I guess I'm one of the people indicted in the "Sarcastic Challenge":

In the wake of these WONDERFUL commercial spamfic ads,
we've seen people that have never written a THING
suddenly come out and put out.

That's nice.  Really.

Now that this little spamfest is in full bloom, I'd
like to ask all you aspiring and suddenly prolific
writers something.

Write a story.  Write a full blown story.  I'm talking
about something at least 20K in size.  Something with
a modest plot to it.

You folks have dipped your feet in the writing pool,
now it's time to swim.  Okay?

Good luck, have fun, and get to it..

-rpm

I wish this had been labelled "Mock-Sarcastic Challenge". It might have 
been a little easier to respond to if it was clearer how serious it was 
really meant to be. Here goes anyway. If it helps, consider this a 
mock-sarcastic answer. This really isn't meant to be a flame.

I didn't know the FFML was supposed to be a swimming lesson, which you 
could fail by not learning to do more than tread water and dogpaddle. I 
suppose I imagined that we were here to enjoy ourselves, however we 
might--by watching those who are good at it do their thing, or maybe by 
trying a bit on our own.

I didn't realize that we were supposed to be "aspiring" writers whose 
goal was ultimately to _produce_, to rack up the KB count. I thought 
that this list was about sharing ideas, however half-baked, as much as 
developing "full blown" stories, adequately plotted (according to 
someone else's criteria).

The adfic challenge was fun--a lot more fun than most spam threads 
you're likely to see any time soon. It did get first-timers writing. It 
opened a door for people to contribute to the list who probably don't  
measure their own "progress" as writers by how long a story they can 
maintain. I'm sure most of the contributors to the adfic challenge have 
nothing but respect for the authors who can sustain good writing through 
hundreds of KB's of text. So it isn't really fair, I think, to imply 
criticism of _them_, the "waders" in the pool, because they 
don't--can't, or don't want to--perform in the same way. I like writing 
in "miniature" forms. I like working with short scenes. I also know I'm 
a lousy plotter, and my ideas dramatically overshoot my abilities most 
of the time. So--I get enthusiastic about spammy challenges. Some people 
enjoyed this one, others didn't. Life goes on.

If the sarcasm of the post was intentional, it suggested that the 
contributors to the challenge were dilletantes who had no business 
writing spamfics until they'd proven themselves by producing "real" 
fics, and no business flooding the mailboxes of the "serious" writers on 
the list. Maybe I misunderstood. If so, I apologize for sounding off. If 
I didn't: Sorry, I just can't agree.

Jim Champagne
jwc70@hotmail.com

"There's no call to get snippy with me, sir."
- Frances McDormand, "Fargo"

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