Ideas for the Fiction Tribune

Hey everyone, it's your friendly Fiction Tribune once again.

So, while the other thread I put up is specifically for fiction competitions in the DB, this will be a more general "town hall" thread about the state of DB fiction as a whole. What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? If you don't like something, what should we do instead? (This latter point is a requirement if you intend to complain, otherwise you will be summarily ignored. ) Other topics I'm looking for feedback on are the MTs, Writer's Corner and the possibility of a fiction archive. Get your two cents in today!

Writers Corner,

hehe yeah...I was the dude who contributed a whole [Expletive Deleted]load of pages under
Telona's reign. I wanted to go for Writing Tribune but hell, had no time as
Quaestor...nah anyway..

The whole 'review'-thing....scratch it.

People should be able to post it like under Telona. If they want people to
read it, there they can place it.

point 2: Writers corner on the Krath page...why? the old way was best-way

Point 3: uploading...suddenly we were forced to upload it ourselfs...well thats fine
but where? I, for one and I know there are more, have no clue on where to upload
such a file like Telona used to do.

Point 4: If you want to 'review' it, do this when it is posted. Review it and critize on the
spot. I for one send in fiction when it was on Kaiann's rule...I got 2 reviews I basically
had nothing with. Because these were stories who were assignments, I compiled them
so people could read them for fun.

Reviews were good...dont get me wrong...but it was making an whale out of a tunafish.

Point 5: Maybe a few moderators in the Writers Corner forum for additional reviews (see above)
and maintenance, plus check on rules.

Point 6: ehh...nothing more I guess...just that I have only 5 cents and no smaller change....ahh
well...but something for the kids

Hope this helped a bit...and if you need help, mail me

oh and congrats on your appointment


Draken

I generally don't like the Writer's Corner. It's a terrible showcase for writers. It's more of a dumping ground that only half a dozen members visit.

Also, the reviews have no critism. I've only reviewed a couple of times, and each time I only did so for a good writer and actually put critism in because I want them to improve, not continue writing crap and being exalted for it.

The work should be checked over rather than uploaded by the writers too. Do we still have rules where you can't do anything graphically sexual, offensive to others, or do things like kill Luke Skywalker because you pwn? Someone's going to have to uphold the law, and at least run it through a spell-checker.

You need to find a better way to show this work off, get a team of reviewers who can strike a fine balance between telling the truth and being hurtful, and then give them a forum topic (if it's good enough for one) so others can give their opnions.

people who review them shouldnt watch 'what' someone writes but 'how' someone
write to provide sufficient data on what to improve.

If anyone can pull off something cool while killing Luke Skywalker...let them...it's
just fiction after all. And even [Expletive Deleted]ty stories should be available to read. To
halt that is to halt showing people the passion of one's writing.

granted that one writes something in l33t, it will have to be questioned. but I feel that
a writer is free to write what he or she wants and may show what he or she writes. Regard-
less of whats been written. (though I can understand the 18+ thing)

(though I can understand the 18+ thing)


Yes, we have IRC for that sort of thing.

You're right, it should be more about how it is wrote than the content. But there is a line ...even if its wrote well, being too l33t is very annoying and not very creative. It's all about living out a fantasy but there is a point in these stories where the awesomeness makes you think "what a [Expletive Deleted]". Not great characterisation. I always try and give my characters, including me, a flaw.

ofcourse...but it's fun to go all superman for a while. even if it is just
a funny story. Funny stories can be nice to read too. Laughing is always
fun!

I mean: I used my lightsaber to parry the assault, and I broke Luke's lightsaber with
my muscular muscles in my eyebrow!


that kind of stuff is fun, even when it is godmode..

I mean...eyebrow muscles.....l33t man...

So, just so I'm clear... keep Writer's Corner, but remove the "review" elements? How does making them optional sound?

Actually, I suggest scrap the writers corner but keep the reviews.

We need a better way of displaying peoples work, picking out the best and advertising them to the masses and offering to give HONEST reviews.

One thing I'm in the process of putting together is a so-called "writer's showcase" that will grab fiction and poetry and display them every month. I'm making a point of gearing towards the writers who aren't already publicized in the DV, competitions, or whatever. Maybe we could have that for showcasing talent, and keep the WC specifically for people who want reviews of their work?

At this rate, I'm going to have to bring you two on my staff.

You can have like a clan section. Showcase the top fiction of the month from each clan...

Dont scrap the WC, It's my fiction library and showcase ever since I got into the Brotherhood!

We should split it, one with reviews and one without. But I think the one with reviews should be
locked. meaning that people cant comment on it because its already reviewed. The other will
be open to the public so they can review it.

This way I think Werdna and me can have both our ways without destroying/altering the original
WC.


Just a though

Interesting discussion...

Why not have the critique done two-fold. In one instance, the writer asks for criticism and comments. People can then give said criticism, so long as it stays in that vein.

In the other, perhaps "professional" critics. People with the work to prove they know what they're doing and going in and offering advice and thoughts.

Both would serve the DB's writers well, because criticism is the only means in which a writer gets better and no writer is ever finished improving their writing. So long as the criticism is kept in a middle of the road light, the writers can only improve and in turn improve the overall quality of writing in the DB. Well, work in one aspect to improve writing, the hands down best way to improve your writing is to actually read.

There's ways to do criticism in dual-fashion on a couple of different levels. One would be for the "general audience," which basically encompasses the average citizen, the people who don't write for a living, but the ones who buy the books, and are looking for excitement and "cool stuff." The other would be for professional opinions on flow and such. So, basically, someone commenting on "what you wrote," and another commenting on "how you wrote it." Pretty much what Oberst suggested.

Another way would be to have anonymous reviewers, one that is just for picking out everything "good" that someone did, and make an effort to point out what they did right, and what they should build upon. The other reviewer would basically just pick out the things that detracted or made the piece lose whatever spark it had, and ideas for what could've been done differently, just so that people can have ideas from both angles.

I think Oberst is right. I think we need to open up our writers a bit more to criticism, as long as it stays on the right avenue, and make for constructive efforts rather than destructive. We don't want to completely shatter peoples' hopes and turn them off of writing, but just help them to improve and to gain other options that can come from people who have had that experience, or who know what really draws out the wow factors and all that.

thats kinda what I mentioned in the above ^^'

Good info, everyone. I'm glad I opened this up for discussion - you guys are looking at this from avenues that I haven't thought of, and I think the Brotherhood's fiction community will be better off because of it. Let's not limit ourselves to this one thing, though. What about other ideas, maybe in different directions?

There's no hope for trying to direct productive discussion. The best you can hope for is to take bits and pieces from public stuff, and make it progressive in private discussions. It's just how [Expletive Deleted] works. Heh.

how would I go about submitting a piece so that it may be elligible for the Writers Showcase?

Umm... as soon as I actually get the Showcase up and running, I'll let you know. >.< However! Keep an eye on my blog at http://thetribunesword.blogspot.com/ and I'll make an announcement about it quickly. I would say just e-mail it to me, but honestly, I don't want to risk losing it before the Showcase comes out.

Thanks for your interest, though, and I'll definitely follow up with you on that!

There's no hope for trying to direct productive discussion.   The best you can hope for is to take bits and pieces from public stuff, and make it progressive in private discussions.  It's just how [Expletive Deleted] works.  Heh.



Cynic.

well the bulk of my idea's are all in the other threqd so its really no use posting here.

Though maybe we should make the run ons more open to people. Maybe rank it like you need to do the Krath exam; run on, when your -DJK and you can be excused when your +DJK. but we need to have an eye out for b/s run ons though when people do one. funny one's are cool. but what is there to writing when you have a one word run on?


*checks wallet* I am running out of cents here ^^'