Paige Hawthorne: Blog

I don't. Never have, never will. I don't think. Unless I change my mind.

The analogy has been made that politicians vote for themselves. I believe they do and that they should.

But voting for my own story feels different. Somehow. A little sneaky. A little déclassé. Although "Winter's Wonderland" is teetering back and forth between 7.9 and 8.0 ... no, I still won't vote for myself.

I have so damn few opportunities to feel morally superior.

Oh, my editor, thornfoote, has finally made a positive contribution. … Hang on, I'll think of it. Sooner or later. Maybe.

Paige

I enjoy reading most of my SOL email whether it's in response to a story or a blog.

It's interesting, when I've been quiet for a few days, the volume really drops off. I guess that's understandable … the squeaky wheel and all of that.

Maybe I'll check someday - - is there more mail generated by stories or blogs? Be sort of sad if an entire story has fewer responses than some quirky little blogs. Although, I guess a vote is a response, so never mind!

Paige

As many of you boys have noted, some accusatory, some laudatory, I crib shamelessly from some of my favorite authors, most notably Robert B. Parker.

Winter Jennings is, of course, modeled on Parker's Sunny Randall with some Stephanie Plum from Janet Evanovich mixed in. Plus a little of Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield.

Vanessa Henderson nods to Parker's Susan Silverman. Bear is based on Sunny's friend, Spike.

Winter's son, Walker, owes something to Parker's sort-of son, Paul Giacomin. But a lot more to my own damn son.

Who else?

Well, Sergeant Louise Finch (without the 5 o'clock shadow) is an homage to Parker's Sgt. Frank Belson. Winter's father takes after Belson's boss, Matin Quirk.

Everyone and everything else in my stories flows my own creative genius.

Oh, the Unicorn Club echoes Lawrence Sanders' Pelican Club. And the Unicorn family - - the Cuthberts - - may owe a little to the Pelican's Pettibone clan. Or a lot.

Okay, perhaps my dialogue style is a poor imitation of Elmore Leonard's. With some of Sanders' breeziness.

And that's it. Except for stolen plot lines, sidebar characters, sex scenes and so many other things I can't remember them.

Someone said there are only two plots - - a person goes on a journey / a stranger comes to town. Don't know it that's accurate, but I sort of hope it is. Why? Because it would mean that other tale-tellers might be as cheesy as I am.

Dream on.

Paige

Someone who may know what he's talking about shared some insider stuff. Or maybe it's common knowledge that everyone else knew.

> You can vote early and often on a story, but only your last vote counts. The previous ones are deleted and don't affect the scores.

> If you post a story today, its score is measured against all the scores of all the stories posted in the last three years. A much longer time frame than I had imagined.

> There are almost 5500 pen names on SOL. I guess some people might use more than one nom de plume so the number of authors could be fewer.

Of course none of this explains the one glaring SOL anomaly. If the voting and scoring systems are so fair, how do you rationalize the fact that my Winter stories aren't residing comfortably in 10-Land?

Paige

There are around 40,000 SOL stories. I wonder how many authors? And how many readers.

How many readers, or I guess what percentage of readers, are new to each new story? In other words how much descriptive / explanatory background material should I include when I launch a new Winter story? I hate to repeat what repeat readers already know, but don't want to leave newbies puzzled about who and what and where.

Reader scores. (I admit I'm too close to the trees to see the swamp.)

Can a reader vote more than once on the same story? Same chapter?

Can reader scores for a particular story change without more votes coming in on that story? I'm pretty sure that happened with me.

Winter's Gamble used to have a 6 score. Now it doesn't. How? Why? Comparison weighing?

If the 1 and 10 votes are tossed out (are they?) how can a story score higher than 9? Is it because of comparative weighing? I seem to recall being told that the top and bottom 5% are tossed. Outliers. I guess that could explain scores over 9.

He also told me that stories are measured against a raw score of 6.0. Those stories closest to the median move the most toward 1 or 10.

When I look at the SOL home page, I often see several stories with higher scores than mine. Dirty rats! I wonder though, if posting a chapter around the same time that favored chapters by other writers are coming in affects my score. In other words if the daily median, or is it mean, is higher, then my score could be lower. Update: I've been told the raw scores median is calculated twice a day. Crap, this stuff is too complicated for me.

Do some votes count more than others? I imagine they could. A time period with fewer voters might weigh those votes more heavily. Or maybe not.

What is the difference between 7.9 and 8.0? I mean other than a tenth of a point.

Are this site's gatekeepers, the ones who screen each new chapter, able to vote on the stories? Some writers have told me they blame some of their low scores on the screeners. (Because these outlier scores occur right after a chapter is posted.)

Not that I personally pay any attention to my reader scores. No, this inquiry is merely in search of understanding the methodology. It's an homage to the scientific process.

Inquiring minds and all of that.

Paige