I've finally revamped Liberty Hall so that our up front web pages are nice and have more functionality.
Anyone who is interested, please go to http://www.libertyhallwriters.org .
quote:
Yes, you cannot live by writing alone. Sometimes you must play poker to bring home the bread!Liberty Hall Poker is here! Well, at Liberty Hall, that is.
Play for your Bogus Bucks! Whatever you end up owing another player after a game, you should transfer to that player here, in Bogus Bucks.
The link to play is on the website. The Liberty Hall Writers table password is "whisky".
If you want to play and no one else is around, there are 2 AI players waiting to take your money. If you are in line to play at the table, the AI players will give you their seat as soon as they can.
Better start learning the rules! We only play Texas Hold'em!
<tsk, tsk!>
But poker is a tried and true method for reinvigorating the worn-out writer. Not to mention that it exercises your brain and provides fodder for stories about poker players, and er... umm. Well, sorry!
Maybe we could start a topic on what games are good for stimulating the writers' mind (aside from roleplaying games, I guess).
Or we could discuss the topic here....
Edited to add: I just learned how to play Spider Solitaire on the computer, and it's pretty interesting.
For me, a person who isn't much into competitive games (zero-sum games), one-person games like solitaire and sudoku are a way to relax (a rest from my usual stressful thoughts) and still be stimulating to my mind.
[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited November 24, 2007).]
LH is a closed writing board. It's different from Hatrack in many ways, and similar in some. It contains a group of people who are serious about writing. Some are brand new. Some are old hats -- in experience and sales, not necessarily age. There are some general discussions about writing, but more just plain writing happens there than anywhere else I've seen on the web. Because it's a closed board, full texts of short stories can be posted without fear of losing electronic rights.
Most of the writing happens in the form of weekly flash challenges. These 90 min "this is your brain on spin cycle" timed writing exercises run every weekend Fri-Sun. You login with your LH user id and pwd, you see a trigger. The clock starts to tick (you have to set your own timer to keep track of it) and you have 90 mins to write and submit a story that was inspired by the trigger. It doesn't have to feature the trigger at all, there's no "used trigger well" kind of category for the voting. But you have 90 mins to write. Most stories end up in the 800-1200 word range, but some of us type fast and squeeze more drivel <ahem> I mean words in there. In any given week, 7-15 people participate. If you miss the 90 minute deadline (even by a second) your story is "DQ" - disqualified from the voting, though it is expected that DQ stories are critiqued by all readers for a group.
As the timer is starting to tick down, you copy/paste your story to the website, click submit, and commence nail-biting.
Monday morning, all the stories are anon-posted to one or two (or conceivably more if there are more participants) groups. Your responsibility as a writer is not complete until you have critiqued/offered feedback on each of the stories in the group that does NOT contain yours. Typically this means you crit 4-7 stories in each week you participate. You also vote. Best Flash, Best Setting, Narrative Voice, Dialogue, you get the idea. There are about 6 categories to vote. Your critiques and votes are expected by Wednesday.
The best flash from each group is then given a voting period (Weds-Thurs I believe) for "best of the best." If there are ties, both winning stories compete with the winning story of the other group for best of the best. The winner of the best-of-the-best supplies the trigger for the next week. A tie in best-of-the-best means there is more than one trigger available for the next week.
I don't know about anyone else, but I rarely think of my stories in 90 minute increments. Flash FORCES me to. And wow, I have learned a lot about story creation, dialogue, flow, arc, characterization, etc. in each flash I've participated in. I have written some horrible stuff, some experimental stuff (that flopped,) some things that weren't too bad, and even some great stuff. More of the other categories, but hey - who's counting?
These run every week, so you can participate one week, sit another out, etc. I try to do 2 a month. My story inventory is now at something like 10 stories in varying stages of development. These are 10 stories that didn't exist at all before I started at LH.
I haven't even mentioned the short story challenges (longer timeframes, still use of a trigger but since the timeline is more like 2 weeks, it's not as much of a pressure cooker.) There are also polish challenges, where you submit a story you've polished for submission to markets and get feedback on how well you've done/how ready it is. Again you're expected to critique the other stories in the challenge. Polish challenges run twice a month, usually.
There's an end of the year challenge with a really nifty whiz-bang prize Mike has supplied. Wow.
And, well, some great people, serious about writing, doing a lot of it, and helping each other out. There's a huge section on submitting to markets, with some writers keeping their own personal bullet list - you know those rejections that just keep coming. It's inspiring to read when a writer posts in the same breath "Such-and-such story back with no feedback from Market A. Sent back out to Market B." And even more so when you hear a few weeks/months later "Such-and-such sold to Market G."
Hope to see some of you over there sometime soon!
There is a critiquing section for any story to be critiqued (not necessarily those that were inspired by the short story- and flash challenges' triggers).
There's a support system for submissions and a plethora of makets, some even have a presence at LH.
A reference section is available for all members, with links to research sites and even a Liberty Hall lending library (though I don't know how that works, or if it is still).
How much would a resource like this be worth? $30, $40, even up to $50 in some places. Well, if you join now, you can have all of this for the low, low price of $0. That's right. I know it sounds crazy. And that's not all...
And now, Mike has recently opened the LH store (where you can purchase nifty coffee mugs, cool mouse pads, and stylish clothes for the serious-minded writer).
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited November 26, 2007).]