Author-sponsored events

[NotWise]

I think I've participated in my one and only author-sponsored event, at least until the concept changes.

Can we make them into readers' events instead of authors' events?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think I've participated in my one and only author-sponsored event, at least until the concept changes.

Can we make them into readers' events instead of authors' events?

How would you do that? Ask a bunch of readers to suggest topics and do the organisational legwork?

Readers already drop their interests into the Story Ideas forum. I wonder how many of those get taken up by writers?

 

[NotWise]

How would you do that? Ask a bunch of readers to suggest topics and do the organisational legwork?

Readers already drop their interests into the Story Ideas forum. I wonder how many of those get taken up by writers?

There's no real mystery about topics that turn readers on, and no one topic will appeal to all of them.

"Warm and Fuzzy" would be a simple example.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There's no real mystery about topics that turn readers on, and no one topic will appeal to all of them.

"Warm and Fuzzy" would be a simple example.

Well yes, but maybe we don't all want to write incest and LW stories .

 

[yukonnights]

I think I've participated in my one and only author-sponsored event, at least until the concept changes.

Can we make them into readers' events instead of authors' events?

I think one has to see them more as a challenge for a set story criteria (like all in one night, etc). I will probably be a little more particular/thoughtful on them in the future. The One Night thing was fun enough, but I bagged the On The Job as I just couldn't get into the idea I cooked up.

What kind of 'concept' changes did you have in mind?

 

[SimonDoom]

I think I've participated in my one and only author-sponsored event, at least until the concept changes.

Can we make them into readers' events instead of authors' events?

How would you do that? What would make it a reader event?

What would be the advantage of doing it that way?

The advantage of an author-sponsored event is that it's easier to enlist author interest and participation. My own participation has sucked because of my slowness, but in general these events have attracted a great deal of interest and some interesting story ideas. This latest event has a huge number of stories.

 

[ChloeTzang]

... The advantage of an author-sponsored event is that it's easier to enlist author interest and participation. My own participation has sucked because of my slowness, but in general these events have attracted a great deal of interest and some interesting story ideas. This latest event has a huge number of stories.

I think we had to many too close together. They’re fun to write for but the title idea for this one might have caused readers to skip stories. Not sure, mine was the only One Night in... in FirstTime but my views are low so far. We’ll see how it goes over the rest of the week and then for Geek day.

I think a few well chosen events might be better but you know what, this was a fun topic and I enjoyed writing for it, and I enjoyed HeyAll was well. I think they were too close together tho, if they’re fun now and then.

 

[NotWise]

I think we had to many too close together. They’re fun to write for but the title idea for this one might have caused readers to skip stories. Not sure, mine was the only One Night in... in FirstTime but my views are low so far. We’ll see how it goes over the rest of the week and then for Geek day.

I think a few well chosen events might be better but you know what, this was a fun topic and I enjoyed writing for it, and I enjoyed HeyAll was well. I think they were too close together tho, if they’re fun now and then.

I enjoyed the "One Night..." event, and I probably should have thanked you for your effort earlier.

Maybe all of the recent events have had some problem or another. I think the One Night title was a problem because the title is one of the few things an author can manipulate to pull in readers, and that tool was out of our hands. Without that requirement, my One Night story probably would have been named "The Red Witch," and it would have stood out more from other SciFi&F stories.

I think you're right that there were too many too close together. I also think they may have been annoying to some readers and non-participating writers. E.g., EC had thirteen One Night stories yesterday, and there are only twenty five stories in the hub. Readers who weren't drawn to the homogeneous title had to skip through them, writers who's stories were already on the hub had their stories forced off early.

Maybe if an event is largely for writers rather than readers, then it should go somewhere out of the way, like the way the FAWC events used Chain Stories. If an event is more for readers, then it will probably only appeal to certain categories. Maybe Laurel could postpone other stories in those categories for a day so they aren't deluged by the event.

I don't mind writers exercises, but things might need a little more thought. The last thing I want to do is bore or annoy the readers.

 

[NotWise]

Well yes, but maybe we don't all want to write incest and LW stories .

I/T would be fine with "warm and fuzzy." They enjoy their familial romances. For the LW readers (and a few other cats, too), maybe a "Burn the Bitch" event would be interesting.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I/T would be fine with "warm and fuzzy." They enjoy their familial romances. For the LW readers (and a few other cats, too), maybe a "Burn the Bitch" event would be interesting.

I love “Burn the Bitch”. That would go so well in LW.

And an incest one. Hmmmm. Mommy Dearest? Daddy’s Little Girl? The possibilities are endless....

 

[SimonDoom]

I think we had to many too close together. They’re fun to write for but the title idea for this one might have caused readers to skip stories. Not sure, mine was the only One Night in... in FirstTime but my views are low so far. We’ll see how it goes over the rest of the week and then for Geek day.

I think a few well chosen events might be better but you know what, this was a fun topic and I enjoyed writing for it, and I enjoyed HeyAll was well. I think they were too close together tho, if they’re fun now and then.

I thought your story idea was great, and I thought HeyAll's story idea was great. I started stories for both of them, and the ideas for both were prompted by the initiation of the event, and although I missed the deadlines for both I will finish them eventually.

There probably are too many events, when you combine them with the contests, but on the other hand there's nothing that obligates a writer to sign up for them. We're all free to pace ourselves in whatever way we choose.

Realistically, events are not likely to drum up much increased reader support. They are not well advertised or marketed to readers. The buzz about them seems to be concentrated in the author forum. There's nothing about your latest event on the main Literotica page. I imagine many, many readers go about their daily Literotica story-reading routines utterly oblivious of the events going on.

That's fine, though. I think the whole point is that they are author-focused events, and events that encourage us as authors to read the stories of our peers. I don't think it would work to try to re-fashion them as reader-focused events.

 

[rescatooor]

I do feel it might be a good idea to create an event with a specific audience in mind. And even if it is something like Nude Day, where most of the stories are exhibitionistic/voyeristic by default, it does give the readers a chance to find stories that might appeal to them from categories they might not otherwise venture to. So in that sense events like those give a chance for readers to discover new possibilities.

With that said Chloe's event appealed to me most. I personally like to discover new places in writing and reading and I'm less concerned about what kind of sex is involved. So you know, there is that little niche market (me). So thanks Chloe and everyone else who contributed!

It did surprise me how long many of the entries were considering that these are one night stories, though. So I haven't gotten around to finishing a single story yet, especially since I have much more to read. Better get on it!

 

[KeithD]

I think this exercise was just fine. I think it's good for some of the contests/exercises here to be formed around a topic challenge. Everything doesn't have to be a "gotta have more readers" motivation. If you don't want to be included in such an exercise, just don't participate. For those who like to think that every writer here is here to develop their writing skills, this is one way of doing that. In this case, the challenges, whether taken or not, were to write a story that makes a location a developed character in the story and that compresses everything into a limited time frame.

The is a big time hole between the April Fools' contest, which doesn't turn a huge number of authors on, and the Nude Day contest, which also doesn't turn a huge number of authors on, so it's a good time to have author-generated/administered exercises. Maybe not as many as were attempted this year. I don't see how a reader-generated exercise would work; Chloe put a lot of administrative effort into this exercise and I don't see a reader stepping up to do that. The "One Night" exercise dragged on too long for me, but, as several writers had trouble making the deadline, I guess the long process was OK. And it went on long enough to germinate a second story in my mind.