Brigits_Flame July activity retrospective
Jul. 29th, 2008 05:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwangoSo, we have reached the end of the July installment of Brigits_Flame. I'm pleased that I managed to hang on for all 4 weeks, though it was a near thing after week 2. I was one vote shy of being cut, and was put into the run-off poll with 8 other people that tied with me - the top 5 would move on, and the bottom 4 would be cut. That was disappointing, but in the long run it might mean that more people read my piece. I actually came in first in the run-off poll with 18 votes compared to the 11 I got in the regular poll for the week.
The fact that I came so close to being cut so early sent me a clear signal that I wasn't writing the sort of thing most people wanted, or that people didn't think my skill level compared favorably to the other participants. That was a little depressing. On the other hand, it really helped to keep me motivated that I had a few people comment that they were enjoying my plan to incorporate each new topic into an ongoing story, and that they were looking forward to the next episode.
I had a lot of fun writing my pieces. I'm so glad I went with my first idea for my characters' names - Carver does the knife work, and Butler does the cleanup. That was a joke that made me smile several times over the course of the month. I think I got lucky with week 2's topic since it was so easy to incorporate into what I had already from week 1, and it was a fun challenge to adapt the topics from weeks 3 and 4 into my story about murderous thugs.
Since it's time for the mad art marathon in these last few days before Gen Con (only 15 days?! Aaargh!), I'm not going to be able to participate in August's activity. I plan to come back for September, where I will try the same crazy plan again with a new set of characters. I'm hoping to keep in practice so that when November comes around I can participate in NaNoWriMo, and finally write Houses of Ashborn, or the other half of The Ninth Source. Both of those are projects that I don't want to let wither and die, and it might be a good idea to dust off my writing skills anyway.
The fact that I came so close to being cut so early sent me a clear signal that I wasn't writing the sort of thing most people wanted, or that people didn't think my skill level compared favorably to the other participants. That was a little depressing. On the other hand, it really helped to keep me motivated that I had a few people comment that they were enjoying my plan to incorporate each new topic into an ongoing story, and that they were looking forward to the next episode.
I had a lot of fun writing my pieces. I'm so glad I went with my first idea for my characters' names - Carver does the knife work, and Butler does the cleanup. That was a joke that made me smile several times over the course of the month. I think I got lucky with week 2's topic since it was so easy to incorporate into what I had already from week 1, and it was a fun challenge to adapt the topics from weeks 3 and 4 into my story about murderous thugs.
Since it's time for the mad art marathon in these last few days before Gen Con (only 15 days?! Aaargh!), I'm not going to be able to participate in August's activity. I plan to come back for September, where I will try the same crazy plan again with a new set of characters. I'm hoping to keep in practice so that when November comes around I can participate in NaNoWriMo, and finally write Houses of Ashborn, or the other half of The Ninth Source. Both of those are projects that I don't want to let wither and die, and it might be a good idea to dust off my writing skills anyway.
