Comment or sequel as you see fit. What’s on your mind?

I am not afraid to say I lean more on #1, and agree that #2 is very true about face time or publicity, but some people have no expertise critiquing and pick what they like the best. That is all.

I think competition is a healthy aspect in certain instances. In saying that I agree
with #1 also. Tangential thinking can aspire to greater things soooo as long as you do not lose the real plot.

elsha you are a menace to propriety, the reason you dont win some challenges is the judge, for example if you enter a story into the judging about a 12 yo girl who looses her virginity to an adult on her trip to disney world, that might not win if the woman judging is the mother of a twelve years old and just got back from disney world.It tends to make her question weather little amy’s perma smile on the flight home was from the epcot center, or the pleasure center capiche’.
just messin wit you elsh. (but you are a perv)

dude, you.. just.. agreed.. with .. me..

I’m more of a #1 person when I’m looking for something to write. I use #2 to read others’ work, too, though. They go hand-in-hand.

“Caller Joe, I believe the point caller Elsha made was that the judging feels to her too individualized. If someone writes about a subject Judge A cares little about, it won’t win – even though the writing has merit. If Clive Barker writes true to himself, he probably won’t win awards from the Non-Violent Writers Guild of America.

But I’m not sure Caller Elsha knows she is implying that there may be an objective standard for writing. It is said that no art (writing or other) exists devoid of the audience. It’s Mondrian vs. Da Vinci. Mondrian doesn’t float everyone’s boat – but he has something to say, and uses his vocabulary of images in the form he finds best. To his own eyes, he has achieved matchless perfection. Does the fact that it doesn’t communicate much to Judge A make it less artful?

If I write a story and burn it, was it a good story? Was it good for everyone, or just good for me?

Let’s go back to the phones."

The art of critiquing writing is a crucial writing skill. When you read a story (whether it’s your own or someone else’s), and you notice what does and doesn’t work… that sharpens your toolbox for the next time you’re hacking away at your craft. And as our vision is less bias-blurred about other people’s work than our own, it stands to reason that commenting on and appraising each other’s work is super-helpful for that.
Again, challenges aren’t exactly necessary for that, but they provide a useful framework. They’re like a narrative thread, if you like, so that the sea of stories is sometimes structured with a bit of suspense and dialogue!