Comments | sm_monthly: Mod Post : Themes And Contributions

sea_thoughts in sm_monthly

Mod Post : Themes And Contributions

Jul 26, 2010 20:22

There's been a noticeable drop in contributions to the community this year. :( seniumboy and I have been discussing on how to improve this and I thought a poll might prove helpful.

Poll What would inspire you to write more/contribute more?

If you have any other ideas, please feel free to put them in the comments.

Oh, and please VOTE for January 2010. We need to catch up. :)

themes, mod post, suggestions, nominations

Comments 19

jpendizzle July 27 2010, 00:37:48 UTC

Crazy busy and my writing spirit died. I am no longer ridiculously busy, but my muse is still dead. :( Slowly been getting it back though so yay! Sorry Starsea. <3

sea_thoughts July 27 2010, 00:45:29 UTC

Your icon totally made me laugh out loud. /off topic

isawthephoto July 27 2010, 01:52:04 UTC

I think it is extremely important to choose broad enough themes that can be applied to different areas of interest. I've never seen PGSM, so of course it's hard to write for it. Enjoyed slash/femmeslash, but I can understand why it didn't get the entries that say, Minako did. Popularity is important, and while PGSM is fairly popular, a theme like Minako or [insert character here] covers all universes, all genres, probably several ships, topics, etc. Accessibility to key to participation ( ... )

purplekitte July 27 2010, 11:59:05 UTC

I can't really help because I haven't been contributing for reasons entirely beyond your control. I actually have liked the last two monthly themes (the first two this year were probably the more popular ones with other people, I just didn't feel like it, as happens some months for no particular reason, and was horrifically busy). I like the daily themes and feel inspired by most of them. I for one just have a summer schedule very different from my rest-of-the-year schedule and so my writing style shifts away from this comm. I hope to be back in a few weeks.

Nominating is certainly tedious, which is why I never do it. Voting is alright, though I admit I haven't thought about better ways of doing things very much, because I consider the awards an afterthought that help me remember to read other people's things.

raya_light July 27 2010, 16:53:51 UTC

I guess I'll add my two cents even though I've been mostly a no show the past couple of years. ^-^

For myself: I've generally liked the monthly themes. I've been impressed with how cleverly the mods have been able to come up with things (sometimes with the help of the community via theme polls) so that they haven't quite repeated themselves yet. I'm not a particular fan of StarS or slash, but that has not kept me from submitting things based on them in the past ( ... )

raya_light July 27 2010, 17:16:48 UTC

And finally... My lack of writing doesn't have much to do with the themes that have been posted. I mean, Usagi month. How could I not write for Usagi month? And yet only one and a half stories made it out of my head for others to see ( ... )

raya_light July 27 2010, 17:32:41 UTC

*sheepish smile* And I apologize to all for my long winded, possibly unneccessary response.

For a suggestion: Is there any way to set it up so that we know if there are new entries for old themes? It's pretty easy to track through the current month, but how many people have staked a new claim to Favorite Pairings month? Or written a ton of stories for Usa/Mamo month? There's no motivation to go backwards and complete challenges (the original purpose of this community) because no one will know those stories exist except the mods.

Or... if there's a general feel of "that's not my favorite/not inspiring", how about bringing back some of the community favorites as determined by the number of submissions for that month? Just a thought.

verisimilitude9 July 27 2010, 20:21:12 UTC

I'm fairly new to the comm, but... I'm one of those who agrees with the "this monthly theme is not my cuppa". Now, I know it's hard to find new themes that haven't been used already-- this community's been around for a bit. Maybe that's why, aside from Rei, Minako, Usagi and Mamoru, the latest several themes have seemed (to me at least) rather obscure. Also, I'm the sort who has a bazillion WIPs at a time and also spends a good chunk of her week working and doing RL stuff, so I already don't anticipate writing a fic a day. To even try to dip into something I'm not familiar with seems kind of like a waste of time that I just don't have :( and I'd rather be working on fics I've already started that I am familiar with when I do have the spare time to fic. So, perhaps, some more mainstream monthly themes are in order? I do like the daily themes ( ... )