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RE: Farmpunk Flash Fiction Contest Winner
Very good analysis. My thought was, with just a few people interested at this point, I might get more participation if it was less frequent. Twice a month?
Then, as it grows in popularity (which I hope it will), then more frequent contests might be good.
It's difficult to put many restraints on something that is so new. I think you have to get people used to the idea first, and I thought being more open-ended would allow that. Plus, I want to maximize the creative juices, let people's imaginations run wild. I could give scenarios and let people write off of that, or offer farmpunk prompts.
Yeah prompts are fun because they still let you go wild but now there’s also a question to answer which I personally find fun. Like solving a creative puzzle lol. But yeah I think two weeks is a good format, pretty sure that’s how @calluna does hers if I’m remembering right
Thanks for the feedback!
I started with one week, didn't get very many, went to 10 days, and found I had a few late comers, so went to two weeks. That seems to be working well for me, although I do have a much higher word limit (and a round open if you fancy it). If you did want to do monthly, you could go for the 1st, people would be more likely to remember, but every two weeks is much more fun ;)
I would say go with a prompt, just because it is easier to tell if you get entries that were something someone had already written and just re-purposed. It is also great fun to see all the different directions people go from the same idea.
Looking forward to your next round :)
Thanks for weighing in @calluna. As I think about it, a month may be too long a stretch as people will likely forget to keep an eye. Although making it on the first would make it more memorable. That's true. I do like the idea of every two weeks as it still keeps it fresh in people's minds. Issue the contest the first week, announce the winner the next, then a week later you have another contest. That makes sense.
Now the question is, what is the best day of the week? Is it Saturday, or Wednesday, or something else? So many questions.
Launching on a weekend can get you more notice, but any day mid week means people have a full weekend to work on it. #twentyfourhourshortstory runs monday to tuesday, #finishthestory starts on Wednesdays, I am fairly certain cut off is the monday but people tend to enter early. With that in mind, maybe a thursday or a friday? I never thought much about the best day, but I am often looking for a contest to write for over the weekend ;)
I am fairly rubbish at the consistency myself, but reminder posts seem to help a lot as well :)
I'm thinking along the same lines. If I post on a Saturday, it will likely be mid- to late-morning. That gives people a day and a half on the weekend to write something. People tend to be busier during the week, I think. But I post a contest in the middle of the week, then they have the whole weekend. That's just me thinking out loud.