500 word poem: question about contest.

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   mary615posted 12 years ago

   I just reread the rules for the contest, and it states that poems should be 500 words.  Mine is 210.  Is the introduction counted in the word count? Thanks.

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      AliciaCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, the introduction counts towards the 500 words. The poem itself doesn't have to be 500 words long, but the introduction and the poem must add up to be at least 500 words.

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         mary615posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Many thanks. Guess I'll have to get busy with more words!

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2. 77

   cashmereposted 12 years ago

   You can add some details to the introduction that make up the 500 words. Maybe even a little bit about why you wrote the poem and how it affected you.

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      mobiasposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not exactly understanding the 500 word thing, except as some small filter from quick and easy poems the judges would have to slog through. But still, It just forces us people earnestly wanting to make a poem eligible to artificially extend the poem itself, unless we wax poetic about our 'personal thoughts' on the poem! [yawn!] This takes mystery out of it! It takes a bit of the artistry out of the poem! comon hubpages....just set a max # of entries per hubber per day, and loosen the reigns already!

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         SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         the poem can be 3 words if you want - you just need to add enough content to make the total 500 words or more. As an example, I recently wrote a villanelle which was less than two hundred words. I added an explanation of what a villanelle is and a few words about my motivation for writing a villanelle - I ended up with 600 words or so despite the poem being a lot less.
         
         I'm only guessing at this - but I would guess that there is a limit because an influx of hubs with only 20 words could damage the overall 'perceived' quality of Hubpages - generally google likes articles to be 400 words or so - so by having a lot of very small articles going through, Google could suddenly see Hupages as spamming and then there'd maybe another slap!

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            mobiasposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            hmmm they kind of leave it up for interpretation, on the main contest page, it merely says (if the entry is a photo gallery or poem, an explanation of the poem or description of the photos is required)..it doesn't explicitly say whether those descriptions are meant to be 500 words or not, just that the 'regular creative writing' hubs should be.... At least that's my version.

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            1. 90

               RedElfposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Under requirements, the first bulleted point is as follows:
               "Contain a minimum of 500 words (if the entry is a photo gallery or poem, an explanation of the poem or description of the photos is required)"
               
               In the official rules, the explanation is as follows:
               "the Hub must be published for the first time on the day of entry, must have a minimum of 500 words, must contain at least one high-quality picture that the participant must have the rights to use, must be directly on the topic in which it is categorized (within the Poems and Poetry, Creative Writing, or Photo Galleries category), and must be significantly unique from other Hubs and other Web pages."
               
               It appears they are leaving it up to us to write long poems, short poems, or to include several or only one poem in each hub - as long as poems (and photo galleries) include a description, and the minimum total word count of each entry is 500 words.
               Hope this helps

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                  mobiasposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  yes, i read this too, that's why i say it's so vague....sigh... thanks though.

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   em_saenzposted 12 years ago

   I brought up this point before but was ignored by the contest editors

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4. 80

   Uninvited Writerposted 12 years ago

   I think that the people who have been putting 500+ words in their poetry posts have been doing a great job. They haven't seemed artificial at all.
   
   If you don't like the rules, don't enter the contest.

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      SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      
      
      *sarcastic voice* I called up the NJ lottery today and told them I think they should allow me to choose only 5 numbers and let me pick the sixth number after the drawing.
      
      
      Being serious - I'm sure Hubpages put in this rule for a reason - they wouldn't simply put in a rule to piss people off, would they??

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      mobiasposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      ouch.....! uninvited jab? Just expressing my thoughts, reading between the lines, I've read several whom seem to be dolling out the explanations as if a ritual, unfavorable chore. My point was that it seems to taint the artistry, hide the poem within unwanted 'filler' only the curious wish to read, and at the very least, bypass the intended purpose they created the rule for in the first place! [Ie poems can still be short, if the filler is long!]

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5. 70

   JT Waltersposted 12 years ago

   500 words wasn't difficult for me to write my first poem but I would imagine it could be hard if you had a lot of enteries.
   
   JT

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6. 76

   sofsposted 12 years ago

   500 words for poetry contest - the first few were easy.
   But for the shorter poems although it wasn't difficult but I did think that it diluted the poem itself.
   
   As for the photo gallery 500 words were easy if fact it was difficult to keep them under 1000 as people want to see just the pics and not read so much.
   Those are the rules and with the contest underway,we just need to tow the line.

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7. 87

   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   Not being a poet or particularly concerned over the contest, I'm wondering why they chose 500 words as the minimum, when I'm pretty sure earlier contests on hubs less likely to contain few words had a minimum word count of 300 set. Or was it 400?

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      Jean Bakulaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree. I write poetry, in fact I have a poetry book published. But it detracts from the piece to have to describe how you felt or what the circumstances were that inspired you to write the poem in the first place. That is the purpose of the poem itself. I'm sure the winners will be the same whiners who fell in love with jerks and want to die, etc. and be four lines long.

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         Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I kind of feel the same about that.  I can't say I'm a big fan of the "little story" that has to accompany the poem that doesn't have enough words to it.  (Come to think of it, I'd better go check the one, and most likely only one, poem entry I submitted.  It's long, so I just assumed it probably has 500 words.)
         
         (Oops.  Rats!  415.     )   
         
         
         (Follow-up Remark:  OK.  I buckled and added my "little story" in spite of its going against my grain.           )

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      2. 87

         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         So Jean, as a published poet, go on tell me the truth, was my 10 minute poem really bad? It might have been less than 10 minutes actually...
         
         No I am kidding, it was awful and not written as an aspiring poet.
         
         I actually have no idea what the monetary gain is for HP to encourage poetry in their site, unless it is to motivate the everyday housewife into following her dreams. [I'm going to get slapped for that, many men are poets too]
         
         It's not a money maker for them, that's for sure. Everything these days seems to be financially motivated.
         
         People do still look for poetry, and some people take it really seriously, but it still boils down to entitling your hub in a search friendly fashion, even if you subtitle your poem something differently.

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            Jean Bakulaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Hi Izzy,
            I don't make money here anyway, but poetry is a definite loser in the money catagory. In my book I think it can be used to teach meanings of tarot cards in a more interesting way than memorizing keywords. But it isn't going to make any money for poets on HP.

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8. 61

   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   Nothing to do with this thread...
   
   A poem
   
   The entropy continues...
   
   Medical pain and money...

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9. 61

   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   Blindness progression continues.

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10. 61

    paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

    But only one eye....

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       mobiasposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       hey could you please add 478 more words there paradigmsearch?? I couldn't absorb the beauty of your poem quite sufficiently! 
       
       ;]

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          sofsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          does not qualify for the contest lol

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