Winter Holiday 2024 Contest Support and Seasonal Story Discussion Thread

[Actingup]

OK taytay4eva* - just an update on story frequency - I stumbled across Satsumabook123 who (according to his Bio has been a Member Since 2 years has written 266 stories and has 1,169 followers and, as of time of posting, 5 [NEW] stories! The stories seem to be quite short and of a spread of Categories but not all to my taste, so it won't be 1,170 followers on my account.
So that is between 2.6 and 1.7 stories a week and doesn't seem to have done him any harm!
He doesn't appear, from his stories or comments, have a proof reader and doesn't seem to know that Word can be set to spellcheck English (United Kingdom) rather that (United States) as he states that it changes spellings!

So my Jury is out on the best frequency and content is probably King or Queen or President (according to gender and political system - but never Dictator)

* I have only just seen the clue that you are a Discworld reader and TP's advice on narrative causality and letting the characters decide on the story with the author just keeping up, have been influential on my works.

We can't all be Anthony Trollope in terms of output! I think that the quality of the reading experience is important too...

https://refinedrobot.com/writing-habits-anthony-trollope/

 

[AtlantisGuy]

Your experience is pretty much par for the course. My winning entry took a similar drop, then slowly rose back up.It's rated 4.87 right now, #71 on the Romance Top List.

Just finished it. That is an elegant story, beautifully told. I can see why it won!

 

[MelissaBaby]

Just finished it. That is an elegant story, beautifully told. I can see why it won!

Thank you, I appreciate that very much.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I'm thinking my Winter story may be suitable for Valentines. It's not set in Feb, but it is a romance.

I'll finish it and see if it fits the theme.

 

[Rustyoznail]

2025 competition dates are up.

Valentines starts Jan 10

 

[Wineandcheese]

I’ve been working on my Valentine’s story. I don’t want to miss this contest.

 

[a_horse_with_no_name]

But from another perspective, it would also help to hide from trolls and 1 bombers.

Another option, but perhaps heresy, and maybe having been debated to death already, I wouldn't know, is to make all entries anonymous, and to only allow registered accounts to vote. Anonymous helps insure that a story wins upon its own merit, and not due to one's popularity, and allowing only members to vote, well, that's self-explanatory.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Another option, but perhaps heresy, and maybe having been debated to death already, I wouldn't know, is to make all entries anonymous, and to only allow registered accounts to vote. Anonymous helps insure that a story wins upon its own merit, and not due to one's popularity, and allowing only members to vote, well, that's self-explanatory.

For most writers, the extra exposure that contest entries get is the main purpose of entering, not the hope that their story might win a prize. Everyone who enters gets some benefit. In an anonymous contest, only the three winners benefit. I doubt that more than a handful of writers would participate. I certainly would not.

 

[SimonDoom]

Another option, but perhaps heresy, and maybe having been debated to death already, I wouldn't know, is to make all entries anonymous, and to only allow registered accounts to vote. Anonymous helps insure that a story wins upon its own merit, and not due to one's popularity, and allowing only members to vote, well, that's self-explanatory.

I agree 100% with MelissaBaby. The incentive to enter the contest would, for most authors, be eliminated. With so many entries, the chances of winning are small. The prospect of getting extra exposure, however, is a big deal.

 

[Inkent]

I agree 100% with MelissaBaby. The incentive to enter the contest would, for most authors, be eliminated. With so many entries, the chances of winning are small. The prospect of getting extra exposure, however, is a big deal.

Wholeheartedly agree, I mainly write down in the dregs of LW, like a story in there is ever going get the scores it would need to win. But exposure...now that's something else.

 

[Voboy]

Another option, but perhaps heresy, and maybe having been debated to death already, I wouldn't know, is to make all entries anonymous, and to only allow registered accounts to vote. Anonymous helps insure that a story wins upon its own merit, and not due to one's popularity, and allowing only members to vote, well, that's self-explanatory.

Yeah, no offense, but those are both awful ideas.

I'm proud of my stories. I want my name on them. If contests stopped showing names, I'd stop entering. And my past performances in contests, I think, suggest that my stories are good enough to win them, and are almost always good enough to score in the top 10%. So, to the extent that contests draw good stories, this change would cause some of those good stories to migrate away from contests: not a desired result, I assume.

The foibles of anonymous voting, too, have been discussed many times. The usual counter is that it would vastly reduce overall voting. I have a hard time thinking that's desirable, either.

 

[Wineandcheese]

I don’t consider myself a good enough author (yet) to win, but I’ve benefitted immensely from the exposure. Winning a contest is one of those things that I’d love, but have no real expectations of achieving any time soon.

So, yeah, I want my name on it.

 

[SimonDoom]

Another option, but perhaps heresy, and maybe having been debated to death already, I wouldn't know, is to make all entries anonymous, and to only allow registered accounts to vote. Anonymous helps insure that a story wins upon its own merit, and not due to one's popularity, and allowing only members to vote, well, that's self-explanatory.

Another consideration weighing against this proposal is that it disserves the readers. Readers WANT to know who wrote the story so they can seek out more of that author's stories if they like them.

A good rule of thumb, whenever a change is proposed to the way the site does things, is to consider, first, whether it is in the interest of the readers, who are much more important to the site than the authors. If the answer is no, then it won't fly.

 

[MelissaBaby]

The foibles of anonymous voting, too, have been discussed many times. The usual counter is that it would vastly reduce overall voting. I have a hard time thinking that's desirable, either.

Also, there are many authors who promote their stories on their own sites, on Twitter, Bluesky, Reddit, etc. Readers who come here because they saw a link to my story elsewhere may very well read and vote on other stories as well. It's not an election, where you have to make one choice. They may become regular readers as well. A win-win for everyone, in my opinion.

 

[Actingup]

Another consideration weighing against this proposal is that it disserves the readers. Readers WANT to know who wrote the story so they can seek out more of that author's stories if they like them.

A good rule of thumb, whenever a change is proposed to the way the site does things, is to consider, first, whether it is in the interest of the readers, who are much more important to the site than the authors. If the answer is no, then it won't fly.

it might be a fun little challenge - invite readers to take part in a blind reading challenge where the authors are anonymous, so we’re not all reading our favourites. After the reader has voted, they find out the author’s name. But no anonymous voting or comments - the authors get to see everything…

Not possible in the current system I know!

 

[SimonDoom]

it might be a fun little challenge - invite readers to take part in a blind reading challenge where the authors are anonymous, so we’re not all reading our favourites. After the reader has voted, they find out the author’s name. But no anonymous voting or comments - the authors get to see everything…

Not possible in the current system I know!

It would be an interesting experiment.