What do you want to see at the Desk?

[EmeraldSky]

Good evening, fellow writers and readers!

With a new year just beginning, I got to thinking about ways we could make this place even better, as well as some ideas for new projects and possibly collaborations.

So using the handy poll, tell me what YOU want to see happen in the Writer's Desk this year--progress on an existing project? Something totally new? No reasonable idea will be refused (be sure to explain why you picked the choice(s) you did)

You have a week to vote in the poll--whatever gets the most votes just may be our next big project!

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

These are all cool ideas! I think what I would like to see is more feedback for authors! Maybe there could be a system where authors could sign up, then they get paired up and read a chapter of each others stories and give feedback. They can keep coming up for more and get paired up with others as well. So if you're willing to put in some work reading other people's stories, then at least you will get some feedback on your own story as well!

I also think some short writing challenges could be good if they were guaranteed feedback from the mods or something like that. :) It can be a bit disheartening if it feels like no one is reading!

[EmeraldSky]

That sounds like a good idea--there are several possible ways this could work:

--A straight review exchange--Person A reads Person B's story, and Person B reads Person A's in return
--A weekly mystery review exchange--get some willing volunteers, and randomly pair them up for a review exchange
--A review request thread, where an author can request a specific person to review or leave it up to chance
--a notification thread, where authors can post when a new chapter is up.

[Chibi Altaria]

I don't think a notification thread is needed; it's pretty clear when people post updates. I like the review exchange. it encourages people to read other's stories and then comment on them in return. Maybe you'll read something you never even thought to, only to find out it's pretty awesome. :D The mystery exchange sounds good in theory, but that would need quite a few volunteers to work well in the first place.

[Suicune's Fire]

I like the concept of writing challenges, especially short ones that won't take people long to write. A review exchange is also a great idea. :] Rather than a whole story for a whole story, just a chapter for a chapter would be good (then obviously they can keep reading if they enjoy it).

I think you could turn the Stories Idea Lounge into an Idea Louge/General Chat and then when people post new chapters, they could always post in there instead of having it as a separate thread. :] We did this on Pe2k, if I recall correctly. Just a multipurpose thread.

[EmeraldSky]

Excellent points, all and thanks for your votes.

As far as what writing challenges would entail, they would make you think a bit, but generally you'd be able to write as much or as little as you want, unless the challenge explicitly said to write so many words

[Chakramaster]

Seeing as this IS the Writers Desk. I feel personally it should focus mainly on writting challenges. Though I would like to see some of the collabs as well with Artist Easel. I just wouldn't focus on that too much. The challenges themselves having no limit sounds good for freedom to go wild with whatever you can imagine. Though with limitations you could use thoughts of a "part 2" if you ever wanted to a challenge.

I do like the idea of a mystery exchange, but like Gemma said. You'd need a lot of volunteers for that to go over well. You may not want the same people, all the time for it either. Someone different to change it up at times.

[EmeraldSky]

Basically, what a collab with the Artist's Easel would entail would depend on how many people on both ends wanted to take part, but some ideas would be a large scale story worked on by both sides, pairing an artist and writer to create something, or the artists illustrating existing stories.

[Neo Emolga]

I like these ideas a lot and I feel they would be fun to work with. :3

When it comes to writing challenges, I think a fun idea there would be something where you sign up for them, and every week, you get a challenge prompt to work with. Kind of like the writing prompt, but if you complete it before the deadline, you get some kind of mark that you met the challenge and completed it on time. And if you get all the marks for say a month or something like that, you get a token added to your profile saying you met the challenge.

I like the collab with Artist's Easel idea as well. The whole idea of stories getting covers or some kind of art/imagery done for them really makes them come to life. I think I could take part in that from either end.

And a review exchange seems like a good idea there.

[Nekomata]

Why not collaborate with the Comic's area? I mean- it's not like writing and comics have ever gone together........ riiiiight? =D

[EmeraldSky]

Well--what would we do if a collab were to happen?

I'm picturing a massive story both sections work together on?

[Caite-chan]

We need to start off small I think. We don't have very many people so anything big might backfire or be very underwhelming. So we might want to start off with say writing challenges that people then can leave comments on.

[EmeraldSky]

That is a good point--so once the small stuff gets popular, we move on to bigger and better things.

[Scytherwolf]

I like the idea of review exchanges; I think that would make this place more active and I'd definitely participate in that.

I'd have to sit out of the writing challenges though because I haven't yet figured out how to tell a short story. ^^;

[EmeraldSky]

Thank you all for the responses! If you know of somebody that might want to cast a vote, spread the word! You have four more days till the poll closes!