Young Writers Society

I don't know how many of you remember Writer Of The Week. Basically it was once a week a particularly good writer was selected to get the title Writer Of The Week. It died out a few months ago. I think it was because we had to much work on not enough people. I've been thinking of ways to fix this and I have two possibilities, which one I do depends on your answer.

Let's say that you got nominated to be WOTW. Exciting, right? Now let's say there are four other people nominated and we make a poll to see who is the WOTW. Would you be hurt if you got the least amount of votes?

I know everyone would be excited to be nominated for WOTW, but I don't know how people would feel about the direct comparison to another writer.

Honestly, whenever there's a "competition" or a user-against-user poll in general view of the public (heck, a user-against-user poll anywhere), you're going to run the risk of someone's feelings being hurt.

Whether they're offended because they didn't get it, or because they got the lowest number of votes, or because their friend didn't get it, or anything like that... Not to mention, some people might vote for their friend simply because they're friends, or against someone (in the sense of voting for literally anyone else with no reason) who they might not like as much, and you'll end up with about fifty cans of worms.

My point isn't to say "if you're going to hurt someone's feelings, stop it"; my point is to say that someone usually does end up feeling hurt, with or without the public poll, but the public poll might make it more obvious, more of a hassle, and a little bit more like daggers under their skin. In this case, I couldn't vote "yes" or "no". I don't actually care about Writer of the Week, but I would still find myself hurt if I was put into a poll with others and directly compared to them, and found to be lacking.

Also, with public-opinion polls, you must keep in mind the bias of opinion. Some people may find Writer A's stuff better because it's shorter or "easier to read"; some people may find Writer B's stuff better because it's thought-provoking and complex; some people may find Writer C's stuff right in the comfortable middle. At the end of all that, you're going to have coalitions of the people who like A, the people who like B, and the people who like C, and none of them are necessarily the "best writer" of the batch, because they're all completely different.

If you have any questions about this, ask away, and I'll try to clarify. My thoughts aren't displaying themselves in the most organized manner today.

I'm going to go with, no... It wouldn't offend me. At least not a lot. I would be really flattered just to be nominated. And as for the votes, if I didn't win it wouldn't necessarily/entirely reflect my writing because some of the people who vote potentially wouldn't have read any of my stuff but voted because their friend was nominated. Or if someone really popular on the site was nominated along with me, they might get more votes just because of that. Although the "contest" would be for who the best writer it always comes down to a popularity contest to some extent. Some I'm sure would read a work of each contestant and vote accordingly while I'm sure others would go with a person whose work they know is good and don't bother to read anyone else's. Maybe this would be rare, I'm not sure how seriously the majority of the people on YWS take contests like this, but I'm sure it would happen at least somewhat. Thanks!

Honestly, I don't participate in many competitions for the sole reason that I never really win. My only talents lie in things not often found in competitions. But when I do enter a competition and I lose, heck, I expect it! I don't mind when it happens. I simply congratulate the winner - they deserve it for working so hard - and move on. Life isn't meant for getting caught up in losing and winning. But I understand the protests of those who are offended by getting the least votes. Things like this are bound to upset someone and I understand that. Sometimes people had their heart set on winning and felt like being nominated WAS winning, but then they lose and feel like they didn't want to be nominated at all and such... Anyways, I wouldn't be offended in the least, but others might and I respect that.

Thanks for sharing your opinions guys! You brought up a few points I hadn't thought of. I really appreciate it.

@Em101cats You're such a nice person what you're good at doesn't matter! I'm sure if someone held a "Nicest Person" contest you'd win.

I understand what everyone is trying to say. But, I am open to this type of thing. I think it may raise people's spirits and confidence if they were WOTW. Anyway, if they weren't, theres always next week. Anyway, if someone doesn't win, but is still nominated, that, in itself, to me, would already to be a big honor. If you are even NOMINATED, though, then theres a big chance you will be the next week if people truly do like your writing.

@WritingWolf Nah, I'm sure Raven would win that one! But you'd definitely win the most motivating and hardworking, with all your work for WOTW!