Since I’m known for my slowness of formulating my thoughts, hello, this might come a bit late.
So, I think we have agreed on that we don’t want a set recipe for how the hosts should organise their stories. Whether you want to add an extra round, use a character claim or a simple casting for the upcoming contest – in the end it is up to the host. But I feel like it’s most important that we can share our thoughts – especially if it is revealed to be an experience that more than one writer share. In case of the 6 round contests, if you as a host want to have six rounds, consider why. Is it necessary for the story you are telling or can it be organised in a different way, are the pros outweighing potential cons the contestants experience, etc.
Concerning the ‘unpopular opinion’, it align with my own. The way I see it the snippets and extra information is not necessarily the problem. The problem is if the providing of them takes precedence and thereby takes
Dare wrote
away from the stories that the contestants are writing OR in some cases strips them of their agency or centralizes extras.
Here I quote Dare because I thought she to put words to something I’ve felt myself but have not found managed to formulate for myself in the past. (And if I quoted you wrongly Dare, please say so.)
I find myself unable to explain my thoughts other than through my own experience to bear with me. What makes me enjoy SWCs are
1) an engaging premise – which in my opinion we’ve had many over the last year
2) the time to write creatively – this concerns my own private time/time management and the time given by the host, by providing necessary information, such as impression, in a relatively timely fashion.
And lastly and actually the point concerning what I was speaking of,
3) to have my story be seen and for it to matter. That what I’m giving my heart and energy to write actually means something to the narrative. That if I try with my writing to engage and make an impact on the extras, it reflects in their actions or development, and/or on the story that is told going forward.
Invite me to be apart of a story like that, I’ll be as happy as a clam, hell, I’ll be ecstatic, which I think you know. The black and white opposite of this, however, is if the host get wrapped up in providing their own information, characters and story. If I engage to be apart of a story but find my writing, my addition to the story unnecessary in the eyes of the host, Yes! then I lose my agency and most defiantly my enjoyment and interest. That to say, I don’t think it’s intentional on the side of the host. Have I enjoyed snippets because they are informative, give flesh to the world build, are funny and amusing, etc? Yes! Have I experienced snippets/information that rather close of characters and events, which in turn alienate me/my character from the story? Yes! Now those were a lot of words and reality is a greyscale, not solely black and white. I don’t wish to point blame or agitate anyone, I just hope my perspective can still come across and be taken into consideration – as always that is all I can ask. I think we all can benefit from asking ourselves why we want to tell stories. Perhaps to sum it up: it doesn’t have to do with a hosting-style but with the hosts view of the contestant’s part in the story.
About multiple seasons I think it’s all too soon rule the format as unpopular or not functioning in the frame of LaF, I do think it can be a great way to tell an epic story or just revisiting a world that has been enjoyed in a previous contest, and I’m open to keeping they way it is, Creative Arts section, or finding a potentially finding another way for it, if it’s not to complicated to get there. I find myself just wanting to clarify my bringing up the topic, which was solely from a narrative standpoint. While I stand by my opinion – I would never claim it to be the gospel truth, I can only ask you to consider it. Narrative storytelling is an art and a skillset, to which it’s possible to develop and evolve – in order to tell better stories. But if it is believed to be an issue with the host’s and contestants’ vision of the contest are not correlating perhaps it is a small fix to clarify that the conflict of the story spans over more than one season. A fix in part at least.
