[Ania]

I'd definitely be up for another one and would also like to repeat the earlier sentiments expressed by others. Thanks so much for organising this challenge because it's been a very positive experience certainly for me as a writer. I hadn't done much writing for ages and this helped me to regain a lot of my confidence so thanks a bunch for the support guys

*mushy bit over*

[NeumeIndil]

*hugs Ania* You're welcome. Glad it did so much good. (And I got your email. It looks fine to me.)

I think part of what made this event so (surprisingly, some might say) easy to organize was having a 30 day month in which to write. It's with that in mind that I suggest the next Breaking Type Challenge begin on November 1st and go until November 30th. We'd have to actually post the challenge around October 23rd and character assignments/lists would go out on All Hallows/Halloween/31st October.

But, that said, some things to discuss:

1. Would we want to attempt to 'break type' again, or perhaps run with a specific variation, such as "first person POV" or "change your usual genre", instead of "just do what's different for you"?

2. Is the assignation of characters/limitation of choices enough, or are the two converging angles of the challenge what made it work so well, generally?

3. How was the time factor/deadline? Too long? Too short? Too rigid?

4. What was the biggest issue, problem, or concern you had this time around and why? Should something be done to eliminate it next time?

5. Do we want to limit the number of participants? Why or why not?

Finally: Thanks go to Viv and Eira for helping me keep things going and just generally being awesome and willing sets of hands. Thanks to everyone else who offered their help as well, even if I didn't summon you in my hour of need.

Now I just have to get my story post worthy....

[Alassante]

I think November would be a really bad time to do it Neume. Not only the Thanksgiving holiday for the American's but also isn't that when MEFA voting ends? Most people end up reading and reviewing a lot in November. I remember the last 3-4 years that seemed to be the reason why alot of people weren't writing so much in November because of that. The others that weren't writing fanfiction were writing NaNoWriMo which is in November too.

[Viv]

[eiranae]

[elea24]

[NancyBrooke]

Good questions! here's my two cents:

[NeumeIndil]

Okay. Group consensus thus far would make the following modifications:

1) Still a 1 mo. deadline, but the length of the month doesn't matter.

2) November being too close to the holiday and NaNo/MEFA season would push it back until January or nudge it forward to August/September. (The OCD organizer in me says September and post the challenge in mid August. Sound better Al and everybody?)

3) Multiple choice of how to 'break your norm', offering 3-4 ways to change what you'd normally do. Probably for organization's sake again, I'd set the list up with one from each of something like this: a genre [humor, romance, spooky/horror], a style [fixed length/drabble series, poem, novel], a setting [Harad, the Caves of Aglarond, Tol Eressea], or the option to be given a random character/letter.

I'm very glad to hear that this challenge got so much creativity flowing and showed others reasons to be confident in what they write. That's what this exercise was used for with many of my Asian students learning to write in English on a university level. I haven't read most of the entries yet, but I've really liked what I've seen, and I'm actually pretty comfortable with what I wrote, after a lot of nudging and cheerleading from Viv and Binka. (More dancing vegitation for them! ) I feel like here, just with my former students, it's fostered a stronger sense of community than we've seen on these boards in the past few months, and that's something I missed.

Okay. Mushy moment over. I've got a story to post.

[NeumeIndil]

It's up!
http://www.openscrolls.net/fanfic/story.php?no=3818

[Sulriel]

I like all the suggestions and will pretty much go with 'whatever'. I liked the stucture of this - evan as Nancy said, if the 'break' didn't work, we all were motivated and all tried something new. I think the fics that have come out of this challenge are maybe the best collection I have seen in a long time - really amazing.

One suggestion I think would be fun, is after the dice are rolled for a character, roll them again for a POV.

[NeumeIndil]

Hey all. A couple of things:

1. I'm planning, per suggestions, to start the second incarnation of the challenge in about 2 weeks, as far as asking for it to be posted and getting people started with registration. That way, we'll have the whole month of September (30 days) to write and still miss the fuss of holidays, NaNoWriMo, MeFA finals, etc. Any problems or issues with this?

2. I'm planning, again per suggestions, to give 3 or 4 options for participants to choose from for their challenge. The list will probably look something like this:
1) Write from a second person perspective.
2) Write a hurt/comfort scene that is canon-supported/seen in the trilogy (i.e. Sam sitting with Frodo as he recovers in Rivendell).
3) Write a parody, comedy or otherwise humorous fic.
OR
4) Request a random character.

3. Regarding that random character assignation, how does everybody feel about Suliriel's suggestion that, when I roll for someone's character, I also roll for a point of view, or working off of that, story type (drama, humor, gap-filler)?

[NancyBrooke]

I think that all sounds good, Neume. Thanks for taking this on again! I will definately be participating.

[eiranae]

[vladazhael]

I think I'll be in this time as well.

[Viv]

Am in.