I warned Katy not to, but she did not listen….
No one is immune from making mistakes. There was the time when I was living in Sausalito (just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco) when I was an extra in a movie. On the fourth shot of what turned out to be 20 takes, another extra looked directly at the camera and smiled as she walked across the street. She was not in takes 5-20. When I was a kid, I decided to pop the clutch and roll my brother’s car out of the driveway so that I could shoot baskets. That did not end well. And of course, anyone deciding to date John Mayer has made the mistake of having her head in the sand the last 5 years or so.
Why do I say all of this? Well, my “mistake” this time around was hosting the vote for #MWWC8, a Challenge that I had also entered. No, it did not cause anyone to get fired, a car to get damaged, or a celebrity to appear even more vapid (if that is possible). No, it presented me with a dilemma should I win the vote. Honestly, I did not think it would happen since there were 17 impressive entries alongside my own. As the voting drew to a close, however, it was clear that what I feared was going to occur.
I won the vote.
For the last couple of days, I have been debating what to do. I decided to consult a few other bloggers who had not submitted this time around (no, I did not choose to also chastise them for their dereliction, but I probably should have). First, I thought I would just lie and say whoever came in second won, but Kirsten, the Armchair Sommelier, pulled out the “honesty is the best policy” card. Second, I considered stating that I won, but then abdicating to the runner-up since, as Oliver the Winegetter correctly pointed out, the vote was being conducted on my “home turf” which carried with it some inherent advantage.
In the end (actually about five minutes before I started writing this post), I decided to reluctantly accept it with some sort of mea culpa. I also thought I would use it as an opportunity to make a few changes to the rather loose set of “rules” that have never really been codified. So here is what I suggest, and please, please, please let me know what you think:
- There needs to be some consistency in “hosting”. In past challenges, there has been varying levels of “outreach” to encourage participation in both writing and reading/voting. I feel that if there were a certain amount of consistency, we all would benefit. In future months, I plan on doing my best to promote that month’s challenge. It would certainly be better if that were in conjunction with the “official” host, but I understand that we all have busy lives and there will be varying levels of time available to commit to hosting the challenge.
- The vote should be held in a neutral place. I did not start MWWCBlog for that purpose, but it might be the best place for it.
- I also propose some sort of “executive council” (or something a little less ominous-sounding) that would help to make decisions, have access to MWWCBlog, etc. Membership would be voluntary, perhaps rotating, and based on participation in the Challenge (it seems more logical to me to include someone who has participated multiple times without winning than someone who has won, but only participated once or twice).
So those are just a few of my thoughts and I would really love to hear what you think. Above all, I want the Challenge to continue since I hope it is serving a purpose–to challenge each of us to inch out of our comfort zones a bit and become better writers.
the drunken cyclist 
Graciously take your bow. Nothing to consider. Congrats!
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Thanks Alyssa!
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Congratulations and although I understand the reluctant acceptance, it is nonetheless wonderful that you got the top vote.
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Far too kind…
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were you actually in the movie as an extra? I seem to recall differently . .
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I was an extra, and it was a movie. The fact that my scene did not make the final cut is largely irrelevant (just ask the Academy).
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I can understand wanting to come from a neutral place with promotion, it’s hard a balance between wanting to promote your work and your baby (the writing challenge).
I’m thankful you took the time to start up this wee gem. Although unsuccessful in winning this month i’ve learnt heaps and stumbled across some great bloggers…
You presented a great post and told the story beautifully. Unless you spent a Friday night voting for yourself over and over again. I say take your bow and please give us the next word 😉
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Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it. I have a few ideas for the next word and I will release it next week.
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First off, so cool that you got to live in Sausalito for a while! It sure looks like heaven to me!
Secondly, I would not worry too much about your winning the contest multiple times 😉 After all it all gets decided by the voters and you have amply and repeatedly demonstrated your writing skills (which are particularly evident in your OMG chapter book!) so I would just take a bow and start scratching my head for the next theme.
Should you however be really overwhelmed by that vague sense of guilt that sometimes comes with being often considered the best by your peers 😉 then set up some sort of rule that, for instance, if the same writer wins the contest for x times, then that writer cannot win the next say three runs of the contest but still needs to submit, so people will still enjoy reading your posts but you will “force the system” to also recognize other authors.
Just sayin’.
Of course, and more importantly, congrats on winning the contest! 🙂
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Thanks so much Stefano. Yeah, Sausalito was nice, particularly for the weather (it had the warmth of Marin during the day and then the fog would roll over from the city at night, cooling everything way down), but there were far too many people and it was soooooo expensive. I like that rule of yours!
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Congrats!
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Thanks Kirsten!
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First off, congrats, and well done!
I think your proposed changes make sense and should definitely bring some consistency to the challenge, which it now is in a spot to need with more and more participants etc. As indicated privately, I’d be willing to participate in running the MWWC site if there aren’t enough others that are interested.
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I’d love to see the challenge grow because I like to read good wine-writing. Maybe I don’t have any right to comment, having never entered the challenge (but I have read and voted multiple times). I think it’s good and democratic to open it up for discussion. I think you should have an advisory committee or some such thing. In addition,
My tossed-out suggestions, off the top of my head:
1) the contest might gain credibility (of consistency) if it was “hosted” from always being “hosted” on the MWWC site.
2) continue to have last month’s winner pick this month’s “theme”
3) continue to have the contest decided by popular vote (people’s choice award)
4) add another prize called something like “MWWC wine-writing prize” or something like that, winner chose by a three judge panel on a score-ranking system. None of the judges may have entered the contest.
5) judges could be 1 permanent judge who serves a term of, say, 6 months; one guest judge at large for each month (both of these people should be professional writers and/or editors), and the person who won last month’s contest who picks the theme, who is then ineligible to enter this month. As someone familiar with “contests” and “competitions” the three-judge scoring system turns out to be the very fair, especially when the judging panel changes.
6) The person who picks the theme ought to do certain required things (the advisory committee comes up with this) to promote the contest on his/her blog. Other participants ought to also at least mention it in a post.
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Great ideas, all Tracy! Any thoughts on how to identify judges? And how to approach them? In other words do you think that there would be willing (and capable) volunteers?
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Writers know writers, so start by finding a writer who is willing to serve the 6-month term (which you would only have to do twice a year). In return for judging, the writer would get some free publicity about whatever book(s) he she is promoting and links to his/her blog and/or site that sells the book. It would be his/her job to invite the guest writers for each month.
If you really like the idea, we could email more about the details. One thing I’m sure; the writer(s) would expect email submissions (the site administrators could forward them); and it would be best if they could figure out a way to do that so that the author’s name is not associated with the submission. It gives more credibility to the selection process.
The advisory board could collect the submissions and assign them numbers, for example.
How many submissions do you generally get per month?
P.S.–I could help you find writers, I think. I know dozens and dozens of them, and many of them love wine. (speaking of which, I think you could greatly sweeten the “reward” for the person who commits to a 6-month term by figuring out a way to send a “thank-you gift” of a decent (but not expensive) bottle of wine. Between the lot of you, that shouldn’t be too difficult.
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Thanks Oliver, I could use a bit of help with the site!
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Just let me know, I’d be happy to help.
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I knew the fix was in when I didn’t win it….
Congrats on the win and I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s a blog contest with a prize that has a cash value of 80 bucks short of a bottle of Veuve. I’m happy to help out Winegetter for the neutral site tho.
Btw – I see u took a page out of my book by somehow squeezing a near-gratuitous photo of Katy Perry in a post.
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There were several pics of JM with various women, but I chose that one just for you….
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So how about choosing “Katy Perry” as next month’s theme? I need something I can knock out of the park.
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Coming from Chicago, I fail to see the problem. 😉
Congratulations!
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I feel a little like Beaver Cleaver with my honesty suggestion, but hey, at least now no one can accuse you of voter fraud. 😉! I think we’re at a point where having a consistent admin each month is to everyone’s advantage. If you’re willing to serve in that capacity . . . Hooray!! Having won before, I can attest to how time-consuming it is to host and promote the challenge. That said, if you need help with the admin, let me know. I’m happy to lend a hand.
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No! It was the right thing, I think. At the risk of sounding self-serving, on a certain level if I had just opted to make the runner-up the winner, it really diminishes the whole thing. If that makes any sense….
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Congratulations !
Well done 🙂
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Thanks!
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Remember, the only reason you hosted the vote was because I couldn’t figure out how to vote on my Blogspot. So no guilt at all. A congratulations and thank you from me! You deserve it.
I like all the ideas posted above. I know I am newer to the challenge, but since I assess writing for a living in my day job (sixteen year English teaching veteran and college-credit class instructor), I would be happy to volunteer on some sort of a panel if you need people.
I so enjoy the MWWC and want to see it continue!
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Thanks for your comments Kara! I am going to try to get my head around this a bit this weekend….
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Congratulations!! Well deserved!! By the way, will you announce silver and bronze medals? Because I thought that was the practice until MWWC#7?
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Well, there was no “official” practice, but the bronze went to Chinon and Beaujolais and the Silver again went to Talk-a-Vino.
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Sounds like a good day to open a bottle of Conundrum. 😉
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Ha!
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Congrats! Well deserved! By the way, are you going to announce the silver and bronze medalists? 🙂
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See above! 😉
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Agree with your suggestions. Perhaps judges might be the last three winners, on a rotating basis, every three months? Anyway, congrats!
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Yes, that sounds like an excellent plan (as long as the winners will commit to it! 😉
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Congratulations, oh and by the way, here is that bottle of bubbly (but that is between you and I -wink, wink LOL). You did a fine job and you do a yeoman like job with the extra work as well. Enjoy your time in the sun again, since we are finally getting sunshine once more. Looking forward to the next challenge. Also regarding your acting ability, I am sure that it would compete with Kevin Costner in “The Big Chill.”
– John
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I do not know if I am capable of sitting perfectly still that long!
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Congratulations! Sorry, I was out of pocket for a couple of days. Suggestions sound fine. The goal is to encourage us to write, correct? It also exposes all the participant bloggers to a wider audience. Who loses?
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Exactly! At least those were the goals when we started this (almost a year ago now)!
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