Writing Contest Poll

[DGFone]

This is not the eleventh writing contest, but a poll that will effect all future writing contests.

When I wrote my Remembrance of Zed story, I had to cut off close to half of it in order to fit it into the 2000 word limit of the writing contest. And just now, I read TheBlackCatCrossing's Second Chance story, which was also compressed to fit within the contest. Both of these stories, at least in my opinion (but I am sure all of you agree) are much better in their extended forms and not the way they ended up in the contest. So the poll is this:

Do you want to keep the 2000 word limit?

Here are some arguments for and against this decision I can come up with (feel free to add your own when voting on this):

For Removing: When an author 'gets in the zone' they can write quite a lot in a short matter of time. Before they know it, they have a wonderful work of writing done, and it's long. They check the word length and discover that they are way over the 2000 word limit for the contest. Unlike basic editing, which might change the wording here and there to remove some unneeded words, they will have to remove whole sections, and in my Zed case, sometimes even completely change the mood of the story. They might have to compress the writing so that instead of being the story they wanted, they at least have a story for the contest.

Removing the 2000 word limit will allow authors to go all out and submit the story they really want, instead of a compressed version that, while providing most of their thoughts, might lack that icing on the cake that they really wanted.

Against Removing: This is a writing contest. There will be several stories, and in order for a fair voting round, everyone who vote will need to read each entry carefully. If some stories will get too long, this might present some problems for voters, who might not have the time or energy required to really sit down and read all the entries in the one week voting time slot. If they are forced to skim some stories, it provides an unfair advantage to those who they read carefully.

Also, even if the readers were able to vote well no matter the story length, this might also present a problem for the authors: Those authors who are able to write a good long story tend to be better writers than those who cannot. The word limit will force them to slow down and really think about what they want to tell, and it will prevent runaway stories from taking up a lot of room. Along with this, with the word limit, all the stories will tend to be roughly of equal length, removing at least one variable apart from story quality that might lose or win votes. With the writing contest, anything that is not the quality of the story that effects voter outcome, intentional or not, conscious or not, should be eliminated unless there is a good reason for keeping it.

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So what do you guys think? Do we want to remove the 2000 word limit, or do you think that it's better to keep it? I myself will keep my thoughts for myself for now, and will not vote unless I feel like everyone else who wanted to did.

[Kitva Hyperlink]

For definitely for.

[DGFone]

[quote="LinkCoolKitva"]For definitely for.[/quote]

So against removing the limit or for it? There's a poll at the top, please vote there. It will be easier for me to count votes than to look at all the posts and try and count.

[Kitva Hyperlink]

I want the limit to dissapear.
P.S. did do the poll. I just say yes, then i vote in pole.

[Eli_Ayase]

I'm for removing.

It would be nice to see the stories longer than 2000 words, I enjoy reading them every contest, and the stories would be great if the writer wanted it to go longer than 2000 words.

[Regulus]

Just bump it up to 3000 words.

[TheBlackCatCrossing]

Don't remove

1) I say keep the 2,000 word limit because it gives people an easier time to read the stories. I like the idea of giving them the full treatment, but some fics can be rather long. For example, I can go up to 5,000 words. I don't think anyone wants that. LOL! 2000 words is so much easier to handle and if the person chooses to do so, they can share the extended version AFTER the contest.

2) I like the challenge of snipping down the original fic down to its bare form. Some of us feel perfectly at home with 10,000 words. Some posters will have 2,000 words and someone else could have 7,000 words. Maybe I am being skeptical but I don't think increasing the length will do anything. Besides, I like the surprise knowing that there is 'more' to a story.

[Kitva Hyperlink]

[TheBlackCatCrossing]

[quote="LinkCoolKitva"]I really don't mind actually. But maybe you can put the word limit up to 4000 because...
A. We don't want it too high or the contest soon might turn into a novella.(Maybe, if people start all adding chapters to there story's.) It'd be bad if this contest turned into a novella because it is supposed to be for short storys. Also if we people start trying to write novels there will be future problems of the contest including:
[list]contendents begging for a longer submission round
Voters asking for a longer voting round.
Voters loosing intrest because they don't want to read story's are too long.
These problems are all if people start writing novels. As people told me when I asked if there could be a poetry option, It somewhat succeeded. So if people are wanting to write novels then we should make a novella; because for a novella you would need a longer submission and voting round, I'd say a novella should be anual.[/quote]


Excellent ideas, Kitva.

I am especially concerned about the stories being too long. I know there are a lot of young posters here. My main concern is this. If three or four stories had 4,000-10,000 words and one story had 2,000, most will vote for the 2,000 one. I noticed that there are a lot of young posters here and if there is one thing I know is that they don't like to read long ass stories. A few do, don't get me wrong. It's just that I can't help but notice this not just here but in other places. I like the writing contests because of the creative exercise and freedom it gives me. However, I know that if I wrote a 10,000 word entry for a contest, most people won't read it. Don't just ask me, I know.

I was going to suggest a Junior and Senior contest, the Junior ones being for 2000 words limit while the Senior/Super Contest can have unlimited words BUT I don't think DGFone is interested in running two contests. I say make it easy for everyone and limit it to 2100 words. If people choose to share the full version, they are free to do so.

[Kitva Hyperlink]

[quote="TheBlackCatCrossing"][quote="LinkCoolKitva"]I really don't mind actually. But maybe you can put the word limit up to 4000 because...
A. We don't want it too high or the contest soon might turn into a novella.(Maybe, if people start all adding chapters to there story's.) It'd be bad if this contest turned into a novella because it is supposed to be for short storys. Also if we people start trying to write novels there will be future problems of the contest including:
[list]contendents begging for a longer submission round
Voters asking for a longer voting round.
Voters loosing intrest because they don't want to read story's are too long.
These problems are all if people start writing novels. As people told me when I asked if there could be a poetry option, It somewhat succeeded. So if people are wanting to write novels then we should make a novella; because for a novella you would need a longer submission and voting round, I'd say a novella should be anual.[/quote]


Excellent ideas, Kitva.

I am especially concerned about the stories being too long. I know there are a lot of young posters here. My main concern is this. If three or four stories had 4,000-10,000 words and one story had 2,000, most will vote for the 2,000 one. I noticed that there are a lot of young posters here and if there is one thing I know is that they don't like to read long ass stories. A few do, don't get me wrong. It's just that I can't help but notice this not just here but in other places. I like the writing contests because of the creative exercise and freedom it gives me. However, I know that if I wrote a 10,000 word entry for a contest, most people won't read it. Don't just ask me, I know.

I was going to suggest a Junior and Senior contest, the Junior ones being for 2000 words limit while the Senior/Super Contest can have unlimited words BUT I don't think DGFone is interested in running two contests. I say make it easy for everyone and limit it to 2100 words. If people choose to share the full version, they are free to do so.[/quote]
With the junior and senior contests I agree, thats a good Idea. I'd run it, but as you'd know I am already running a poetry contest. The jr contest should be 15-, and the senior 16+. But maybe 2500 words for jr and 5000 words for sr. So if DGF wont run 2 contests, we'd need to find a host for the other one.