How would having the writing challenges on Meta work out?

Question

Okay, bear with me. This may be a horrible idea, or it could be good - you decide.

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For a while, you've had the writing challenges on chat. Great! Good idea! Unfortunately, the chat... isn't so active. So, how about we do something else, and possibly make it easier to participate?

Have the challenges on Meta.

"On Meta?" you ask.
"Sure!" I respond. "Here, let me explain..."

• Q: What kind of writing challenges?

  A: We can try several things! There are a few things that I thought of:

• A prompt.

I.e, someone provides the prompt, and we create a story with that line. For instance, let's say that the prompt is

[t]he carpet came spiraling out of the sky, heading towards the busy street below.

Obviously,this would invite Scifi/Fantasy stories about flying carpets - but it could also be in a story about smuggling carpets in an airplane and having one fall...

• A subject.

I.e, let's say that the subject is 'Vampires'. You then have to write a vampire story. Any kind of vampire - the traditional blood sucking vampire, or Doctor McCoy's Salt vampire, or a vampire that only drinks beet juice (sucked from the raw vegetable)... you get the point.

• Q: How would these prompts/subjects be chosen?

  A: A meta post! Set up a permanent post asking for suggestions, and have people post answers to it with their suggestions. After one challenge is over, the highest scoring answer is picked to be the next challenge.

• Q: Who would post that suggestions post?

A: I volunteer! ;)

• Q: How would we submit our writing?

  A: Meta!! Like we do on Puzzling, each new challenge gets its own meta post (possibly featured). Each submission in the challenge gets posted as an answer to that post.

• Q: Who will post these?

A: Again, I volunteer ;)

• Q: How long would these challenges last?

  A: However long it takes to write something you're satisfied with. :P But I think that after 3 weeks, it would be time to move to the next challenge.

• Q: Why 3 weeks?

A: Because that way, people get to see the post, and have time to think, and time to develop their story and edit. And people who may not see the post at first also get a chance to participate.

• Q: Is this a contest?

  A: Heck, no! Not at all! This is simply a chance to practice writing and see what others are doing. If you're lucky, you might get some questions about what you write over at Literature.SE ;)

• Q: How would you deal with users who act like it's a contest?

A: We'll gently remind them that this is not a contest, and that if they want to write competitively, they should find somewhere else. If they cross the Be Nice policy, the mods will step in.

• Q: What will happen to the old chat writing challenges?

A: Absolutely nothing! Anybody who wishes can go take part in those. This is intended for people who can't join the chat challenges for any reason, such as time restrictions.

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What do you think? Is this a good idea? Am I crazy? Are there improvements that can be made? I look forward to hearing from you!

Answer 1

I am strongly in favor of this; it sounds fun and like a community-building activity.

I agree with Mark Baker's point that this is unlikely to be of interest to professional writers. But I don't see it as interfering with a pro's enjoyment of the site either, and I think it could be great for increasing activity and involvement in the site -- and offering a fun way in for casual visitors who don't have immediate Q&A.

I would suggest we try it, at least for a trial run. But, I suggest we first get some buy-in -- a few people who will definitely (or near-definitely) participate the first few times. It would be a shame to kick this off when a few key participants are busy, and for it to flounder, if we can coordinate it to start with at least some initial participation.

Answer 2

This started as a comment on this answer but then it overflowed.

Sure, I'm willing to give it a try. The timing of the chat event doesn't work for me and I usually fail to hunt down the topic later (if there was one that week), but with this setup it'd be clear that it's ok to get to it whenever. I see this as a community-building activity and feel that, as with topic challenges, it's appropriate to use meta for this purpose. (We used to try to collect challenge links on meta, by the way, but maintenance fell off.)

We should make it clear in the posts that short entries are ok; the chat-based challenges are to write for 10 minutes, though sometimes people do more. More should be fine but not required.

Also, some people might prefer to post their work elsewhere, either because that's where they post their fiction or because they don't want to license it CC-BY-SA. So in this case link-only (meta) answers should be permitted, though ideally people will provide at least a little flavor to encourage people to click through.

Answer 3

I originally thought this would be O.o but on reading the other answers posted, I'm much more convinced. I can never make it to chat to participate in those. Let's give this a whirl for a few months and see what happens.

Answer 4

Did I miss this? Did it run, or fizzle, or never make it out of this discussion stage?

Answer 5

If you are prepared to set it up and run it --great. I think it would be popular.

The problem comes with reading everything that is submitted: I read and comment on writing as a job; I'm not going to do it for 'fun'. Are you prepared to read everything that is sent in and comment on it? (Consider all the questions that get put on hold.)