DISCUSSION THREAD -- April 2020 -- 85-Word Writing Challenge

[The Judge]

April's Challenge, courtesy of Daysman, is up: APRIL 2020 85-Word Story -- IMPORTANT -- REALLY READ THE FIRST POST!!

As a tribute to the fact the 75 Worder has been going for 10 years Daysman would like to revisit the very first theme, so we have

Theme: Visit to Another World​

​

Genre: Speculative Fiction​

And in further recognition of the anniversary, there are two big changes for this month (and for this month only, so no begging or whingeing afterwards...)

• It's an 85 Word Challenge this month. That's right, we have 10 more words to play with!
• We'll have 3 votes when it comes to voting!

To make sure we don't have people posting as soon as the Challenge goes up, thereby missing the fact it's 85 not 75 words this month, the Challenge thread will be locked for a day or so, but this thread is open, so comment away!

 

[nixie]

I can't stress enough how important it is to read first post before entering.



on another note when we were discussing how to celebrate this amazing anniversary, I suggested everyone could only vote for moderating pixie druids, not sure why the others didn't agree

 

[mosaix]

85 words? 3 Votes? April fool? Back to 75 and 1 vote at mid-day?

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Oh, great tribute to the Challenges, re-doing that first event! I wonder how many of our original entrants will return for the anniversary ... and I wonder if it's tempting for our original winner to return to their story, and expand it by 10 words for this month's Challenge?? (Joking!)

I think I cannot go back and re-read all the stories from that first event, as I want to come to this fresh.

Looking forward to this, greatly, CC

 

[nixie]

Been and had a look at the first challenge, I may have missed one but of those who entered 22 are still regulars having posted on the forums this year, including @Karn's Return in guise of another.

There are others who still drop in but their last posts 2019.

@Boneman as the very first winner I expect an entry this month or I might forget not to let Wally eat you

 

[nixie]

Seriously it would be a amazing if those still around who took part in the first challenge participate in this one

 

[Astro Pen]

It has a Jules Verne ring to it.

 

[Calliopenjo]

I hope The Judge isn't joking and we really do have eighty-five words. If we really do have ten extra words to stretch our stories out then I might just be able to come up with something a little more...readable. lol.

Thank you, Daysman, for the prompt. It'll get my engine going to come up with something.

 

[Astro Pen]

Is it better in peoples experience to submit these early (primacy effect) or late (recency effect)?
Not trying to load the dice.
I just don't want my entry buried and forgotten, or at the other end,skimmed over because minds have already been made up.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Is it better in peoples experience to submit these early (primacy effect) or late (recency effect)?
Not trying to load the dice.
I just don't want my entry buried and forgotten, or at the other end,skimmed over because minds have already been made up.

I've often wondered that.

What we need is an in-depth statistical analysis of time of posting against votes garnered.

Has anybody got any free time on their hands?

 

[nixie]

I don't think it matters when you post, most people here do read all the stories and give careful consideration before voting.

Take last month, I read Chrispy's and didn't think anyone would surpass it but then TDZ came in with her little gem.

 

[Parson]

Interesting. I wonder if this month's story will be any better than the first month's story. I'd like to think so, but ....

 

[scarpelius]

I believe people get tired and loose focus after the first half of entries.
It helps reading the entries as they are posted, though.

I also believe that the theme, lower one chances. This month we have Speculative fiction, but that encompasses a broad range of genres and thus the vote will spread more, because people will vote stories in their preferred genre.

 

[Mouse]

I had zero recollection of this theme so I went back to the thread to see what I'd written. And then I looked at the tiebreaker and I was in it?! Heh.

 

[Parson]

@Mouse whenever you enter you are a force to be reckoned with. I believe you are still in the top 10 or 15 vote getters of all time even with writing in fewer than a quarter of them.

 

[Danny McG]

I might enter this one, I've been skipping the challenges of late, and missing the votes.

 

[Karn's Return]

Is it better in peoples experience to submit these early (primacy effect) or late (recency effect)?
Not trying to load the dice.
I just don't want my entry buried and forgotten, or at the other end,skimmed over because minds have already been made up.

Well, in my experience, it's better to wait a little bit, try to get somewhere in the middle, perhaps. But then again, that's my own experience, and I really don't ever have much chance against the better, more experienced authors of the site, especially these days...

 

[Guttersnipe]

Where do we submit? The link leads to a thread that allows no replies.

 

[Karn's Return]

It's not open yet, going to open tomorrow just to make sure that people understand this month is a little different to usual.

 

[Guttersnipe]

It's not open yet, going to open tomorrow just to make sure that people understand this month is a little different to usual.

Thanks lol. Maybe I should've read it more carefully. I'm just excited because I wrote mine already.