Paige Hawthorne: Blog

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

There are a lot of contenders in my library of mysteries. Certain works by Thomas Perry, Michale Connelly, Lawrence Block, John Sanford, Robert Crais. And many others who belong on my hit list.

At the top, for me, is "The First Deadly Sin" by Lawrence Sanders. It's resonated with me ever since I first read it years ago. Dogged, plodding, never-quitting, Edward X. Delaney.

Although, now that I think about it, I may have to elevate "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." I like tough girls.

Am I biased? Guilty as charged.

Paige

Working on my third story, I find myself invested in my fictional character, my alter ego, Winter Jennings. Maybe over-invested.

Winter is my better angel, my inspiration to become the better person I imagine her to be.

The problem is, or could become, my fondness for Winter could affect my writing. How I describe her, what I have her doing. Or not doing. Rather than taking a writerly approach, I might be letting my emotions shape the character.

How do you boys deal with this?

Paige

I organize my bookshelves by cubical. One author per. Connelly, McCall Smith, Perry, Child, Parker, Crais, etc.

Some of my favorites take up several cubbies and I keep them adjacent to each other.

Fine.

Then one day I decided to do some Spring cleaning. I took out all authors I wouldn't revisit some day. And, within the writers who made the cut, I deleted all of their books I knew I would never reread.

The first purge resulted in over 300 books. Hardcover with dust jackets. I took them to a used book chain, one that buys books and records and CDs.

$26. I was floored.

But the assistant manager, a pleasant girl, explained the economics of her slice of BookWorld. She told me most of my books would never make it onto her shelves. They'd be donated or recycled. In fact, she turns down donations on a regular basis. She's oversubscribed in fiction.

My dystopian book harvesting continues, but now everything goes to the library. Dystopian is a word we hear a lot these days. Like gravitas back when a Texan was in the White House.

Paige

A reader hipped me to the fact that it's possible for readers to make comments at the end of stories. And used Jay Cantrell's "Learning Curve" as an example.

Well, I'm on my own SOL learning curve and just figured out how to open my own stories to readers' remarks. Now 100% (both) of my stories are available for scholarly observations.

Oh, I also updated my Profile. Now that I've learned it can be done.

Enjoy.

Or not.

Paige