The Sentence Fest

[sordid_humors]

sara_holmes and I had a brain child last night: we're the proud parents of a fledgling baby fest. I'm scrounging around to see who else might be interested in joining us in any capacity.

The idea is a sentence. How many different ideas can be born from a single sentence? From a few sentences? We've called it, aptly, The Sentence Fest.

Comments

[phoenixnoor]

Definitely seems like fun! Although keeping in the spirit of a 'baby' fest, I think it should just be a 'pick anything, write anything' fest :D The more rules fests seem to have, the more stress it seems. Just my two cents :)

[sordid_humors]

The only problem with the "pick anything, write anything" method is that we might get only one person writing a prompt, defeating the purpose. We want to see multiple writers working the same prompt, without knowledge of what direction any of the others are going--kind of a double-blind study, where the mods tuck everything together at the end so we can see how different the interpretations really are. Can't get multiple interpretations with only one person writing a prompt.

I think, if people pick their sentences and then email me their finished products, I can organize from there, wait for 3-4 versions of one sentence before posting and seek out pitch hitters as needed.

I agree smaller is the way to go. But herding 5 cats isn't any easier than herding 20. Still need to have some method within the madness.

[awickedmemory]

I love you and I love Sara Holmes, so this sounds very interesting! Alas, I am chronically lazy and uncreative so I'd be lurking from the sidelines unless I can un-lazy myself to submit a prompt... but what an enjoyable lurk it would be. I especially like that a prompt isn't eliminated once it's been claimed by a single individual - very nice! Would the fest take place on your LJ, or on Sara's LJ, or a new comm?

As for the survey question "When sentences are posted..."... well, if the prompter is open for releasing their slutty little sentences to the greedy masses, they can just say so in their squicks/preferences section. ;) Whereas it also allows those who are particular to be particular! There's nothing saying offering boundaries means those boundaries have to be used.

"and am not just clicking the radial buttons for those things because they sound cool" ← -giggle-

"We're thinking about conducting a vote for which sentences make it to the writing stage. Does that seem fair?" ← There should be a "No, I passively object but will

[sordid_humors]

I made the buttons completely in reverse, too, and was too tired to fix it. All of the multiple choice became single answer, and vice versa. I only realize this now, after several people have weighed in.

I find that people have big problems when their squicks are not observed. That's why I put the tabula rasa method out there. If we go that direction, prompters would at least understand that once they submitted a sentence, it was in the hands of the writers to execute their own unique vision. Not all people are comfortable prompting this way. It's better for the spirit of this fest, though. The fewer restrictions writers have, the more possibility there will be for wildly different directions and more varied outcomes. That's what we'd be looking for--stretching the idea, rather than staying within a certain boxed-in area

[awickedmemory]

Haha, I did notice that some were multiple choice and others were not and couldn't quite figure out which/why were that way. Oh, well!

"find that people have big problems when their squicks are not observed." - Well, yes. :P Who wants to put out a request for something they'd be highly uncomfortable reading the result of? May as well not request at all rather than get a turnout that is distinctly discomfiting. People who don't have squicks can just say they don't have squicks. XD Being asked not to write an mpreg with graphic abortion ending as a deathfic for a fluffy sentence doesn't seem like it's really boxing in the prompt to a crippling fashion so much as acting as a general limit for politeness' sake. ;)

Podficcing is basically reading the story aloud, yeah? Making an audio file? I can't for the life of me stand to listen to such things-- can't pay attention at all when I'm being read to-- but I love the idea behind podficcing for those who can do it. :)

[sordid_humors]

I understand what you're saying about keeping graphic content out of fluffy prompts.

But the idea of the fest is taking one or two sentences and giving your own context as a writer. For me, if you tell me not to go someplace, my mind travels there just to spite us both--the seed has been planted, so to speak. If someone says "no penetration," I'm immediately going to be thinking of ten ways that sentence could come up during intercourse. The idea is to take the hinges off of prompts, distill them down to a sentence or two or three, and see what changes and what remains the same. It would be cool to have a fluff fic and an abortion fic come out of the same prompt.

I think we need to have the two categories: prompts with rules, boundaries and limitations, and tabula rasa sentences which can be molded any which way without influence or direction. The idea is to take away as many of the railings as possible, creating free-range writing. I'd be curious how differently results would turn out, if the same sentence were given with and

[ashiiblack]

This sounds like so much fun! I too have had THESE SAME THOUGHTS about fests so I'm really excited that you and sara_holmes are apparently telepathic or we are secretly related or something. In any case, count me in!

[sordid_humors]

I don't participate in many fests, personally. But the grips I constantly hear is "oh, I'm not in such-and-such fest this year. I'm really sad. There was this amazing prompt and I found it really inspiring, but someone else got it."

I also sometimes find, in browsing prompts, that they can get so specific, they're more of a short story outline than a jumping-off point or suggestion. This is an opportunity to go in the polar opposite direction. Sentences can be as vague as we want--the more vague, the better. I was going to offer a great sentence from William Faulkner's short story "The Bear." After a sentence lasting 7 pages, Faulkner simply writes, "He did it." You can go anywhere from there--happy, sad, mysterious, thriller, porno, or my personal favorite, noir. It could be a victory, a lament, anything. I'd like to see three or four writers put their own spin on that for 400 words.

Glad to have you on board! I'll let you know when I know.

[kitty_fic]

Brilliant idea! I'll encourage and help in any way I can! <3

[sordid_humors]

Thanks, Kitty. I know you are the master of all modding. I'll certainly come to you when the inevitable questions arise.

[hollibelle]

First of all: You and sara_holmes....together....holy sh*t, serious fangirl moment here *buries face in pillow and squeals like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert*

I like this idea! I however no nothing of fests, except how much fun it is to read the results. This being said, I will happily assist you in anyway my limited abilities can be of use. I'm too chicken shit to attempt to write something (you scare the shit out of me, lol, no joke <3) I'm not sure how the prompt submission thing works, but if inspiration hits, I'd love to submit something like that. I may be begging for further insight into this scary fest thing from you at a later date....because I'm virginal when it comes to these things ;)

<3 you Trey!