@wildvine said:
@cbishop As you recall at the start of this competition, I said you and Cap and Batkevin were all prize winners. I was not just being nice. Your story was well written and a great story, and if i could vote a runner up it would be you.
I do recall that, and I appreciate it. My point though is out of 6 submissions, I would objectively rank mine as 4th. Those 2 that I'd rank behind me, I rank as last, because grammatically speaking, they are not well written. They're trying to sound deep, but wind up sounding stuffy. Generally speaking, they are not as entertaining as the top three.
Yet, when it comes to the voting, those bottom two are racking up votes at the same rate or ahead of those in the top three. That's fine, because people are going to vote for who they vote for. All I'm trying to figure out at the moment is what I'm dealing with here. Am I dealing with voters who just vote for screen names they know, regardless of story content, or are voters really finding my stories to be so bad, that they don't even comment on it, much less vote for it?
I don't mind being last in the voting. I know I write well. Whether it's entertaining or not is the readers' call. What baffles me here is that in this type of writing environment, writers usually want to help each other with friendly tips and suggestions, just to up everyone's game overall. I guess I came into this series of contests thinking it would be more friendly critiques, and less ego stroking.
@Omniscience said:
@wildvine: But at the same time, not every one can be a winner all the time. Why should the people who have not submitted the best work also now get feedback and this and that? Heck, shouldn't every runner-up get feedback whilst were at it? This is a competition. We talk about the best. And nothing but. IMO.
That is exactly my point: Yes, everyone should get feedback in this competition. That doesn't mean you're making everyone a winner, it means you're telling them what's good about their story, and what needs improvement. True, this is a competition, but if competition is only about winning for you, how sad.
A true competitor wants to compete against the best, in order to make himself better. If you're competing against those you know you can beat, it'll stop being fun for you. So you either look for better competition, or you make helpful suggestions to those competing against you, so that they up their game, so that you can up yours. Otherwise, you don't progress.
As an example, when I was in middle school, I ran long distance, in cross country and track. I was the best long distance runner on the team, by far. I cheered and encouraged my teammates, but I far outshined them. However, when I got to my high school, which drew students from multiple middle schools in the area, I found out just how good I wasn't. In a top 7 varsity, I floated between 7th on the varsity, and top of the junior varsity. Me and the guy who were continuously switching places pushed each other to be better, and those ahead of us pushed us harder still, drawing out of us reserves we didn't know we had. As you say, though, not everyone can be a winner, and that was certainly true in running. The top two guys were much better than the other 5 in varsity, and the way they continued to get better was to push each other, and to continually strive to beat a certain time. The rest of us pushed those we were close to, and strove to beat our best times. In the end, you find your personal victories in beating your best time. You cheer those better than you, and rejoice in their personal victories. You offer what help you can to those below you, so that they don't lose heart, and so they might come along and push you later. It's called good sportsmanship.
If this competition is only about getting the most votes for you, frankly, that's stupid. The only thing you get for winning is getting to pick the subject for the next competition. That's not the point of the competition. The point is to gather writers together, and write cool scenes. Coo over the good ones - that's all well and good. But offer solid critique to those who aren't as good. If you just want to collect votes, then what are you getting out of this?
I'm here to shake the dust off the writing skills. I'd objectively rank my writing as middle of the group, the past two competitions. The couple who have commented at all on my stories, I would qualify their stories as some of the ones that are better than mine, the past two competitions. So I tell them what I like about their stories. The others, I tell them what I think needs work. If I don't comment, it's because I haven't quite placed my finger on what I think the problem is. I'm just asking for the same in return.
I don't mind being last in the votes. The voting is clearly going by who you know, not who writes best, and I know very few onsite - none of them read the fanfic forum, that I know of. I'd rather have a bunch of good writers ahead of me, because I know how to push myself to measure up. But suggestions from the group make it more worth doing. Again, it's just good sportsmanship.
And hey - this? This is still only about half a "wall of words." ;)
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