Yesterday I asked Ol'Fashioned Girl about consolidating her Van Cleave Memoirs into one sticky. She and Derek took care of it for us. Puma
Excellent stuff, Puma, OFG and Sheriff Pat.
I'm still of the view that the less stickies the better and, in relation to this and at the risk of pushing things, I think that OFG's very useful thread would be better merged with Dave Hardy's very useful Western Books thread. Furthermore, having done a cursory on site search I notice there are a few other similar threads to Dave Hardy's which would benefit from being merged, too.
The problem here is not only the workload involved in doing this (with which I am happy to help out), but also the question of whether a single thread would become too mega to become useful. Still, with such a lot of information available it seems a shame to let it slip into the sites nether-regions. Perhaps creating a title thread that catalogues with blue links to the correct post/thread is the way forward in avoiding too many stickies and a mega thread?
This leads me to my next point.
It's great to see the October Prompt Stickied in the Western Forum which prompted me to start looking at consolidating the previous prompt ideas so we can get rid of the age old stickies in the SYW and just have the current prompt showing.
When doing this I came across a few problems. Below is an artists impression of how this consolidation would look ...
Consolidated Western Prompt Ideas said:
Myself, I'm kinda tired of the "hero rides off leaving the nester's daughter behind" stuff, at least without any meaning. If your hero's a Civil War veteran (and possibly suffering from PTSD) this makes sense, but not all heroes fit that profile. What about an ending where they decide to stay together? Hell, it worked for
The Virginian...
1.) A posse goes after an outlaw.
2.) A hanging.
A special or unusual skill, not something just anyone can have or learn. Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe not.
Problems caused by failure to communicate, not just between the white man and the red man (pardon the era stereotypes), maybe between people of different stock.
Barroom brawl and/or poker game
Jumping (off a building, cliff, train, whatever)
The Ladies
Red rock and/or purple sage
Mirage and/or water
Mining
Cattle Drive/Round-up
Greenhorns
Mountain Men / Scouts
Church / cemetery / camp meeting
Encounters with wild animals
Rustling
Trains
Wagon Trains
Boats/Ships on rivers or the ocean
Any city or town
Massacres and/or battles
Chinatown
Weather
Scenery (what I always like about westerns - dramatic settings that say so much about the American West and why it is so powerful.)
A real challenge - take a painting by any of the American greats - Charlie Russell, Frederick Remington, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, etc and write a short story that tells the story in the painting.
Firstly, it's a bit messy and secondly, whilst all the ideas are good and useful, I wondered whether it might be better, and more user friendly, to blue linky these threads in each new Prompt. This way we are keeping the history of the forum and providing ideas for prompt setters and anyone who just wants a western prompt, but also reducing stickies and making the SYW forum more current.
On the subject of the monthly prompt, I suggest we should shamelessly steal and adapt the SFF prompt thread (which I have posted below for you perusal).
Taken from the original thread:
Four prompts, for the four Mondays in September:
1) Friendship
2) Youth
3) Chores
4) Earth
***Special Challenge: Dinosaurs.
This is not a topic per se, but rather something to work into one of the above topics.
Enjoy!
Guidelines
(most taken from Az)
-- Suggested length is under or around 1k for ease of reading, however you may write more if you choose. Shorts around 2-3k are not uncommon.
-- When are ready to post the challenge you make a new thread in the SF/F SYW section.
You label said thread <month> challenge: <insert challenge name> <word count>.
-- Please give a brief blurb at the top of your piece. Tell us what you need help with or a pinch of back story if required.
-- You can do one topic or a combo or all of them. It's encouraged to try and do one per week.
--
Don't post first drafts.
-- You may use characters, settings, or ideas from your current WIP-world, or do something totally new.
--
At least critique the entries of those people who, out of the kindness of their hearts, took the time to crit your piece. Ideally we would like to see you crit everyone's.
And don't forget about Write1Sub1!
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Participants:
Scott Cole:
Friendship, Youth, Chores
I really like the idea of having a standard format and some guidelines. Obviously, we can can adapt it to fit the ins and outs of each prompt -- including the name of the following months prompt setter so they have time to prepare, adding the links to the old prompt ideas and the previous monthly prompts etc. Once the month is up, this should be unstickied and the new prompt stickied in its place.
So, that's what I'm a thinking. Question is, whaddya y'all think?
Too much change? Too much hardwork? Or worth a try?