Article of interest to all writers

[Cole Parker]

Here's an article that is full of interesting legal information that writers will find fascinating.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-art-of-fielding-chad-harbach-lawsuit-copyright_us_59c2ca97e4b06f93538c1b5c?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

C

[Merkin]

Unh oh.  Just about every Nifty story category will have to be purged of similarities and coincidental plot lines.  Every point-of-view character who has ever looked into his bathroom mirror and described his dick will have to be removed.

[Cole Parker]

Seems to me, James, that's a good thing.  No one would miss any of those stories!

C

[Chris James]

Everyone should blame Cole, he vacuums up all the good story ideas. No wonder I haven't posted anything all year while he just keeps rolling them out. 

[Cole Parker]

I have an advantage, Chris.  I don't have anything else to do.  I finish a story and then say, OK, that's it.  No more.  Then a week goes by and you can only twiddle your thumbs so long before it gets boring, or you pull a ligament or something.  So it's back to working out another plot.  Believe me, if I lived somewhere exciting, like in Florida, I could be rescuing people or digging out drainage ditches or voting for Democrats where Democrats need voting for, but living in CA waiting for the next earthquake is very much like thumb twiddling.

 

So I have an advantage. 

 

C

[William King]

On 22/09/2017 at 6:17 PM, Cole Parker said:

No one would miss any of those stories!

Not true Cole. I have read good stories, well written, on Niffty. They don't appear here or on other US sites because of the restrictions.

[Cole Parker]

On 9/24/2017 at 10:29 PM, William King said:

Not true Cole. I have read good stories, well written, on Niffty. They don't appear here or on other US sites because of the restrictions.

I wasn't clear enough, William.  The stories I meant wouldn't be missed were the ones James was specifically pointing to.  Sure, there are good stories at Nifty.  You really have to sort through a lot of chaff, though, to find the kernels.

C

[dude]

Reading your comments has been interesting and enlightening. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating making AwesomeDude into a legacy or archive site.  I just feel that having regular updates is vital to keeping the site in the minds and hearts of readers and that visiting us on a regular basis is vital to keeping up our reader base.

A few years ago, almost all sites - with the exception of Nifty - updated once a week or even  less often.  I believe -if my memory is correct- that it was when we started posting twice weekly, because of the volume of stories we had going, that other sites like our friends at IOMFATS and CRVBoy started doing the same. Perhas it was in friendly competition or possibly because they were experiencing increased volume of stories as well.

Prolific writers like Cole took advantage of this and requested chapters of his stories be fast-track posted.  Now, I haven’t consulted with Cole on this, but what if we went back to a weekly posting schedule?  I’m sure the two above-mentioned sites would follow suit unless they have a lot more quality stories on their plates. 

This might take the pressure off a lot of our authors as well.  Especially those writers who have a good track record of supplying chapters on time.

Again, my suggesting this may move me to the head of Cole’s s—t list, but posting once a week would certainly lighten the load for me and allow me more time to seek out new talent.

Any comments, pro or con are welcome.  

And don’t forget, I welcome emails at dude@awesomedude.com or phone calls at (760) 459-5211 anytime.

Mike    

 

[Cynus]

I'm fine with this. I think it's a good choice, considering the circumstance. A compromise between the two positions which makes plenty of sense.

[Nigel Gordon]

On 10/4/2017 at 7:09 PM, Cynus said:

I'm fine with this. I think it's a good choice, considering the circumstance. A compromise between the two positions which makes plenty of sense.

I agree with Cynus.

[Rutabaga]

I prefer the current hybrid mix of semi-weekly and weekly posting of installments.  But that's from a reader's perspective.  Clearly the only reliable way to make semi-weekly posting work is to have the whole story written out in advance (so that the installments are stockpiled), or as a fallback having the story mostly written with a viable path to getting the last installments finished before posting time.  (Is that anything like "mostly dead" from "The Princess Bride"?)

In any case, I'm used to seeing that certain stories (Border Wolves) are posted only weekly, and others (Cole's) are posted semi-weekly.  I was never sure why the difference, because I knew that each Border Wolves story was complete when the weekly posting started.  I assume there were legitimate reasons.

Overriding all, though, if it's just too much of a grind to keep up the semi-weekly pace from a site administration standpoint, that seems like a good reason to scale back for sanity's sake.  

R

[ChrisR]

Reading the original article I'm struck by yet another similarity. Those who remember the original Bad News Bears movie might recall that in the last inning Buttermaker tells Stein to lean into the ball and take one for the team. The only salient difference is that in BNB the final inning is the sixth rather than the ninth. And brace yourselves -- it was released 41 years ago. 

Completely "novel" novels are far scarcer than hens' teeth. Just like sayings.

[PeterSJC]

Mike, I was going to say, "No, don't reduce it to weekly; make it daily; feed my addiction!" And then I came to the part where you mentioned that updating weekly would reduce your workload.

Yes, please. Weekly is sufficient. And BTW, thanks!

peter