfuscated to get.
‘Torch’ is normal British for flashlight, and I write in Brit English (even if I don’t speak with a Brit accent). ‘Pirogue’ would be the French term for dugout, but pirogue also exists in English so, to me, it’s natural a native French speaker like Bergeron uses it, since it corresponds to a local reality. ‘Scree’ is a more obscure term but is well adapted to a hilly land like this part of Mali, and if you Google “these two’s” you’ll find zillions of quotes where this is used as possessive, even in books, so I legit assumed it was grammatical.
I might adapt this to release it on FiM, though. The effort is minimal. Thanks to Ran for picking up all the oddities I left.
Thanks to all those who commented on my stories, and thanks to those who voted them so high they both went into the finals. I think it was probably underserved, but 💚
A few words about my two usual pieces of crap:
Cheerilee’s Ordinary Evening
>>sharpspark
>>Posh
>>Haze
>>Trick_Question
>>Ranmilia
>>Fenton
>>CoffeeMinion
>>AndrewRogue
>>TitaniumDragon
I wanted to depicted a depressed, sex-deprived Cheerilee, but at the same time had the idea that sometimes a small fillip or flick can pull someone from the depths of depression up to the heights of joy. Like, a naive token of love from a pupil. Maybe I went a bit over the top! :)
Explorers We
>>sharpspark
>>AndrewRogue
>>Fenton
>>Posh
>>Trick_Question
>>TheCyanRecluse
>>Ranmilia
>>TitaniumDragon
This is originally one of Philip K. Dick’s short stories, I borrowed the title even though the actual story is far to be the same. I said I wouldn’t write pony fic anymore, so my goal here was to wedge an OF into a pony round. Got this idea: “what if pony aliens visited Earth, someone discovered this and the cartoon was just a way to get people used to that idea before letting the cat out of the bag”? However, yeah, the end was too obscure. When I wrote Postman the clues were singled out for being too “on the nose”, so here I took the opposite approach, but no one got that Bergeron was suggesting a cartoon show. Except Trick (and maybe Hat). I agree the smile was a bit enigmatic, but again, any sort of explicit clue might’ve been frowned upon. Also, since Cass always told me I should not rely on a final twist, I tried to pull off a story that would make sense even if the twist was too obfuscated to get.
‘Torch’ is normal British for flashlight, and I write in Brit English (even if I don’t speak with a Brit accent). ‘Pirogue’ would be the French term for dugout, but pirogue also exists in English so, to me, it’s natural a native French speaker like Bergeron uses it, since it corresponds to a local reality. ‘Scree’ is a more obscure term but is well adapted to a hilly land like this part of Mali, and if you Google “these two’s” you’ll find zillions of quotes where this is used as possessive, even in books, so I legit assumed it was grammatical.
I might adapt this to release it on FiM, though. The effort is minimal. Thanks to Ran for picking up all the oddities I left.
Thanks to all those who commented on my stories, and thanks to those who voted them so high they both went into the finals. I think it was probably underserved, but 💚
>>Monokeras
Let me explain something important to you.
When you say things like this, it isn't just self-deprecating. It insults everypony who scored below you (which is most of the authors in this competition), and it insults everypony who enjoyed your stories and ranked them well (which is also a lot of us). It's extremely rude, and you do it every competition. Please stop doing it.
We all know you have personal issues that prevent you from seeing the good in what you write. We get it already. Talking smack about what you write serves no purpose other than making the rest of us feel terrible, so if you can't learn that we actually enjoy what you have to write, then please keep it to yourself.
If you're not sure whether what you're saying is appropriate, think about whether or not you would say the same thing to another author in the competition. If you wouldn't, then don't say it to yourself where we can see it.
Thanks.
A few words about my two usual pieces of crap:
Let me explain something important to you.
When you say things like this, it isn't just self-deprecating. It insults everypony who scored below you (which is most of the authors in this competition), and it insults everypony who enjoyed your stories and ranked them well (which is also a lot of us). It's extremely rude, and you do it every competition. Please stop doing it.
We all know you have personal issues that prevent you from seeing the good in what you write. We get it already. Talking smack about what you write serves no purpose other than making the rest of us feel terrible, so if you can't learn that we actually enjoy what you have to write, then please keep it to yourself.
If you're not sure whether what you're saying is appropriate, think about whether or not you would say the same thing to another author in the competition. If you wouldn't, then don't say it to yourself where we can see it.
Thanks.
>>Trick_Question
All of this.
>>Monokeras
Instead of denying yourself and your talents, deny the part of you that makes you abuse yourself. That part may deserve it; you don’t.
All of this.
>>Monokeras
Instead of denying yourself and your talents, deny the part of you that makes you abuse yourself. That part may deserve it; you don’t.