The idea is that there is a thing all participants have to use in a piece of writing, in a given time frame. Writers can use any form or genre, but they must include the object. Then we all post our pieces so we can all read them and enjoy. (I can password-protect the site if you want.)
Then there are a few variations that could make it fun.
1. Everyone votes for a favorite--you can't vote for yourself--and when the favorite is chosen, everyone sends that writer a small token of esteem, whatever that is, under $5, let's say, like a used book or a cool old scarf or whatever.
2. Everyone simply sends a token to the writer of his/her individual favorite.
The idea behind both variations is that not only are we forced by the project to write, but that we get a tangible accolade sent to us in the mail! Imagine someone asking you, "Where'd you get that patch?" And you say, "Oh, I got it from _____ once because she liked my story." Wouldn't that be cool?
But I'm not attached to variations 1 or 2; maybe someone else has another idea. Mostly I just want to write.
My main concern is how to find the object, or word, or whatever that we all have to use. If I choose it, then it comes out of my brain and somehow it's not as a much of a challenge to me, you know? Can anyone solve this problem?
The only thing I can think of is for one person to have a dictionary and serve as the depository of words. Then three other people: one person to pick a page number at random (after finding out how many pages it has) , one person to pick a column on the page (1 or 2), and then one to pick word placement in the column.
ReplyDeleteThe important thing is that the holder of the dictionary not tell us what kind of dictionary she has, to prevent any possible "pushing" for any particular word. And that the page picker, column picker, and placement picker switch roles for each writing topic.
One other way to insure randomness is for the dictionary holder to decide for each topic BEFORE the page is picked to either start at the beginning, start from the back, or to pick a random page number to add the "page pick" from. For instance:
1266 pg. dictionary
Page picker says 450.
Beginning: 450
End: 816
Random Page (62): 512
Random Page (1215): Add to end, then start over from beginning, so (1266-1215=51, then start from the beginning for the balance at pg. 399)
That's about as random as you can get, and it's neat in that we all technically get to pick the word.
And that the dictionary holder gets the right to toss words out (like a, an, the) that wouldn't work.
Comments?
One other idea: that the column placement picker could get to overadd as well, (within reason), so that if they said "57" and the column had 40 words, then you start over again and pick the 17th word from the top, or bottom)
ReplyDeleteI like it. This works for me. What about the contest aspect?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we could limit it to a point system that after a set period or set number of words, the person with the most votes/points gets a set prize. That would encourage a lot of participation and making it as good as possible.
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ReplyDeleteNow we just have to rope in the others!
ReplyDeleteI'm in... but surely pure randomness is a little dangerous. What if the word is something a little over-endowed with meaning, like the word "class" or the word "lead" ... or something alternatively that's too damn specific, like medical terminology. Surely some items will be better than others. Shouldn't there be a deadline? How about January 16th at 4:16pm? Pretty random, but a little conveniently before a weekend... no stress to ruin a weekend by.
ReplyDeleteI like the potential of winning prizes too. I think the second option for that makes sense.
What about... I know it's obvious, but what if we just used the word "Pendulum"?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good old image/idea/subject, innit?
Actually, that sort of randomness or double, triple, or however many more meanings to one word would make it a bit more fun. If the word is "lead", if one person submits a writing assignment on "Alchemy and Lead" another valid topic could be "Rangers Lead The Way". Yet one more way to make things random.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in a lot of dictionaries, they do have numeric superscripts next to the words with wildly dissimilar meanings like lead(1), lead(2) and the like as separate entries, and that might come into the "Picking column Position" in the selection process