[Excuses] Why I can't be a Ceramic (Or Iron) DM

[BSF]

The latest Ceramic DM was in this thread.

Ceramic DM

Basically, it is a contest where Alsih20 pairs off the competitors, then provides some random pictures and you have 72 hours to craft a story out of it. The stories are judged, the winners advance to the next round. There are 8 competitors, so there are 3 rounds. It's cool.

Iron DM is similar in that you have 24 hours to craft an adventure. The last one was run by Pielorinho. Look through the old ones. If you can search, look for Ceramic DM or for Iron DM. From what I can tell, they happen every season or so.

Check them out. Look back here for what everyone else has to say and then enter the next time they roll around.

 

[BSF]

OK, here is what I have been looking for.

Passionate encouragement.

Seriously - take a look at these people. Piratecat and Barsoomcore both point out that you need to actually write to get better. It so true!

Before I delurked, I spent a lot of time just checking out the rules forum. The changes to the 3.5 Bard, and commentary on the board, caused me to de-lurk. Once I registered, I poked around the other parts of EN World. I finally gave in and went to see what the heck all the story hours were about.

What a wonderful birthday present to give myself. I run a game, generally once a week. I play in a game once a week. For the game I run, it is sometimes difficult to keep the game fresh. For the game I play in, we have adventure logs, off-camera scenes, all sorts of stuff. It is a lot of fun, but back in July, I was feeling ... drained. Actually making use of the resources on EN world helped me begin recharging my batteries.

Well, at least it was a start. Being a Network & System Administrator sometimes forces you to work odd hours. I am having trouble sleeping as much as I should lately. But, I am getting there. As a player, I am working on a collaborative scene right now with another player. I am finding my inspiration in spurts. It is distressing since I used to crank out my writing much faster.

I think part of the problem is that I only have peer review from 5 friends when I post my stuff on our site. I know they enjoy reading my stories, but I am thinking they could provide a bit more in the way of constructive criticism. Once I figured out what Ceramic DM was, I was sad that I hadn't seen it sooner. Incredible writing folks!

But, on the nights where I can't crank out more than a few hundred words, and I question myself on those, it is somewhat discouraging to see these stories you put together in 72 hours. Everything you are saying is correct. I already know it. But, that doesn't change the fact that you need to hear it from someone else sometimes. Maybe I am the only aspiring writer here that needs a combination of encouragement and butt-kicking. But lately, my inspiration has been lacking and my creativity seems to have taken a vacation. I don't like it. Your words of harsh encouragment will, hopefully, help me out.

 

[barsoomcore]

But, on the nights where I can't crank out more than a few hundred words, and I question myself on those, it is somewhat discouraging to see these stories you put together in 72 hours.

That's no reason to feel bad. I can't do much unless I have a deadline -- which is AT LEAST half the reason to enter one of these competitions anyway. Just for the deadline.

If you read the Black Company books, you may remember a comment of Croaker's as he discusses why men are willing to stand up and fight against all reason:

Men will do damnfool things just because they said they would.

Nobody does much of anything unless they set a deadline for themselves and provide some kind of reason why that deadline's important. Joining a public competition puts your pride on the line. It's inspiring, I'll tell you that.

Maybe I am the only aspiring writer here that needs a combination of encouragement and butt-kicking.

Yeah, and maybe I'm the only DM here who sometimes gets driven crazy by his players.

ALL writers need encouragement and butt-kicking. The ones who keep at it are usually the ones who find SYSTEMS for generating both. Friends who understand and pester them, self-imposed deadlines, joining classes or competitions, holding public readings or whatever it takes. Everybody needs that, so don't beat yourself up because you do.

Just get down to figuring out how to get the encouragement and buttkicking you need.

Hong's usually happy to kick a butt or two...

 

[Macbeth]

Just write, and you'll do fine.

I have to admit that, before Cermic Dm, I had never wrote fiction before. NEVER. The publicschool system does not do a whole lot to encourage creative writing. i could write essays, in fact i could write very good essays (800 verbal SAT, 5 AP English, my High School's Senior English Awrad), but I had no idea about writing fiction. I tried anyway, and I found that, not only can I write fiction better then I thought, but that I really like writing fiction. I made it to the second round, lost to a very tallented writer, felt a bit foolish, and then realized how much I had gained. Even though I didn't know how to write fiction I threw in my entries and had a grand time. Just try it, you'll like it.

Also, all this talk about Cermic DM/Iron DM has got me thinking: are any ENWorlder's active in Destination Imagination/Odyssey of the Mind? DI and OM share alot of similarities with these timed creativity contests, and I was wondering if any ENWorlder's (beside myslef) particpate in these.
For BardStephenFox in particular, if you want to see some great examples of creativity in the same vein as Iron/Ceramic DM, there's the DI state tournament in Albequerque in March (I think, I can't remember the exact date).

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Note: in the following post Ceramic DM is used to denote both the Ceramic DM (which I have entered often and won once) and the Iron DM (which I have never entered but probably has the same principles at its heart.

I'll start by answering the initial question:

The only reason someone would never win the Ceramic DM (or the Iron DM) is that they don't get involved. All other answers are false.

Refer to barsoomcore's expositions for the reasoning behind my answer. He has already said it all.

As to the experience, what is gambled or gained by being involved, here's one winner's answer:

The Ceramic DM hones your writing by calling on you to do your best with whatever is dropped on your lap in a tight timeframe. Alsih2o calls the tune and you dance, either badly or well. You can't retreat into your comfort zone or favour your preferred style if the pictures don't come. That's why I do it.

And no one cares if your story's a dog. A couple of mine have bombed horribly - oh well, no sweat, wait for the next time.

And you get to test your mettle. Guys like Piratecat can be really intimidating to low post count guys like me. Everyone knows them, everyone raves about their storyhours. You could go years on ENworld and never be more than a blip. But in the Ceramic DM your post count can go hang. It doesn't matter if you're friends with everyone or No One (pun intended) - in the Ceramic DM it's "put up or shut up." You probably won't make a name for yourself, but you don't have to be intimidated by anyone else's name either.

I guess that's it. Also, Alsih2o always puts up some truly interesting pictures - they challenge the mind, the creativity and your writing skill - it's fun.

I hope that's a reasonable answer.

 

[Zappo]

25) I participated in two, and I'm leaving room for other people now.

 

[Pielorinho]

No, I want you to shoot down all excuses. Looking at the latest Ceramic DM and Iron DM threads, I was surprised that there weren't more people leaping to join the contest.

Seriously? The last Iron DM contest filled up in two minutes. We almost expanded it to 16 contestants in order to keep up with the demand. There was no lack of interest.

I was pretty lousy in the first Iron DM tournament I entered. I was a little better in the second one I entered, and I won the third one. Practice really does improve you on these things.

Are they hard? Oh, HELL yes. I've gotten headaches from them; I've obsessed on them; I've lost sleep as my mind worked and reworked the ingredients. I've spent several hours writing up the outline, doing a rough draft, coming back and rereading it and revising it, and finally adding in the coding to make it easy to read before posting it in preview mode.

Is it worth doing? Definitely so. Beyond being tons of fun, it helps you think about adventures in a more formalized manner than you're used to. It forces you to consider ahead of time how different groups might approach a problem differently. It pushes you to think about how strange, random story elements, the kinds that inevitably pop up on the fly when you run an adventure, can be teased together into a coherent and exciting story.

Do it. Unless you're a savant, you'll lose the first time you enter a tournament. That's okay. You'll learn, and you'll improve.

Daniel

 

[Halivar]

The latest Ceramic DM was in this thread.

Ceramic DM

Basically, it is a contest where Alsih20 pairs off the competitors, then provides some random pictures and you have 72 hours to craft a story out of it. The stories are judged, the winners advance to the next round. There are 8 competitors, so there are 3 rounds. It's cool.

Iron DM is similar in that you have 24 hours to craft an adventure. The last one was run by Pielorinho. Look through the old ones. If you can search, look for Ceramic DM or for Iron DM. From what I can tell, they happen every season or so.

Check them out. Look back here for what everyone else has to say and then enter the next time they roll around.

Sounds like fun. Next one, I'm in.

 

[mythago]

Anyone interested in writing-under-pressure might want to check out NaNoWriMo. It's not too late to start!

I actually have two secret weapons for the competitions here.

One is Samwise (aka: Mr. Mythago). He is my biggest fan. He will tell me when something I'm writing is crap, but there's no motivation like having your partner give you a big hug and say "You're gonna win! You're SO GOOD!" Okay, yes, he is biased. But still.

The other is Sialla. She was/is one of the Defenders of Daybreak. So any time I write, or DM, I not only have to amuse my jaded and experienced players; I have to be at least adequate by the standards of a woman who is a fantastic gamer in her own right, and who is accustomed to Piratecat and KidCthulhu as her standard for GMs. I mean, whoa, dude.

 

[BSF]

Seriously? The last Iron DM contest filled up in two minutes. We almost expanded it to 16 contestants in order to keep up with the demand. There was no lack of interest.

Eh! You are correct. To be honest, I probably skimmed the sign-up posts trying to get to "the good stuff". It was sheer curiosity that finally nudged me to click on the Ceramic DM topic and start trying to figure it out. About halfway through the posts, a little light went off in my head. I remembered that there was another topic called Iron DM and I was betting it was somewhat similar.

So, there I was with multiple windows open. Finish one page of posts, click next and switch to the other window. It was confusing, in a fun way.