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Post by James on May 27, 2015 15:12:05 GMT -5
Time to wake up. Writing to do, competition to close out, reviews and stories to be posted. Almost done. I've got my reviews for Round 3 sorted. Taed is working on them. Hopefully they'll be up soon and Round 3 will be done. What is posted for Round 4, I'm going to start reading. Hopefully the rest comes in soon-ish and Round 4 can be done with. Ain't nothing stopping everyone working on Round 5. |
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Post by Ad Absurdum on May 28, 2015 20:23:42 GMT -5
Looks like nobody's going to be laughing.
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Post by James on May 28, 2015 21:00:43 GMT -5
Looks like nobody's going to be laughing. Comedy's round failure is sad. Taed and I were prepared to write dissertations with accompanying laminated diagrams for our reviews. |
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Post by Matteo ((Taed)) on May 28, 2015 21:01:52 GMT -5
I promise the late reviews will be up this weekend, by the way. I'm sorry they're taking so long. My week has been ... Eventful
If we're lucky, maybe we'll get the late entries in as well, and can limp to an almost-successful finish.
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Post by Croswynd on May 29, 2015 16:36:18 GMT -5
Perhaps people are just not inspired to write while the previous rounds are still unfinished with no reviews. I'd say post reviews for the 3rd round, then give people two days to write for the 4th round followed by reviews, and -then- give people a week for the final round.
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Post by James on May 29, 2015 17:05:30 GMT -5
Perhaps people are just not inspired to write while the previous rounds are still unfinished with no reviews. That's patently wrong, though. We've got 3 out of 6 stories for Round 4. 2 other of the stories have been due to the fact that someone has either been busy or missing since the start of Round 4 and therefore knows nothing about the lack of reviews. So at the very best, there's 1/6 who's been uninspired to write with no reviews. Also, the last competition was kind of a clusterfuck with Pete getting insanely busy and Taed subbing in, and we had hardly any drop-outs at all (the drop-outs all occurred at the start when Pete was reviewing). On top of that, two things: A: Taed's been busy with his real, full-time job. I'm pretty fortunate I found some time last weekend to get my reviews done because otherwise I'd be in the same boat. Just like real life hits writers, it also hits judges. I've probably spent a good three or four hours each round on reviewing (reading, judging, writing up reviews). B: On a more philosophical level, I'm always very concerned about feeding into and/or accepting the idea that a writer's inspiration comes from the validation of having the judges review their work. I'm not denying the validation of being read is hugely important. It is, not many people want to write just for themselves. They want an audience. But the true inspiration for writing should come from writing, having fun, and coming up with such ideas that you need to get them down on paper. Round 3 reviews will be up this weekend. Round 4 matches can hopefully limp to the finish. As I've said before, there's no reason for Round 5 matches to be late unless people are genuinely busy and then, we all get that and that's cool. |
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Post by J.O.N ((Dragonwing)) on May 29, 2015 17:08:31 GMT -5
When is round 5 due? Is it still the normal time?
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Post by Croswynd on May 29, 2015 17:12:40 GMT -5
Not patently wrong for me. The rounds don't feel finished, so I don't feel like continuing until they are. If there's a schedule, follow it as best as possible, and if there are delays, actually delay so the workload doesn't get overwhelming, which it will be because by the time the reviews are posted, there will most likely be even more stories to then review, which will take even more time, and the competition will suffer, as it has, as a result.
Your stance on reviews is also one I disagree completely on, but that's obviously just me, too.
I want my plan to be put into effect, because that's how I feel about it. So it's not "patently wrong".
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Post by James on May 29, 2015 17:12:58 GMT -5
When is round 5 due? Is it still the normal time? The matches have the deadline. I extended it out, so I think it's Tuesday (Wednesday for you). |
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Post by J.O.N ((Dragonwing)) on May 29, 2015 17:17:26 GMT -5
When is round 5 due? Is it still the normal time? The matches have the deadline. I extended it out, so I think it's Tuesday (Wednesday for you). Oh okay, cool. |
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Post by James on May 29, 2015 17:39:15 GMT -5
Not patently wrong for me. The rounds don't feel finished, so I don't feel like continuing until they are. Well, I guess we have always scheduled our competition around what Tam "feels" like, so we shouldn't stop now... The schedule is being followed! There's no "REVIEWS ARE POSTED" on the schedule. Look, I'm not saying you're completely wrong. Reviews are important. In fact, the reviews are more important than the competition element (which seems to get forgotten about at times). If Taed and I hadn't reviewed -anything- then you would have a worthwhile point. Because no one has learnt anything yet and essentially the whole competition would be written without any upward slope of progression (although, that's actually not true for this competition, because your team should be offering reviews as well). But we've reviewed the first two round. In theory, everyone has got at least one review (unless someone is only writing for Rounds 3, 4 and 5). In fact, there's only one set of reviews missing. It's not a huge amount. Further, by the end of the competition, -everyone- will have three sets of reviews and a chance to grill the judges and others after. This competition isn't about writing a Man Booker prize-winning novel -during- the competition. It's about getting the chance to write and to get feedback so that -after- the competition, hopefully everyone is a better writer. This is all I've ever wanted from an AWR competition - for everyone to be better after it than they were at the start. That's certainly my main goal when I'm a writer. My position is that if you've written two stories, one of them having been reviewed and the other hadn't, and you're now sitting there going "I don't feel like writing anymore because I haven't felt validated" then there's a problem here which the judges aren't going to be able to help with. Ignoring the part where I offered actual evidence and you replied with "feelings", I'm not sure putting your plan into effect because you like it, whereas other people may be writing their round 5 story quite happily is the fairest way to conduct a competition. |
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Post by ASGetty ((Zovo)) on May 29, 2015 17:39:26 GMT -5
Not patently wrong for me. The rounds don't feel finished, so I don't feel like continuing until they are. And then your team loses. Way to let everyone down. |
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Post by James on May 29, 2015 17:41:56 GMT -5
Further, by the end of the competition, -everyone- will have three sets of reviews and a chance to grill the judges and others after. This competition isn't about writing a Man Booker prize-winning novel -during- the competition. It's about getting the chance to write and to get feedback so that -after- the competition, hopefully everyone is a better writer. This is all I've ever wanted from an AWR competition - for everyone to be better after it than they were at the start. That's certainly my main goal when I'm a writer. I'm quoting that in isolation from my snarkiness because I think it's a really important point about AWR competitions. |
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Post by Croswynd on May 29, 2015 17:43:51 GMT -5
Not patently wrong for me. The rounds don't feel finished, so I don't feel like continuing until they are. Well, I guess we have always scheduled our competition around what Tam "feels" like, so we shouldn't stop now... The schedule is being followed! There's no "REVIEWS ARE POSTED" on the schedule. Look, I'm not saying you're completely wrong. Reviews are important. In fact, the reviews are more important than the competition element (which seems to get forgotten about at times). If Taed and I hadn't reviewed -anything- then you would have a worthwhile point. Because no one has learnt anything yet and essentially the whole competition would be written without any upward slope of progression (although, that's actually not true for this competition, because your team should be offering reviews as well). But we've reviewed the first two round. In theory, everyone has got at least one review (unless someone is only writing for Rounds 3, 4 and 5). In fact, there's only one set of reviews missing. It's not a huge amount. Further, by the end of the competition, -everyone- will have three sets of reviews and a chance to grill the judges and others after. This competition isn't about writing a Man Booker prize-winning novel -during- the competition. It's about getting the chance to write and to get feedback so that -after- the competition, hopefully everyone is a better writer. This is all I've ever wanted from an AWR competition - for everyone to be better after it than they were at the start. That's certainly my main goal when I'm a writer. My position is that if you've written two stories, one of them having been reviewed and the other hadn't, and you're now sitting there going "I don't feel like writing anymore because I haven't felt validated" then there's a problem here which the judges aren't going to be able to help with. Ignoring the part where I offered actual evidence and you replied with "feelings", I'm not sure putting your plan into effect because you like it, whereas other people may be writing their round 5 story quite happily is the fairest way to conduct a competition. Ah, of course, James, I'm sorry, I forgot I wasn't allowed to have opinions. Continue your ridicule. ASGetty ((Zovo)): Unlike some people, I'm not going to abandon the team just because I feel like the competition should be run better. |
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Post by James on May 29, 2015 17:47:07 GMT -5
Well, I guess we have always scheduled our competition around what Tam "feels" like, so we shouldn't stop now... The schedule is being followed! There's no "REVIEWS ARE POSTED" on the schedule. Look, I'm not saying you're completely wrong. Reviews are important. In fact, the reviews are more important than the competition element (which seems to get forgotten about at times). If Taed and I hadn't reviewed -anything- then you would have a worthwhile point. Because no one has learnt anything yet and essentially the whole competition would be written without any upward slope of progression (although, that's actually not true for this competition, because your team should be offering reviews as well). But we've reviewed the first two round. In theory, everyone has got at least one review (unless someone is only writing for Rounds 3, 4 and 5). In fact, there's only one set of reviews missing. It's not a huge amount. Further, by the end of the competition, -everyone- will have three sets of reviews and a chance to grill the judges and others after. This competition isn't about writing a Man Booker prize-winning novel -during- the competition. It's about getting the chance to write and to get feedback so that -after- the competition, hopefully everyone is a better writer. This is all I've ever wanted from an AWR competition - for everyone to be better after it than they were at the start. That's certainly my main goal when I'm a writer. My position is that if you've written two stories, one of them having been reviewed and the other hadn't, and you're now sitting there going "I don't feel like writing anymore because I haven't felt validated" then there's a problem here which the judges aren't going to be able to help with. Ignoring the part where I offered actual evidence and you replied with "feelings", I'm not sure putting your plan into effect because you like it, whereas other people may be writing their round 5 story quite happily is the fairest way to conduct a competition. Ah, of course, James, I'm sorry, I forgot I wasn't allowed to have opinions. Continue your ridicule. For crying out loud. My post consists of 20 lines. 5 of which are "ridicule" if I'm being generous. That's only 25% of my post. Did you have nothing to say about the other 75% which was a substantive discussion about what you're saying. |
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