Notes ensuant on the last poll
This, for those of you just joining us. These items should have been posted ages ago, but it's not too late now. ^^; They are all effective as of this issue.
1) STORY BLURBS / SUMMARIES: this was one of the major talking points. Currently on s2b2, the first 75-150 words of each story is posted as a teaser above the cut. Many readers expressed a desire for formal summary blurbs, and/or content warnings, to enable more efficient decision-making re: which pieces to read first, or at all. A comparable number of other readers said that they do not want summaries and prefer to be surprised. 100% of all writers who deigned to express an opinion hated the idea of having to compose a summary paragraph as part of their story submission. XD; That doesn't exclude the possibility of a silent majority that doesn't mind the imposition or even enjoys the challenge, but... well.
In the end, the decision was to place the choice in the hands of the writers. If you want, compose a summary blurb of approximately 100 words (no more than 150) and include it as part of the notes section at the top of your submission (where most people put the title, pseud/LJ of author, pseud/LJ of illustrator, and wordcount - I'm thinking of making these metadata fields mandatory, in fact). Alternately, if you feel the beginning of your story doesn't give a representative idea of what it's about, designate a 75- to 150-word passage from somewhere else in the text and that will be used as the teaser text instead. Or, do nothing and the first 75-150 words will be used, as always.
2) QUALITY CONTROL: another recurring issue (perhaps the most frequent recurring issue?). It's safe to say that the vast majority of SSBB readers would like to see a higher number of well-written stories, and a lower number of badly-written ones; the puzzlement is in how to draw that line. ^^; Entries with mechanical problems - ranging from poor spelling to awkward prosody - are actually the more straightforward concern, hinging as it does on me not being so much of a soft touch. Which I am. I'm also a busy grownup, as has become evident (believe me I am sorrier about this than you are). So to simplify things, the SSBB editorial department is applying a new rule of thumb known as The 30-Minute Rule. That being, if I or dipping_sauce have to wrangle the text of your story for longer than 30 minutes in order to make it ready for publication, it's a bounce. I will also not be explaining at great length why it is a bounce and giving advice on how to make it better (in practice I've already stopped doing this, due to time concerns). This is of course biased toward shorter entries, but I think that's fair. After all you're inflicting the equivalent quantity of reading on the subscribers as well, not just the Editor. *g*
Note also that in the past I have accepted stories for the sake of the illustrator involved, even though the editing job was unreasonable. Writers should ponder their burden of responsibility in this. And no, the conclusion is not "if I bag a really great illustrator I'll be in the issue for sure". Illustrators can choose writers, incidentally - this isn't evident from the setup, but there's no reason they have to wait to be picked from the signup post.
The more thorny concern is what to do about stories that are - to use a technical term - boring. ^^; I'm profoundly wary of instituting any kind of systematic content restriction. Mileages vary, one cannot stress this enough, and my taste may not usefully reflect that of the SSBB readership... or it may. Would you folks prefer it if I bounced every submission that made me yawn? It would certainly streamline the process. As oft-quoted, SSBB is the domain of cliched erotic romance, but there's a WIDE gap between "predictably enjoyable" and "flatly by-the-numbers". I'm talking about failure to engage one's reader in the plot as a plot and the characters as characters. I'm aware that some participants are relative beginners to the art of original writing who see SSBB as a good venue to practice in front of a ready-made audience, which is great for them, but that's not what it's for. SSBB exists to serve the readership.
Discuss at will. I ask only that people not get paranoid that I'm dissing them in particular and vow never to participate again in order not to offend my eyes with their screen name. XD;; That's just unconstructive, and I get it a lot.
It's not just about bouncing submissions, of course - did you think it was? *g* Go here for the next SSBB poll. It consists of only one question. We will see what can be done with the answers after the issue is up.
3) INDEXING: a few questions were raised regarding the indexing, tagging, and retrieval of stories. For the record: the tag system on s2b2 can be used to retrieve all stories in an issue (the sticky post links them for convenience), or all stories by a single author. The latter will most likely allow you to see all the stories in a given serialization. There's no formal process for linking to related stories that appear somewhere other than SSBB (such as imaginarybeasts or the writer's own LJ), but generally the writer will make a note of it somewhere. Many illustrators are also tagged.
There were a number of other useful suggestions, which will be implemented if they do not directly contradict one another. XD I won't list them here as this post is already long enough. Oh, and there will be another challenge on bangbangwhimper after the deadline, so watch for that.
1) STORY BLURBS / SUMMARIES: this was one of the major talking points. Currently on s2b2, the first 75-150 words of each story is posted as a teaser above the cut. Many readers expressed a desire for formal summary blurbs, and/or content warnings, to enable more efficient decision-making re: which pieces to read first, or at all. A comparable number of other readers said that they do not want summaries and prefer to be surprised. 100% of all writers who deigned to express an opinion hated the idea of having to compose a summary paragraph as part of their story submission. XD; That doesn't exclude the possibility of a silent majority that doesn't mind the imposition or even enjoys the challenge, but... well.
In the end, the decision was to place the choice in the hands of the writers. If you want, compose a summary blurb of approximately 100 words (no more than 150) and include it as part of the notes section at the top of your submission (where most people put the title, pseud/LJ of author, pseud/LJ of illustrator, and wordcount - I'm thinking of making these metadata fields mandatory, in fact). Alternately, if you feel the beginning of your story doesn't give a representative idea of what it's about, designate a 75- to 150-word passage from somewhere else in the text and that will be used as the teaser text instead. Or, do nothing and the first 75-150 words will be used, as always.
2) QUALITY CONTROL: another recurring issue (perhaps the most frequent recurring issue?). It's safe to say that the vast majority of SSBB readers would like to see a higher number of well-written stories, and a lower number of badly-written ones; the puzzlement is in how to draw that line. ^^; Entries with mechanical problems - ranging from poor spelling to awkward prosody - are actually the more straightforward concern, hinging as it does on me not being so much of a soft touch. Which I am. I'm also a busy grownup, as has become evident (believe me I am sorrier about this than you are). So to simplify things, the SSBB editorial department is applying a new rule of thumb known as The 30-Minute Rule. That being, if I or dipping_sauce have to wrangle the text of your story for longer than 30 minutes in order to make it ready for publication, it's a bounce. I will also not be explaining at great length why it is a bounce and giving advice on how to make it better (in practice I've already stopped doing this, due to time concerns). This is of course biased toward shorter entries, but I think that's fair. After all you're inflicting the equivalent quantity of reading on the subscribers as well, not just the Editor. *g*
Note also that in the past I have accepted stories for the sake of the illustrator involved, even though the editing job was unreasonable. Writers should ponder their burden of responsibility in this. And no, the conclusion is not "if I bag a really great illustrator I'll be in the issue for sure". Illustrators can choose writers, incidentally - this isn't evident from the setup, but there's no reason they have to wait to be picked from the signup post.
The more thorny concern is what to do about stories that are - to use a technical term - boring. ^^; I'm profoundly wary of instituting any kind of systematic content restriction. Mileages vary, one cannot stress this enough, and my taste may not usefully reflect that of the SSBB readership... or it may. Would you folks prefer it if I bounced every submission that made me yawn? It would certainly streamline the process. As oft-quoted, SSBB is the domain of cliched erotic romance, but there's a WIDE gap between "predictably enjoyable" and "flatly by-the-numbers". I'm talking about failure to engage one's reader in the plot as a plot and the characters as characters. I'm aware that some participants are relative beginners to the art of original writing who see SSBB as a good venue to practice in front of a ready-made audience, which is great for them, but that's not what it's for. SSBB exists to serve the readership.
Discuss at will. I ask only that people not get paranoid that I'm dissing them in particular and vow never to participate again in order not to offend my eyes with their screen name. XD;; That's just unconstructive, and I get it a lot.
It's not just about bouncing submissions, of course - did you think it was? *g* Go here for the next SSBB poll. It consists of only one question. We will see what can be done with the answers after the issue is up.
3) INDEXING: a few questions were raised regarding the indexing, tagging, and retrieval of stories. For the record: the tag system on s2b2 can be used to retrieve all stories in an issue (the sticky post links them for convenience), or all stories by a single author. The latter will most likely allow you to see all the stories in a given serialization. There's no formal process for linking to related stories that appear somewhere other than SSBB (such as imaginarybeasts or the writer's own LJ), but generally the writer will make a note of it somewhere. Many illustrators are also tagged.
There were a number of other useful suggestions, which will be implemented if they do not directly contradict one another. XD I won't list them here as this post is already long enough. Oh, and there will be another challenge on bangbangwhimper after the deadline, so watch for that.