New Year Resolutions

[amaresu]

Every year after Yuletide the New Year Resolutions archive opens and sits all year long. The collection usually collects somewhere around 100 works. I think that's a bit sad and was wondering if anyone would be interested in a focused attempt to fulfill more NYRs?

Poll #12644 New Year Resolutions?

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52

I would be interested in participating in a NYR ongoing challenge

View Answers

Yes
26 (50.0%)

No
0 (0.0%)

Maybe
26 (50.0%)

Please discuss your opinions and ideas.

Comments

[senmut]

Bless you.

Back when we had daily yuletide stories, and NYR prompts attached, I wrote more NYR stories. Now, despite the effort of the soul who does a weekly round up, reminding me NYR exists, I don't go looking for prompts.

Why? I hate lists. I get through a couple hundred, then +poof+ my attention span melts.

Seriously, if there was a way to just ... show some random prompts on a daily or weekly basis, I think more folks might write them. Because seeing it in a list is different than seeing it pop up in a small post. The small post and random invite to write a prompt that suits your brain on that day just... does something.

[amaresu]

It'd be neat if I had just a script that would go through and grab random prompts. Because that list is huge and even just grabbing random prompts makes my eyes blur.

What would that even be coded in? Maybe having a goal would get me to learn a programming language? I don't know.

[senmut]

+lol+

One reason I didn't finish my IT degree was my lack of love for programming. But maybe someone on our list can figure out that?

Parameters would be a certain number of prompts with no duplication of previous results (which means it basically would 'delete' the prompts from access for the next generation of prompts. The certain number could be decided by taking the total number of unwritten prompts and dividing by the number of days to December, perhaps, for a daily, or by dividing that number by the weeks left for a weekly list.

[rmc28]

In theory I should be able to write something like this (I've been a software developer for over 13 years now ...) but it's not my usual day-job stuff so I'll need to figure something out. Subject to my usual lack-of-free time but I think daily would be better, make it only a few prompts per post.

I'll have a think and a play but if someone else gets there first, hurrah.

[senmut]

Oh you rock if you get a chance to do it!

[amaresu]

That would be awesome if you could do it.

[rmc28]

FWIW I wrote my first two published fanfics for Yuletide 2012 and my personal goal is to write at least six more this year (roughly one every two months - that's an achievable goal given my schedule). I was planning to use the New Year Resolutions as first point-of-inspiration as it worked so well for me for Yuletide.

I think having other people to write along with would help me so yes, count me in.

[amaresu]

I always mean to write some NYRs because so many of my fandoms are Yuletide fandoms, but I never seem to. Hopefully with lots of people participating stuff could get written this year?

[james]

Whenever I go through the prompts, the thing that always make me hesitate is not knowing if the prompt was filled already. I'd love to have a list of unfilled prompts. I would rather spread the love around rather than write a fill that already has four stories (I've done this before!)

I know that it might be impossible, given that you don't 'claim' a prompt on AO3 when you set out to write a prompt. But just to share one thing that makes me not write more NYR stories, is having to click through and check the prompter's gifts and scroll through to see if they got one already.

Also, later in the year, I worry that maybe the requester has moved on from that fandom and maybe doesn't care about it anymore.

Lastly, I've had the experience of writing a NYR story and posting it and the recipient didn't comment on it for three months. I know NYR stories are for anyone who likes the fandom, but still, it was very disheartening and it made me worry for a long time that they just didn't like the story that much. :-)

I have no solutions to offer? But I do like the idea of some kind of challenge, a group effort to go write NYR stories. I just don't know how to overcome the things that discourage me from writing them.

[zopyrus]

I had to default this past Yuletide so I have to do at least one NYR--but I've thought about doing it in previous years and I think the structure of a challenge would definitely help motivate me!

[thisbluespirit]

Well, you can at least solve the filled/unfilled prompts issue - when you're going through the list on AO3 and see one you like, just click on the fandom and it brings up fics in the Yuletide 2012 collection for that fandom. It doesn't help with fairy tales, but pretty much every other fandom is tiny enough for you to see at a glance if someone wrote a prompt for that person (and what particular aspect of it they took). It's not as easy as a list of only unfilled prompts - but if you see one that takes your fancy, it is at least simple to check that.

[james]

Oh, that does sound a lot simpler. :-) Thank you!