Silmarillion Brainstorming

Jay's debut novel is out now! mentioned that she sometimes struggles with prompts that don't work for her.

When I used the Zodiac contest, I thought about which of my characters fit the prompt, and I wrote my story based on that. But I could see where a world builder might walk in the door deliberately trying to develop a specific character or setting (and by setting, I don't just mean places; I include things like culture, technology, rules of magic, politics, religion, species, etc.)

Sooo.... what if we had a list of prompts?

A couple ideas around that (because I love numbered lists):

1. Post a list of three prompts (or five, or ten) each time we run a "round". The author chooses a prompt and enters the contest accordingly. The various entries for a given round compete against one another, so you might have one prompt competing against another prompt.

2. Keep a running list of prompts available at all times. We could either:

a. Open a round and let people pick from the list. We change the list occasionally to re-inspire people.

b. Provide a random prompt generator, so for each round, the player can reload and reload until a prompt strikes their fancy. That way, instead of changing the list occasionally, we add to it, because the prompt generates randomly, so changing/taking out old prompts isn't necessary. Same as (a), authors compete against one another regardless of their chosen prompt.

c. Provide a running list of prompts and create an ongoing "activity" instead of contest where you eventually write on all the prompts (or most of/a certain number of the prompts), at your leisure. No time limit, no competition, but you get a Grand Prize when you complete the whole thing. It would be a once-and-done sort of thing, but you could do it at any time, and it would take a really long time to complete it (many months up to a year.) When you're done, you have yourself a big collection.

d. Similar to c, but set it up so that players can win over and over. Maybe each month we post the list of prompts. The player has to complete all the prompts within the month - in any order and at any time - in order to earn the prize. Optionally, we could also judge the entries and pick a winner from each prompt and/or an overall winner for each month/round.

If option d is too frequent, we could do it seasonally like Annette in France does her I Write contests, which gives players more flexibility. For example, in the fall, if I were a player, I might try to crank out all the prompts in September because (1) It will free up up to participate in Prep and NaNo in October and November, and (2) it will help me prepare for Prep and NaNo anyway, so it's good timing. Whereas in the Winter season, Dec-Feb, I'm just super honkin' busy in January, so I'd try to get as many prompts written as possible in December and finish up in February.

The nice thing about doing something like this last option is that the contest is always there, available any time a player decides he wants to work on world building and needs inspiration and motivation, but we only have to worry about tallying/judging/awarding prizes four times per year. Also, with three months' worth of prompts available at a time, there's a larger list of prompts that might strike the fancy of a player looking to develop a given character when they walk in the door. Let's say we create approximately one prompt for every week. If we do it monthly, a player just looking to develop one character/setting has only four prompts to choose from. If we do it quarterly/seasonally, they have 12 to choose from. More variety increases the likelihood that the player can find something that works. And we might post more than required (say, 15) and you pick the 12 you want. Maybe there's a bonus prize for doing all 15.

Maybe there's a couple of prize levels (more numbered lists!!!)

1. You get a small prize each time you enter. Maybe it's GPs. Maybe it's a review.
2. You get a medium prize for completing a whole season.
3. You get a large prize for winning a specific prompt.
4. You get an extra-large prize for winning an overall season.

So, even if you only write on one of the prompts, you still have the opportunity to win #3 and #4. And if you choose to do all 15 prompts, you increase your chances of winning prompts and the round.

The jury's out on prize #1, for me. At first, I was thinking it would provide motivation to play at all. But I'm not sure it's needed. Participants will participate because the prompts help them world build, and if they're eligible for prizes #3 and #4, that might be good enough incentive, from a prizes perspective. More prizes means more fundraising.

Thoughts??

.......I feel a spreadsheet coming on.


Geekily and Rather Excitedly,
Michelle