Challenges Options

[Sekhmet]

Good morning to anyone who reads this.

OK - Where are all the members when the gauntlet of a Challenge is thrown dawn?
I wander about the echoing halls of the weekly, monthly, slam, short prose, and drabble sections - and see only the same names, week after week.
It is now a cosy little corner, for just a few of us - but we need new blood to survive, and what better time than Halloween to go out and hunt for it?

Why not have an extra condition placed upon all members, (apart from the two responses to other writers' poems for each poem published) -
A response to at least one of the challenges every second month. That's sixty-odd days to think up some kind of response!

These Challenges stimulate the mind into branching off at a tangent; and are important tools in our poetic arsenal. I am amazed at what turns up, unbidden, when working on a challenge.

Surely, all the members are capable of meeting at least one of the challenges every couple of months? If not- they need assistance from the more experienced writers to achieve the required result.
When Newbies, (such as myself) squeaked;
' I know nothing about poetry criticism - I couldn't possibly crit anyone else's work.'
We were all briskly told to look at other members' crits, and do your best; you'll soon get the hang of it.

Why not give exactly the same advice to anyone who baulks at answering a Challenge? Just as in the various critical sections - the standard of work will vary,from writer to writer - but we are all learning, all the time. New Challengers will get bolder as time passes, and who knows what might be drawn forth?.

Leo