Infinite Writing Tournament 11- Horror

[dreamshell]

Who's got the guillotine, guys?













But, yeah, I'm pretty much fine either way. I've already worked out at least 10 different pairings - some of them might even work!












Though who knows if I'll enter, anyway.

[donteatpoop]

The broadness was genius. Hoping you're clowing on the assignment thing.

[End Master]

Actually I applaud BatCountry for this new evil twist, because it did seem a bit broad as far as theming went not to mention I did agree with Ves that horror has been done a couple time already for these contests.

Well good luck to everyone who is participating, I'll be watching from the sidelines and unfortunately still be available in case someone decides to no show for votes again.

[Locke]

I guess I'm fine with the assigned theme. I think I can do something with most of what's there. Not sure about the "Banishment" inclusion, just because there aren't that many contributing members to banish. If I beat you this year, I guess I can always repeal it, though.

EDIT: Also, your mother's a whore.

[Bear Bipolar-Bear]

Hello everybuddy! Do you remember me? I'm the cute little bear who once trundled into your midst, ne'er to be heard from since. But yea, I live and live well I do too. I have been a busy Bear indeed, fronting my five-piece band, taking jousting lessons and attending High Tea in the forest of an afternoon. I see that you are hosting a new competition and would hereby like to humbly submit my interest and intent in said competition. I will abide by any and all rules, provided these rules do not ask anything obscene of me or make me lose my faith in the Animal Religion. Will you accept a humble bear into your worthy tournament?

[BatCountry]

I always accept kindly bears who have a clear sense of where and where not to tread. You are most wise my favorite bear buddy! Wiser than SOME people around here...

Also, your mother's a whore.

A clear and flagrant violation of my new banned from space and time rule. However Mr. Locke, I like a guy with balls. You have big, soppy balls and I love em. You will most likely get BANISHED FROM SPACE AND TIME anyway since you already are in the pit of shame. No entry from you this contest and you are banished! Let that be incentive I guess.


Besides donteatpoop no one seems to mind the random trope dealings I have in store. Unless a bunch of you protest this, I will be making it so and handing out random tropes to each entrant. Last chance to suggest tropes, otherwise Locke's suggestions will be entered.

[Usoki]

I've been on the fence about the contest, as I am terrible at writing horror. I can't promise that I will decide to enter, but I can promise that if you decide to randomize the tropes, I will most certainly not be entering this year.

Overlooking the arguments about how you can't have true random distribution, the idea of signing up for a contest without knowing the full guidelines until you've already committed yourself is quite silly. Just what, exactly, is solved by randomizing the tropes? An increase in difficulty, perhaps? In a contest that already has volume issues due to the laziness of people, amping up the difficulty seems quite absurd. It's certainly not going to fix the complaints of a wide range of entries under one broad category- it would make it worse. I have no issues with people asking for a random assortment of tropes to use, if they want to challenge themselves in such a manner. But to force that element? I'm not a big fan.

And let's not forget the fact that you're trying to add a major twist into the competition after people have already agreed to the prior terms. Other people are okay with it. Fine. Whatever. DEP agreed to the contest, with the specific intent of using a select group of themes that mesh with an idea in progress. Now that he's reached the point where he cannot, due to longstanding tradition, back out of the contest- now you're changing the rules? I call bullshit. That is not what he agreed to. That is not what anyone agreed to.

[Vesnic]

I call bullshit. That is not what he agreed to. That is not what anyone agreed to.

I call bullshit on your bullshit. Bat made it abundantly clear that he was still considering ideas and was open to making changes per the views of the community. If people wanted to hop in and volunteer themselves during this probation period, then that's very enthusiastic and brave of them. The whole point of the contest isn't for people to get to write just what they would be writing anyway. That's why there's always the choice to create your own story, contest or not. The contest exists to unite several writers in one common effort around a common theme which, while not necessarily everyone's cup of tea (we are a pretty diverse group after all) is nonetheless something which people can relate to, each in his or her own particular way. It's that differing of approach to a single topic which makes the contest so interesting. People seem to be getting extremely touchy about topics of late. If it's not just what they want to do, then they back out. I find that a little bit babyish and stubborn. Are they really saying they have absolutely nothing to say about a topic which, while maybe not their own personal crowning glory, is nonetheless something they could find an inventive, individual way to engage with? Pandering to laziness just breeds more and more intractable laziness. Bat is trying to make room for everyone's ideas while still maintaining the challenging contest element. He has never once said, "Ok, that's it. Those are the rules. Like it or lump it" and has asked several times for input, so why is it a surprise if this input is now being taken into consideration? Maybe we could make a provision that someone could drop out now without SHAME, provided the drop-out happened before the FINALIZING of the rules for this contest, which is yet to occur. That would really be a pity, though, if anyone really felt they had to drop out of the contest entirely, just because the theme doesn't happen to coincide with something they're already considering.

[End Master]

Y'know I can see Ves and Usoki's points of view.

Ves usually wants these contests to be "more than what they are." She wants all of us to challenge ourselves, etc. Its all very motivational minded. Be better, grow as a person, etc. I think that might work with a less lethargic and possibly even younger moldable group. It doesn't work very well here, but I guess its admirable that she keeps trying even if her methods don't work most of the time.

Usoki is taking more of the pragmatic view that quite frankly is VERY based in reality. He's right in that most people aren't exactly the most motivated here, so in order to get the most amount of participants its better to keep the contest themes broad and have as little fuss as possible.

Really, we do it pragmatic way most of the time anyway, so I was actually more in favor of Ves' suggestion of making the contest slightly harder this time. (Hey what do I care, I'm not in it!) Bat came up with something and it seems to be a fair compromise. I imagine for Ves, this contest is STILL not really challenging enough due to the horror theme and all the tropes, but that's her cross to bear.

Ultimately as always its up to BatCountry what he wants to do, but really the only person that this is really going to affect negatively is DEP so far (Usoki can just opt not to join and he's fine)

However I will say this, if BatCountry backs down from this and lets DEP (or anyone else) drop out without SHAME or goes back to non-randomization, then he's proven to be a weak leader and needs to go ahead and give himself SHAME right now.

He can get rid of said SHAME if he actually wins the contest. (Not that he'll actually give himself SHAME if he does back down, but it would be the honorable thing to do in the tradition of the noble samurai or some shit)

Besides its funnier to keep the contest this way because it potentially fucks up DEP's plans (He might still get lucky and get something to work with) and if DEP manages to win the contest well that means the victory was all the more sweeter.

[Locke]

I can work with pretty much anything. I don't care what the theme is. It would be nice if a final decision could be made soon, though.

Unless you come up with something completely different, you're going to piss someone off at this point. So just... decide. It's what we (don't) pay you for.

[donteatpoop]

I'm down for whatever. I signed up based on the original rules, but I did sign up. And this is Bat's tournament. I've got a story started that can easily take just about any route, so I'm not really worried about it. Not yet anyway.

I appreciate Usucky's sentiments on leaving the contest as vague as possible, as I feel the same. It definitely attracts more entrants when there are less limits involved. That's always my strategy in picking the category when I won... that one time. Very long ago. Echoing in the past... so distant.

But whatever you're into Batcuntree. You're the boss... FOR NOW!! ONE DAY I WILL HAVE MY MOMENT IN THE SUN!! I'M PALE AND BURN EASY!! I WILL HAVE TO PUT SUNSCREEN ON!!

WHY AM I YELLING?!!

Dammit, cuntree... just dammit.

[Locke]

If Batcountry goes forward with the random-assignment plan, I am sort of interested in how the random factor can be implemented.

Given that a final list hasn't been published yet, I suppose we could all hit the random number generator, or trust Bats to do it for each participant (2 integers between one and 18, assuming he keeps the present list and adds three from mine) and then post the results/shuffled final list.

I guess if you really wanted to make sure it was random, Batcountry could send the list to Endmaster, who would shuffle it, encrypt it with a public key, and send it to all participants. After the randomized numbers were posted for everyone, End could send everyone the private key to decrypt the list, whereupon we would all have truly random assignments.

...but that last paragraph seems like a lot of trouble to go to, instead of trusting someone for part of it.

Any better ideas?

If I had to get rid of a trope, btw, it'd be "Afterlife Express." I can't think of much I want to do with that one.

[donteatpoop]

If I had to get rid of a trope, btw, it'd be "Afterlife Express." I can't think of much I want to do with that one.

A "please not this trope" option would be cool.

As for randomization; Batty can just put the list in some random order on his computer and ask us to pick 2 numbers between 1 & whatever. Then just assign us whatever tropes coincide with the numbers on his list.

Or he could just pretend to be random and dole out whatever he feels like.


OR: Have us pick twice the amount we need and give us the option to throw out up to half of them.

[Locke]

...maybe he just gave up?

[mizal]

I don't really care what rules get decided on anymore, this is all taking way too long to get straightened out so I just started writing a story about adorable kittens playing with yarn at a picnic in a park. Their names are Casey and Snowdrop.