Oneshotober: Death By Numero Uno · 12:46am Sep 12th, 2014
Come closer, children, and regal the tale of the past times of the last year! When fimfic was still new and golden, unsoiled by the mark of LoHAV and dramashit that has tarnished its good name forevermore. Well... actually, it was still a big hellhole back then, but more so now. And lemmen tell ya, one of the worst things out of it was a certain event known only as One-Shotober.
Now, why exactly is making 31 unique stories in just a month's time a bad thing? Well, if common sense doesn't make it obvious, allow me to tell you. So sit back, wait for that delicious Halloween candy once this shitstorm blows over, and get ready to see why oneshots and October were never meant to be mixed together.
The memories are more vivid and shittier than I remembered...
Okay, not to beat around the bush, but it is fucking hard to write 31 oneshots in a single month's time. That is basically a story a day. One day to come up with an idea, write it, edit it (ha, yeah right), and then publish. You have to do that for an entire month without break, possibly with dozens of other competitors. You know what ends up happening. Everything turns into shit.
You know why? It's damn hard to come up with 31 unique ideas for stories, much less write and then publish them in a day. And I don't care how good your editor(s) can edit, there's no fucking way any human being can possible handle that workload to edit all those stories properly. Hastily yes. Properly? Hell no. Unless they got laid off from work and ponefics is all that fulfill them in life or something, but I'm not here to do guess work. No editor can meet that demand, and no writer in their right mind should attempt to do so either. Sure, starting off it might not be so bad. The oneshots are meh at best, nothing really sets them apart since they're rushed, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad. Oh, but what a hopeful fool you were. Now the idea of writing a new story every day fills you with dread. You're basically just hashing ideas together now just to break 1k words. Find a good enough cover art, spend ten seconds mulling over a description, pull some random-ass title out of your ass, slap it on the fic and then hit that publish button.
Every FRICKIN time!
Now multiply this event by around +30 (or possibly more now that this event has gained popularity). The new stories box is flooded with these oneshots. The popular box is flooded with these oneshots. The featured box (that motherfucking featured box) is thankfully left alone. People got wise soon in the game and never gave Oneshotober fics enough heat to get in the box (most of the time). So not only are you assuring your stories will be thrown in the background of mediocrity like all the rest of them, the story itself will most likely never get popular. And yes, you might say you don't care about popularity, but after 31 times of a failed fic even the most optimistic of the bunch will get discouraged. In the end, the entire goddamn site is drowned in meh to awful oneshots that continue on for an entire month. That's right, this shit doesn't stop until Halloween passes by, and by that time you'll be begging for the merciless embrace of death to rip your throat out.
The point of Oneshotober is in essence for writers to write more stories. And that's a good thing! Go out there and write! Come up with new ideas! Be creative! Talk to your friends to birth some stories out of your brain! Whatever! Just please, for the love of god, don't do Oneshotober. While it does promote authors to write stories, they never bothered to tell authors to write good stories. And I don't care if you're the lovechild of Hemingway and King, there's no way you can write 31 good stories in only a month's time. Perhaps not even a dozen good stories. The stories will be rushed, the plots not well done, the pacing shot to hell, the characters flat as cardboard, the grammar in poor use, and the overall effect that fic shall have on the site is contempt from most of the readers because of how damn tedious all these oneshots become.
This is basically what Oneshotober amounts to.
Oh, and another part on those readers. Near the end of it, a lot of people really started hating Oneshotober. To the point they'd downvote any story associated with the group that got published. These amounted to a ton of downvotes that only made a dent in the blind upvotes the group members would give you just for continuing. Also, this got so bad, that people were downvoting any oneshot they see, regardless of whether it was part of Oneshotober or not. It got to a point that everyone was just so fucking sick and tired of oneshots they tore apart any they spotted, and this continued until well after Oneshotober ended.
And nearly forgot about that end. You know what you get from this? From writing 31 bad stories? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The "winners" only get a pat on the back and glares from everyone else for actually writing 31 stories in the space of a month's time. If you truly wish to acquire such an achievement, then go right the fuck ahead, because if the impossibility of the task doesn't discourage you, you'll soon find out how bad it can be. And the winners may (emphasis on the may) get their names put in a "Well done!" site blog post. That's truly up in the air, and even then, it's not exactly something to be excited about.
This will probably be your reaction once everything is over. Congratulations!
Now, at this point, you're probably just thinking RainbowBob is being a party-pooper and wants to just ruin a good time for writing. Well, lemme cut the shit and tell you straight that I used to be a part of Oneshotober. Hell, I was an admin once upon a time. I was really excited to write a bunch of stories and have fun with the rest of everyone else. And you know what? By the fourth story, I realized something crucial. Something that opened my eyes and truly made me see the event for what is really was.
My stories were becoming shit, and I had no idea until a friend pointed it out to me. By the fourth I had basically written up something based off Kickass (comic, not movie) that was fucked up and seemed like a well enough idea at the time. It wasn't properly edited because the only editor I got could only look it over in 15 minutes. It was crude, bad, awful, shitty, and everything worse, and I was quick to remove it from the site and hide my shame from the interwebs. After that, I stopped participating in Oneshotober. I was merely an observer then, looking to how far that group filled with hope had fallen, how much it had been clogged with shit, and how very sick and tired the entire site had become of these stories. Because, seriously, so many participated last time, thankfully only a few actually managed to do it, but still, it was an awful experience the entire way through because of the overabundance of bad stories flooding the site with no end until the very last day of the month. You wanna know how many bad stories? A fucking grand total of 337 stories by 35 participants, which means that this motherfucking challenge alone is responsible for over 10% of all stories approved during the past month on this goddamn site.
Let that sink in for a moment...
I KNEW I'd have a reason to use this gif!
Okay, good? Seeing now how ridiculous this is? Realizing just how awful this could become? Knowing with absolute clarity why this is just a terrible idea? Good! Now we can move onto how to avoid this shitstomr before it could pop up.
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) asks an author to write a novel of around 50,000 words in only a month's time. While this is a difficult endeavor, many authors state it was well worth the small time frame and tight scheduling. This is the proper way to write such a large word count in only a month's time, since it still allows you wiggle room for creativity because it's all condensed in one story instead of fucking 31 oneshots. Which is why I have a suggestion for all of you wanting to do this event even with all my warnings.
If you must, write an anthology of 31 individual chapters. Each chapter can be a oneshot in of itself, or chapters to a larger piece as a whole that aren't connected together. Kind of like a Saturday morning cartoon show. Anything would suffice, really, instead of the bane of 31 oneshots would bring. So try that out for a spell once October rolls around the corner, and I can guarantee you'll be much happier and better off overall.
Also, before you get up in arms about this, no, I don't think authors who participate in this event are shit writers. They're gonna write a lot of meh to bad stories, but that doesn't mean the writer themselves are bad. I pity the workload that 31 stories shall bring to their fingers, mind, and keyboard, and I only wish to prevent the flood of awful stories from drowning the rest of the site. And in the end, isn't that what we all want? Good stories for fimfic? Please, guys, the poor site is starving for them. All the Spike harem fics and HiExPrincess stories are making it starve.
And that would be just terrible, wouldn't it?
Oh, also, I'm not an admin in that group anymore, stop sending me PM's. Jesus Christ, I've had around six already.
Bob is the hero fimfic needs, not the one it deserves
th02.deviantart.net/fs70/200H/i/2013/309/c/6/spongebob_in_a_bat_suit_by_dcdream-d31r5qg.jpg
This shit. This is why I follow you.
I think the only person who actually managed to do it last time was Twinkletail.
I think the real problem isn't coming up with 31 good stories (well, assuming you're allowed to come up with ideas beforehand) but the fact that it is unlikely you will come up with 31 good SHORT stories. Some stories want to be long. Some don't. And most folks don't write 31k words/month.
I have something like 30 stories I think would be good outlined to various extents on my computer, but writing 30 in a month? Ha!
Of course, I'm just excusing my laziness.
I totally have 31 ideas (more like 3100 lol) but there is no way I could keep myself writing one story a day every day for a month. I've seen other peoples' OST entries and thought about it, and just no.
good talk
*floods Bob's inbox with random PM's all titled Oneshotober*
2447632
Actually, seven managed to write the full 31.
Seven people contributed over two hundred stories to the site in the space of one month.
Let that sink in. Allow the madness to grip you.
Fuckdammit Bob. What are you doing? Trying to prevent people from attempting futile endeavors? With some luck those HiEXPrincess or especially the SpikeHarem authors would have attempted it and NEVER written again.
You just did the site a disservice.
Bob... Eat a Snickers...
Correct sponge is correct.
Actually, something I don't think I saw here: forcing out 31 one-shots on 31 consecutive days is a good way to burn out, fast and hard.
Never even heard of Oneshotober, but let me thank you graciously for bringing something so insane to light.
This kind of makes me think of the song 'Christmas Time is Killing Us'
For those of you who couldn't be arsed to read the above wall of text:
Oneshotober in a nutshell.
derpicdn.net/img/2014/4/26/610472/medium.jpg
Now, imagine this multiplied about... oh let's say fifty to a hundred, all posting stories in the same 31-day timespan.
That was the hell fimfic was last year. Or rather it would have been had I been paying attention to the site.
I, however did read the text. Bob, this is me, hugging you forever.
Though I'm afraid your noble efforts are wasted. Oneshotober is a bigger excuse than most for people to play Feature Box Lottery. :P
I'm happy to report EQD will be running NaPoWriMo this year so maybe we can sway some folks away from oneshotober.
2447677
Awesome news
You sure get a lot of use outta those Spongebob gifs.
Screw Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger, and all those other horror movie fucktards, Oneshotober is the real horror of the month of Halloween.
I read this all the way through, and even though your thoughts were well presented you aren't going to sway me from participating in Oneshotober. I will prove you wrong by writing 31 good stories in October.
2447745
Rest in peace, 2006. You had a good run until 2014.
I know exactly who you're talking about here! PresentPerfect said to me a few days ago, that one who panders to their fans is/can be considered a tool, and the one we both despise (for the aforementioned offense) is the biggest [and dullest] tool in the shed.
2447756
Wait till the end of October. We'll see who's right.
2447667
That's what uppers are for, silly goose!
Sweet lord, that's what Oneshotober is?! I write an awful lot, but to write 31 stories in the span of a story a day terrifies me to extremes. I just... HOW? I can only imagine how many of those guys got carpal tunnel syndrome...
2447656
I could do without seeing any more Spike harem stories, and especially HiE x princess [romance] stories, especially from one particular writer.
I write HiE [romance] stories, but they're at least somewhat enjoyable.
Good lord, I had no idea this even existed. Now I do, and I'm stupider-er because of it.
Thanks for that.
I wonder, would it mean anything to have 31 authors write one chapter of a story and pass it around and publish one a day?
I mean, it could probably turn to shit, but that sounds like a more interesting experiment and it wouldn't have nearly the (very accurate) problems listed here.
I'm lucky if I can get 2000 words out each month, nowadays, and I'm still shit. I can't even imagine what would happen if I participated in Oneshotober.
Man, I don't get the point of that, either. More power to anyone doing it, but it feels really pointless and like a way to get attention from any 31 of the ones they make.
I also feel completely bad for the story approves because they're flooded with so many stories, and at the end of the month, you just want to hug them tight and say, "It's okay, it's okay."
I was thinking about doing one-shotober this year. I was one of the ones that finished the challenge last time. And at first, I was excited and proud. But looking back on it? I was proud of maybe... I dunno... Twelve of the stories? Maybe? The rest were meh. About six or so I thought were absolute horse shit. And... This shit. Not only is it putting a bunch of rushed stories on the site... Do you know how hard I burned out after this? I burned out so hard, that it actually worsened my depression to the point where I was basically a catatonic vegetable only going to school, doing my homework, and then trying to go to sleep, thinking over my life and how much of a failure I was (I did this a lot before, but I got a lot worse. I actually had to start taking medication recently once I actually talked to my family and doctor about it) and I couldn't even look at this site for almost six months. Bleeeegh. Dooooon't do eeeeet.
This just seems unnecessary, dude.
i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p657/JimHollow/vmptfl_zpsd7780bbf.gif
I didn't even come close, but that was probably for the best. At least two of the stories I put out during my half-hearted attempt at oneshotobery are, IMO, acceptable. If I'd actually tried to post 31 stories...
This is an interesting view on it.
I was going to see if I could attempt Oneshotober (even if there's no way I could manage it). After reading this blog post, though, I think it'd be better to give NaPoWriMo a go and publish a multichapter at the start of November, giving the readers some sweet sweet solace.
Wait, so is it a bad idea to post a story in October in general even if you don't do the challenge, since they'll be SO much competition?
2448037
Between this, Pony NaNoWriMo and the inevitable Hearth's Warming flood, I think I might just hold off until next year.
(who am I kidding rainbow rocks is coming)
2448037
This is assuming Oneshotober goes ahead. An awful lot of people are reconsidering, since there are plenty of horror stories from folks who took part last year, as well as the general air of negativity surrounding the idea.
If it doesn't, or it's not very popular, post away!
I didn't even know this was a thing. Stop introducing me to things I didn't know were things before you told me they were things!
2447819
That was fun
Sounds like when Obs did Fimfiction Writes Ponies
2447677
Maybe some of us will be mad enough to do both.
The most I've ever consecutively wrote was five, back when Twilight Eats A Peach was the daily bandwagon. It actually made me want to keep writing, but I was running out of ideas
I probably could write a story per day, but I wouldn't dare hit the publish button on any of them. First drafts are bad, and you should feel bad if you publish them.
Bobby, I'm doing DOUBLE-shotober, where I write TWO stories everyday! ^_^ (don't worry, half of them will be on alt accounts.
You have however convinced me to hold off on publishing them until November.
LoHAV? I'm guessing that stands for the Land of... Horseradish And Vinegar. I've never seen Sburb generate a cooking-themed planet before. What's your strife specibus?
Judging by that, I'd say it was at least faithful to the Kickass comic.
Okay Bob, you pushed my button again. I'm going to get hate for this, I'm sure, but I can't stand it any more.
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw9176_medium.jpg
Little extreme? Yeah, probably but fuck dude, stop sucking the fun out of FimFiction. You have been here a while, you have experience, and you have opinions on this site's current state. And I'm sorry, but shut the fuck up about politics or whatever the fuck we're suppose to call this.
Okay... got that out of my system. Me and thirty-one new stories will see you in November.
2448529
If you plan on doing so, may I suggest posting them as part of an anthology? It would remove the problem of story spam, while still allowing those interested to find your works.
2448561
Dude, have you heard what the people who took part last year said? Fun isn't a part of Oneshotober, man
2448561
Politics? Dafuq? Dude, thus isn't about politics, I'm just telling you Oneshotober is a horrible idea. Don't believe me? Go for it. Write all those stories. See for yourself how bad it can get. Prove me wrong if you want to, but I the end, I just really don't want to see hundreds of shitty stories flood the site in a month's time.
Joke's on you, Bob, some of my best stories both comedic and serious were written during one shotober last year
and even though I only got 19 done, not even your most well typed criticisms will stop me from doing all 31 this year
2447923 no, those fics are a large part of the cancer destroying the site
2448662 And it's different from all the other months how?
If it's your own work your worried about getting ignored, I really find that hard to believe. Of course I'm jumping to conclusions here.
Bottom line, this was a bad post, Bobbo.
2448674
My... own work? What? Oneshotober ain't really gonna affect it much. The month just produces a huge surge of awful fics for an entire month to be flooded on the site. Sure, a good amount are decent, but near the end of it (or more likely the halfway point of the month) that people aren't even trying and everything you see is just short, shitty stories, all the damn time.
2448676 I'm really failing to see the point you're trying to make with all this, so I went with the low hanging ego fruit. Again, I could be completely wrong.
The point is, you shouldn't be discouraging the nearly three thousand people who follow you from trying to undertake this challenge. That's what I'm mainly taking offense with.
Plus unhappiness with these types of blogs has been simmering for a while. You just happened to set it off.
2448680
Bob's not trying to tell people not to write, man. He's telling people that Oneshotober is a bad idea, as it's set up in a way that burns out authors, ruins whatever hope small-time authors have of getting featured, floods the site with low-effort dreck, and just makes the whole thing miserable for everyone.
You want to take part in a challenge? Awesome! More enthusiasm is always welcome. The Writeoff Association hosts competitions regularly, and 2447677 just announced the return of National Pony Writing Month, where the challenge is to write 50k words in just 30 days. Just recently, Equestria Daily ran the Outside Insight competition, too. There are plenty of places around the site to find challenges, prompts, competitions, all that lovely stuff. But if you want to do one, please don't do Oneshotober.