Author Topic: How do you feel about bi-MONTHly submissions? - please read  (Read 7722 times)

Silk

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How do you feel about bi-MONTHly submissions? - please read
« on: December 03, 2008, 11:09:33 PM »
I thought I'd start a seperate thread since I'm not sure everybody is stil following the discussion on the email list thread, and I want to make sure everybody sees this one.

People are already talking about how a month is a long time to wait between submissions, especially if you're submitting a novel. With an approximate 4000 words a week maximum, it could take a VERY long time for someone to get their whole novel reviewed through RE. Which, I agree, is a problem.

Some people are proposing that instead of having a submission deadline every other week, the 1st and the 15th, we have weekly submissions. I'll throw out a quick pros-and-cons:

Pros - you'd have less time to wait between getting submissions for your own critiques, particularly beneficial if you're submitting a novel.
 - it would (presumably) get all of us writing more often to meet those deadlines, which is the point. Right? ;)

Cons - We have a lot of people working or going to school full time in this group, I'd imagine, and those people may have trouble keeping up with bi-weekly submissions.
 - It would mean a lot less time to critique more submissions, which might negatively effect the chance of everybody getting at least one or two decent critiques every time.

Edit: It might also mean that people who were ready for the 15th might not be ready for the eighth. We could juggle around submissons between ready and not ready if we had to, but as things are, we have a fairly even split for each submission date and I think we should maintain that if we can.

That being said, we're in trial runs right now anyway, so it really is a good time to try. And I would recommend trying it sooner than later, if enough people agree, because a month is a long time to wait to figure out that we don't like it one way or the other after all.

So - opinions? What do you guys think?
« Last Edit: December 04, 2008, 02:30:55 AM by Raethe »

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2008, 11:20:42 PM »
I'm up for it

Perhaps it would be wise to leave the option of submitting either monthly or bi-weekly.

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2008, 11:23:42 PM »
Hm.  Might be an idea... That might be harder to organize, though, and I'm still more concerned about people getting decent crits every time...

Other thoughts?

little wilson

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2008, 11:42:26 PM »
Possible thing to do:

Select 4 dates (1, 8, 15, 22-23)

Separate into 3 groups:

-those who want to submit monthly
-those who want to submit bi-weekly
-those who want to submit bi-weekly, but will be skipping a few here and there for when life gets crazy...like in the middle of a semester

Take the results we get there and divvy up the people so it should be about even every week....that'll mean splitting up the people in category 3, so we don't have the possibility of 3 submitters saying "yeah, I'm not submitting this week, it's midterms/finals" or whatever....

This is just an idea....
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Reaves

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2008, 11:55:58 PM »
Yes I feel like we have just starting this whole writing group thing and now is the time to experiment and figure out what works best for everyone.

I personally think that bi-weekly submissions will work fairly well for everyone. School and work keeps everyone very busy; I can well understand that as a student myself. But I don't think that writing about 3000 words in two weeks is by any means too much. And of course if you really just can't make the deadline, we won't kill you  :P
Remember, most writing groups in real life meet every week.

Also during those two weeks you should in theory have plenty of time to read everyone's work. Even if its just a chapter a day or every couple days and you scribble down your thoughts and impressions, that is perfectly fine.

 Also don't feel like you need to give an in-depth critique for everyone's work. If you can, by all means do, I think Raethe has managed to give several fairly lengthy critiques already. Don't make it into a chore.

Basically I think that speeding up our submission process to a bi-weekly deadline will be fairly beneficial to all involved. We'll be able to review more of your work in less time.
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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2008, 12:21:49 AM »
I'm in favour of little_wilson's idea, or something similar at least. I mean you can always change your submission rate if you want to...

Reaves

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2008, 12:25:50 AM »
Wow wilson I actually really like that idea too. I guess you wrote that before I finished typing because i completely missed your post!
Quote from: VegasDev
RJF: "AHA! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Cairhien, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a warder when he is only the distraction! Get him Rand! Buzzzzzzz!

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #7 on: December 04, 2008, 12:41:19 AM »
I'm..... a little concerned about bi-weekly...

As you said above, there are full-timers who may struggle. I'm at uni full time, and have a part time job... so makes things a little... busy?

Although I like the idea of splitting into 3 groups... is that going to be even more difficult to organise and figure out who's meant to be submitting when?

Like you say, there is the benefit of writing more often to meet deadlines, but is it oing to be too much... I don't want to say pressure.... but... erm, I don't know how to word it really.

If I can re-write this a little more co-herantly in the morning, I will do. But hoping you get the gist?
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little wilson

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2008, 12:57:23 AM »
Well, I think if we did the 3 group thing, we'd be splitting up the groups, once we know where everyone's at.

For example, let's say we've got 4 monthly submitters (Jim, Andy, Dwight, and Michael), 4 bi-weekly submitters (Angela, Pam, Phyllis, and Kelly), and 4 bi-weekly skipping submitters (Ryan, Stanley, Creed, and Toby). The submissions would go something like so:

1--Jim, Pam, Angela, Ryan, Stanley
8--Andy, Phyllis, Kelly, Creed, Toby
15--Dwight, Angela, Pam, Ryan, Stanley
23--Michael, Phyllis, Kelly, Creed, Toby

Or something like that....

Bonus points: The names are from....?
« Last Edit: December 04, 2008, 01:03:56 AM by little_wilson »
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Reaves

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2008, 01:07:15 AM »
Thhheeeeee Ooooooofffffffiiiiiiiceeeeeee!!!!! Yaaaaay!!
Quote from: VegasDev
RJF: "AHA! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Cairhien, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a warder when he is only the distraction! Get him Rand! Buzzzzzzz!

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2008, 01:13:41 AM »
I like the idea of having the slightly more productive people being able to push content at a higher rate. Those of us writing novels are churning out WAY more than 3500 words every month, and people who want to sit back and relax through tricky stuff  can.

What about this:

We have submit days on Saturdays, but to sign up for Saturday submission, you have to have your name on the list (which opens one week before the submission date) by Thursday (to keep people from trying to last-minute  sign up for submissions). Moderators choose when we have enough people signed up (10 people max?), and people who haven't submitted as much get preference (if I've been turning in chapters weekly, and Raethe decides to turn in a short story after 3 weeks of nothing, she should get preference); people with relatively similar # of submissions would by FCFS.

Edit:
I included a handy diagram ^^



if you want to submit on a Saturday of a particular color, you have to put your name on the list during a day with that colored line on it.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2008, 02:26:14 AM by SugarPlumDreamer »
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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2008, 01:22:02 AM »
I would like to try and submit bi-weekly for the next couple months as I am trying to get things ready for the writing contest. After that, I will probably switch to once a month.

little wilson

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #12 on: December 04, 2008, 01:22:42 AM »
Good job, Reaves. The names ARE from The Office. Great show, by the way. Quite entertaining.

Oh, and I like Avalon's idea too...his sounds easier than my idea....Darn. And after all the work I put into that example...
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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #13 on: December 04, 2008, 02:14:48 AM »
By bi-weekly, I assume people mean bi-monthly? Twice a month instead of twice a week?

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Re: How do you feel about bi-weekly submissions? - please read
« Reply #14 on: December 04, 2008, 02:24:33 AM »
*facepalm*

Yes, that's what I meant, thanks jjb. Sorry.

(Clearly my brain is already on vacation...)

I think Avalon's idea is the best in terms of having people submit more often. Slightly less intuitive than the more automatic system we've got going on right now, but nothing's perfect I guess.

Sorry Wilson - I do think that this'd be a LOT easier than trying to organize three seperate cycles. And will keep us from getting overwhelmed with the amounts of stuff to critique, too.

Your example was prettier than Avalon's, though.