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April Archive | 2008 Archive

Contests, Contests, Contests! by Katrina - April 23, 2008

I wanted to extend my personal congratulations to the recent winners of StoryMash’s third writing contest: honeygloom, Psycho1_77, and dogdeity11! You all did a wonderful job, and I look forward to reading more of your chapters in the future.

There’s been a good amount of confusion regarding the new terms of the current and fourth contest. I want to take just a few minutes and reiterate the new terms so that everyone has a clear understanding of what’s going on. As discussed by njharman in his April 21st blog, there are 85 terrific story beginnings that have no subchapters. Therefore, the current contest will be limited to subchapters of these 85 story beginnings.

The reasons that we’ve decided to change the terms of this contest is to encourage the development of stories on StoryMash. As has been the trend, there are tons of story beginnings that get left with no continuing chapters. We want to see what you’re imaginative minds will do with these beginnings!

The story beginnings that are eligible for this contest are noted with a clock icon. I’ve found that the easiest way to search out these story beginnings is by visiting: this link and then browsing through the stories featuring the clock icon to see which story or stories you would be interested in adding a chapter to. If any of this is confusing, don’t hesitate to let me know or shoot me an email!

Now for the new news! Before the next contest ends (June 20th), the team here at StoryMash hopes to implement some various features that will encourage endings. I would absolutely love to hear any and all ideas and feedback you may have about this concept. One idea that Ethan proposed was adding a check-box at the bottom of all chapters (with the exclusion of story beginnings/root chapters). Any registered user can click this check-box to flag the chapter as a “good ending” for the story. If there are enough of these flags/enough users agree that the chapter would be a good ending, then that chapter will include a “The End” comment at the end and will hide (but not disable) any sub-chapters so that authors are discouraged from continuing the story.

What do you all think? Would you like to see this new feature implemented at StoryMash, or do you have any other ideas for ways to encourage endings to StoryMash stories? Also, referring to my idea in the earlier blog, do you feel as though StoryMash would better benefit from having an entirely separate section for “ending” stories?

I’m eager to see what you all think!

As always, happy writing, and feel free to email me! (Katrina@storymash.com)

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Discussion

2		Psycho1_77 8 months, 2 weeks ago Reply I liked the earlier idea of setting a limit, but like I had mentioned, a set word count/cut off might work better. A lot of people read stories on here and never vote. My first chapter of In a Nuts Hell is a fine example... well over 300 reads, and only 32 votes... So, if only a small percentage of readers vote, it could still potentially leave a cliff-hanger. If there was a set word count, of say, 15,000 words... that would place the story at approx. 7-20 chapters, depending on the writer of each chapter, since it seems to me that the average chapter is 700-1500 words. Adding a clickable/vote feature runs the potential of being overlooked or ignored. The idea of a separate section for stories to come to an end is a good idea, but if a story not in that section is successfully ended, will there be an option for the authors that worked on that story to send it to the finished section? Also, I was thinking that instead of a contest opt out, maybe a contest sign up. A link could be placed that could be clicked on to enter a specific chapter into the contest. I had another idea as well... for a future contest, maybe, SM could give a theme, like, say for instance, Death of a Loved One, and all contestants must write about the same theme to see how many different ways a particular theme could be viewed. Just an idea. Anyway, this is getting longer than I had anticipated, so thanks for reading...
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1		Katrina 8 months, 2 weeks ago Reply Awesome awesome awesome ideas! This will all be taken into consideration. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
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2		dogdeity11 8 months, 2 weeks ago Reply I think the terms of the new contest are awesome. It essentially does allow an author to opt-in or out of the contest simply by choosing which chapter they MASH. And it helps all those really good yet somehow forgotten chapters get some love. I thought the ‘entirely separate section’ for endings was a really great concept. I love the idea of a collaboration that has a set author group and chapter length. I think it would be a lot of fun to watch the stories develop and would also serve as a nice workshop for writers as they are forced to concentrate on specific parts of a storyline. The ending checkbox is also a good idea. After the box is checked and voted into a completion…it would be cool to have it placed in a separate section of SM. Someplace that only includes stories that have been finished.
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2		ShadowMan 8 months, 2 weeks ago Reply I agree with Dog on this. I'd also like to suggest (although it may not meet your current site terms) that those completed stories get offered up as E-Books which the general public can download from SM (or other selected E-Book sites you decide to allow), with all participating writers credited, an overview of the process used on SM, and links back to the site in case they escape into the wild ;) --- I'm not sure how you would choose to do that from a business standpoint, but it would certainly increase exposure.
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1		Katrina 8 months, 2 weeks ago Reply Shadowman~ Awesome idea re: eBooks! I think that could be amazing. Y'all have a wonderful weekend!!
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1		Katrina 8 months, 2 weeks ago Reply Good take on the new contest--I hadn't thought of it that way! Thanks for taking the time to give feedback & comment!!
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1		Cheeseliker 8 months, 2 weeks ago Reply Great idea Shadowman. Sounds like a great way to increase exposure and interest in the sit.e
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1		catscratches 8 months, 2 weeks ago Reply I think the idea about continuing the 85 4.0 or higher chapters is great, but those of us who wrote chapters with lower ratings which were not continued, or are not encouraged to be continued may start to feel like chopped liver!!!
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1		Katrina 8 months, 1 week ago Reply Aw, we definitely don't want you to feel that way! It's my understanding that the terms for Contest #4 are not permanent terms, so don't feel discouraged!!
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1		Nyctitropist 8 months ago Reply What decides whose stories are picked for the add on chapters in the contests?
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1		Katrina 8 months ago Reply These 85 root chapters were chosen because they had terrific rankings and no continuing chapters. This isn't necessarily going to be a permanent way that the contests will be held from here on out--just something to help to develop these 85 stories. Thanks!
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0		HuntsFamousWolf 8 months ago Reply leave comments.
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0		HuntsFamousWolf 8 months ago Reply nonononono..should be abole to put 50 pages if you pleaze.or 2 words....
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2		Katrina 8 months ago Reply I'm sorry--I don't quite follow your comment. Could you please elaborate?
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