Suggestion/ Idea
I was wondering if anyone else would prefer it if the contest listing was divided into fiction contests and poetry contests?
Some of us write both, but most of us write one or the other.
I myself am a writer but not a poet, and when I go looking for a contest to inspire me, my inspiration tends to fizzle out when I have to scroll through six or eight poetry contest listings to get to one fiction contest listing. I don't know why this should happen, but it does.
Perhaps the poets among us feel the same way, and don't want to see the fiction contest listings. I don't know.
Can anyone relate? Is there a way to separate fiction contest listings from poetry contest listings? Personally, I only want to see listings for contests that I might actually enter.
RE: Suggestion/ Idea
I don't have an opinion one way or the other on that, but I wish there were more prose prompts. I'm probably driving people crazy because I've been sponsoring them a lot lately, but it's because there are so few, compared to the poetry prompts.
RE: Suggestion/ Idea
I agree with both of you. I've always thought that poetry should be listed separately because it doesn't interest me. There should be more prose listings, and contests should never be written to include fiction, nonfiction, and/or poetry. Those are "write about anything" contests, and they are not an even playing field.
RE: Suggestion/ Idea
Agreed, Julie. I try to make as many interesting story prompts as I can, but it costs money to create contests, and besides, my contest ideas rarely inspire me personally (it's like trying to tickle yourself; it doesn't work). Although other members have written some great stories for contests I've created.
I do wish, additionally, that when somebody does create an interesting writing contest, they wouldn't specify the word count. Or if they do, that they wouldn't make it 500 words or less. 2000 words or less is a more reasonable limit, and allows for writers who need more words to fully develop their story ideas. Fanstory already has a maximum suggested length, and I believe it's 3000 words. I wish more contests would just go with that maximum instead of arbitrarily creating a more restrictive one. I hate rules, actually. :D
RE: Suggestion/ Idea
Message edited:
They are two different animals. Flash has a purpose and short story has a different purpose. If we had a variety to choose from, it could satisfy both. However, I've noticed on FS, it's hard to get people to read anything more than 1000 words without promoting the heck out of it, and therefore few reviews and less participation in voting. All I want is an endless variety of interesting prompts to always have available.
