Clarion write-a-thon · 4:18am Jun 5th, 2014
I screwed up & didn't blog about Clarion this year, and now the application deadline is past, and I think this summer's class has already started.
But they are having a write-a-thon of Clarion graduates, to raise money for Clarion. And I have a story, a fairly big one for me, that's been pestering me for almost a year now, that I keep putting off because it's too big. Maybe 20,000 words. (Also because I keep telling myself I need to stop this ponyfic stuff.)
Hmm.
Now on one hand, if you pledge to support me in this write-a-thon, that would be money that could have gone to send a brony to Clarion instead. But on the other hand, no pony writer has been admitted to Clarion since FiM was created.
And it would be pretty cool if we could raise more money than the hotshot professionals.
That would be tough, since the line-up so far includes David Brin, Cory Doctorow, and Kim Stanley Robinson.
But it would be cool.
Does anybody want me to do this?
Pledging is in terms of some unit of production which I determine. It could be dollars per word (e.g., 0.001$/wd would be $10 for a 10,000-word story). It could be dollars per story. It could be dollars per pun. But once somebody makes a pledge, I can't change it. If you want to make a pledge, what would be a good unit?
I know you might worry that I'd suddenly devote myself full-time to ponyfics and write 100,000 words, bankrupting you. So I'm going to propose the unit $ / sqrt(words):
$/sqrt(words) words $
.1 1 0.1
.1 100 1
.1 10,000 10
.1 100,000 31.6
.1 1,000,000 100
Not even shortskirtsandexplosions could do too much damage that way.
NOTE: I at first said cents/sqrt(words), but it looks like the website takes dollars / unit.
You can also join the write-a-thon yourself, and blog to your followers and take pledges. I don't think you need to be a Clarion graduate.
If I can figure out how to pay out efficiently I'm in!
1 dollar a metaphor not involving the weather or a color, with a max of $100.
It's a good idea. If you want to spread the word that fanfics can be just as good and just as profitable as "normal" writers (or fanfic writers as normal writers), this is a pretty decent way to do it.
I like the 1/sqrt(words) funding idea. It makes the the pledge amounts pretty stable, and any sizable donation would require some sizable output. If you do it, then I will pledge. Just make sure you put up a blog post when you set the goal so people know that they can start pledging.
Ready and willing to pledge. The sqrt system seems sound.
SQRT?
Isn't that what the ancient Romans used to stamp on their coins? No, that was SPQR, I think. I guess I don't know what SQRT stands for, then.
Still, this sounds like a fun thing. I'd pledge.
Mike
Shut up, sign me up and take my money. I would've wasted it on Games Workshop and Hasbro bullshit otherwise.
You mean hilarious. That would show them good.
Whu...? You writing smut now? That's awful cheap to write about squirting. I've paid way more for smut stories and it's expensive. You're really selling yourself short, I think.
2176875
Square root.
I'm putting aside some cash now for next years' FiMfiction Clarion Scholarship. So you know. Pressure’s on and all that.
If you go for this I could throw some cash at cents/sqrt(words) too. (I'm probably open to other ideas; I like 2176620's but I'd tap out pretty soon.) I'm just not sure how I'd send the money to you :/
2176916
Thanks!
Comes from being a humanities major, I guess...
Mike
If we want to "raise more money than the hotshot professionals", then it seems to me it would help to have the early words weigh a lot more, possibly even more than cents/SQRT(words) would. [1] Are multiple types of pledges possible?
If so, I'm tempted to suggest something like, say, four cents every ten words up to a thousand words, plus cents/SQRT(words) on the entire thing [3]. So (unless I've goofed) that would come to five dollars on the first thousand words, and more beyond that.
[1] I'd run up to this idea earlier, and then I scrolled up and noticed you changed to $/SQRT(words)[2]. So I don't know if this still applies.
[2] Also, you can totally still force cents/SQRT(words) to work even if the site takes dollars per unit. A cent is, after all, .01 dollars.
[3] I feel I wouldn't have the money to run with what I currently perceive as a similar unit in dollars, and I'm plowing ahead with my original thinking anyways.
2183447 It's too late now; it's locked in because someone made a donation.
My goal is to have some motivation for me to write more, but not surprise anybody with more words than they can afford. This does that well enough.
I wanted to pledge a quarter per pun, but apparently it's too late for that.
2183623
My bad. I've change my pledge to $0 since I can't figure out how to withdraw it. If you still can't update it, I'll ask Shauna to manually remove my pledge. I'll add it back once the write-a-thon officially starts.