2011-01-11, 19:09 | Link #43 |
sleepyhead
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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I'd say "the idea" must never force a genre. Or favor one (too much). So anything that can't be precisely pinned to any officially recognized genres (better to just have a list setup), or doesn't exclude any particular genere, would be fine. By going with a definition of what you want you can avoid corner cases, or "interpretation of the rules".
For example, going by your words Illu, if you say "it must include cherry trees and puberty" you force a romance genre. But if you say "it must include vampires" that could be anything. Both of them can be considered "themes" or "ideas" or what chu'wanna call em.
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2011-01-12, 23:27 | Link #45 | |
Cadenza
Join Date: Dec 2010
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The theme of, instead the genre of, would be far less discriminating than choosing or subverting a genre into a specific theme. The theme should remain entirely vague, so the drop of a specific genre or scenario could be avoided altogether. That way people will be subjective about the method, reaching a diverse and fair standard. Of course, long as the theme itself follows the rules with little to no rule bending there shouldn't be a problem. I'm going to go with Fel's example: If the theme is "Vampire", then you could probably think up quite a few things. Mystery, romance, school life as/with a vampire, etcetera. If you remain vague in the specifics, the possibilities will both be more diverse and more creative. I think that settles the 'theme' debate. |
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2011-01-13, 00:31 | Link #46 |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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Just wanted to thank you all for helping bring this idea to life
I like the idea of the themes, and Cello there has summed up the reason why How should we go about starting this thing off?
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2011-01-13, 00:49 | Link #47 | |
Cadenza
Join Date: Dec 2010
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I say the current, most flexible and most reliable are the best. You should probably read back a bit, since we've been going on about this for a few days now. Subjectively, I have to say I wouldn't like to see categories like poetry or short stories. Diversifying in that manner won't help, you have to make it jointed and open. We also don't know how many people will participate, so I'd refrain from the categorization overall. This is still a competition, there also needs to be some standards and qualifications for the entries. (amount of words, maximum amount of words, use spellcheck... etcetera.) I think choosing quality of the overall competition while remaining in the neutral zone while also having flexible rules and themes should, idealistically, help it in the end. |
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2011-01-13, 02:09 | Link #48 |
sleepyhead
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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Mario can you create a draft based on the current discussion? That should bring forward any points that need to be addressed. It will also be easier to notice what specifics/procedures can be streamlined.
Some things that still need addressing,
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2011-01-13, 02:12 | Link #49 | |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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I will keep everything that everyone suggested in mind~
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2011-01-15, 08:31 | Link #50 | ||||
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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Overview
Elementary, My Dear AnimeSuki "The pen is mightier than the sword." What is it? EMDAS is a monthly contest based on SOTM, with a focus on composition of a literary sense instead of an artistic one. It is open to all members of AnimeSuki, and aspires to promote creativity and a desire to improve one's personal skills in composition. How should themes be decided? At the end of every month, a winner is chosen and he/she gets to decide what next month's theme will be. The theme must apply to a generally writable topic and specifics such as anime series and characters are frowned upon. For example, a good topic would be "vacation" as it allows for any user to step in and write about, while a topic like "Suzumiya Haruhi" will limit entries to the people who know more about the series and character. So, what are the rules? 1. Within the first 2 weeks of the month, the competition sits in a "creation/submission" phase. During this time, contestants may upload as many entries and edits as you like, in order to receive constructive criticism and maybe even proofread. What are we competing for? I certainly hope for fun! The winner of every month's competition is given permission to choose the next contest theme, and (if permitted by the AS Staff) will have their winning entry added to the EMDAS Hall of Fame Thread for easy accessibility. So, is that it? It certainly is! February 2011 is when the first EMDAS Competition will begin. If you'd like to help with organization/management, be sure to send me a direct private message and I will get back to you. "...And that was all she wrote." This is just the basic outline. If anyone has suggestions, additions or opinions for the current overview, please let me know and I can change it, if need be. We also need to vote on the first month's theme!
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2011-01-15, 09:22 | Link #51 | |
Call me MK! :)
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: The top of the world.
Age: 34
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You did a very good job at this The only thing I think it needs to be changed is the amount of words allowed in entry. 5 words are just to little and 1000 are not enough. Wouldn't be better to have 500 as min and 5000 words as max? I don't think that any author will have enough space to create the certain theme and make it 'realistic' with just 1000 words allowed. I created one fic in the past with 1400+ words and when I finished it it looked very small and you can read it in about a minute or even faster. I don't think the quality of the pic can be expressed in only 1000 words. Of course authors don't need to feel the need to use all 5000 words.
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Also I have a question about theme's? Going by your example 'vacation'. So do I need to create a whole new characters for this theme? Or can I include already existing characters from anime? Or even can we use character that are not even from anime (characters from books, movies, tv shows etc)? Also why are italic/bold not allowed? Italic can be very useful for authors to express their characters inner thoughts.
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Last edited by milan kyuubi; 2011-01-15 at 09:41. |
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2011-01-15, 10:32 | Link #52 | |||
sleepyhead
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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I like the idea of having a funny title, but I feel "Elementary, My Dear AnimeSuki" is a little too ambiguous. It took me a while to figure out that was actually the title, and I'm sure someone just browsing threads would not be able to figure out what the thread is about from that title. Keeping to the idea of humor, how about something like "Animesuki Writer's-Block Contest". (can't seem to think of one that would abbreviate to only ABC)
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As for maximum. Personally I'd say around 2000, though 1000 seems a interesting limit to me. My opinion is that the length should be somewhat of a contest constraint (or challenge) so that readers are easily able to read though all entries, and also so that writers are forced into writing quality rather then quantity. Quote:
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eg.Wikipedia has a somewhat complete list of use cases. My personal take on it is since this is a writing contest one should focus on writing. If a certain word doesn't stand out then perhaps the problem is not that it wasn't in bold, italic or some fancy text, but rather that your choice of words was very poor. Also, people here very rarely use formating properly. Most cases I find involve people just use italic for their entire sentence or even their entire post (among other formatting). There was a thread about it as well... I'd say if italic formatting is allowed (bold is utterly useless btw) then there should be very precise use cases, so that everyone uses it the same (and properly).
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2011-01-15, 11:43 | Link #53 | |||||
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Furthermore, I'm of the opinion that the choice of format should determine the length of submission. A 1,000-word poem would be a fairly intimidating read. Conversely, a 1,000-word short story/novella would be, well, a bit bare. Which brings me to my second comment: Quote:
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I would keep an open mind with regard to punctuation. A skilled writer would know how best to use punctuation for effect, especially in poetry, where punctuation can have very significant impact on how a verse/stanza is meant to be read. Of course, in most cases, lapses in punctuation are really just that — lapses. But it can be hard to tell in advance, so I think this is something that needs to be judged on a case-by-case basis. |
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2011-01-15, 15:39 | Link #54 | |||||||||||||
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 32
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[QUOTE=TinyRedLeaf;3439637]There are no hard-and-fast rules for ideal story length in any form of composition. The word limit should therefore be a general guideline rather than a strict upper bound. Quote:
P.S. Thanks for all the feedback, everyone^^
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2011-01-15, 17:21 | Link #55 | |
108 Shikabane to destroy
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Some place in Colorado
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1) A Haiku, by English standards (Far different than the true standard according to wikipedia) because the entries must be in English, is a poem of three lines and contains a maximum of 17 syllables. That means that if the minimum word count for each entry is 500 words a Haiku could not be used. 2) I've come across very well written one-shots that contained more than 5,000 words and I've written a story who's first chapter had well over 5,000 words in it. That being said even 5,000 words can be seen as too short of a limit. 3) As stated before the longer the entries are the more intimidated new writers may feel. If I were new to writing and wanted to enter a contest and all of my competitors were stories and poems with 2,000+ words I wouldn't even think twice about quiting then and there. I do wish the maximum word limit was higher but I completely understand the need for it. And I agree with everyone who says that being limited to only 1,000 words will be an interesting challenge. By the way I like all of the other rules. However I do think we should do it by category. One for Haikus, one for poems, and one for stories. As was said before comparing poems and stories is really hard to do.
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2011-01-15, 18:26 | Link #56 |
Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 41
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If you do it this way, this could solve the concern about length, as different categories could have different size restrictions. The submitter would identify the category of their submission, if it isn't obvious. But the only problem is how to pick a single overall winner to choose the theme for the next month; perhaps a winner is selected in all three categories and then a selection is made between those three? Still very difficult...
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2011-01-15, 18:44 | Link #57 | |
Kaiba
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: David Tennant's bedroom in the TARDIS
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But I agree that there should be different categories and a winner in each.
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2011-01-16, 06:09 | Link #60 |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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Is using small pieces of Latin and similar European languages allowed?
P.S If TRL is participating I am out. There is no way I am going up against a newspaper editor with a known AND certified lingua franca capability over 9000 - it is suicide.
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