Writers' Study Chat and Feedback - Ask all your questions here!

[Alwyn]

Or Japanese Orcs . Am I the only person who is now imagining McScottish re-writing Lord of the Rings as a Japanese folk tale, with Gandalf as a wise old monk?

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

Well, not now, no! Now you've given me that thought, I'm not even going to be able to pick up my copy of LotR with a straight face for weeks!


McScottish! Haven't seen you for a while - it's fantastic to have you back with us. And having you write stuff would be even better than you just being here.

Although I think a consensus seems to be forming that you have to write something including Japan, and orcs, and hobbits...

[Alwyn]

I bet McScottish will be really pleased that we have come up with such great ideas for his next story.

Meanwhile, people might wonder why the Yearly Awards voting threads are disappearing. This happens every year when voting ends. There are always a few people who need to send second votes to the competition organiser by private message. Writers' Study staff cannot edit polls, so the votes which are sent by PM are counted after the polls end. These additional votes can affect the outcome. We don't want people to think they won and then discover that they didn't, or people congratulating writers who turn out not to have won. What will happen next is that tie-breaker threads will appear, if they are needed. After the tie-breaker polls have ended concluded, the results will be announced.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

"So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo-san, besides the will of evil. Bilbo-san was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."

Take it away...

[SanyuXV]

Yes, yes brilliant stuff folks . . . This must be done, we need someone to follow through.

"You shall not pass Balrog-senpai..."

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Emoer, take your Eored down the left flank,
Gamling follow the Shogun's banner down the centre,
Grimbald take your company right after you pass the walls.
Forth, and fear no darkness.
Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
yari shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a katana-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!
Death, death, death, DEATH!

It could go on and on...

(taken from the film not the book, I know heathen! Alas no copy of the book at hand!)

[McScottish]

(taken from the film not the book, I know heathen! Alas no copy of the book at hand!)

You can find copies of it online without any problem; http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/tolkien...ings_1__en.htm, for example.

Anyway, give me a couple of days and you might see something, maybe.

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

The tie-break polls for the Writers' Study Yearly Awards are now up. They're in the Monthly Writer's Study Competitions forum.

Please head over there and vote for your favourites!

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

You can find copies of it online without any problem; http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/tolkien...ings_1__en.htm, for example.

Anyway, give me a couple of days and you might see something, maybe.

Huh, TIL... thanks for that.

And ooh, looking forward to seeing what you might put down on paper.

[Owlparrot3]

There's a lot of hate about TWC on reddit and steam.

[Owlparrot3]

Technically mcscottish will put it down in binary and not on paper MR.shankbothahaha I can't use smilies in quick replylet haters hate Twc is the best we get .

[Alwyn]

There is still time to vote in the tie-breakers for the Writers' Study Yearly Awards, if you have not already voted. Thanks to everyone who has voted already!

It's good that we have three submissions for the Monthly Creative Writing Competition (MCWC) XV. I would like to keep the submissions thread open for now, to encourage more entries. If we can reach six entries then we can run a full competition. In a full competition, there are three winners rather than two, and the winners receive more Writers' Study competition points.

Maltacus suggested on his Third Age MOS AAR An Orc's Tale that we could introduce an award for 'most encouraging post'. Writers' Study staff could introduce such a 'most encouraging post'/'most encouraging poster' category, if people want it. If you have views on this idea, please post them here on the chat thread. Writers' Study staff will be interested to see how many encouraging posts there are, in the weeks and months ahead, to see whether such a category would be viable. Of course, posting positive comments on other AARs and stories is a good thing anyway; it encourages other writers (and, if you have a link to your AAR or creative writing in your signature, also encourages others to read and comment on your writing).

[Owlparrot3]

An excellent idea.With Alwyn leading it will be implemented well too .But it will require serious reading by the poster.How do you know that the poster has indeed read and not just skimmed through the story .

[Socrates1984]

Maltacus suggested on his Third Age MOS AAR An Orc's Tale that we could introduce an award for 'most encouraging post'. Writers' Study staff could introduce such a 'most encouraging post'/'most encouraging poster' category, if people want it. If you have views on this idea, please post them here on the chat thread. Writers' Study staff will be interested to see how many encouraging posts there are, in the weeks and months ahead, to see whether such a category would be viable. Of course, posting positive comments on other AARs and stories is a good thing anyway; it encourages other writers (and, if you have a link to your AAR or creative writing in your signature, also encourages others to read and comment on your writing).

I generally like the idea, but I'd like to share a few thoughts. First, the pros:
1) It might raise the number of visitors. Badges are always a good way to raise visibility and attract members here.
2) It might raise the number of stuff written, both from old and new writers. Self-evidently, writers will write more if their works are well received.

Now, the cons:
A) As Alwyn has said elsewhere, it might be seen as a way for Writers' Staff to self promoting. I know this will not be true, but it might be what others would think. (So perhaps exclude Content Staff from being eligible?)
B) It might lower the quality of the comments on AARs. I mean, the reward will be for "encouraging" post and one aiming for it would probably avoid honest and constructive criticism. (So maybe change the award to "most insightful posts" or something similarly more neutral?)

On another note: Is it possible to have only writers vote in this competition? Or to have their votes count for more? This would even give a certain prestige to the writer "class" and more members would be eager to join them.

In conclusion, I like the idea, but I think we have to refine it first.

[♔atthias♔]

I generally like the idea, but I'd like to share a few thoughts. First, the pros:
1) It might raise the number of visitors. Badges are always a good way to raise visibility and attract members here.
2) It might raise the number of stuff written, both from old and new writers. Self-evidently, writers will write more if their works are well received.

Now, the cons:
A) As Alwyn has said elsewhere, it might be seen as a way for Writers' Staff to self promoting. I know this will not be true, but it might be what others would think. (So perhaps exclude Content Staff from being eligible?)
B) It might lower the quality of the comments on AARs. I mean, the reward will be for "encouraging" post and one aiming for it would probably avoid honest and constructive criticism. (So maybe change the award to "most insightful posts" or something similarly more neutral?)

On another note: Is it possible to have only writers vote in this competition? Or to have their votes count for more? This would even give a certain prestige to the writer "class" and more members would be eager to join them.

In conclusion, I like the idea, but I think we have to refine it first.

I agree
especially whit the last note

[Tigellinus]

I disagree, to be honest. Why are we writers a separate Class? We're still just people, our vote shouldn't count for more than anyone elses, in my opinion.

Overall, love the idea though!

[Owlparrot3]

I do not agree with Tigellinus. We writers should get some prestige .As of now it's so easy to climb to the top even if you make minute contributions as a modder. Then why not glorify modder.

[Tigellinus]

http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/TWC:FAQ#Member_Ranks <---- Member ranks at TWC.

Above that is all about the Hexagonal Council and Staff ranks and such.

Staff and Citizens are 'above', although they hold those ranks due to merit.
Everyone is equal. We're not separated into Classes based of the best writers, modders, political speakers, religious debaters and such.

Even a minute contribution on a mod requires hard work, effort and someone's time.
Modders are not any more glorified than good writers here are. But, the fact remains, Total War center is a site about the Total War series. Mods are a very large part of that, so are guides, advice, general discussions and AARS.
TWC is not a writing site, it just so happens to have one of the greatest writing communities. The community is more interested in the greatest mods, much more so than our AARS, and much, much more so than our Creative Writing stories.
Because this site isn't made for writers, it is made for people who want to come and learn, or talk, about the Total War series.

Why should we receive 'prestige' ? If people think what we write is good; we get reputation, we win awards in the competitions, people vote for us. So and so forth.

I wrote another paragraph, but I'm just going to leave it here.

I'll state here and now, should it come to pass that my vote simply means more because I write on TWC, I would very much like my rank to be downgraded to normal.

Thanks

Tigellinus

[Tigellinus]

I would also like to state that I did not mean to offend anyone, or come off as if I was personally attacking anyone or their thoughts.

If anyone feels like I have done so, I apologise, and feel free to have it removed

Thanks

Tigellinus

[Socrates1984]

Tigellinus, I generally agree with all that you say. Maybe I didn't express my thoughts in a clear way though.

The major point to discuss here is the "most encouraging comment" award. My last note about writers' votes came not from an elitist point of view (of course), but rather from this simple thought: "If one is not a writer or has no writing experience, how can he evaluate if a comment is encouraging or not?". Sure we all can read a post and think that it is encouraging, but isn't it more plausible to listen to what the writers themselves have to say about it?

Let's take for example your own work Tigellinus. Isn't there a rush, however small, of adrenaline when you notice a new comment for your latest chapter? Aren't you eager to open the thread that appears updated in your feed and read what the poster has commented? And if the comment is praising, don't you feel a rush of happiness and/or completeness? (Well, I wouldn't know, because I don't write in these forums... I'm only guessing from feelings that must be similar.) But if this is really the case, isn't a writer somewhat more entitled to vote for such an award? For the rest of us, characterizing a post as encouraging is a more distanced thing, more neutral, more academic so to speak.

Just my thoughts though. I'm happy either way. I even have a counter argument for all the above, but I'll keep it hidden for now for the sake of conversation.

Spoiler for The hidden counter-argument: 

Spoiler for Are you sure?: 

Spoiler for Ok: 

A middle ground would be to let the writers decide who would have voting rights in such an award...