American Idol for Writers? - Writers Forum

davidray · 02-20-2006, 06:52 PM

Anybody think an internet-based (not TV!) "American Idol" type writing competition would work? Why or why not? How would it be structured and judged?

Please let me know what you think. THANKS! Dave

AshBeanNun · 02-20-2006, 07:49 PM

Haha--'Writer's Idol'

It's sucess would depend a lot on how it was set up and the amount of participation, I think. Essentially it's a large writing challenge.

For WF.com...There would need to be official judges as in the TV show, probably admin or members with professional background, and polls for voting.

The preliminary voting could be done by the official judges (like the TV show), with one 'try-out' allowed per member. The try-out could consist of any type of writing, on any subject allowed by the rules of the forum, and limited to so many words. The secondary try-outs would have to be pieces written on one of the prompts supplied by the official judges.

After the numbers were weeded down to X many, the writers could be prompted for specific genres of writing: the country music night in American Idol would be something along the lines of Western fiction, or what have you. The general public could then vote for their favorite pieces in the polls.

And so on. If further seperation was needed there could be a 'Writer's Idol: Poetry Edition' or 'Writer's Idol: Fiction Edition' The contest could be held anually, or whenever the admin/important people decide.

awford · 02-20-2006, 08:58 PM

Nice idea. I agree, you'd have to have pro judges panel do the initial vetting of entrants to weed out the first few submission waves. Some submissions could be free form - writer's own choice of topic and style while others would need to be specific assignments to cover a wide range such as non-fiction, poetry, and genre specific fiction.

I think the best way to get the needed participation would be to coordinate with another event such as NANOWRIMO with a reasonable timespan between events. Another way to promote it would be to have each phase of submissions read over a podcast so fans could subscribe and hear them all at once in an episodic fashion. That might help keep the same 'reality show' feel to the whole project.

So is this just an off the top of your head "what if' question or are you actually considering putting something like this together? If anyone does pursue this please PM me as I'd like to find a way to get OpenStory.Org involved in some way.

Dephere · 02-20-2006, 09:48 PM

I think this would be an awesome idea, I mean I could really see it working. I hope you pursue it, because that would be one exciting event to participate in.

If you are just looking for some type of writing competition, then I suggest you take a look at the Literary Maneuveur #6...It's a writing competetion, with a theme and then a set of judges give it scores.

I'm one of the judges and really think you should all go take a look.

Waste Basket Angel · 02-20-2006, 10:21 PM

Yes lets have the American Idol for Writers because because than Canada will be sure to follow with Canada Idol for Writers.

awford · 02-20-2006, 11:31 PM

How about we drop any country reference and just go for "Writing Idol"? Of course, might want to define a required language unless you can find judges that can read submissions in both Arabic and Mandarin Chinese

Mike C · 02-21-2006, 12:25 AM

Sorry to disappoint but it's been done, at least twice, at writers' conferences.

Apparently it's not that popular with writers. To be critiqued on the basis of a public reading in front of your peers (with the critiques being blunt and frank) is not nice.

I believe they were considering it for the Backspace conference in NYC this year but dropped the idea after feedback from other conferences.

davidray · 02-21-2006, 06:37 AM

I like the idea of podcasts. I think that's a good one.

I'm not big on the idea of doing it as part of a conference. In order to be effective it would need participation from readers and writers, and conferences are generally just for writers.

I am thinking of doing this, in a way. I've got a slightly different twist on it from where this thread is going, but I like the discussion. It's showing me some weakness in my business plan that I need to work on.

You can't actually call it anything "Idol" because of trademark issues. What would a good name be for it?

Also, what if it was not so much a contest as a competitive way of building readership for a finished novel in order to justify publication? Readers could review and rate excerpts of a novel, plus pledge it. Pledging it would be an agreement to buy the book if published. Once a book hit a certain number of pledges, the organizer would either publish it or use the book's "platform" to sell it to a traditional publisher.

Mike C · 02-21-2006, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidray

I'm not big on the idea of doing it as part of a conference. In order to be effective it would need participation from readers and writers, and conferences are generally just for writers.

You have writer apathy to contend with there. Writers have a vested interest in writing - readers just want to be entertained.

Quote:

I am thinking of doing this, in a way. I've got a slightly different twist on it from where this thread is going, but I like the discussion. It's showing me some weakness in my business plan that I need to work on.

You can't actually call it anything "Idol" because of trademark issues. What would a good name be for it?

I'm not sure you can trademark a word like Idol except in relation to 'American' or suchlike. But you could go for 'writers shoot-out' or 'duelling quills'.

Quote:

Also, what if it was not so much a contest as a competitive way of building readership for a finished novel in order to justify publication? Readers could review and rate excerpts of a novel, plus pledge it. Pledging it would be an agreement to buy the book if published. Once a book hit a certain number of pledges, the organizer would either publish it or use the book's "platform" to sell it to a traditional publisher.

Sort of like a critique group with cash involved? Again, getting readers interested would be difficult. And as many charities find, not all pledges turn into cash.

salvothasock · 02-21-2006, 12:27 PM

ya, thatd be sweetness!