Prose prompts
Could we get some more frequent contest prose prompts, not limited by 30-day no win, from FanStory? There's been 2 in about the last 18 days.
The other few that were 30-day limited have had very low turnout, so I'm not sure why they are being so heavily pushed.
I get that there are more poets on the site than story writers, but the contests have been very unbalanced toward poetry recently.
nor84
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RE: Prose prompts
Julie, you might try sending a PM to Tom. He doesn't always catch what's in the forums. I'd like to see a few prompts that are not blind, because I can't enter my usual character in a blind contest as it will identify me.
RE: Prose prompts
I have to agree with Julie on this one. There are way too many Winless prompts and short poetry contests. No shade, but the winless have less entries, take longer to get five entries, and... let's just admit it, FanStory has become FanPoetry, really short poetry.
It is hard to properly review an endless stream of 5-7-5, 1-6-1, Haiku, Senryu, and 20 syllable poems, over and over again.
nor84
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RE: Prose prompts
I agree with her, it's just that I think Tom may not see this in the forums unless someone draws it to his attention.
RE: Prose prompts
yea, you need to actually message tom with prose contest requests...
you can always create a prose contest...
RE: Prose prompts
25 days now...
I just got back from vacation, so messaged Tom.
Sallyo
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RE: Prose prompts
It's easier to get reviews for poetry, I suppose. A lot of my chapters sit with a new release cirt for a few days before someone decides to read them.
I'd certainly like more prose contests. I spotted one I wanted to enter today but it was closing in 17 minutes and I couldn't make the required word count in that time.
RE: Prose prompts
I think chapters are a different case. People may be reluctant to jump into the middle of a story they haven't been following.
nor84
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RE: Prose prompts
Another problem with the prompts is that they are all "blind." That means you can't use a character you've been writing about, because it identifies you; therefore, you cannot enter a blind contest without risking disqualification. I wish the site would do away with blind contests. We didn't have them when I joined in 2006, and they are a pain in the neck.
Sallyo
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RE: Prose prompts
I know the reluctance to jump in at the middle of a story and when people do, they sometimes complain that they're confused, or else that so-and-so is not described. You can't summarise 20K in three lines.
One of my pet peeves is that the book balloon is so useless. There's little incentive for anyone to go back and read early chapters for 2 cents, or even 10. It would also be nice, from a novelist's POV, if we could put up ALL the chapters (even two at a time) then release the whole book. That way readers would have 4 days to read from the beginning. Still, that's not the way the site works.
