Question to the community

[piksa.livejournal.com]

zippitgood posted a question about posting the next two prompts in a same post. I feel this is a question the community should get a say on. Of course this isn't a situation we are going to face often since after next week we go back to the normal situation where the prompt is posted in the weekend and there are no advance warnings of them. However, the poll is open until Friday evening/saturday morning. Give me your opinion.


[Poll #1040004]

Comments

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Well, I kind of did that last week, but it was as two separate chapters, one for each prompt, but in the same post. I didn't think to ask if that was okay, because I could have split the posts. In fact I did put up separate posts on the community, they just both went back to the same place on my own LJ.

btw, I am very happy to go back to posting one prompt per week, but for those of us in Europe, is there a chance you could post Saturday evening, North American time, so we get it Sunday morning, instead of Sunday afternoon?

[piksa.livejournal.com]

zippitgood said that the story can't really be divided since the prompts are intertwined but still the method you used could be applied to her as well. Thanks for bringing this up.

The prompts will be up earlier in the future. We are executing that change at the same time as there are other changes as well. An official post about this will be made in the near future. I'm from Europe as well so the change suits me well *g*

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Just a thought but...

How is writing one long story for two weeks any different than writing and posting 2 stories in one week, that we were allowed to do with the multiple prompts? That's not writing one story a week. So...isn't the pole on something we've already been allowed to do, especially since we can post parts of fics for more than one prompt?

That just kinda hit me this morning.

[piksa.livejournal.com]

The question here was mainly about including both prompts in one story, which of course won't be an issue after this week, and just posting one entry to the community. I know the question is a bit badly worded.

But I do understand your point too.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. I just wanted to make sure we were voting on the same page, so to speak. :)

I have to say, I really do love such an active community!! :D It's very nice.

[shadow-in-eden.livejournal.com]

Even though I'm taking a break from prompt fics, I feel like I should say something. Only I can't think what. So, I'll quote, instead.

...so this community offers awards to writers who drag their muses back week after week and make themselves write...

Mixing prompts seems like... not cheating, exactly, but like taking a short cut. It gives the writer an unfair advantage.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Yet for these "summer" prompts we are ALLOWED to write and post ahead of time. How is that not the same?

I think this poll is redundant and not very fair considering she's just asking to basically do something others have already done.

[shadow-in-eden.livejournal.com]

*shrug* Like I say, I've been taking a break from this community. I misunderstood what the Summer prompt stuff was about, which was my own fault for not reading quite a few of the notices. I had assumed people could write the fic but had to wait to post it in the appropriate week.

I am not happy about any short cuts to the Awards - yes, mainly because I struggle to get very far in a run, which isn't a very good reason to want to stop this. But still, in the past I wrongly assumed one or two writers of getting a prompt ahead of time and complained about it, only to be reassured it would never happen. Only it has.

Now I am even more against letting this pass. I struggled very hard to get the awards I did. Now, people can achieve them with much more ease. Excuse me for feeling more than a little upset for how easy it has been made for the writers, even for these few weeks.

Now more leeway is being asked.

If this is allowed, the next time another summer/christmas double prompt comes along, someone or many someones will mingle the prompt into one. I think, if it is allowed, then the actual submission should only be counted as one week, but the author has no need to post the following week. So, 2 prompts in one = 1 award point & 1 week of grace. Or do as thismaz suggested and hack it in two. Otherwise it is unfair to those who have achieved awards or tried to achieve awards in the first months of this community.

*sigh* This makes me sound so very British.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Oh I do see your point, don't get me wrong. My only point is this has already been done with these summer prompts and I feel she should get the same consideration as the others who have already posted more than one fic a week should.

After this, perhaps this can be prevented from being an issue again. But I really don't think she should have a double standard on her just because she asked permission instead of just doing.

And there's nothing worng with sounding British. My sister is over there in London. ;)

[shadow-in-eden.livejournal.com]

If it's already been done, she shouldn't be singled out and told she can't use both prompts in on 500 word fic.

In fact, they should just give them the Goddess award.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Oh no, no. You misunderstand. She wanted to write a minimum 1000 word fic.

What I'm refering to is people have written 2 fics and turned them in in one week. My point was the poll is between one fic per week vs basically 2 in one week. She wasn't asking for cred for 2 for only 500 words.

I'm sorry if I was unclear.

[shadow-in-eden.livejournal.com]

I still don't see a point to this community if they are going to make it easy. It isn't meant to be easy, its meant to be a writing exercise.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

This could just be me but...

I don't consider combining St Peter and Barophobia in one long fic...easy

[shadow-in-eden.livejournal.com]

If it is so long, she can split it.

I'm arguing because, again, this is meant to be a week-to-week thing. It is like saying 'If I do any 30 of the prompts I should get a Goddess award'. This just looks like another way of doing that, even though its looking forwards instread of back. Go to fanfic100 if that is the way you want to do it.

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Personally I think it's nothing like that. If anything what she was asking to do was harder considering she was doing a longer fic, with two prompts in ONE week. That more volume, more writing, more work and creativity in less time. It's not like she's picking and choosing the prompts.

I guess I cheated too. I've already written next week's fic because that was the muse that spoke to me first. But I've done 30 weeks in a row so I don't feel like I got an easy way out.

[shadow-in-eden.livejournal.com]

I really don't think we are going to see eye-to-eye on this one. I cannot see this as anything more than cheating. I'm going to bow out of this discussion and see how it falls out.

[guardian-erin.livejournal.com]

I know the rules say:

6. Crossposting is shiny, and links are fine.

But I wanted to make sure if it was okay to link away from LJ altogether. A chapter of my story Retrograde, none of which is posted on LJ, has the St. Peter prompt in it.
I could post it on LJ, but I would still have to refer people to the previous chapters of the story on fanfiction.net for it to make any sense.

If it's perfectly alright, I'll have a post for it up shortly.

[guardian-erin.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hijack the thread.

Anyway, on topic: I think that two prompts in one story is fine, but shouldn't be an everyday occurance. I mean, it's a miracle if I can work ONE prompt into my story (which is why I asked the above question.)

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

You've peaked my curiosity. It this something you just wrote or something from a long time ago?

[guardian-erin.livejournal.com]

Actually it's something really old that I never finished that I just REWROTE and made better. I posted part 10 yesterday.

[piksa.livejournal.com]

It's totally alright to link away from LJ too. There are some people who are linking to the webpages or something similar. However, one rule we do keep hold of is that the story should have been written after the prompt was posted. You can't use some old story you've written ages ago as your entry. Of course we can't know when the story was written but that works on honorary bases.

If you do post one part of the story to the community, please provide also a link where the previous parts can be found.

[guardian-erin.livejournal.com]

Oh no, it's an old IDEA that I revised, the story itself is very new in terms of when it was written. I only just put up part 10 yesterday, written specifically to include the prompt.

I'll be linking shortly, then.

[meredevachon]

A few thoughts from my perspective (of course, YMMV)...

If this were a regular week where we were getting one prompt at a time, and someone wrote a story one week of at least 1000 words for the prompt, then on Sunday found that the new prompt coincidentally (because that's all it could be if we didn't know the prompt ahead of time) played an important role in the story/chapter they had just posted for the previous prompt, I don't think there would be any question the author would still have to write a new story/chapter for the new week. So my first inclination is to say the same basic guideline should apply here (even though we already know the next prompt and could incorporate it deliberately), meaning I don't think one story/chapter should be used for two weeks' prompts.

We vote for responses to each prompt. If the two are combined into one unit of fiction (story/chapter), then we would be voting twice for the same thing.

That said, stories contain more than just the idea behind the prompt, and there's nothing that says part of the "other stuff" couldn't include future or previous prompts. Even if the two prompts are intertwined in the story, if there is a reasonable chapter break where the first part of the story does in some way use the prompt St. Peter and the second part incorporates barophobia (and each part is at least 500 words), then to me that would fit within the rules of the comm as they are currently set up, as long as at least the first part was posted by this Saturday.

This was longer than I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry about that, but I felt like I needed to share my thoughts on the question. I hope it made sense, but if any of it is confusing, I'd be happy to elaborate.

[smwright.livejournal.com]

Here's my opinion, for what it's worth. Each week, we all write/post stories of varying length. Some are very short; some are fairly long. I don't personally feel that saying a story is 1000 words but uses two prompts qualifies that story for two weeks' postings. With the length of the stories I write, I could have used three prompts at any given point over the last several weeks and been done for the better part of a month. The point isn't the length (other than to have a bare minimum for a standard at each individual post). The point, as I recall the comm having been conceived (and I have been here since week one), was to write a new piece on each prompt. To use each individual prompt to create something new or to turn something in-progress in a fresh direction.

I'll admit, with teaching summer school and having been way overworked, it's been helpful to post in advance over the last few weeks, but it never once occurred to me to post a single story (or chapter in my case) for more than one prompt. Further, to make an exception at 1000 words for one comm member seems unfair to the rest of the members who have consistently posted without asking for exceptions. To be honest, I was uncomfortable with the initial request to have two people share a post so long as the story was 1000 words or more. To have a single story share two prompts really bothers me.

Again, just my opinion.

[smwright.livejournal.com]

Just to be perfectly clear on this issue, for Hello, Darkness and St. Peter, which were posted less than a week apart by me, I wrote 6,673 words, and these were posted in two separate chapters. One was 1,663 words, and one was 5,010 words. I'm not certain how granting someone the exception to write a single story of 1000 words is in any way comparable to that or could be considered the same degree of "cheating" or that I (or someone else who took the opportunity to post twice within less than 7 days) is doing the same as what's being asked here.

I really don't want to sound harsh, and I know that zippitgood is a member of another comm where prompts are routinely combined. However, each comm has it's own rules, and as I said before, the point of the prompts here is to use each individually. I really don't think the "one week" rule is meant to be as limiting as it is meant to be sure we don't extend beyond the one week typically. For the winter holidays last year, we went longer (optionally); for summer, we had the option to go shorter. Either way, the point was to provide some flexibility, not to cheat or make it easier to get to the awards. I'm sorry that shadow_in_eden feels differently. That makes me kind of sad.