Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sandra Davies on March 4, 2011 at 11:13pm

Blake, these are random, not necessarily fully thought out points, and certainly not a future plan for success ... but I offer them anyway, and hope I am not too long alone and shouting in the wilderness ;-) 

1. Which brings me straight to the thought that while I enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to practice, I also need some sort of acknowledgement that I am in a community - if no-one else is commenting, shouldn't you?   (and yes, I do know this sounds whiney and pathetic ...)
2. Why do so many come to read (evident by the avatars) but never write themselves?   Lack of time?  Lack of inspiration?   I don't know.
3. 6S perhaps has the numbers ... but McEvily's absence has been noted ... and activity occasionally dips there too.
4. T10 does complement in its use of prompts versus the opportunity to write direct from oneself... but sometimes the single word ones are insufficiently meaty, inspirational to make the effort ... and the word 'cliché' was used recently for some of them.   But this format used to work, didn't it - has anything changed?

I'll watch this space and hope others have more constructive thing to say.

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Permalink Reply by Blake N. Cooper on March 4, 2011 at 11:44pm

Thanks for the message Sandra. I appreciate your taking the time and I always love top-of-mind thinking.

 

Regarding the cliché comments: With basically no rules on this site, even the most ordinary of words or phrases can be dressed up in anything the mind can come up with. I will admit that Tuesday's prompts have proven difficult after almost an entire year of coming up with them :(

 

I'll be sure to throw away the one-word prompts.

 

Regarding my commenting when nobody else does, that is just not possible. I can't tell you how much I want to on all stories, but after the daily site maintenance and creative contribution, my new job and my 2 year old, I literally don't have enough hours in the day. I truly want to do, but can't and I am sorry for that.  

 

Looking forward to hearing more from the group.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by bolton carley on March 5, 2011 at 6:40am

Blake - First off, I love your site.  I will admit that time just gets away from me as I try to cover more and more territory.  I'm sure we could all say the same. 

           I like this site when I don't already have a thought in mind for a story.  That's when I go to the prompt.  I like the prompts.  I like 6S, too.  I had noticed that everybody's post numbers were down at both sites, but I've also noticed that numbers have been up over there because people are making challenges to one another.  Off the top of my head, I'd say that might be worth a try over here.  Maybe have a guest promptor once a week or a challenge that benefits your community with more exposure or a prize.  I know that's more work for you and you obviously have plenty going on, but it was just a thought.  I'll keep thinking, but that was just an initial thought. 

 

          Hope that helps! :)

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Davies on March 5, 2011 at 6:52am

Bolton has reminded me that I too thought you could ask us for prompt suggestions - if everyone sent in, say four for each weekday category, and then you mixed them up that might add a certain amount of 'belonging' ...

But even more I like Bolton's suggestion of 'guest promptor', including canvas ...

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Permalink Reply by Blake N. Cooper on March 5, 2011 at 1:29pm

Regarding prompt suggestions, the front page has always had an anoymous drop box (top of the homepage under the clock):

 Fame

 

However, I am thinking about changing up the weekly themes so this page with be updated shortly

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Permalink Reply by Margaret Whittle on March 5, 2011 at 6:54am

Blake, 

I concur with a lot that Sandra added.  I really enjoy having the opportunity to be challanged daily and then to receive feed back ( good, bad or indifferent...JUST ANYTHING) makes me a better writer, well maybe a better person, as I can now take the criticism without bursting into tears or deep depression...(ha).  

 

It it difficult to read everything every day so don't expect you to have to do so...which leads to Sandra's comment, where are the others...Lack of time, lack of inspiration or have they just forgotten about Thinking 10...Perhaps your email will bring some of them back.   I have done a few things on 6S, but really enjoy having the prompts here.  Especially the Canvas...which seem to be more conducive ( to me anyway) to mind expansion, which I prefer over the one word prompts, which, on several occasions, I look at a word and then find myself pondering it all dang day and come up empty...(not writers block, writer being brain dead ?) 

As for suggestions to make the page better, ....hmmm, we just need more bodies... for stories that inspire us, for comments that make us work harder, for interaction/suggestions to make/keep Thinking 10 alive and well and a spot to come to visit as a writing community and haven.   Gosh, I have rambled on here... must need more caffeine....

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Permalink Reply by Salvatore Buttaci on March 5, 2011 at 7:05am

Blake, I have not been here for awhile, but not because I don't like your site.  I consider it one of the best; however, for months I've been busily editing my next book, 200 Shorts, trying to get it to the publisher as soon as I can.

 

As for suggestions as to how to make your site better, perhaps now and then have a word-maximum prompt, the less words the better!  It need not be six words as Smith Magazine does, but how about a drabble of 100 words, or even 50?

 

Sal Buttaci

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Permalink Reply by Kerry Logan on March 5, 2011 at 8:22am

I love this site because it gives me the freedom to pick up where I left off when things get too hectic. I love the minimal requirements because as a new writer, it can be very intimidating to have too many rules. I see Salvatore suggested having some prompts with word limits. I'd love to throw this idea out there. Could we have a place where we could submit pieces, say no more than 1500 words for criticism, either from prompts on this site or from writing challenges on other sites? 

 

I have no comment about 6S because I don't use it. I know for myself that with the addition of another part time job (that's 3 and still not working 20 hours most weeks) means more running around. Plus this winter, my kids have been sick... a lot. I just got my girl through another 24 hour flu and I'm staring at my boy to see if he'll follow suite. 

 

Because of this conversation, I will make more of an attempt to comment. :-) 

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Permalink Reply by Travis Smith on March 5, 2011 at 7:20am

I am certainly one of those who is guilty of inactivity in the past couple of months.  For my part that is not due to a lack of interest, just a few other things going on that have cut into the time to put in creative energy here.

 

Here are a few thoughts:

 

T10 from the beginning has tended to be dominated by posts from a small subset of the total number of members, which I think makes it susceptible to a quick drop off in activity when a few of those people stop posting as often.  I am not sure what could be done to increase the number of regular posters.  It is kind of a double edge sword in some ways - you want those "core" posters to keep the stories flowing, but to a new member, seeing the same 10 or 15 people posting all the time could be intimidating. 

 

I really like the format the way it is - very simple.  I would not want to see a big change there nor would I want to see the addition of a bunch of gimmicky things to get people involved.

 

I like the idea of having a guest prompter - maybe morph the Friday member's pick to guest prompt and allow that member to post their thoughts along with the prompt.  That could even be in the form of a challenge.

 

I think the addition of some challenges between members could add some fun, but in moderation - a constant flow of challenges between a few people could work to discourage new members (or less frequently posting members) from jumping in, but a few fun challenges might help keep everyone engaged.

 

Overall I think the challenge is keeping everyone engaged as part of the larger community - easier said than done, but I also think there will be ebbs and flows of participation no matter what we do.  

 

I agree with Sandra that the comments are an important part - and as a whole I think the T10 community has done a good job of keeping comments positive and fun.  

 

For my part I will do my best to be more active!

 

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Permalink Reply by Travis Smith on March 5, 2011 at 8:31am

Reading the additional posts - I would also agree that an occasional word limit would be fun like Sal mentioned. 

 

Also the idea of a way to share longer pieces for comment would be nice.  We have the forum thread that has become the more poetry focused outlet, but that would not work well for longer pieces.  I am not sure what the best way to include that would be though...

 

T

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Gita Smith on March 5, 2011 at 8:34am

Hi everyone: As I have been absent from the internet almost entirely for several weeks, and not just T-10, I hadn't noticed that traffic was dropping off. That said, I must add that I LOVE T-10.  LOVE IT TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY. Blake's prompts have sparked a number of short-shorts that eventually grew into longer works, and if I ever published a book, I'd mention him in the acknowledgements section, for sure. In fact, I have a T-10 badge on my personal blog site, and I've frequently invited people on Facebook to come over here and read.

Blake, what this wonderful site of yours needs is some publicity to get fresh blood (not in a vampire sense, or maybe, yes, in a vampire sense!) over here. I don't exactly know how you would do that, and you might be too busy to make a full-court press. But from where I sit, the problem looks circular. People want to be read. If there are very few visitors, we feel like no one sees our hard work. So people drop off. A nice massive infusion of readers would make everyone feel juicy again. So publicity looks to me like a necessary next step.

Shit on fire, if Charlie Sheen can get interviews on every major outlet in America, surely to God a brilliant website like this could get a bit of chatter in print or on air, I'd think. Was that helpful? Probably not, and that's symptomatic of my writing output these days. But please don't think that my absence is a reflection of my admiration for T-10.

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Permalink Reply by Gwen Hankins on March 28, 2011 at 2:56am

I just posted my first "assignment". I'd cringe under too many rules. I found your site and it appealed to me because of the word "playground". I didn't know about the "badge" if I can find it I'll put it on my blog. I have to get back to writing. Tonight has been moderately productive....*wince*. I already have a word count to meet. I hope there is encouragement to submite thirty words or more. Writers have enough deadlines and word counts. I thought this was a playground-lol. Hey, my new blog is new (duh) but I could have a guest blogger or blog about this site once I know more? Maybe everyone should set a goal of telling at least two people a week, month or something like that. Contests always draw people if everyone does their best to let everyone know. Just my take. Love your post *grin*.

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