Wilson's 2015 Motivational Novella Challenge

[Wilson Geiger]

After a couple of offline discussions, I decided to try to make this a formal challenge to the proud, talented cast of writers here at SFFWorld. The challenge goes something like this:

• Writers choosing to participate are challenged to complete a novella (at least) by the due date of December 31st, 2015 - this means a wordcount of 20k-40k
• There are no selected themes, or topics, or keywords - the only requirement here is that it is in the wheelhouse of fantasy, science-fiction, or horror
• This novella must be a new work - no waiting until December and then posting something you wrote four years ago (this does not preclude you from expanding on, say, a short story)!
• Any in-progress or completed novellas can be posted on the Stories sub-forum (marked as [2015 Novella Challenge]), should you wish potential feedback or confirmation - this also means it will still be eligible for publication should you choose to go that route
• Writers are free to take any discussions off-forum, such as workshopping, or critiques, or plotting - if any discussions happen here, please post in this thread, or if a separate thread is necessary, please mark it as a [2015 Novella Challenge] thread

I am working on some possible inspiration for completing the challenge, so watch this space for future developments. Although you're writers - what other inspiration would you need to write?

This is not a contest, so this is a bit different from Luka's long-form contest (which I also encourage). Consider it like a six-month motivational thread. Any questions or comments, let me know.

 

[Jussslic]

Woohoo, a picture is worth 35,000 words, so I guess I'm the first to finish.

 

[RedMage]

This is not a contest, so this is a bit different from Luka's long-form contest (which I also encourage). Consider it like a six-month motivational thread.

I know I made it clear in the contest thread, but someone else's chosen theme just isn't my forte. Luka has a good theme, but I really am a long form writer and I don't work from a specific, stated theme very well. Which is to say, a challenge like this is much more up my alley!

I have a novella I wrote years ago, never seen the light of day, and which is badly in need of rewriting. I've also been thinking of expanding it for a long time, both in terms of the story itself as written, and writing new stories for those characters. So I think I will rewrite it, put in those expanded ideas and fix the ending, which came out pretty shoddy as I wrote it several months after the first 3/4 of the book due to family emergencies at the time.

Thanks for starting this, Wilson! And I wish everyone doing the novella contest good luck as well!

 

[RedMage]

@Jussslic: wow! That's awesome!

 

[RedMage]

@Jussslic, have you made Luka's thread a banner? That is so cool, I really feel we should share your talents.

 

[Jussslic]

@Jussslic, have you made Luka's thread a banner? That is so cool, I really feel we should share your talents.

Thanks! All I did was add the type of course, it's a John Harris painting. One of my favorite SF artists! For Luka's I haven't yet but I can... I figured I'd wait till his "official" thread was up. Haha crap I messed up the dates...

WilsonG, if you do want to use it in the main post just copy the image link, and once it's up I'll delete mine.

 

[Wilson Geiger]

Thanks! All I did was add the type of course, it's a John Harris painting. One of my favorite SF artists! For Luka's I haven't yet but I can... I figured I'd wait till his "official" thread was up. Haha crap I messed up the dates...

WilsonG, if you do want to use it in the main post just copy the image link, and once it's up I'll delete mine.

Done! Nice job!

 

[Luka Datas]

Well this was a strange thing to do Wilson. The novella discussion thread was still open and you could have posted this idea there to see how much support your idea would get.... but since you've done this and it would be ridiculous to run two novella comps simultaneously...
Still. It is pretty poor form, old chap.

 

[kennychaffin]

Well this was a strange thing to do Wilson. The novella discussion thread was still open and you could have posted this idea there to see how much support your idea would get.... but since you've done this and it would be ridiculous to run two novella comps simultaneously...
Still. It is pretty poor form, old chap.

Agreed. I'm kind of shocked.

 

[RedMage]

Well this was a strange thing to do Wilson. The novella discussion thread was still open and you could have posted this idea there to see how much support your idea would get.... but since you've done this and it would be ridiculous to run two novella comps simultaneously...
Still. It is pretty poor form, old chap.

Wilson and I both tried to talk about this in your thread, Luka. This isn't an attempt to beat you to the finish line, to try to post a thread first or anything. Many of the people in your thread, including both you and Kenny, have been discussing novellas/ettes in the same context as 5,000 word short stories, as if they were the same form of writing and could be approached in the same manner. Wilson and I both disagreed with this view point and while I continued to argue it, we also discussed doing something different. Something of our own.

Now, I'll agree that maybe this thread should have waited for you to post a new "call to the contest" thread, and that people not involved in the discussion in your thread, Luka, may become confused. So I'm with you there and it was a concern I expressed to Wilson before this thread was posted.

However, according to page 5 of your thread, post #90, Luka, you have had your novella/ette theme since Wednesday at 11:01 AM. And though the time apparently changes depending on if you are logged in or not, that 11AM time is according to the Pacific Time Zone of the United States, which is where I'm located. Not logged in, it reads Wednesday at 7:01 PM for me. My question regarding all of this, however, is when were you going to post a "call to contest" thread? How long were we to wait? Those in the discussion praised your theme. Even I, who simply wants a challenge such as this with no theme at all, think your theme is pretty cool. I know life comes up but, really, how long should we have waited?

I'm not saying that the creation of this thread was timed as well as it could have been. But I'm sticking with Wilson as I don't think he did anything else wrong.

 

[Luka Datas]

I've disagree that opinions were being disregarded @RedMage. What I disagreed with was Wilson's "my way or no way" mindset. What you have to understand is that posting this thread was just another incarnation of that attitude... surely you can see that?

I would ask a moderator to take this thread down or at least not to pin it. Otherwise, it's nothing more than a slap in the face to every other person outside of Wilson and his cliche.... whose input definitely was disregarded

 

[RedMage]

I've disagree that opinions were being disregarded @RedMage. What I disagreed with was Wilson's "my way or no way" mindset. What you have to understand is that posting this thread was just another incarnation of that attitude... surely you can see that?

I would ask a moderator to take this thread down or at least not to pin it. Otherwise, it's nothing more than a slap in the face to every other person outside of Wilson and his cliche.... whose input definitely was disregarded

I didn't say opinions were disregarded. I simply said that many of the people in your thread were discussing things in a way which others disagreed with. That's part of a discussion: putting forth opinions, agreement and dissension with those opinions. No, it didn't turn out in my favor, but I'm glad we had that discussion and I can still support the group's decision while, at the same time (because this isn't a government and decisions aren't law) doing the opposite. We tried to do something as a whole Writing Forum community, but that didn't turn out, so we decided that we still wanted to do things our way and now we've made it happen.

And no, Wilson does not have a "my way or no way" mindset. You say that like he is always this way, which he certainly is not. I was part of the initial discussion about doing something different, a discussion which was not had on the forum where everyone could see it. And no, I'm not going to post the messages I have regarding it. So, please, include me in that clique of his. I was/am part of it.

I'm sorry you are offended, Luka. That was not our intention at all. I can't speak for Wilson or anyone else, but I like you and enjoy interacting with you on the forum. If we lived in the same town, I think we'd hang out quite a bit. So I do think of you as a friend and don't mean to insult you with this.

As Wilson started this thread, I will let him speak about your desire for it to be taken down. In the meantime, may I suggest you go ahead and post your contest thread or, at the least, prepare it so you can cut and paste it into a new thread window for when you do decide to post it.

 

[Dreaming]

Well this was a strange thing to do Wilson. The novella discussion thread was still open and you could have posted this idea there to see how much support your idea would get.... but since you've done this and it would be ridiculous to run two novella comps simultaneously...
Still. It is pretty poor form, old chap.

I can see why you're a bit miffed by this thread Luka. I would be too.

We don't have to see this as two separate things though. That is to say we could reach a compromise here in that, those wishing to write a novella (without a theme) before the year is out should accept this challenge. And those wishing to accept your theme based contest of Luka's, should do that.

I personally am much happier to write to Luka's theme and take part in that. Nine Lives was it Luka? I'm kinda lost without a theme to work from for that initial spark. Without that I would have to make a list and roll dice!

I think it is still entirely compatible with this challenge, and anything we write could be linked to both threads.

So I'm happy to go for both the challenge and the comp with the same piece of work.

 

[RedMage]

Thank you, @Dreaming! That was Wilson and my exact intention!

 

[kennychaffin]

Wow....just wow.......

 

[Bodhi]

Well, I don't think I could react other than I have: shocked and confused.
I thought this was the thread resulting from the discussion of a new novella competition. But the name attached was not "Luka". This sort of preemptive strike is one way of handling a disagreement. L specifically said there was still a three week window to post, so as to stagger the competition begin/end times with the other comps.

There was certainly plenty of time for discussion left in that thread.

It was Luka's baby, after all.

Maybe people were getting tired of such a lengthy discussion, but it is needed for such a long competition. Getting impatient, it feels like matters were taken into the hands of certain persons because they felt like they should have more sway over the discussion. I know Luka isn't always the easiest to persuade in an argument and he has pretty strong opinions (don't we all).

Being that I wasn't yet too invested in the Novella Challenge/Comp, I'll try not to get too involved. But I'll stick up for L.

 

[kennychaffin]

Yep.

 

[Dreaming]

Conflict and cooperation seems to be what humanity is best at. Also thoughtful discussion and action, the balance of which is so rarely achieved. These seem to be great themes to write to! In terms of the thread, yes more discussion would have been better, and jumping right in was probably a mistake. Perhaps to avoid confusion, when Luka starts his thread, this one could be merged so as to give a non competitive alternative?

 

[Dreaming]

Just to avoid stickying them both. We don't want this to get too sticky

 

[RedMage]

This was intended as an alternative to the competition. For people who liked the idea of pushing themselves and having the help of other writers on a specific type of work: a novella.

I can understand why people are angry, but this will not be a flame war. You can rant and rave all you want, but I won't respond in the same manner. This community has always been able to discuss civilly and overcome our disagreements without name calling, cursing, or any verbal tactics intended to injure, destroy or ruin another person. I have seen all of you do this, and I'm sure you can do it again. Think of it as a test of how to handle angry readers who dislike your stories, disagree with the basic concepts of the Fantasy genre and so on and just have to tell you how horrible you are. We are nowhere near that, but unfamiliarity with such actions can make them difficult to handle. So practice. I don't want to lose any of you as friends and I don't intend to.

That said, I need to admit that while I did see Luka's statements about trying to time his competition with the already established ones, I did not see, or perhaps did not understand, that he wanted to time the start of the competition and, therefore, the posting of his competition thread. I thought it was simply timing the ending of the competition.

I've also been throwing around the word "intend" a lot in this thread, even in this post. Yet I am remembering now that intentions take a back seat, even get thrown out of the car, as perception is the actual boss.