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2016 Contest Format

The 2016 contest format will be very structured.

What does this mean?

It means that each contest will have a set of rules and requirements and entries must abide by these rules and requirements.

Why?

Neopoet is a poetry workshop. If all we do is write in our comfort zone, we defeat the purpose of a workshop. If you only write to be told how much of a special snowflake you are, the contests are not for you.

No one has to enter a contest. If you do, great. You can experiment with form and subject matter and all sorts of styles and push yourself to grow as a poet.

This is the purpose of a workshop and the contests will continue to support this goal.

If you feel excluded, there is not much that can be done. It is rather like showing up to a baseball game with tennis rackets and complaining that the rules are not restructured to fit your wants.

There will be no contests that do not have rules. If this bothers you, you are free to ignore the contests.

Comments

Contests and Form.
As you say this is a workshop group, and your exacting rules for each contest will be fine and cater for those that write in the various forms taught here.
Should we not then run two contests, one for this ole git and like minded writers that understand, but are too long in the tooth to learn all these new things, and the proper one run by yourself in correctly laid out forms and rules.
Not sure what to say other than will have to wait a while to see how the 2016 first poems and rules go..
Just asking!
Yours Ian..

.
Give critique to help keep Neopoet great.
Unconditional love to you all.
"Learn to love yourself first"
Yours as always, Ian.T, Sparrow, and Yenti

This is why I am soliciting contest ideas now.

But, to be clear, exacting rules need not translate into impossible conditions. Rather, if the contest calls for freezers about rabbits and someone submits a haiku about trains, well, they aren't really participating in the contest.

This is why I want the community engaged in the definition of contests.

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Jonathan Moore

author comment

Yep I understand about putting rabbits in the freezers and then hacking around, I was just putting out that if the form is hard for some, a few may not take part, maybe if the months workshops are tied into the topic, and form, it will get a better response.
This may also make more interest in the workshops that are running.
Just a thought ??
Yours, Ian..

.
Give critique to help keep Neopoet great.
Unconditional love to you all.
"Learn to love yourself first"
Yours as always, Ian.T, Sparrow, and Yenti

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