Royal Storytelling Brigade?

[Kagetsuki]

...Or something like that, I was too lazy to think of a proper title myself. Ninmast suggested it, haha.

Anyway.

Earlier today I got an idea that I believe might benefit the board. It originated from random thoughts about 1001 Nights and is a little difficult for me to explain, but I'll try to the best of my ability.

It could be an RP, or it could be its own board--I'm unsure where it would fall, really. But the basic premise is that there is a king or queen who every month demands stories from his or her servants--the RPers. The goal is for the RPer, doubling as a servant, to craft a short story good enough to please the king/queen. These stories would be forum-sized--nothing pages long, but ranging from poem to fable to very-long-post-sized. It would almost be like a contest; the king/queen would read all the stories and choose the one they liked best.

Now, what could possibly be the purpose of this, you might ask? Ideally, the goal would be to improve everyone's writing! The king/queen would not be simply a character I make up; in reality they would be a judge, and this judge would change every month. Therefore, by choosing the winning story every month, RPers could learn what exactly a story did to win--what made it work, what really wowed the judge(s), etc. In this way people could also learn their strengths and weaknesses in writing, whether that be characters, dialogue, description, or something else entirely. In addition, everyone would get storytelling practice, albeit short stories, and who doesn't want that? I just think it'd be a great way for the community to improve as a whole.

The Pros

• Writing improvement for all.
  
• The stories people write could possibly serve as RP ideas, who knows!
  
• More? Lol I can't think of any others off the top of my head, but I'm sure they're there.
  

The Cons

• I don't think just anyone could be a judge. They'd have to be, well...unbiased and strong writers themselves. Could this cause conflict?
  
• Would the month be too long? Too short?
  
• Creating stories short enough for the board could be tough for some people.
  

Well, what do you all think? =)

[zandyne]

I'm all for it, but I think that perhaps the "Judge" mantel is taken up as constructive crits that anyone can point out. 83 (The judge rotates already so why not make it some multi-headed....thing or something?)

[EJP]

I think this is a good idea and I support it. I think that some people may like/want to write longer short stories than others, so I think a month would be ok. Judges could be a problem. I can already tell that me being a Judge would be a bad idea... that or everyone would just turn in perverted temp-ban worthy stories that day/time/event. Bias would be the bigger problem I think. Some people like action stories while others like romance, and then their are those boring as hell slice of life ones that have 0 meaning to them. Maybe their should be a theme for each event, like the all perverted temp-ban worthy stories already mentioned or every story has to involve Ninmast's character Star getting a boot to the head. However if it was to be themes, I don't think you could have the theme center on one genre of writing since not everyone is a poet, rapper, or "____" Person only writer.

Anyway, I think this is a good idea and I think I may get started on a short story soonish... if not finish the one I already started.

[ketaro]

So like what you mean, EJP, is maybe the Judge can select the genre and the people have to write a story based on that chosen genre?

For RP sense...it sounds like a competition between bards and storytellers to entertain the King/Queen the best ._. Which...I think actually was something done back then...

[Ninmast]

I like the way Ketaro phrased it. On another forum I was on, instead of a "topic," a picture would be chosen, and the contestants would have to write a short story inspired by that picture. Of course, topic, picture or something else, that should be up to the judge of the month.

Perhaps the next monarch could be selected by whomever wins the previous contest?

As for the length of the posts, we can certainly fit short stories into posts here. It really has to be pretty long for it to be too long for the newest post limits. 60,000 characters is a lot of space.

[This One]

I really like this idea. Personally, I'm not crazed about it being in RP form, but I suppose I could roll with that.

I do like the idea of picking a central theme or saying that a certain symbol should be used instead of saying that the entry has to be a specific genre (comedy, tragedy, poem, etc.)

[Toriji]

Sounds good. I'd prefer differing aspects to be chosen as well. Romance, combat, mystery. It could be like a class and species request from the king/queen. That'd make for more combinations and less redundancy. Or more confusion... it's a coin flip...

[Ninmast]

I ... don't really think so ... Too many people on this site *cough*EJP*cough* possess a far too skewed perception of all three, and besides, too MANY restrictions on creativity dampens it.

[EJP]

Careful Ninmast, some people don't fall for that trick. Oh and yeah Ketaro, thats what I meant.

BOO you boonies resident!

[Teh Donut]

You all still for this? I was thinking about, you know, making it happen.

[Velvet Pillow]

It sounds like a cool idea to me. I say go for it, it could be great fun. ^_^

That is if you silly Americans can keep yourselves from tearing eachothers throats out long enough...

[Teh Donut]

No idea what you mean by that completely unnecessary edited-in comment, but okay.

[ketaro]

I think I'd like to try this. It could be fun.

[TrueBlue©]

Is this thang still going down, even?

[Teh Donut]

It will be if I can make it happen, yeah.