Bingo cards

[hhimring]

Are you making any?
Have you submitted prompts for any?
Are you thinking about which cards you will claim when the time comes?

Comments

[narya_flame]

My claim shortlist is about 30 cards long XD how are people narrowing it down!?

[dawn_felagund]

Here's how I'd strategize that:

First, I'd make sure the ten cards I choose have as many of the 75 possible numbers as I could.

Next, I'd choose cards that cover a range of categories, i.e., where multiple prompts could be written into a single fanwork with relative ease. For example, if I claim both the Family Affairs and Rare Women Characters cards and B2 is called, that number appears on both cards. However, on Family Affairs, the prompt is "Rosie/Elanor" and on Rare Women, the prompt is "Meleth of Gondolin." It's going to be really hard to write those two into a single fanwork! :D (This may bother some people less because they have time to create multiple fanworks a day or are using a format, like a ficlet or sketch, that is more conducive to multiple fanworks, but if you're doing a longer story or a format like artwork, or you just don't have the time to commit to multiple fanworks each day [or to create each day at all <--me], how well your cards work together is something you might keep in mind.)

On the other hand, if I chose, say, the Rare Women card and the Emotions 2 card, my prompts for B2 would be "Meleth of Gondolin" and "desire." It'd be much easier to create a single fanwork that uses both of those! :D

Also, brief appearance of the mod hat to offer the friendly reminder that only 10 cards are claimed for gameplay. If a prompt is called on a card that you didn't claim, but you want to write for the prompt, you're more than welcome to do so, including posting it on the B2MeM community, AO3 collection, SWG challenge, etc! You just can't win bingo on that card, since you haven't claimed it. So another thing to keep in mind is whether you want to write for all or most of the prompts on a card. If it's just a handful catching your fancy, that might be a card to let go and tackle those prompts outside of gameplay if they happen to come up. *mod hat off*

[narya_flame]

Thank you :D

I am going to choose ten or fewer for gameplay (somehow!) but I'm not too fussed about winning, so I'll keep an eye on a few others and if inspiration strikes, go for it.

[keiliss]

My way of deciding which cards to claim is 'okay, it's a nice card but realistically could I write something for at least half those prompts?' If not but it''s a really cool card I'll keep it for inspiration later but not claim it. I'm only taking 5 so I need to be ruthless :D

[narya_flame]

To be fair that's a good way to do it. I'm looking at some of them and thinking "ooh, I really want to write for that one prompt" - not "ooh, I could write for *all* the prompts."

[hhimring]

Claiming a card for just the one prompt means risking a certain frustration: it could be the one number that doesn't get called!

[independence1776]

How I'd do it:*

Figure out an idea. What is its tone-- fluff, dark, middle, romantic, etc– and pick cards that go with that and you're interested in writing more than half the prompts on. From there, I'd then see what cards that aren't tone-related strike your fancy (your Must Haves). It doesn't matter how well they'll fit into the story you might write. I'd then narrow both sets down to something that'll give you a limited range of prompts: wide enough you have options and narrow enough you're not suffering from too wide of a field. On the other hand, an odd card or two puts even more randomness and potential fun into the challenge because you don't have to stick with just that idea. 2012 was mostly a game of "what do I want to write this time?" for me.

Unlike Dawn, I wouldn't pay much attention to the numbers ahead of time. Part of the fun for me was seeing what prompts came up each day and if they did or didn't fit together. (Because card claims were unlimited that year, I had 24 cards. It made for some weird combinations. I had a pocket notebook I kep track of everything in. Said notebook also has potential lists of cards to choose for future rounds that I am now completely ignoring.)

*Can't say am doing it this way because I'm not sure I want to write my current idea. Also, I can't play because I'm a mod, though I can participate, so the numbers aren't important to me because I'll know them ahead of time. I'm actively trying to avoid a bingo this year because of that.

[narya_flame]

Oh, I like the idea of having a core theme and then a few wildcards in the mix to stir things up. Honestly though, my ideas are all over the place at the moment - I don't even know whether I want to write one story or multiple short pieces. (I spend all day being decisive at work, and then I get home and my capacity to make decisions deflates like a cheap party balloon.)

[independence1776]

In 2012, I went in without a specific idea and had a blast. (I picked one card on the strength of two prompts and both were called.) This year I'm thinking about posting frequently with minimal editing for the month and it seems easiest to do that with one fic.

[narya_flame]

I am nosing at bingo cards now because writing is a struggle tonight for some reason. I've managed to narrow it down a little bit...

[hhimring]

In 2012, some people claimed all the cards and wrote all the things. Dwimordene said, that year: Fandom knows no sleep, fandom needs no sleep. (Or something like that.) Others ended up with a backlog of WIPs they were still catching up on in 2016 (there was a B2MeM round that year that was especially designed for catching up).

So the ten-card rule is partly to save us from ourselves!

I suppose: take a step back and ask yourself what you might realistically want to write in March, whether it's a long-running project or an entirely new one. Then select cards mainly to go with that, and maybe something extra, for spice.

And if, in March, divine inspiration/madness strikes? You can still write it and post it. After all, what does divine inspiration care about achieving a bingo, anyway?

[narya_flame]

At least this time we're not on a strict deadline to start the prompts XD I can't imagine claiming all the cards, though, I'd lose track!

And if, in March, divine inspiration/madness strikes? You can still write it and post it. After all, what does divine inspiration care about achieving a bingo, anyway?

I can see this happening...one random prompt on some card I didn't even claim, and suddenly I'll have another 100k+ word project on my hands!