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Tell Me Why I Should Join the Ambage


TNTOS

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For a long while now I've been considering joining the Ambage. When the Ambage first started up a while ago, I was skeptical that it would last, for all of the other BZP writers' groups/clubs I'd seen in my time always died of inactivity (not to mention they seemed more focused on giving out "rewards" rather than actually encouraging writers to improve their craft). I fully expected the Amabage to die within a month or so; after all, that's what happened to all of the other BZP writers' groups/clubs and the Ambage didn't seem any different to me.

 

To my genuine surprise, however, the Ambage has not only survived perhaps longer than any other BZP writers' group/club, but is actually thriving. It made me rethink my decision not to join it, especially when I saw how many of my fellow writers have already joined it.

 

Problem is, I'm a loner. I have no problem working with others, but I've never been a fan of clubs that reward members with "points" for completing certain objectives as if writing was some kind of video game. To me, writing is its own reward and these "points" and "rewards," I felt, would actually distract me from writing something good or worthwhile or even just entertaining. The clubs just never seemed helpful; after all, there are a ton of books and websites out there that can give you a much better idea of how to write effectively than anything these clubs could offer.

 

Not to mention I'm not sure how active I want to be in the group. I don't want to join and then never actually do anything or participate in any of the contests or write-offs the group does. What would be the point of joining if I was just going to act like I wasn't a member? I just don't know how much time I want to spend on it, but at the same time I don't want to feel guilty for not being as active as I "should" be (whatever "should" means here).

 

So I've decided that I need some compelling reasons to join the Ambage. Anyone who is a member of the Ambage or has had experience with the Ambage may explain, in the comments section, why I should join the Ambage. Your comment doesn't need to be particularly long or detailed, but please don't say "Because it's fun, of course" or some such thing because then I'll ignore you. I'll decide for myself if it is fun, thank you very much, although if you think it is fun you can explain why you do anyway.

 

Also note that I am not going to be making a decision based purely on what people in the comments said. I've already thought very much about this decision and am only doing this blog entry to open me to alternative reasons or points of view that may not have occurred to me. It will be entirely up to me to decide whether to join the Ambage after this.

 

So y'all better pull up your salesperson pants and tell me why I should join the Ambage.

 

-TNTOS-

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STAHP NO DON'T DO IT

 

-Tyler

STOP DON'T LISTEN TO HIM.

 

FOUR REASONS TO JOIN AMBAGE GO:

  • The write-offs take very little time, only fifteen minutes apiece.
  • The points don't matter too much. If you want them, cool; if not, no big deal.
  • You don't need to be very active. As long as you don't join and disappear for a month or two without warning, you won't be ejected from the group.
  • There are a lot of things to do in Ambage: talk with fellow writers, join write-offs, contribute to increasing BZP Library activity, and the like.
  • Because it's fun, of course!
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STAHP NO DON'T DO IT

 

-Tyler

TYLER NO WE NEED MORE CANNON FODDER DARN IT

 

Er, there's no real requirement as far as activity, or posting reviews, or even the points system. Those are pretty arbitrary. The only reason I can think of is if you'd like honest feedback on your stories from a group of reasonably experienced fellow writers.

 

That being said, you could find that anywhere. As an honorary and self-proclaimed leader of the Ambage, I couldn't give you any real reason to join beyond your personal choice. Best of luck with the decision though.

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:kaukau: That's actually an interesting question, and it gets me to reflect on my personal feelings on the matter. At first I joined, but not necessarily as a part of the community but more of as a way of signing a petition to show my support for people writing more often on BZPower. Otherwise, I didn't need the Ambage if I wanted to review a ton of stories, and I did that independent of their expectations. In fact, I write more than almost any Ambage member I can think of (on COT, at least), and review more, and I didn't need the Ambage to do that.

 

So with regards to improvement, I don't think I needed any help with that. I'm secure with my writing style and am now focused mainly on just completing my visions as they come to me, and I hope my vision gets reception. Still, unfortunately, even as an active Ambage member, I don't really get any attention.

 

So quantitatively, it doesn't make any difference. However, the Ambage Skype group is an amazing small circle of friends who gets along very well and we have a lot of freedom to be ourselves. Without it, I would not have the sense of actually knowing some of these members as I do now, and I have made good friends through it. Without the Skype group, I would not have known the beautiful personalities of Aderia (Eponine) and Ezerov, nor would I be friends with Tolkien. The community is great.

 

Oh, and we can also go on rants. It has been a good stress reliever, and it's nice to have that group by my side to help validate me as I encounter those frustrating moments on BZPower, whether it be an annoying comment on my blog or what have you. I also get responses to my reviews in a much more expedient and honest manner. So there you go.

 

Mainly, I just like the community. And it's nice to tell Nuile every time it's on how much I thought his latest story sucks (we have that type of friendship). Nuile wa actually the main reason why I didn't initially think much of the Ambage, because I didn't really see him as a leader among the writers, but whatever. I guess he's a charter member and an Ambage leader.

 

Meanwhile, I will try my best to continue writing that makes me a general leader among COT Writers (self-proclaimed, of course).

 

So really, it's up to you, and it depends on what you want. Those Skype conversations can become quite distracting, though, so you have my fair warning. I think they might prevent me from writing as much as I could.

 

24601

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I'm not mentioned John?

 

Disappointment.

 

Anyhow joining the Ambage:

 

About the points thing, only like a couple people actually care, the rest of us are too lazy or just to bored to actually try and tally/get points.

 

However the coolest thing about the Ambage is definitely the community, the Skype group there is one of the coolest I know, and trust me I'm on like 8 Skype Groups filled with dozens of members. Those guys are perhaps some of my best friends now and I never would've met them if not for the Ambage. The community there is just a lot of fun and I'm sure you'll have a blast there.

 

Now as for being active, well take it from me one of the least active in terms of the writing portion, all you'll need to really spare is like 15 minutes a month and you should be good. In fact it doesn't even have to be during the weekend when Writeoffs normally are, lots of people post late entries for Writeoffs, we're all pretty lax over in the Ambage.

 

Finally as for improvement in writing, let me put it this way, the Writeoffs helped me speed up my writing to the point where I managed to write a story in 45 minutes right before the deadline of this contest in my area.

 

I came in 1st Place, won 100 bucks, and beat out all the other entrants, most of whom where Seniors and Juniors. I'm a Freshman.

 

So yeah, the Ambage does help a ton and above all it's just fun place to be. Give it a shot, if you like it great, if not well you can always drop out. Haha, just kidding, one does not simply leave the Ambage.

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I'm in the Ambage and I've never even looked to see my points. I just chat on skype, participate in write offs, and enter in flash fiction contests.

 

Yeah. I chat in the Ambage chat ,that's pretty much what I do for the most part. :P

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Well...I'm actually going to try to present this not like a salesman. I don't want to "sell" the Ambage to people, because ultimately, I agree with what you said about people should decide for themselves. And besides, salesmen usually lie/twist things to make their "product" more appealing. =P

 

But so yeah. It's up to you. Onarax gave a great example of how the Ambage has helped him in real life and his, if you will, "writing career." By no means am I saying that this is what the Ambage does -- it makes you a better writer and allows you to win contests. Not necessarily. Of course that's my hope for every member, but being a member obviously doesn't guarantee that.

 

I can, however, echo Onarax in that the Ambage has definitely greatly helped me as a writer. It's awesome to be able to be surrounded by fellow authors -- people who share the same passion I do -- for literally hours every day. For me, it really helps me. Yes, the chat is extremely distracting at times, but at the same time...it always puts me in a mindset of writing. I'm surrounded by writers, and it makes me want to write more often.

 

Perhaps more than the Ambage what's really helped me would be daily Write-Offs with 55555, Kakaru, Tolkien, and others. We haven't done it in a long time (since early-mid summer, actually), unfortunately, but that really helped me. So to an extent the Ambage write-offs as well. I was lucky that I was able to have the experience with 5 5's and others of having them every day, but the write-offs in general definitely help me -- including the Ambage ones. Really, it forces productivity. It forces me to write. Because I sit down and I write for 15 minutes about a certain theme, and I finish no matter how much my writing sucks. And I, personally, think that writing exercises like that are very good. I know they've helped me, at least.

 

But enough of that. I'd like to address two specific points:

 

 

Problem is, I'm a loner. I have no problem working with others, but I've never been a fan of clubs that reward members with "points" for completing certain objectives as if writing was some kind of video game. To me, writing is its own reward and these "points" and "rewards," I felt, would actually distract me from writing something good or worthwhile or even just entertaining.

 

I get that. The points system is really just an extra incentive to those that want it. I believe Lazok was the first one to use it, with his "Story Fit" (inspired by Exo-Fat's "RPG Fit"), and I liked the idea. Because to me...whatever gets you to write, you know? I feel like some people like it, but you don't have to use it. Sure, your rank will be "0 points -- Wimpy Writer", but there's still no requirement. =P

 

 

I just don't know how much time I want to spend on it, but at the same time I don't want to feel guilty for not being as active as I "should" be (whatever "should" means here).

 

Well...first off as others have said, yeah, we're pretty lax. It's not school where you have to go to class and do this work on this day or whathaveyou. It's just a place that will hopefully help you become an even better writer than you already are. And if not, it's a great community to be part of (in my opinion, of course -- I love everyone in the Ambage, and there are definitely some of my best friends) and there's still good writing exercises to do, I think.

 

So my advice? Try it out! You can leave the Ambage after a week, month, even a day or just an hour if you'd like. So feel free to join, see how you like it, and if you don't like it -- totally cool, no hard feelings, and we have nothing against you. A writer should do what helps him become a better writer. If the Ambage will help with that, then by all means! If it doesn't, well maybe it can still be just a nice place to go to be surrounded by fellow writers and write with them every once-in-a-while. And if not even that, well then, that's fine too! There's no requirement for you to stay. Yes, we act that people be "semi-active", but the definition of that is pretty loose. Basically...try to be fairly active in the chat, participate in a couple of write-offs every month, stuff like that. Maybe enter some of the flash fiction contests, and use the monthly prompts in your own stories.

 

There is one last thing I'd like to mention. We've (and by "we" I mean myself and fellow hosts -- Nuile, Tolkien, Cederak, 5 5's) been wanting to have some sort of "workshop" "program" for Ambage members. We've all been pretty busy, but hopefully over Christmas break we'll be able to implement something. I'm not sure if this will change your decision in any way, but I know that I personally would love a sort of "workshop" where I can share ideas, parts of stories, etc. Even full stories. Just a place where I can get advice from fellow writers (which I mean, the Ambage does that now -- there's almost always some people who are willing to look at a piece of writing of yours, or discuss an idea you have, or whathaveyou).

 

But so yeah. It'd be awesome to join, and we'd love to have you. But it's totally up to you, and if you don't want to, that's totally fine just as well.

 

 

newso1.png

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The skype chat and write-offs are pretty awesome - and by awesome I mean I'm considering upgrading it to seriously awesome, and trust me, that is a huge deal.The last thing I labelled as seriously awesome was, I believe, TF2 last year. So it doesn't happen often.

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Well, I'm the newbie Ambage member by a few weeks now. Honestly, it's the best club on BZP that I've ever joined. It's also the only club I've ever joined on BZP. XP

 

The Ambage is a great place to delve into your imagination and write for the sake of writing. In the Write-Offs, the themes are easy enough to play off of and when you read everyone's story (including taking a closer look at your own), you will see so many different perspectives and styles. I think it's great to see different types of stories that all sprout from a common idea/theme.

 

It's also a fun place to just chat with one another and get a bit closer to the BZP community. We talk about music, books, life in general or whatever is one anyone's mind. Also, they do a pretty good job at keeping unrelated discussions elsewhere (such as debates or popular games) so as not to flood the main chat.

 

Really, I haven't seen a bit of a point system mentioned or even applied to me as long as I've been a member, and that suits me just fine. I'm not in this for a competition, but rather to just make friends, read some stories and make terrible, terrible puns and jokes at others' expenses other things.

 

All in all the experience for me has been a lot better than I expected. I've had my work actually read and others give feedback. Also I get to critique other works, and I think seeing other styles could make an impact. I say that the Ambage was worth joining for me, and I hope you'll be happy with whatever you decide to do. ^^

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Okay so I came back and actually read everyone's posts. Basically we're a tight knit group of great personalities with decent to excellent writing skills and always working to improve, and I think you would fit in perfectly. We'd love to see you there. =)

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Too many comments to respond to individually, so I'll just say that you all offer very good reasons to join the Ambage. As a matter of fact, I considered most of the reasons before, but was still hesitant because I wasn't sure if the Ambage was for me.

 

I'll try it out, I think, at least for a little while. If I like it I'll definitely stick with it for as long as I can.

 

There is one last thing I'd like to mention. We've (and by "we" I mean myself and fellow hosts -- Nuile, Tolkien, Cederak, 5 5's) been wanting to have some sort of "workshop" "program" for Ambage members. We've all been pretty busy, but hopefully over Christmas break we'll be able to implement something. I'm not sure if this will change your decision in any way, but I know that I personally would love a sort of "workshop" where I can share ideas, parts of stories, etc. Even full stories. Just a place where I can get advice from fellow writers (which I mean, the Ambage does that now -- there's almost always some people who are willing to look at a piece of writing of yours, or discuss an idea you have, or whathaveyou).

Actually, that's another reason I reconsidered joining the Ambage. I'd love to be involved with something like that. It sounds like it could be really awesome if done right.

 

-TNTOS-

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