DISCUSSION THREAD -- OCTOBER 2022 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge

Christine Wheelwright said:
Congrats to @Dan Jones and @Daysman for a couple of fine stories. Thanks to @mosaix and @BigJ for the votes and to others who gave me a shortlisting or honorable mention. It was a funny month with votes spread across many stories. I wonder if three votes per person (like in the 300 word challenge) would improve things. Just a thought.
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In my view it’s because several of the entries were of high quality. I don’t see an even spread in the voting to be a problem. A tie breaker will sort out a winner.

In the past a particular story or two has stood out and there have usually been clear winners. But what if, as a group, we’re improving at the skill of the 75 and making it more difficult for us to decide? I think that should be an impetus for us to try harder rather than change the way we vote.

BTW @Christine Wheelwright I thought I was going to vote for your story as soon as I read it. Excellent work.
 
Terrific stories from Dan and Daysman, well done on reaching the tie-breaker!

After a re-read, my vote goes to Daysman (as it did in the general voting). Good luck, both, CC
 
mosaix said:
In the past a particular story or two has stood out and there have usually been clear winners. But what if, as a group, we’re improving at the skill of the 75 and making it more difficult for us to decide? I think that should be an impetus for us to try harder rather than change the way we vote.
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I think that's such a great point mosaix (the reason the voting seems so spread out nowadays), and in the last line such great advice. Just for me, when I have a month where a story doesn't resonate with people, it makes me think 'Well, next month I'll have to write a better story.'
Someone asked about winning earlier. It's wonderful to win one of the Challenges. It's better, though -for me - to participate with everyone. It's lovely to receive listings and votes, and it's beneficial in keeping one inspired to keep participating to recognize that many months there will be one, or several, really 'hot' stories. And it's when this happens that the wonders of a listing, or the occassional vote, really keep me going. And also, the internal guidance that 'Next month, I'll try to write something better.'
So, looking forward to the November Challenge. :)

(forgive the double post.)
 
I think it's understandably disappointing when we write something which we think ought to do well, and then doesn't; especially if a lot of time and effort has been put into it. But it's also important to remember that we are members of a community that has many experienced, skilled writers; and a lack of shortlistings or votes is not evidence of a lack of quality. Sometimes we won't quite hit the theme or the genre, or capture the mood of the audience - or somebody else will have written something similar, but better. But I think that we all have the capability to unleash the bottled magic that will win you a Challenge. One thing is for sure, there is no lack of imagination in any of the entries each month, and that is what makes them so much fun to read.

I would also like to mention that there are a number of regular contributors to the Challenges; and whilst I may not always vote or shortlist their entries, I always look forward to reading them.
 
Personally, I think you're getting better all the time, Luiglin. (I was joking about the frowny face, btw. :))
 
Cat's Cradle said:
Personally, I think you're getting better all the time, Luiglin. (I was joking about the frowny face, btw. :))
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Cheers, I'll send you the fiver in the post ;)

Just thinking whether I could write the November 75 in Black Country slang?
 
The Judge said:
But only until 8am GMT on Monday, so anyone who hasn't voted yet, make sure you vote today!
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At least some people will be pleased/relieved to know (I know I would be) that the poll will be closing at 23:59 GMT on Monday, so they'll have an extra 16 hours to ponder all those words (150 of them) in order to decide for whom to vote. :)
 
I prefer the one vote system even if it means I only get the occasional vote or two. It means when I do get a vote the person voting genuinely rates my story the best of all the entries and that's a real thrill. On one of the rare occasions we had three votes I actually fared quite well, much better than usual, but it felt very unsatisfactory to be benefiting from possible second and third choices.
 
Three votes is better. I really don't like having to leave a good story with a zero. I mean, yes, sometimes there is a stand out story, but we have a pretty talented pool and there are often two or three gems.
It also stops 'my genre' specific voting which tends to follow a member demographic. I can vote for a fantasy even though sf is my thing. Broadly we have SF, Fantasy and Comedy contributions with the occasional poem so its nice to be a bit eclectic in voting.
 
The above two post are good arguments for 1 or 3 votes.

The advantage of a single vote is that only the best/favourite entry of voters will be chosen, the disadvantage being that the winning entry will likely get around 15% of the overall votes.

The advantage of three votes is that the winning entry will end up a much larger share of the vote, the disadvantage being that it may be no-one's first choice.

As Hugh points out, you know that if you get a vote, then the voter thinks your story was the best. But as Astro Pen mentions, it's nice to be able to reward more people where it's merited.

From a personal point of view I think that the current method of 1 vote is best, mainly because most voters will post shortlists which are an 'unofficial' way of giving credit.

Whichever method is chosen, the winning entry is always deserving of victory.
 
I don't see that much difference between the distribution of votes for either the 75 or the 300 word challenges. They both usually show a widespread signature. whether the voter has 1 or 3 votes to bestow.
However, I don't think it has much to do with a general, overall excellent quality of the stories. Yes, the quality is excellent, but in many cases people vote for their favourite story, stories they like, for various reasons. Not necessarily what they call the best story. I mean, can anybody give me the definition of the best story, apart from "I liked it best", "It spoke to me", "I like the twist at the end", or "It made me laugh"?
At best, 'best' means a story that shows characteristics that approach my preferences of what makes a good story. Nothing technical, if such a thing exists.
Tastes differ. And therefor, so do the votes.
As an example, take a look at the current tie-break. Neither of the 2 stories got a mention from me. Not because they were bad, but simply because there were other stories that I (personally) found better.
paranoid marvin said:
The advantage of three votes is that the winning entry will end up a much larger share of the vote, the disadvantage being that it may be no-one's first choice.
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Is it a disadvantage? If 5 people find story 1 'the best', 10 persons vote for story 2 as 'second best', and 30 voters mention story 3 as their third option, what would be the better story? The story with (limited) 'the best' marks or the story with the most votes? Mind you, in most cases you don't know what voters consider their nrs 1, 2 and 3. And quite often choosing between stories is hard because their all good, but for different reasons.
My 2cts.
 
I missed the vote for the whole thing as I’m a wastrel when my sis comes (she came to stay with me this weekend) and we’ve spent the weekend watching horror, Andor and Tales of the Jedi. So completely slipped my mind and I feel rotten.

Anyway. I’m voting for Dan both were great ans deserve to be broken by tie. A nice tight Windsor knot, should do the job. Nice and tight…

I’ll read the entries and do a shortlist and proper reply when the weekend’s over.
 
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