Johnny Wraith Stories

I noticed that the most recent topic about the contest was posted months ago, so I'm assuming that the rules haven't changed and you're still waiting to get 50 entries to end it... also that the ad on Craigslist was a success (to some degree). Should you need more traffic directed to your site, I recommend MySpace. The site may be cliche and full of freaks, but some of them can write. Anyway...

Yes, I'm too lazy to count the stories that have been posted thus far myself. Given that, about how many more do you need? Also, do you count the entries as per person or per story? In the event that people can submit multiple stories, I'd gladly post several to bump the number up. Then you can start a new contest with different rules if you're thinking of doing so. I actually liked the idea of a deadline date. In fact, I suggest that you have quarterly deadlines and then a grand-prize for winner of the year. The quarterly winners could receive a small cash reward (or T-shirt or whatever) and a more significant prize would be for the big winner at the end of the year. I think the general public would be more receptive to this, as it doesn't seem to be "too good to be true" as the current contest does.

Just some food for thought... and say the word and I'll start posting oodles of stories. I'm a little slow at the office this month and would gladly sacrifice my lunch breaks on a daily basis to share my writing... oh, and to possibly win money, that's always a plus.

-Tanya

Tanya,

You're right. The rules about the 50 entries won't change. In retrospect, I should have put an exact date deadline on the contest, but this site is still an experiment for me. A lot of times I do things without knowing any better. The next contest will likely be quarterly $50 to $100 contests, or the prize will be an admin password that allows the winner to make blog entries just as I do. These are just ideas at this point. Nothing is in stone. This site is a work in progress by an unconventional guy.

I'm glad the Craigslist ad has had some success. By the way, how do you know that the Craigslist ad has worked? Also, I did create a MySpace account, but haven't done much with it. It is hard enough just to administer this site and write stories given my current schedule. However, if via MySpace I can lure freaks here, I just might spend some time on MySpace. The freaks are always the people I find most interesting. I'm a freak, at least in theory. But in practice, I'm just an ordinary suburbs alcoholic with dreams of becoming the next Dan Brown. Haha!

As far as the number of entries each person can make, I unfortunately limited entries to 1 per person. Either this limit should have been higher or the number of requisite entries to trigger the contest end should have been lower, but, all I can do at this point is do it differently the next time. However, given my recent surge in internet traffic, as well as the frequency in entries made, I'm thinking this contest will end in a about 3-4 months.

As far as entries to date, I count 20. One person made two entries, thus violating the rules that only one per person can be made, but I haven't yet decided how to handle this issue. I'll probably just give this entrant the choice of which story to eliminate from the contest.

Thanks for your input and observations. It is all helpful and appreciated. I look forward to reading your work.

--Johnny

Ok, fine... that's fair. *sigh* Though, I will have to think about what kind of story to submit now that I'm limited to only one. I'll try to drag a few of my friends and loved ones into this, too... it shouldn't be too hard, I'm lucky to be surrounded by creative people.

As for MySpace, yes... it would be worth it. As one of the (sorta) freaks that can write, I can honestly say that I've written enough blogs in the past year to equal a good sized novel. The commentary feedback from friends has been rewarding and I can see how using the trendy site for networking would be very beneficial to your cause here. It's free marketing, so I would jump on it if I were you (but luckily I'm not because then I'd be just an ordinary suburbs alcoholic, ha!). Anyway, I believe they even have a html code that you can incorporate into your page design that will send out massive amounts of friend requests for you to draw people in with hardly any effort on your part (hooray for spam everywhere). Just Google "MySpace codes" and see if you can find what I'm talking about. In the meantime, I'm going to revisit some old blogs on there and see if I can turn one into a short story. I hope my advice helps... and as for Craigslist, I just assumed it worked because it always does... for everything. It's where I found my condo, a few of my furniture items and where I found a home for a lost ferret. I've found friends jobs and roommates on Craigslist... you just can't loose when you post there. However, it is only effective one city at a time... with MySpace, you will be reaching people across the globe all at once.

Tanya

P.S. I forgot to give you praise for creating this site. What you're doing here is what I've been using MySpace for... a place to share my thoughts in writing. This however, is yours and yours alone... which is something pretty great. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the number of registered members here continues to grow.

I took a look at my MySpace account and fiddled around with it some. One great success was my putting the link to this site on it. Otherwise, it still has the out-of-the box account look. If I can figure out how to access the code on my home page/profile, I'll have my biggest problem resolved. Really, that's my current hurdle. I just can't, for the life of me, figure out how to get to the home page/profile code. I'm looking for a minimalist look though. Black background, white text, re-use the images on this site.

I appreciate your praise for the creation of this site. I have to give the Doodlebit guys a lot of credit. I told them what my vision was, and they created my vision. One thing that really helped was that one of the designers has been like a brother to me for about 20 years. He knows me as well as anyone, and has been witness to many of the events that have inspired many of my stories.

I think I figured out the MySpace thing. The code just gets changed in the profile text boxes.