Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Flash Challenge # 2 Has Ended

This is topic Flash Challenge # 2 Has Ended in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=001931

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

Thanks to Kathleen for allowing us to post announcements here on Hatrack.

Also, thanks to everyone who has participated.

Authors' stories have been posted. Go here to see them: http://www.munsil.net/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=55

To see the trigger for this challenge, go here:

http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/davidc/6c_files/documents/mysteries/uninvitedguests.htm

To vote (If I am not mistaken) in the poll, you need to be registered at Mike's site. Although, I think we'll accept "Guest" votes only if you provide your Hatrack username along with it. Guest votes will need to post a reply within the poll topic.

Before voting, be sure to read this topic on what the Flash rules were for this round, entitled (Flash Challenge #2 Is NOW CLOSED):

http://www.munsil.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=215

Lastly, for those who entered, please feel free to discuss your experiences with the Flash Challenge... good, bad, indifferent, had fun... and so on.

Thanks again.

-HSO

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

14 PEOPLE! I'm impressed.

Thanks, very much, HSO for taking the time to moderate this one. I know it took a lot of your time this weekend. Hopefully we'll get the automated system up and running and it won't be such a burden.

Now I have some quick reading commenting and voting to do, before we delete the flashes. I wish that weren't the case, that I had more time to critique, but since I want to keep this challenge as open as possible to everyone, and still protect the author's rights, we have no choice.

On the other hand, if everyone were willing to register at Liberty Hall, then we could leave the flashes up longer.

Any comments on this? Is it fair to ask everyone who wishes to participate to register at Liberty Hall?

Also, would anyone care to suggest a topic for the next flash?

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

You're welcome, Mike. I made it more difficult on myself than I needed to. Nevertheless, it was good fun and I enjoyed watching my email to see if an author was going to make the time limit. Two people emailed precisely on 1.5 hours. I think we had a few that fell into the 40 minute range, too.

I haven't read the stories yet, but I'll get to that soon enough.

Thinking: One thing we could do is post the stories off of the board, on a password protected web page. We'll give out a general password and login somehow...

This would make the site private, not require anyone to register, etc.

Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :

wow, 14 is GREAT!

What's the objection to having everyone register? It would take, what, 15 seconds?

I'd participate if the work wasn't being posted publicly.

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

Some people just don't like registering, probably from bad past experience.

I'll look into how hard it would be to set up a password-protected page on my website. Good idea, HSO, I hadn't thought about that. That way, anyone who wanted to just view and vote would have to be approved by me. It would be a little more difficult to upload as I would have to ftp it, but if I do it all at once, not a big deal. If I ask everyone to save to html instead of a .doc or .rtf file, then they can also format it to their heart's content and make it look pretty, and then we won't have to.

[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited April 11, 2005).]

Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :

I already registered, so I obviously don't have a problem with that. In fact, I prefer it. As an author I think the added security of a password would make me less nervous about losing publishing rights.

Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :

I think in order to count as having been published, it has to have been made available to a couple of thousand people (but I could be wrong on that).

The nice thing with Liberty Hall is that you can see how many times your post/story has been viewed. I don't think there were even 100 views for any of the individual stories last time, so there probably isn't an issue. Might be someting to look into though...

Either way, I'm not bothered by the current setup and it wouldn't really bother me to go to a password protected site.

So far this has been a lot of fun. Well, I should get back to reading stories.

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

I have a password-protected page now. HSO and I'll test it a bit and see how it works out. That's what I like about this web hosting service I use. Their service is outstanding. They're also the ones who installed that phpBB2 bulletin board for me. Email me if you want to know who they are.

mikemunsil

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

Tested. Seems to work fine for me. Let's hope this change encourages partcipation from those who are wary about having their stories posted on a public site.

Also, folks. If you have time, please drop in and comment / crit on some of the stories posted for the 2nd Flash Challenge. Just keep in mind that the authors had to write a story in an hour and a half... the stories won't be perfect. But they are all worth reading.

Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :

Mike, I don't know if it is just me but I've tried several times to post a reply to a topic on munsil.net and keep getting an "internal servor error." Are you aware of this?

Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :

I had the same problem, but when I changed the content of what I was writing it seemed to post fine. Not sure what was causing the problem. I tried posting a response for #13 and when that didn't work I tried creating a new topic and when that didn't work I tried posting in one of the general comments threads and when that didn't work I just changed what I was writing and it seemed to post fine.

Curious.

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

HSO had the exact same problem a few days ago. I don't understand why, but the 'fix' was the same. I'll look into it, but...

Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :

Mine was also on story #13. Is it just that topic?

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

I think it's a certain word or two that causes it. I narrowed mine down to an offending sentence and that's as far as I will willing to take it then (it's happened to me twice, and the second time I started searching for a sack of kittens).

So... no idea which word it was. Or perhaps it's a combination of words. No clue. Very curious, however. Next time it happens, send me an email with the post that failed. I'll start looking for common denominators.

Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :

I just tried few versions and the offending word seems to be "cat" (at least in mine). I replaced it with "feline" and it posted just fine. Talk about wierd.

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

I wonder if someone isn't messing with the web site? There is a list of words that cannot be used, but they don't include 'cat' or 'feline'. I'll check it out.

Later:
Nope, that's not it.

[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited April 12, 2005).]

Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :

Well, I'm not sure why it worked either, but I took the word 'cat' and replaced it with 'kitty' and it now posted fine. So somehow the word 'cat' is a trigger, Mike. But 'housecats' worked fine.

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

#5 won! Congratulations!

Posted by Keeley (Member # 2088) on :

Yea!!!

I liked that one.

Now... who wrote it?

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

I'll set up a "Reveal Thyself" topic!

Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :

I wrote #5.

There really were some great stories this week. I hope the challenges continue to draw new people each week.

I also like the idea of changing the voting structure a bit. There were several stories I wanted to vote for based on different criteria. I gave more weight to the ones that used the bonus elements and which seemed to best embody the concepts of flash.

I really want to know who wrote #2. As far as dark, creepy stories go, this one was my favourite.

I also really liked #9. It encorporated some of the bonus elements and created a full story arc. I absolutely loved the ending.

Thanks to Mike and HSO for everything they're doing to make this work. It's great.

Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :

congrats, Robyn Hood!

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

Congrats, Robyn_Hood!

This was really fun and I hope I'll be able to do it again. It really got the creative juices flowing.

BTW, I wrote #2, and thanks for your kind words, Robyn_Hood. As for those who were guessing, you're right....I didn't know the ending until I got there and unfortunately, I made it so long (wordwise) that I didn't have time to go back and leave hints, as I knew I should. I think that will be part of my own personal challenge next time around....to make a smaller story that fits the time frame better so I am able to comb it out.

Good job and congrats to everyone who worked on this challenge!

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

So, Robyn. Since you're the bona fide winner of FC # 2, can we interest you in choosing a topic for # 3? Note, I am not asking you to moderate the challenge...

Thinking about it, maybe we should have the winners of each challenge ALWAYS pick the following week's trigger word, etc.

Mike, comments?

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

Then that would mean they could not participate next week around, and that 2 people, the submitter and the moderator, cannot participate.

Given my time constraints I need to know today, and I have already set up an 'interesting' trigger. However, it is easily changed, but I MUST HAVE IT TODAY.

Also, I agree that it would be more interesting to have more than 1 voting criteria. How about some more ideas on that?

Most complete story?
Darkest?
Lightest?
Most likely to be Published?
Shortest complete story?
Stinkeroo?
Most uses of the word 'more'?

[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited April 13, 2005).]

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

That might be cool... sort of a yearbook entry for each story, possibly.

Good point about the participation thing. Right. At least this time around we can post the stories on a private page, thereby making the challenge more inclusive for others with concerns about posting publicly.

Anyway, perhaps I got carried away, mike. Sorry, I should have emailed first.

Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :

One nice thing about having the winner of "best overall" pick the next challenge, is that it gives someone else an opportunity to get the top spot. If a particularly strong writer were to continually get one of the top spots.

It might also encourage that writer to spend the week working on the story to get it ready for publication. Sort of a stipulation that instead of the new flash topic, they have to be ready to present the new version (or 13-lines) for review.

Besides, just because you choose the flash, doesn't mean you can't write something for it, it just means whatever you wrote wouldn't be up for consideration for voting purposes.

I'll go with the crowd on this, so if you want me to pick the topic, let me know.

Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :

Meant to add, I like the voting categories suggested, with the exception of Stinkeroo.

I would hate to see someone new to flashing "win" this category and never try it again.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

Robyn beat me to it...I wouldn't want to see a category for bad stories as I think we're all trying ot encourage one another here.

I would also limit the number of categories. The higher the category/stories ratio, the less meaningful a win in any category would be. I would suggest eliminating "Most likely to be published" as well, since this type of judgment call can only really be made by a publisher who decides to accept the story for his/her magazine. Heck, the "Most likely to be published" from my boot camp, even according to Card, never was even after multiple attempts.

I liked:

Best Dark Story (as opposed to darkest...if you phrase it that way it doesn't necessarily mean good, just gut-wrenchingly depressing)

Best Light-Hearted Story (for the same reason)

Shortest complete story?....How about "Best Concise Story" or "Best Use of Flash" or something like that...to get the point across that we're honoring a story that does the most in the least amount of space.

I would also suggest:

Most Creative Use of Trigger

We could always add/subtract categories as the challenge continues.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

By the way, I have another tentative thought to throw out here....

We seem to have the complete text of our stories posted on a publically accessible forum. The trouble with this, as Kathleen has pointed out many times before, is that it creates difficulty with first electronic publication rights when we wish to have our pieces published.

Might I suggest that only registered members be allowed to access the forums? This way, it is a private board and there are no issues with publication since we are simply posting our stories for a small group of people to read and review for our benefit.

Posted by TaShaJaRo (Member # 2354) on :

I agree with Christine on all her points. I like her re-phrasing of the "awards." I also do not think we should have a negative "award" though I'm thinking you were kidding, HSO.

I also feel that it should be a private forum where only registered users can view and/or post. I know that Mike was concerned because some people wanted to participate without registering. I feel that it is more unfair to have someone not participate because they are rightfully concerned about first publishing rights than for someone to not participate because they refuse to register.

It is not like Liberty Hall registration is difficult or requires any personal information whatsoever. I am phobic of releasing personal information and I see nothing of danger in the registration process on Liberty Hall. If someone is willing to register they should be given preference over someone who is not willing. And most of the registered users would prefer that it remain private.

That's just my opinion.

EDIT: The only piece of personal information required is an email address but that is hidden unless you specify otherwise, plus you can always create an Internet mail account with a pseudonym.

[This message has been edited by TaShaJaRo (edited April 13, 2005).]

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

Guys, Mike has created a private page for the purpose of posting stories based on recent feedback. And thereby, we aim to prevent any "public" access or search engines tracking them down. I strongly suspect that this weekend's flash challenge will result with the stories off of the boards and on the private pages. Please see the earlier posts in this topic for more details on this. We've been discussing this a bit throughout.

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

Ok, here are some things I will change:

1) privacy/rights protection

Already underway.

I have created a password-protected folder to post this weekend's stories. After the dust has settled next Wednesday I will ask people's opinions on how awkward it was as compared to posting comments/critiques etc as a reply to a posted story in the forum. I anticipate that the only way to make it easy on everyone will be to ask everyone to register, but that will be for the week of April 22nd, soonest.

2) Suggesting trigger words, topics, whatever you wish to call them. I am in favor of having the winner of the last flash suggest the trigger for the next flash.

However, if we go to different categories of voting, such as 'Stinkeroo' (I really like that one ) then I suggest that we simply choose the winner of the 'Best Use of Flash' category.

So, how about the following categories?

And finally, Robyn_Hood, if you will email me your topic/trigger suggestion, I will set things up.

Triggers can be:

Mike

[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited April 13, 2005).]