YWO Literature Highlights (Amour's Idea)

[Shaun]

If the title didn't give the facts away, then I want to be clear that this is *not* my idea. Amour suggested it to me, and I'm sure someone else has suggested it in the past. So, I'm going to post her comments here and see what you all thing:
Shaun, have you ever thought about doing a spotlight? Each week (or every two weeks? - not longer gaps than that, because you get so much work posted in so little time here) your strong poetry users, like the crit sheriffs, pick the the best poem posted that week with an explanation of what it did well. That person gets a little tag in their 'about me' that says Poetry Spotlight Winner (x# - ie. x2, x3 etc)

This will encourage BETTER poetry, because the explanations of why it was chosen will encourage people to mimic that in their own way. It will also get people writing more poetry, and give sight of the standard of poetry (something to aim for)

This could also be applied in the prose section too, of course
And:
Could you create a board called "Spotlight" with subboards (Poetry / Prose / Lab), and then create a new thread in the subboard every time a winner is announced? I think it would be really cool to do it that way! Because you'd have an archive of all the winning material, like a little library of YWO's best work
Any thoughts, suggestions, etc.? If you can think of a place where we could put this, how it would be run (who would run it), etc., then please let me know!

[Isis]

psst, change the main body of the post for proper idea credit. not mine!

I like the idea of having a separate board for spotlights (and love the idea of spotlights). However, if you for whatever reason don't see a need to make a separate board, than a spotlight thread that's updated weekly or biweekly or whatever would do: I've done those on other forums, and as long as the person in charge could maintain the thread it worked very well. Work was shown by linking to it on the forum rather than re-copying, so people could give comments and crits and stuff in the appropriate place. You could do both for poetry, I suppose, but this would get impractical for prose.

[Shaun]

Gah, sorry. Thanks for the correction. Stupid me!

[Alice Glitterhorn]

I liiiiiiiiiiike this idea. Yay Amour, too awesome for your own good!

I think having a separate board with different threads for each week would be better, that way you could find different works easier. But, with the poetry section being so slow, maybe it would be better to have it every two weeks, so we could get a better build-up of poetry before choosing. At least until the poetry section gets back up to speed, anyway.

As for who should choose, personally I think it should be people who know their stuff (*cough cough* Isis/Amour/Peppermental *cough*) because they'll be able to give good explanations for why certain poems are written well. But, along with that, they should have just as much a chance at winning as people who aren't judging, so... hehehe I don't know. I'm terrible at putting ideas out there.

As for prose, this could probably work well, too. I'd probably read a lot more of what's on here, so it might help with a general sense of reading/critting as well, not only for the winners, but for everyone.

IN CONCLUSION, me likeeee.

[lostbookworm]

I love the idea. It would give far more exposure to work that may have otherwise been looked over. I think that as long as it was someone who knew what they were doing for each section, it would go well. In fact, I say two people take over, so if one person is unavailable, the other would be able to take over. And they'd have a wider view on the work if working on it together. Finally, I suggest voting on the person/people in charge of each section like the Democratic Forum we are. And you Shaunie boy, can't turn into a Stalinistic/Maoist dictator like I want to be.

Well. that's my little piece of helpful suggestions that may or may not turn out helpful. Hope this works out. :)

[Rose]

I stalked your profile a few days ago and read this conversation between you and Amour. :P

I was waiting for you to create this thread, actually.

So, I like zis idea. Srsrsrsrsrsly.

And as Caleb would say:

I love youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, Aly.

kthnxbai.

^ 100% agree with him.

I heart you Aly. <3

You too, Shaun. <3 :P

[lalodragon]

I think this would be a great idea.... amazing idea.... I like the board idea better, because of how cluttered our threads often get. And I do like the idea of voting-- but I'm rather thinking it might be better to vote on which poem. Take the ones who know their stuff and let them choose, say, three poems, and let the general population decide which one. But, I don't know if that would work. As for voting on who choses, we have what, three candidates? four? (Amour, Isis, Caleb, Rose?) I love the idea though, not least because I'd benefit from the methods of the winners. :whistle:

[Amour]

Whoaaa, as much as I appreciate the credit, this idea was introduced on many other sites - But I'm glad you all like the suggestion to bring it here :)

A single thread for each would work also, and may be less exhausting - either/or, as long as it's running. I do quite like this:

Work was shown by linking to it on the forum rather than re-copying, so people could give comments and crits and stuff in the appropriate place.

I think there are a lot of poets capable of choosing good poetry around here! And it should be totally open to suggestion too - if you see something you like, let the person taking care of posting the spotlight know.

[Arty]

I like the idea of having it open to suggestion, but I would suggest that the 3/4 people we 'elect' to do each section be the ones to essentially decide what goes in the spotlight and what doesn't. If you have weekly polls for which pieces are best then the whole forum will just get cluttered, aside from which not everyone reads every post in every section, so not everyone will be well-informed enough to make a vote.

The spotlight shouldn't be a rigid process though, I agree with that much -- maybe if the crit sheriffs get stuck one week, they can PM another few trusted people and ask for their opinions.

[OrionRising]

Maybe this as like a weekly "News Letter" and then we should definitely have a "Hall of Fame" with only the most amazing works of YWO on it.

Great, Great, Great, Idea.

[Peppermental]

The board would have to remain hidden, in the same vein as the member's only sections. It stands to reason that the best pieces will also be the ones people hope to publish.

[Shaun]

Why would we need it to be hidden? Any links to the poems in members only sections wouldn't be accessible to nonmembers and having the spotlight public might be a good idea, since it will show people that we mean business.

Or am I wrong in thinking that?

[Arty]

^ The monster has a point. Writing can easily be taken down or moved over the the members-only section if they want to try and get it published.

[Peppermental]

I don't know exactly how caching works completely or if publishers use it at all, I just personally would be uneasy about posting something that I wasn't sure if I was going to try to publish or not.

[Shaun]

Right, but the spotlight wouldn't republish your story/poem in the splotlight section. It would just have a link, and that link could very well go to a members only section, which wouldn't be accessible to anyone else but members.

[Peppermental]

ohohohoh I totally misunderstood, my mistake.

[Clarissa]

Me likey.

That's pretty much all I have to say. Lovely little confidence boost for whomsoever gets picked each time.

[Julian]

Me likey.

That's pretty much all I have to say. Lovely little confidence boost for whomsoever gets picked each time.

"little" is an understatement lol xP. Considering that you are voted as the highlight of this site by your peers or fellow writers.

That will give a big confindence boost. It will to me that is for sure xP.

P.S: Can't believe I almost submitted this post with "site" written as "sight" o.O.

[Clarissa]

P.S: Can't believe I almost submitted this post with "site" written as "sight" o.O.

You also forgot a few commas.

/endspam.

[Julian]

Sorry for the bump but an idea similar to this came into my mind while showering (well... because most eureka moments are experienced while taking a bath).

Instead of creating a 'highlights' board, why not a 'highlights', stickied thread in each relevant board of the writing thread?

I mean, this way, works that are posted in the members only section can retain their privacy.

We can hyperlink these 'site highlight' works in that thread and categorise the works and in which area they were excellent at (eg. a title in bold 'Great use of the 1st-person narrative' and the work under that).

And then eventually, after a month or two, this thread would then be placed into a separate board this time, like an archive for 'highlights' threads. A new thread, in return, will be stickied by then. Or, we can just let those works accumulate in their respective 'hightlight(s)'.


Like:


Compelling imagery



[Hyperlinked name of the work] by [username]


OR





Compelling imagery



First work: [Hyperlinked name of the work] by [username]

Second work:[Hyperlinked name of the work] by [username]

Arranged chronologically.

[lostbookworm]

Excuse me Shauny dear, but this has died. I am bumping it in hope that you revive it.