&SSBB;

[petronia]

Two days til deadline: entries are trickling in. Two stories so far that are more suitable for October (my bad - for some reason it didn't occur to me at all that I should have timed the "dress-up" issue to coincide with Halloween), one story that is... eminently suitable for July. HAHAHA.

The story length issue: really, there's a grand total of 4-5 regular SSBB contributors who are affected by this, except the impact is disproportionate if they are wordy as well as prolific. XD (I did a bit of stats crunching, and a full 3/4 of all SSBB contributors have only written one or two stories for the zine. But people who contribute many stories are also more likely to contribute long stories - there isn't anyone who's written five or six 3,000-word pieces.) Out of those affected, a couple have said they like/need/want the incentive to scale down. Some readers prefer shorter stories, others feel more is always better. So probably the key is greater flexibility. My editing time is at stake too, of course. XD

This is what I came up with: right now, SSBB does the equivalent of giving everyone a potential "slot" in each issue. So let's equate that slot with one LJ entry. Now the writer gets the option of occupying two LJ entries, at the cost of giving up her "slot" in the following issue. So over both issues, the word count averages out. For the wordy-and-prolific, this retains the incentive to edit downward insofar as possible, but offers more flexibility for the story to breathe when required. The onus is on the writer to split the text and make sure both halves fit in a single entry.

Posting this over here in case someone comes up with a reason this wouldn't work that I overlooked. XD

Comments

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

...Huh.

Well, for purposes of this discussion, I'll out myself right now as a regular contributor who finds myself headbutting the word limit nearly every damn time. I personally wouldn't take the option, because I wouldn't want to give up my slot in the next issue. I've contributed every opportunity over the past year, and wouldn't like to sit out.

But that doesn't mean it's a bad idea at all, and I'd be interested in hearing what some of the other long writers (one in particular, who's playing FFXII right now and therefore unable to comment) have to say to it.

[drmoonpants.livejournal.com]

...see, and that works awesome for me, because I have to sit out just about every other issue anyway due to DISSERTATION OMFG ASLFDKJF, and would actually like that writing a longer story would keep me from participating next time! :D It would, uh, keep me from overcommitting my time, at any rate.

So, uh, A++++++++

[subaru-san.livejournal.com]

Totally nothing to do with your post, but I haven't commented here in a while, so I just thought I'd recommend a new series. Well, the TV series is new, the manga is from the late 70s and the movie was released in 1979. I'm talking about the Terra E TV series, of course. I don't know if it's your cup of tea, but I found I really enjoyed it, both the movie *and* the still ongoing TV series. It's meant to have 24 episodes, btw. Please let me know if you decide to check it out. I love to discuss good series with other people. ^_^

Cynthia

[flamebyrd]

Only problem with that I can potentially see is the fact that issues have themes - but on second thoughts this only applies if one is assuming the writer takes twice as long to write their story, as opposed to taking the usual time, exceeding the wordcount and getting a nice break afterwards.

[crystalwren-fic.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I'm sorry to comment on your personal LJ, but I wasn't sure what was the best way to reach you. I'm signed up for the yuri special, problem is, after some massive hassles at work and home I was running late with my entry. Then when I tried to finish my entry, I realised that it was going to run to over twenty pages and probably wouldn't work as a story without another twenty pages or so thrown in. I've started a short piece and I'll have it finished tonight. Problem is, it obviously won't be beta'd. Is is possible to get an extension, or is it best if I just bow out?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm going to give a 48-hour extension anyway. ^^ As for the rest, know thyself - do you normally need a beta to help make your story presentable (at least on the spelling/grammar level)?

[crystalwren-fic.livejournal.com]

I guess it's a matter of degrees. I try to get whatever stories I post to LJ, fanfiction.net etc as clean as possible, but the cleaner I get them, the more people pick on me for the least mistake. It's a slippery slope.

Anyway, I've just emailed my story to you. About twenty words shy of the limit, but hopefully it'll inch through. Very, *very* purple- I've been rereading Anais Nin and she's been rubbing off. This is not nessesarily a good thing.