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[GRW810]

My theory was that it would give us all some practice in succinct storytelling and editing. As you've stated people could write a 1,000 words or less even with a higher word count, but there's no need to. Even with that self-imposed intention you could waffle for 900 words and think "meh, I'll just make it 2,000", thereby opting for unedited rambling over tight and disciplined writing.

I think as a one-off amidst 2,000-3,000 word counts it could promote focus on a handful of characters, fewer settings and crisper dialogue and description. One of the biggest criticisms I received in this challenge was that I spent far too long on my introduction and that it affected the flow of the overall story. Criticisms towards others have included confusing story direction, wordy sentences and iffy character building. With a thousand words you can't mess around, you're in and out of the story so quickly that you have to give it an impact.

But maybe I'll leave it for now. As I said I don't want to upset Challenge regulars; it would be my worst nightmare for someone to opt out of a Challenge because of my poor choice of regulation. I'd still like to see the occasional 1,000ish word challenge, but it doesn't seem a popular way to go right now. Thanks for the honest input folks.

Just having a final think about the theme and I'll get the new thread up ASAP.

 

[Cyan]

Go for it, dude. I doubt people will bail just because of a lower word limit. And far be it from me to tell people not to mess with word limits.

 

[Ashes]

I'm not expecting everyone to write stories of that length. The last time we had a no-limit challenge, only a few people had lengthy stories. The idea isn't to say "hey everyone, write super-long stories!" but to let people write the length that their story should be, rather than slavishly chopping down to a limit.

I would expect that most people would stay in the normal range just due to lack of time for anything longer. There's a tendency in these threads to take the word limit as a suggested length, but I don't think that's necessary or even useful. With no limit, that might not be a problem.

Also, the intent here is that this would be experimental rather than a decree of how things would go from then on. If it made things impossible, we wouldn't have to do it again.

fair enough.

@GRW810: Boo! grow some balls and have at it.

how about 1800 words, with the secondary objective being what you just said? I mean that is how most of threads are.

 

[Mike M]

Seriously, I wouldn't worry too much about the word limit thing. Worst case scenario, someone sits out and comes back later. No one's going to quit permanently over it.

 

[Ashes]

I think the only thing I personally would object to is a topic with a very very small word count limit such as six words or something. And having that as compulsory rather than optional.
The other thing that gets me is when the op tells me to write something very very specific. e.g. have your main character die at the end.

 

[Cyan]

I'm finding my sweet spot is the 2500-3000 range, which probably isn't doing me any favors since that's too long for flash fiction, but too short for a proper short story.

I don't think it's necessarily too short for a proper short story. I've seen excellent ones of that length or shorter.

The main problem I've been having is that my ideas are often slightly too big for the length requirement, and then wind up garbled or weak when I cut stuff that shouldn't have been cut. Of course, that may just be me.

I think the only thing I personally would object to is a topic with a very very small word count limit such as six words or something. And having that as compulsory rather than optional.

Agreed, although the time when we had a 100-word limit was actually pretty fun! I didn't end up quite executing the way I wanted to, but it definitely caused me to think hard about word choices and style and so on.

 

[Ashes]

100 words? which one was that? I was thinking about the timedog one, where it was associated with the theme, short, or brevity or something. Around 500 words limit. That was admittedly fun.

Spoiler

but never again!

 

[GRW810]

I didn't know there was a 100 word challenge. The lowest I've ever seen is 1800 I think. Can anyone tell me which challenge it was or even link me to it? I'd be really interested in reading the entires.

 

[Cyan]

I didn't know there was a 100 word challenge. The lowest I've ever seen is 1800 I think. Can anyone tell me which challenge it was or even link me to it? I'd be really interested in reading the entires.

I would, but I'm a doofus and it was actually 500 words. But here's that one if you're curious: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=407093.

When the challenges started off, the standard word limit was actually 1000. We've expanded since then.

 

[Ashes]

yep, that's the one I was thinking of. But a word of warning, I think, only Timedog could get away with the crazy.

 

[GRW810]

500 word Challenge? Ok, 1,000 is plenty then! Let's do this.

 

[John Dunbar]

I would, but I'm a doofus and it was actually 500 words. But here's that one if you're curious: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=407093.

When the challenges started off, the standard word limit was actually 1000. We've expanded since then.

Personally, I maintain my entry in that challenge was grossly under appreciated.

 

[Ashes]

It's fun reading that thread again.

Spoiler

what have I done?

 

[GRW810]

New thread, fellow scribes. See you over there.

NeoGAF Writing Challenge #123 - "Misinformation"

 

[Mike Works]

Congrats on the win - if I'd pulled it out, I was actually going to do a 500 word max challenge (which I still may do next time I win), so don't worry about a short word count.

 

[Tangent]

Oops! Sincere apologies for forgetting to vote. I got carried away with crits. But anyway, congrats GRW810!

As for word length, some good food for thought. I'm down with experimentation.