Author exposition

This isn't the Olympics and I'm not here to compete with anyone. This is a great place to make my stories available to those who enjoy them. I enjoy reading others work, and perhaps picking up a trick or two to improve my own writing. I certainly enjoy the give and take of the forum. I think our occasional contests are great for those who thrive on competition, but let's keep the competition confined to the contests.

In my opinion, the library already has a perfectly good rating system in the comments facility. Yes, the reader must be a bit creative and actually put the "rating" into their own words rather than regressing to a bland multiple choice format. It is exactly this bit of creativity that that makes our "ratings" much more useful to our authors because the readers get to communicate what they like and dislike about a story.

Perhaps more importantly, I would hate to see potential contributors scared away by the fear of poor ratings from some numerical ratings system.

I agree, one hundred percent.

Many people are shy of sending in a story at all, and the thought that it might get poor ratings could put people off altogether.

This gets sticky for people like me who tend to not care for this sort of thing. I don't think anyone who writes should be put in such a position. Awards happen purely by accident I think. I've had my share of embarassment due to being awarded plaques and trophies for this sort of thing in the past and each time it makes me worry. Where do I go from here?

Adam and I have learnt to write for ourselves and let the chips fall where they may so you will not see anything we write in any competitions. I am just getting acquainted with some of the writers here and even with the few that I have read would be hard pressed to choose one over another.

I don't mean to offend but like I told Rolf when he sent me a ballot for the tea room, thanks but no thanks I don't need it.

I only mentioned the contest as the mechanism not the intent. If there is a better mechanism then I am all for it. I believe I stated quite clearly that this would be an author-on-author exposition in the "guise" of a contest. Should this fare better in another guise ............well that would be up to the folks who'd be doing the work to coordinate the thing. All that I really care about is that:

1: It is by authors for authors
2: there is some mechanism that would necessitate the reading of the the contributed stories
and finally, 3: there would be some sort of encouragment for constructive evaluation and critque of the pieces that authors feel strongly about.

Okay, into the fire.

1. by authors for authors. Why limit it to only those who actually put fingers to keyboard? The best critics out there are the people who avidlly read what we write. They are the ones that truly matter when it comes to what is done.

2. There could be a separate forum for this set up if the powers that be would be willing and have the time. I really don't know how you could force anyone to read a particular story but it could be worded something like "only open to the first 50 readers" or whatever number chosen as long as its smallish or it could go on forever lol.

3. Since there is already a way to know who reads what and whether or not they bother to comment, here is where you could show that you really want the evaluations by not allowing anyone who does not give an evaluation of a piece they read to read the following stories until they are released to the general public.

Finally, instead of having hundreds or thousands, I don't really know how many write here lol, submissions, put writer names in a hat and pull one out. That way the person writing is spotlighted for one brief minute, getting the strokes and the critique.

Just a thought.

Caleb:

Why authors? Because I tend to think that the majority of the readers coming to a forum for spanking stories are not coming here to evaluate the literary merits of any particular piece even though they might be quite capable of doing so. And I don't agree that they are the best critics. They are the best audience.

Forcing someone to read? Hmmm, well a contest sort of 'forces' a person to read what they might not otherwise look at since there is a vote involved. That is the only reason I initially presented the idea as a "contest" since I am also not terribly fond of the competitive aspect.

As much as I value the input from other writers, BECAUSE they are writers, I agree with Caleb that there's no need to limit discussion to authors only. Those readers willing to participate in a discussion will be few and far between (based on the comments), but those who do will have something valuable to contribute. Besides, the non-exclusionary nature of this site is best served by keeping an open forum.

As I think about this issue, I realize that if we eliminate the 'contest' nature of this suggestion (we already have contests), there is absolutely no reason to ask Februs to do any new programming. An author can just start a thread in the 'storyboard' section of the forum entitled "Author Exposition - "____________" by ____________, give a few opening remarks about the story if he or she so chooses, and let the readers/participants take it from there. Although there is no absolute reason you can't have several such discussions going at once, common courtesy should mean letting one thread to start winding down before someone begins another.

I nominate kdpierre to go first, having brought up this worthy idea (as much as it pains me not to do a shameful self-plug).

Authors are not the best critics. Henry James was a pretty poor critic, judging by what I have read, and D.H. Lawrence even worse. I wouldn't criticise their writing ability though. I think they would both be up there with the Gods of literature! I certainly wouldn't be into an authors only thing. I enjoy the competitions we do have but I think you should be careful not to exclude people.

I just cannot understand this competitive thing!
I write purely for my own entertainment and enjoyment, and if my rather silly little fantasies because that's all they really are.
I enter the competitions because its a good discipline to write to a theme and a time limit and no more.
Much to my amazement I won a SSC comp once, but this genre is so subjective-for instance I don't even open child related stories and rarely bother to read some domestic stories, let alone vote for them.
I hugely enjoy this great library, and in my opinion it should remain as a fun facility.

Jim

I agree with that absolutely, Jim.

Half the library is M/F Hand and domestic which I suppose reflects the popular taste?
I'm more of a F/M enthusiast myself.