Yahoo Forum Archive

Regarding WIP/unfinished categories: It seemed strange to me that short
stories and novels are lumped together. I think that in judging an incomplete
work it is strange to compare something very short to something very long. The
vast discrepancy in the amount of time, labor, research, etc., needed to write
a novel and that involved in short story seems to me to make them very
different animals.

Am I the only person that thinks this is a little weird? If there are too
few to divide by size or type and then subject matter, I would think unfinished
works should be divided into comparable types of work: e.g., poetry, short
stories, novels.

(Whine, whine, whine--of course, you guessed it! I'm working on a novel!)

Thanks---

Oshun


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Incompletes only compete against each other, so they aren't being
directly compared to short stories, iirc.

Novels/novellas/'epics' compete alongside short stories so long as
they're complete. Personally, I prefer this because of the way I
vote--I do it by categories. So I go to a category, download a list of
all stories and then proceed to read through it. The goal is to read
as much of the category as I can and work through however many pages
there are in it before moving to the next category.

However, because I'm trying to read as much as I can, nine times out
of ten, and probably more often than that, I read one chapter of a
novel and then skip the rest unless I've read it before (and so can
vote almost immediately on it). If there were a category based on
novels, it's almost certain I would never open it. If they're
intermixed with shorter stories, I can trick my psyche into opening
the link, and sometimes I will simply get caught and read straight
through. At the least, I will have opened one chapter and given it a
taste-test knowing I can move on to the next story quickly and likely
finish reading what comes next.

This isn't logical, but it's the way it works for me when I feel like
I have to read a lot, especially if I know I'm coming up on external
deadlines. So for me, keeping novels with other stories means I'm more
likely to read at least a few of them. If they were their own,
pre-sorted category, I could simply ignore them as a category I would
never finish and so I'd probably never even start reading them.

Dwim

Relating to unfinished works, Dwim said: "If there were a category based on
novels, it's almost certain I would never open it." I concede that is an
excellent point and well-taken. And, I had considered it briefly...but my overall
reaction when I saw short stories included in WIPs was: What? Short stories?
Hey, why not take a couple of hours tonight and finish the thing already!

Meanwhile, here I am, still sloughing away, pushing at this Sisyphean task,
hoping my will holds out until I get to end of my current outline of chapters
(which keeps getting longer)! I really should have more of a sense of humor.
I really should try to clean up that tiresome first chapter. Instead, here I
sit moping around, hoping someone will get past those initial chapters and
onto the more fun ones that come later.... Sigh!

Oshun


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Hello Oshun and Dwim,

Good points made all around. This is an interesting topic and thank
you for bringing it up, Oshun.

One thing to keep in mind is that the story length for a WIP should
not be the length you anticipate it will be when finished, it should
be the length it is when it is nominated. Also, remember that story
lengths are based on the number of words in the piece. A short story
is defined for MEFA purposes as 1,001-10,000 words. So it is very
possible that a WIP may be nominated when only 2-3 relatively short
chapters are written and published. Several things might have
happened:

- the author intended to write more chapters but has gotten
distracted with other projects and so is not currently wrking on it

- RL or a lack of muses is keeping the author from writing in general

- the author is working on the story but forgot to let the MEFAs know
that the length has changed. Any author of a WIP who passes into a
new length bracket can always email mefasupport@gmail.com with the
story title and what they would like the length to be changed to. I
check this email daily, but cannot change a length unless someone
asks me to.

The bigger problem may be what to do with stories that are both
incompletes and fixed-length ficlet pieces, or incompletes and poems
(or poems and FLFs for that matter). Technically an incomplete is any
piece where the author intends to write more parts. Poems and
drabbles and so on can usually be written all at once, but not
always. I have a series of drabbles dealing with perceptions - it's a
drabble where everything perceived is through sight, or sound, and so
on.

In the past we have respected the author's wishes on this. But that
may be something worth reconsidering.

Marta

Oh, dear, now I am embarrassed. I am not sure I understand it all
correctly--I'm going to have to read your email a couple of times and let it sink
in...logic has never been my strong point! Don't mean to waste your time--I know
how hard all of you have been working on all aspects of these awards.

Oshun


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Posted by: "heartofoshun@aol.com" heartofoshun@aol.com chuchagrandma

>Am I the only person that thinks this is a little weird? If there are too

few to divide by size or type and then subject matter, I would think unfinished
works should be divided into comparable types of work: e.g., poetry, short
stories, novels.

That makes much sense to me. We already have the drabbles in a separate
category - novels could then be on the other side of the spectrum.
Although I would not put WiPs and finished novels in one pot.

Imhiriel

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "Imhiriel" <Larys.HMF@...> wrote:

>
> Posted by: "heartofoshun@..." heartofoshun@... chuchagrandma
>
> >Am I the only person that thinks this is a little weird? If there

are too

> few to divide by size or type and then subject matter, I would think

unfinished

> works should be divided into comparable types of work: e.g., poetry,

short

> stories, novels.
>
> That makes much sense to me. We already have the drabbles in a separate
> category - novels could then be on the other side of the spectrum.
> Although I would not put WiPs and finished novels in one pot.
>
> Imhiriel
>

Hi Imhiriel,

Fixed-length ficlets (drabbles and other specific drabble variants,
like 200-word and 300-word ficlets) are special not just because they
are so short but because they fulfill a special form. I think of
drabbles as a sort of prose-poetry. It is not telling a drabble in one
hundred words or less, but exactly one hundred words that is
significant - doing that well is a special skill just like making the
meter of a poem not feel forced is a specific skill.

So I'm not sure I agree that novels are the other side of the spectrum
from drabbles, as the MEFAs have set those things up. For our purposes
a 127-word story should not be in the Fixed-Length Ficlet
subcategories. Because it is just a very short length, not fulfilling
a specific form.

My opinion, of course, and I've been known to be convinced I was
wrong. ;-)

Marta

Posted by: "aure_enteluva" melayton@gmail.com aure_enteluva

>Fixed-length ficlets (drabbles and other specific drabble variants,

like 200-word and 300-word ficlets) are special not just because they
are so short but because they fulfill a special form. I think of
drabbles as a sort of prose-poetry. It is not telling a drabble in one
hundred words or less, but exactly one hundred words that is
significant - doing that well is a special skill just like making the
meter of a poem not feel forced is a specific skill.

I understand that (how could I not *g*?). I think I simplified my answer to
reflect more the fact of "length" and "own category" that was the issue here.

Although I would hope that length would not deter me, I know that I feel
sometimes similar to Dwim. Having a category full of novels can look at first
like a huge endeavour to undertake.
I also tackle one category at a time like she, but I'm not so disciplined at it,
so I'm mixing all sorts of stories anyway.

Imhiriel

Posted by: "aure_enteluva" melayton@gmail.com aure_enteluva

>Fixed-length ficlets (drabbles and other specific drabble variants,

like 200-word and 300-word ficlets) are special not just because they
are so short but because they fulfill a special form. I think of
drabbles as a sort of prose-poetry. It is not telling a drabble in one
hundred words or less, but exactly one hundred words that is
significant - doing that well is a special skill just like making the
meter of a poem not feel forced is a specific skill.

I understand that (how should I not *g*?). I think I simplified my answer to
reflect more the fact of "length" and "own category" that was the issue here.

Although I would hope that length would not deter me, I know that I feel
sometimes similar to Dwim. Having a category full of novels can look at first
like huge endeavour to undertake.
I also tackle one category at a time like she, but I'm not so disciplined at it,
so I'm mixing all sorts of stories anyway.

Imhiriel