Work Text:
"HI! You might know the drill, maybe you don't. No worries, I'll give a run down of what this is about."
- This is my typical opening to a challenge, that gives everyone a rundown of the rules. If you use Discord, it can be helpful to pin the message if you don't want to go over the rules every time. But I do encourage to give a little warning like this every time you start a new one. Maybe make a ping for it, if you have people who want to take part regularly.
- I do recommend having a host for the event. AKA: someone who starts the poem and is willing to keep an eye on it as it goes on. Poetry can be mean or hurtful just like any form of written or freeform art in media. So it's good to have someone keep an eye, just to make sure people do behave. (I have not run into this, but it is not a given on every sever.) And it also encourages people to take part, when they know that they can ASK someone for the rules or for specifications. But these aren't (in my experience) the biggest or hardest parts of the host. The biggest role for the host is to encourage others. To give positive and truthful feedback.
Poetry can be intimating. So always be encouraging if someone wants to put in the effort to try.
"So, this is a community poem! A little challenge to those who want to join, but you can also talk around it. No need to join in, but you can join in at any moment when the challenge is still active! (Also feel free to discuss the poem openly! It's for everyone to enjoy!)"
- Second biggest thing of the challenge: this version of it is for EVERYONE. You can follow along and you shouldn't feel any pressure to take part. This is meant for fun. Fun can mean simple or it can mean challenging all the writers. Stay aware of what fun means for those who take part in YOUR challenge. Always be open to communicating or adjusting.
- I've adjusted the rules around a bit, to see how they work if you change them. Asking for feedback allows you to get a cleaner picture of what your friends want from the challenge.
So those are notes for the host. Now, there come the actual RULES.
"The rules are as follows;
I will start the poem by writing the first two verses, that rhyme with each other at some point. The next person answers to it with 2 of their own verses, that also Must rhyme at one point. Or just be written in a poem format.
The poem ends either when someone writes "the end" (this exact wording) or it has been 2 days since anyone has continued the poem."
- I usually also add a point that as a host, I will go through all the verses and add them into one long poem. It's a nice way to reward everyone for their hard work, as well as a way to give people a chance to read them once they are done. We started posting ours here on ao3 (All credit of that to MageRaven for keeping the series going), but that isn't a must. Also, if you do end up doing that, remember to ask for consent and to allow people to remain anonymous.
"After that point, I will go through the answers and write it all down and bring it here as a complete poem. (I cannot change any verses that have been written, but I do remind you to keep the verses appropriate to the server.)
This is a friendly, non competitive type of thing, so there is no need to know anything about poems. Just write some funny rhymes and see what comes after! "
- The rules are very simple in their most minimal form. I find it's easier to understand that way. And after receiving some helpful questions and feedback, this is the following list of rules/conditions I've made for my version of the challenge.
- Feel free to change any, but do remember to add some. It will make it easier for the writers when they know what things they can and can't do.
"The following lists will be updated if there are more questions asked about the challenge!
You can:
- Write more than once
- Join in whenever
- You can write dialog and quotes into the poem
- Give titles to characters!
-Add other characters! careful with this one tho. (max. 4-5 characters allowed. Alive ones.)
- If your verses are the latest ones and you still want to change them, you can. (As long as no one else has written after them.)
- Use more complicated poem forms like haiku's.
- Use 1-2 word verses, as long as they rhyme and there aren't more than 3 similar ones right after one another. (Highly unlikely, but in case.)
Pls don't:
- Give character names or very detailed descriptions. Vague notions are okay, but give people a change to picture who ever they want. (No Buff, golden locked, light skinned Jeffs into the poem)
- Use language that isn't appropriate to the server. Cursing is okay, just no breaking the server rules. (If you have to think if it's appropriate, probably don't write that.)
-If you just wrote, don't write until at least one or two other people have. Give other people a chance to write!"
Quick explanations for some of these:
1. Titles and names are and aren't the same. Depends on your taste, but I prefer it when poems are more vague about who they are about. It gives you the freedom of imagining them however you like. Not giving very detailed descriptions of who the poems are about also adds to them in a way that they can be understood in many ways. This all comes down to taste however, but it should always be decided before you start writing.
2. When the poem takes a story like format and starts to have a vague plot, there should be a limit to how many people the story holds. It gets hard to keep track of everyone as it is, so it should also be said before hand how many the participants are allowed to name/mention.
3. If you want to raise the verse count per person up to 4 from 2, 1-2 word verses really get to shine. But they also encourage those who are a little worried about joining. Again, small stones can be used to build great roads when you gather them together.
4. Writing more than once allows everyone to really go at it. But the host should make sure that people aren't hogging any poems. They are community poems for a reason. So add a limit that you can only write again after (for example) two other people have written after your last one.
5. Chancing what you have written should only be allowed, if no one else has written after it yet. Chancing the poem AFTER someone has chose to build up on it makes it confusing and could even take away from the verses that came after it. (Typos might be the only exception, if the WRITER of the verse really wants to. Others shouldn't fix it for them.)
So that's it! Hope you all will have a good time. If you end up creating some nice community poems and want us to see it, just come here and ask us to check it out!