2009 Survivor Poetry Challenge: Discussion and Announcements

[Lauren Hynde]

Hello, Poets!

The 1st edition of Survivor Literotica Poetry Challenge will official start on Wednesday, January 21st.

The main threads are already in place, and can now read and get familiar with The Rules. You can sign up for the challenge by posting to the Taking Names and Keeping Score thread, and you can pick a number between 1 and 49 in the Immunities thread. The first immunity draw will take place on Wednesday, so you'll need to choose your number before 7:30pm (GMT) that day if you want it to have a shot at that first draw.

I will be posting the triggers on Tuesday, January 20th.

Any questions, suggestions, general discussion, this is the place to do it. If you have a poem you're struggling with an need help, try The Workshop.

Good luck!

 

[Safe_Bet]

You closed the thread that I asked this in so I'm moving my questions here here:

For every free verse poem, there has to be one form poem selected from the 25 different forms on list B?

Every poem MUST use a trigger from list A? No credit will be given for poems that don't?

Is there a mechanism (possibly a thread) where we can post a proposed poem and have it reviewed to make sure that it meets the criteria for a specific trigger and/or form? [at least for the first few months while we are getting our feet wet?]

Here's the one I'm MOST confused with: If I write 50 poems (one for each trigger = 25 free verse and 25 form) and I'm going through them the second time, I can't use the same trigger for the same form as the first time through? How does that apply to the free form poems?

BTW, Lauren, great job. Thanks.

 

[champagne1982]

So, if I understand this correctly we have to use all 50 triggers before we can repeat the listed forms. I propose that as long as all triggers are used once through we can choose (or not) to make the poem either free verse or one of the chosen formulae, at our own discretion with the caveat that no trigger/form combo can be used more than once until you've written 26(25 form and 1 free verse) poems for that particular choice. The way the rules are worded right now, is that we MUST write 25 free poems before touching the form list again. Personally, I'd prefer to get the form requirements out of the way once through the trigger list than worry about how many free verse poems I need to write. I thought the frees were gimme points... S'all.

 

[Safe_Bet]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Nuh uh!

The rules read "poems with posting dates between 1/17/2009" and 1/1/2010 so I posted a poem on the 17th."

Now they read "poems with posting dates between 1/21/2009 and 1/1/2010." What's the deal with that? I want credit for my poem cuz I wouldn't have posted the damn thing otherwise!

 

[champagne1982]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Nuh uh!

The rules read "poems with posting dates between 1/17/2009" and 1/1/2010 so I posted a poem on the 17th."

Now they read "poems with posting dates between 1/21/2009 and 1/1/2010." What's the deal with that? I want credit for my poem cuz I wouldn't have posted the damn thing otherwise!

How can you claim a poem written without a trigger?

 

[Safe_Bet]

How can you claim a poem written without a trigger?

If it doesn't match ANY of the triggers I would relinquish it, but the RULES said the 17th so I submitted. I figured that it was generic enough that it is certainly going to hit one of the fifty triggers.

 

[champagne1982]

If it doesn't match ANY of the triggers I would relinquish it, but the RULES said the 17th so I submitted. I figured that it was generic enough that it is certainly going to hit one of the fifty triggers.

Rules are meant to be bent, .

eta: The rules say between the two dates so why wouldn't you have held on to the poem without posting it until you could be sure it fit the trigger list? Just askin'.

 

[LadynStFreknBed]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Nuh uh!

The rules read "poems with posting dates between 1/17/2009" and 1/1/2010 so I posted a poem on the 17th."

Now they read "poems with posting dates between 1/21/2009 and 1/1/2010." What's the deal with that? I want credit for my poem cuz I wouldn't have posted the damn thing otherwise!

Pull the poem if you want.
PM Laurel.

Some people might have a problem with it, but I don't. Lauren?

 

[UnderYourSpell]

God I'm lost already can someone tell me (carefully) exactly how to do scorecards? Is it like you are editing something you said?

 

[champagne1982]

God I'm lost already can someone tell me (carefully) exactly how to do scorecards? Is it like you are editing something you said?

Annie, the score cards are pretty easy to manage. You only are required to name the poem you're fitting into the category and then claim the points it's worth. Lauren and some of the practiced Survivors are always available to help. And yeah, your score card will be added to your registration post by Lauren and then, when you want to update your score, you just edit and type in the name of the poem against the list item it's for.

I have an Excel spreadsheet started that I'll finish filling in on Tuesday once Lauren's released the list of triggers. I'll upload it and post a jpg file once I've got it completed. Then if you have MS office you can let me know if you want it and I'll forward the spreadsheet as an attachment in email.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

For every free verse poem, there has to be one form poem selected from the 25 different forms on list B?

For every free verse poem, there has to be a poem written in one of the 25 different forms on the List of Forms.

Every poem MUST use a trigger from list A? No credit will be given for poems that don't?

Every poem eligible for points in the Survivor challenge must use a trigger from the List of Triggers.

Is there a mechanism (possibly a thread) where we can post a proposed poem and have it reviewed to make sure that it meets the criteria for a specific trigger and/or form? [at least for the first few months while we are getting our feet wet?]

Yes, sure. I'll create a thread called Survivor Workshop before it all officially kicks off.

If I write 50 poems (one for each trigger = 25 free verse and 25 form) and I'm going through them the second time, I can't use the same trigger for the same form as the first time through? How does that apply to the free form poems?

If the first time around you used trigger #12 to write an English Sonnet, then you can't use trigger #12 to write an English Sonnet the second time around.

If the first time around you used trigger #15 to write a free verse poem, then it's fine to use trigger #15 to write a free verse poem again. Only half of the poems are bound to a specific form.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

So, if I understand this correctly we have to use all 50 triggers before we can repeat the listed forms. I propose that as long as all triggers are used once through we can choose (or not) to make the poem either free verse or one of the chosen formulae, at our own discretion with the caveat that no trigger/form combo can be used more than once until you've written 26(25 form and 1 free verse) poems for that particular choice. The way the rules are worded right now, is that we MUST write 25 free poems before touching the form list again. Personally, I'd prefer to get the form requirements out of the way once through the trigger list than worry about how many free verse poems I need to write. I thought the frees were gimme points... S'all.

Well, you're really free to do the poems in whatever order you feel like. If you want to write 50 free verse poems right off the bat, you can do it. All that matters is that at the end of the year there must be as many form poems (from the List of Forms) as there are Poet's Choice (which may be free verse, if that's what you want, or may also be form, if that rocks your boat ) and that no trigger is used twice for the same form.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Nuh uh!

The rules read "poems with posting dates between 1/17/2009" and 1/1/2010 so I posted a poem on the 17th."

Now they read "poems with posting dates between 1/21/2009 and 1/1/2010." What's the deal with that? I want credit for my poem cuz I wouldn't have posted the damn thing otherwise!

The "1/17/2009" post were not rules. That was a first draft, and I only posted it to ask if people thought the wording was clear enough.

The rules are in The Rules thread. The List of Triggers will only be posted tomorrow. Only new poems (written and posted after tomorrow) are eligible.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

God I'm lost already can someone tell me (carefully) exactly how to do scorecards? Is it like you are editing something you said?

Annie, the score cards are pretty easy to manage. You only are required to name the poem you're fitting into the category and then claim the points it's worth. Lauren and some of the practiced Survivors are always available to help. And yeah, your score card will be added to your registration post by Lauren and then, when you want to update your score, you just edit and type in the name of the poem against the list item it's for.

I have an Excel spreadsheet started that I'll finish filling in on Tuesday once Lauren's released the list of triggers. I'll upload it and post a jpg file once I've got it completed. Then if you have MS office you can let me know if you want it and I'll forward the spreadsheet as an attachment in email.

Yes, don't worry. Once the poems start to be written and posted and going up on the scorecards, you'll see there's nothing to worry about.

I tried to be careful while writing the rules and intros to all the threads, so that I wouldn't use the word "competition", as happens in the other Survivor. This isn't a competition. We're all here to help each other.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Annie, the score cards are pretty easy to manage. You only are required to name the poem you're fitting into the category and then claim the points it's worth. Lauren and some of the practiced Survivors are always available to help. And yeah, your score card will be added to your registration post by Lauren and then, when you want to update your score, you just edit and type in the name of the poem against the list item it's for.

I have an Excel spreadsheet started that I'll finish filling in on Tuesday once Lauren's released the list of triggers. I'll upload it and post a jpg file once I've got it completed. Then if you have MS office you can let me know if you want it and I'll forward the spreadsheet as an attachment in email.

I haven't but I could try and download it anyway I will send you my email address

One niggly qestion ....'free verse poems' does that mean any sort of poems at all not just those on the list? and it's one for one?

Wish someone had told me to put 'Annie's scorecard' as the title when I signed up.
Oh yes one more thing will whoever is doing New Poems reviews be giving these the once over even if they are participating themselves?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

One niggly qestion ....'free verse poems' does that mean any sort of poems at all not just those on the list? and it's one for one?

In the scorecards, I called them Poet's Choice poems, because they aren't necessarily free verse - they're whatever you decide to make of them. If you feel like writing 25 sonnets instead, as long as each of them responds to one of the triggers, that's cool.

Wish someone had told me to put 'Annie's scorecard' as the title when I signed up.

No need to. I edit the titles of the posts at the same time as I turn them into scorecards.

Oh yes one more thing will whoever is doing New Poems reviews be giving these the once over even if they are participating themselves?

There's no reason not to do so. The New Poems review thread was created so that we, as readers, wouldn't miss any good poems. It was like getting a designated reader for the day, to point out the must-reads to those of us who were too busy to read the whole list on a particular day. It had very little to do with the poets. And since I expect some good poems will come out of this challenge, I would certainly expect to get a heads up about those good poems from the New Poetry reviewer.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

And you might want to get over to the Immunities thread and pick a freakin' number.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

And you might want to get over to the Immunities thread and pick a freakin' number.

I'm still mulling that over as to whether I should really pushhhhh myself and try that damn sestina again lol the immunities are all well and good but don't get me any points! Does it have to be signed up for now or can I change my mind and join it later?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

You can do it whenever you feel like it.

 

[annaswirls]

I'm still mulling that over as to whether I should really pushhhhh myself and try that damn sestina again lol the immunities are all well and good but don't get me any points! Does it have to be signed up for now or can I change my mind and join it later?

I did the main survivor challenge and lasted about 2 weeks. Quit yer frettin' and come on and play, girl! Just wait until you see how absolutely awful my form poems are. I think of it as taking Calculus II. It will be painful, I will get a C but it will be good for my brain.

And my hubris.

 

[AChild]

I think, no matter what the rules are I'll win. haha

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Right for that both of you have to do sestinas for all your poets choice poems lol

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Thought of something else (I know I could worry for a living!) do we count the poem on the score card as soon as it's submitted or have to wait till it's accepted?

 

[Safe_Bet]

Thought of something else (I know I could worry for a living!) do we count the poem on the score card as soon as it's submitted or have to wait till it's accepted?

You have to wait until it is accepted hon. Otherwise it can't be verified as a legit entry.

 

[hellebore]

Bonus questions

Or rather, questions about Bonuses...

I don't know if I'm going to participate yet, but I wanted to ask for some clarification on the Bonus Rounds, please.

Each Bonus trigger/form combo will be posted roughly four weeks apart. How long does a participant have to write the poem for that bonus? IE: Bonus Combo 1 is posted on 1-28. Will this Bonus Combo be active until the end of the year, or does the poem need to be submitted before 2-25 when Bonus Combo 2 goes active? Or will there be some interim deadline, like having Bonus Combo 1 completed before Bonus Combo 4 goes active on 3-25, which would be roughly 90 days down the road?