Reflections on the
100 Days of Poetry Project #1:
Challenge Design
Introduction
Greetings and salutations, Steemiverse! After taking a bit of time to decompress after our poetry challenge, I wanted to begin the process of reflecting on the experience through writing. I invite anyone who participated (whether you made it all the way through, dropped partway, or even just observed the challenge) to join me and post reflections in the comments of this post. It can be a link to a blog post or simply written as a reply. I feel it will be invaluable for us to share our insights with each other as we move forward.
I will be looking at the many difficult and enriching aspects of this project, as well reflecting on so-called 'successes and failures.' I will endeavor to have a balance of the intuitive and the rational present. After all, poetry is an unique artform where emotion and logic serve to carve unique images into the mind of reader and poet alike.
The aspect of the challenge I will reflect on in this post is its design—meaning its rules, guidelines, execution, organization, etc.
Challenge Design
In my opinion, the design of this challenge was deeply flawed. I am indebted to @quillfire, @geekorner and @dobartim for giving much-needed blunt criticism to its layout before the challenge even began. Later, many of those in the poetry class such as @acousticsteveo, @tygertyger, @hazem91, @whack.science, @carmalain7, @yahialababidi, @prydefoltz, @sansoncarrasco, @mamadini, @liverussian, and others chimed in on its construction.
I believe the most egregious flaws with the design of the challenge were as follows:
- I underestimated the degree of participant interest (originally 135 applicants.)
- I failed to build a team to aid in the administration of the project before launch.
- Because of these failures, I was unable to stay current on determining and announcing winners, properly responding to DMs and comments, recording and posting poetry classes, and giving detailed feedback to participants. The workload was absurd and simply unfeasible for a single person to manage.
- There were too few days off, disallowing breathing room (although several people did not skip a single day.) As a result, it was mostly people that don't have traditional 9-to-5 jobs that were the ones able to participate and finish.
- Many people experienced varying degrees of burnout due to the demands of the challenge when combined with the demands of daily life (including myself, though I had been posting daily poetry for about 250 days already before beginning the project).
- Most people who quit the project stopped participating in our community altogether due to self-guilt.
- Communication was overall poor between me, those who helped me run the project, and the participants. This is a major area for that needs growth for me personally.
- Changes introduced partway into the project were not always well-received due to only a handful of people attending the classes where we discussed and decided upon such alterations.
- The design of the challenge seemed somewhat inappropriate for those especially introverted (though there were plenty of exceptions here.)
- 100 Days was too long for such a design to be optimal.
The most evident beneficial effects of the challenge (to me) were:
- The poetic community on Steemit became somewhat more active / energetic.
- Depth of interaction between poets slightly increased overall.
- Many poets became more skilled, developing a closer bond with their craft.
- Many writers improved in their translation ability, where they worked with a mother tongue other than English.
- Many poets tried out different approaches and styles than they ordinarily would, broadening their palette and scope.
- The pressure of writing and posting every day aided participants in establishing greater discipline with regards to writing poetry.
- The constant pressure caused many to go deeper into their unique poetic voice and learn how to overcome various degrees of burnout.
- Most of us made several new friends.
- The poetry classes were enriching and those participating stated they grew significantly from that forum being available to them.
- Since the challenge was so long and only a small percent of people made it to the end, there was a great feeling of satisfaction produced from completing it.
Conclusion
The design of the challenge, while having plenty of (rather severe) flaws, managed to prove rather fruitful, as well. It is tempting to be hard on oneself when experiencing personal shortcomings. Realism as well as idealism are useful here. Since it was the first time I have ever spearheaded such an ambitious effort, I was bound to be somewhat naive about everything it would entail.
This post is by no means conclusive, so please add your reflections in a post or comment if you feel called to do so. You can use the "Thorns & Roses" approach that I did, listing 10 negative and 10 positive aspects of the challenge design, or come up with your own scheme. I look forward to reading your reflections and hope you have an excellent day!
Until next time,
Daniel / @d-pend
Writing & Images
By @d-pend
6/27/18
Huge thanks to all of our donors!
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To donate, send STEEM or SBD to @d-pend or @steemitpoetry. Donations go towards the prize pool of this challenge, and any above that will be powered up to @steemitpoetry, an account to support the creation of poetry on the STEEM blockchain. Thank you very much to all who have contributed thus far!
Hello Daniel,
I was going to cross the finish line no matter what, and I did. Technically, I missed two days, one because I did not see the challenge in time and the other because of some sickly stuff that was happening in my life during the challenge; my Taurus nature kept me in focus and I am so glad as I really loved the praxis of a daily presentation to the public. I write a lot daily no matter what is going on and so that was never going to be a challenge for me, it’s the art of constructing something from it (the daily observance and musings) that takes the process to the next level; then there is my bizarre obsession with trying to put out in public the best I can do (from my perspective as a rather gritty, low-fi kind of person), rather than just putting something out just to slide across the finish line (daily) and thinking about working on it later. In general it took me about three hours a day for this challenge (some days it was like ten minutes, others more, the average came to three hours) before the rules changed halfway through — time well spent.
Personally, I love the 100 day challenge of one poem a day straight through and I would have been more strict if it were my challenge (and not added anything to that outline). That was basically what I signed up for. It was the addition of major stuff that became difficult to fit in, given the poem a day — when I actually give feedback (like I was taught in school) it takes a good deal of time to read, write, read again, process and ponder the layers and feeling of the piece, etc… that is a lot of time. As I said above, I just cannot do it half way — I realize that it was written that feedback could be a short thing, however, I was doing that all along, the idea of critique (proper) was a whole other challenge, and one I would suggest is more challenging than putting out a poem a day. But, I did it for three weeks (I think), and voiced my opinion and frustrations. When I found out that it was actually just an option and that the new rules were being pushed, and ignored by so many others I felt a little betrayed by the process of following them, of adhering to the structure when others did not (and at the peril of some major things in my life). At that point I felt completely alienated and a bit like a fool, the one that actually follows the rules while the other cool kids did what they wanted (I actually read your posts and updates to the last line and reached out for clarity when needed). I learned the lesson of the red shoes, once again. lol.
In the process I found others that I simple adore, respect, admire, and am a new fan of — that was indeed part of the winning aspect of this process — most of those people had been commenting on my work from the beginning for the most part. I feel that most of us were looking at the other players and pieces entered, it’s just that one does not always have to comment and still love the piece, and as we all know, you only have so much monies to push around daily. I will say that the pieces I was able to give a proper critique on were wonderful and I probably would not have otherwise, and I’m so glad for doing it now as I will always follow them (the poets I was assigned) and see what beauty they are giving to the world.
In the end, I did what I set out to do, which was a solid poem a day, and I did. I’m not a competitive person, so the incentive to “win” is just not part of my world view — it is nice to be acknowledged, but it is still an outer world attachment of sorts and has no bearing on the deeper work. Hell, I never enter my work to be published or chase any of that (not because I look down on it, rather, I am not motivated by it, and everyone knows writers, especially poets make no real monies) I am simply living a creative life.
The process was fantastic!
Thank you for the journey and the lessons, reflections, and gifts it brought into my sphere.
Ho’oponopono
Hi! ☻
I wrote my reply here.
I have, though, cut and pasted the most important parts:
I have to say that this challenge has discovered a new facet of Katya (I'm still afraid to shout about it) - writing her thoughts down in a form of poetry. I've never done this before and still can't evaluate the impact it has on my day-to-day life... Although I didn't participate in the challenge, it has enriched me enormously: from meeting a bunch of interesting people, to meeting a bunch of new worlds!!!! Every person is a whole world with its "first snow", "first love" "first fight", I had a chance to go through this much during such short period of time!
I'm not even mentioning all I have learnt from you guys, all the participants of the challenge and the poetry class: from English words that were new to me to some splendid poets, I've never heard of.
I'm so grateful that @dobartim, an incredibly hardworking person, with a personality of a leader, posted every day about Steem Schools and got me interested in it; that's how I found all you guys, and had a chance to be a part of something huge, energetically wise! And then @d-pend made me stay, you're a really sensitive person who had this pressure of running the challenge and the class, but you have never made us feel this pressure, and I'm not even talking about your way of reciting poetry, paying attention to the punctuation and author's intentions, I enjoyed your every read!
It's a pity that I didn't have a chance to get to know @carmalain7 better, he is a treasure!
And I can't not to mention Guy @geekorner, who has opened to me a world of critique, he has taught me that giving critique is art and hard work. He made me find my way here on steemit!
<333
My personal gratitude to @d-pend, @carmalain7, @geekorner @tygertyger, @hazem91, @whack.science, @sayee @acousticsteveo, @mamadini , @yahialababidi, @girlbeforemirror, @prydefoltz, @nerdykim, @sansoncarrasco, @hartfloe and other lovely people, whom I forgot to mention due to my memory, that sucks )
<333
Katya,
It was a true pleasure getting to know you a little bit in class, your presence in a space is always lovely, gracious, and interactive. <3
Thank you.
It was my pleasure, Niish, to get to know you - a person with many talents, a busy woman, who however found the time to not only make it through the challenge, but to be present in the poetry class from time to time!
<3
Although I only watched this happen from afar, I can concur that I agree with all of the positive benefits that you have listed. Your negative effects list may be true as well, but I didn't happen to see much of them in affect. My main point I would like to iterate is that you @dpend should be extremely proud of yourself for the undertaking. Not only did it help you in real life with your ego and your outlook (which I saw very obviously outside of Steemit), but it raised the vibration of your service to other-selves, which is a great need of the creator from us. Not only did this help raise the abilities and appreciations of the participants, but it raised the vibration of the collective consciousness of this world. Basking in your unique light is a privelege to anyone, and I have felt that since I met you. As an addendum to this main point, everyone who participated should be very proud of themselves as well for exercising the faith necessary to participate, which takes energy exertion, but also the inevitably caused raising of your individual faith and knowledge capacity, which, I believe, is one of the greatest gifts of the creator. Rejoice all, and keep writing!
Hello d-pend,
this challenge was a huge undertaking and you were never to know how it would progress until it actually was underway, to have over a 100 people taking part at the beginning is s huge no. to work with and evaluate.
This is your first attempt and I feel it is only natural that you would learn along the way, as we all did.
I personally did not involved in the classes because the hours were hard for me, having 3 kids under 9 and the youngest being 1, my time is mostly with them and the classes were always around our dinner time, but really that could not be helped. I believe you managed really well, but initially may have bit off more than you could chew, but that is life and as long as we keep learning and moving forward it is all good. I commend you for all the time and effort you put in and are still putting in, it is no easy task and very time consuming.
The poetry challenge for me was amazing, a hugely positive experience, it really made me take the time daily to sit with myself and be creative. What a gift that is as a mum.
It also came at a time in my life where I needed that outlet that poetry gives me. I have felt myself grow and I have loved getting to meet and connect with some of the other poets on here. It really is so nice to be part of something where you are growing and learning with others. The weekly critique was a great way to get to know the poets behind the poems. Although I only ever gave praise as I amnot comfortable giving negative feedback as poems are so personal, but actually I never needed to anyway.
Thank you so much for creating this challenge and giving me the opportunity to really develop my writing and sit with myself and express myself and heal myself through my words. I think I will write a post too about my experience in the challenge.
My motives to join the challenge were:
The results were:
So, except for @Nikolina's part, the challenge was a 10 000% success.
I still remember thinking 'Hazem has to see this!' when I first came across this challenge. I'm sure you would find about it anyway but I'm glad you found about it from me, haha!
I still don't know how you managed to write and post every single day, without skipping and for that, I'll admire you forever! :D
hehe you know "admire" is a strong word right? so is "forever" :D
I'll quote something you told me recently:
:)
haha sure we do :D
Hazem, honestly, you're a brave man, if you've never written poetry before, being volunteraly engaged in the commitment of writing every day, I can say just BRAVO! For me you're one of those people who face challenges with a smile on their face!
I'm glad to get to know you better through your writing and occasional discord chit-chat ))
Hey @d-pend! It's great that you found a way to extend the series into several more (post-project analysis) posts. This will provide you adequate time to prepare and use that analysis to launch a (potential) new project. Since you have also kept the list of donors up I went ahead and sent another 0.5 SBD to @steemitpoetry (I think sending to @steemitpoetry is more of a "legitimate" way to do it). Here is the transaction :
I think that ONE productive way of coordinating our efforts is simply for me to scour your poetry project posts to find some quality poems and poets to then tweet out via my campaign. In this way we can extract value from each other's projects.
One suggestion is that you might organize the (potential) next project in a more one-by-month manner, which I think is more manageable for people, and allows you to then do a "monthly wrap-up analysis" (like this one). In this way the project has more structure, which will likely improve engagement by participants. Keep up the good work...
Though I only lasted 10 days, I liked the idea of the challenge. I happened to get into a work schedule that was prohibitive on writing. To be honest, I've never been that prolific of a writer anyway. It was a fun thing to try.
Don't be too hard on yourself. You did great. People will always find ways to be critical, it's in our nature.
Hello my poetry fam', hello @d-pend!
First of all... I want to thank you @d-pend for making this crazy challenge. I know it took a lot of your time and effort to manage all of this, but I hope that at the end, you are satisfied with it. Sometimes I feel bad for making you think about making it 100 days, but I also didn't know how tough this will be.
Especially when you know that I am not a poet, but back then I wanted to give back to you for helping me. Not for helping ME, but for helping somebody that you don't know and for trusting him. I really respect that and I wanted to give at least something back.
So, I decided to do all 100 days. I didn't know in my wildest dreams what will I learn in the meantime and how much problems and obstacles I would need to cross. But, my perfectionist and supportive side wanted to do it all.
But, I failed. Sometimes I missed my deadline, sometimes I didn't do my translation and I skipped few assignments at the end. I'm not gonna say that I did my best, because I didn't. But, I can say that I tried to do my best! I really did try.
I just hope at the end that you do not regret helping me back then and that I didn't lose your faith after everything happened there... That would be my biggest satisfaction.
Besides that, I met few super cool, super good people and I thank them for helping me! At the end, and still, my life got into a mess so I was away a lot. But you are all in my heart forever, that's just the fact.
I didn't write my poetry from when challenge ended, but I had no time for other posts also, so my point is that I will write more poetry, not often as back then, but I will not forget that art that made me put biggest challenge on myself.
Some words that I wrote in my poetry, I never spoke to anyone before. I never wanted to talk on Discord, yet I found a comfort zone with you. I didn't know how to speak my mind, and now I can do it much better. I never knew how poetry is cool, and now I find myself reading it still.
This challenge was so long that it gave me a lot of positive things. And once again, thank you all for participating in this crazy ride! :D
Much Cosmic love to you, forever! Mr. Spacely
It was an awesome experience that made me feel I could do it. I agree that there were negatives to it like the instance where lack of proper communication caused a little friction. I think we should start a steemit poetry discord server so that communications would be easier and could also be used for future competitions.
I am ever so grateful to all members and to you Daniel for selecting some of my poems as winners
I am pretty much with you on the pros and cons of the challenge as stated in your post. And though I have a 9 to 5 job, I still managed to only skip two days.
Like many I found burnout to be the major issue. There were also days I felt as if a piece could have been better were I given an extra day or two to revise it. But because it came down to meeting a deadline I had to rush some of them more often than not.
Despite this, I was still grateful for the challenge. I never thought I could write 98 poems in 100 days. It also forced me to read a lot more poetry than I am used to. I also read a wide range of poets than I normally would. And while I was not able to read them as deeply as I would have liked, the fact that I have been introduced to them means I can go back to reading them and see how I can develop my writing.
Overall. It was a positive experience, especially seeing that I have met some people who, even now, continue to read my work.
Everything we do is a learning experience and no thing produces perfect results. I wrote a hundred poem I might not have otherwise and made some great poetry-type friends. From my perspective the exercise was a success. It is only ever expectations that cause us to view things otherwise. I went into the challenge with few expectations and just to see if I could do it. I DID!!!!
I don't know if I would do it again; it was a creative and intellectual marathon of sorts and I think I prefer a more civilized pace. I have run a couple half marathons and know some people who run marathons all the time ... sometimes runners have to pull out of races. Part of life.
Overall, it was an enriching and enjoyable experience:)
I think it is commendable that you have been so thorough in both giving people feedback and doing some self-evaluation of this tremendous effort. I think you have succinctly assessed the pros and cons and that can only translate into future, better, community-consolidating contests.
I was just looking from behind the fence. and i was just mesmerized at the results. Not having the resources to participate so actively and honestly not having the poetic voice, I did not even dare to try. However, i was closely looking at my dear friend, @marlyncabrera, who told me about the challenge and sort of invited me, and besides becoming a zombie for most of the last 3 moths, she actually became a brilliant poet.
I admire her talent and courage/determination and i think that that is extensive to all the participants.
Bottom line, it was a great idea, which can be honed and a bunch of people, myself included, are being benefited of having the chance to read amazing poetry that would not have been written otherwise.
Thanks for your kind words, @hlezama. I'm not sure I deserve them, but they feel just nice anyway; I'll keep them close to my heart. Your words feel really nice after I've been three months without doing the laundry ☻ I feel rewarded, seriously; much appreciated ♥
We cannot deny the flaws really, because I tell you there are even more flaw that we do not know about @d-pend. The thing is I cannot blame you at all for any flaw if there's one thing this challenge did to you, it made you a record breaker, such a contest of such magnitude hasnt been held on steemit, that makes you a legend.
However yeah relationships were broken toes were stepped, but there aren't a merry go round without stumbling blocks.
Overall you did well despite all though, if you ask me I think we would do this again sometimes In the future, thank you buddy for everything, including all your supports towards me even before the 100 days challenge.
Hello @d-pend, the challenge was extraordinary for a beginner poet. Otherwise, I could never have written as I did. Sometimes I read what I did and meditate "wao, I made great pieces". Through the contest I met people in the confines of the planet. I have some friends thanks to you. Do not be hard on yourself. You did it well. If I did it again, I would accompany you again. Greetings friend.
I'm actually waiting until after the results of the challenge are known in order to write a comment or a post with my reflections about it.
It was a great challenge
It made me grow
Thank you @d-pend
Have all the love!
I Just want to say 'Hi'
Today is the first time i see your post and really amazed by your writing skills. They way you have allinged those ribbion images are making your post look beautiful. What are those called the rectagular ribbon like images?
Poetry is a gift and perseverance to refine that divine gift .. poetry is a monologue .. soul to soul .. and other things.
Hi fellow steemian poets,
I have finished my 100-days without missing a single day, and now... Iam still burning out. Ha ha ha. Love you all.
I will return after my recovery. And I really, really do love you all.
Muaaaach!
Thanks for so much love, dear @ayahkasih! A hug!
Hey Bud,
I loved this challenge. It changed my life. I have always been a jack of many trades, master of none, but this challenge has caused me to put 'poet' at the top of my list, maybe if I can manage to keep it there, I may one day find a semblance of mastery. Without this push I know I would still be meandering through the woods. Thank you. 😎
The people are pretty cool too. Lol.
Good post
@d-pend i like poetry and from 2day i m going to follow all ur post regularly ur designs are also attractive.
please upvote and reply me..
You have collected your daily Power Ups! Your posts received total upvotes worth of 1.69$.
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Hey ....u really have nice post ...so i followed u up.....u can also check my content and follow me if u like my creative writings.
Yo! u have suuuuper nice moment..... so i follow it up.... great........ u can also check my brain and sing my songs if u like my follow up..... u have really nice user name @prabhjeet... u have excellent charisma. hey..... u really have great facial hair! Nice unicorn mustache so i follow u up... peace n' blessings.... remember the universe/God loves u... <3
(and remember, no one likes spammers! Unless they're funny like me. OOPS! I'M A HYPOCRITE, SORRY!)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ﾉ⌒♡*:･。.This post has received a 31.71 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @d-pend.
Unusually colorful
Hi @d-pend, i'm not exactly sure i understand what's this contest about; would you please speak a bit more english for me if that's alright?
This is one link from a writing post i did just recently, there are few more i done but are past the payout already - you can check them nevertheless if you wish. Please let me know what you think,
https://steemit.com/art/@oculussensori/within-the-night-of-thought
Thank you .