Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryMarch 29, 2012 - 8:27am
You're certainly welcome. *chuckles evilly and ascends spiral staircase into Tower of Doom*
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersMarch 29, 2012 - 11:18am
@Utah - I expect all your posts to end with this from now on.
Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazMarch 29, 2012 - 12:49pm
Yeah, it definitely makes sense to keep it simple for now. You guys have done an amazing job making it look simple, though I know that is just because you are geniuses.
I don't know if there ever will be a loser's bracket or double-elim, though it would be cool to see everyone get another chance, especially after seeing the quality of writing the so-called losers brought to the table--you just know they could bust out a mind-blower at any moment.
Basically, just like the winners, the losers would also be writing stories right now and that bracket could continue on parallel to the winners. Maybe the winner of the loser's (you like that don't you?) gets reintroduced into the winners bracket somehow.
Could be interesting. Another possibility would be to stagger it so that there are always stories to vote on every week. One week the losers, one week the winners. This, however, would mean a one-week adjustment in the first round and another at the end. Kind of like the break before the bowl games or the Super Bowl.
EDIT: Or the loser's all get thrown into a FLASH round that first week and those get voted on during the winner's writing week?
Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazApril 10, 2012 - 3:34pm
Also, I just had Another™ idea. A Flash version of WAR. Basically the same thing, just much, much faster: Nitrous WAR.
And with a 1,000 word limit.
Moderator
Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryApril 10, 2012 - 7:26pm
A round every two hours?
Write! Vote! Write! Vote!
Renfield
from Hell is reading 20th Century GhostsApril 10, 2012 - 7:35pm
I'd love to try typing out a story "live" viewable to other people while they write aswell. But moreso so I could see how other people write. If there were some interim contest doing that, I would shit in Chester's pants.
Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazApril 10, 2012 - 7:54pm
That would be amazing to have someone else shit in your own pants for a change. Then there'd be a scapegoat.
Actually, there is this thing in Portland that I got invited to called Sledgehammer, which sounds kind of like what you are talking about Rennie--only it is at a Wine shop. Anyway, I think they announce a prompt and you have 36 minutes to write.
One of the main ideas is that it breaks writer's block and gets you to just let it flow. I think I will try to go next month and see what is up with that.
We could do something like that, but make it a one day thing. Everyone signs up, then the gun goes off and we turn all of our stories in to a third party moderator to post them anonymously. Fairly simple.
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesApril 12, 2012 - 11:19am
i think these could be fun. the idea of a flash fiction contest, where the prompt is given out at 7 am and the story is due by midnight, next day is for voting, could be really cool. whole tourney would be done in about two weeks. 500 words max. anything to get us writing.
Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazApril 12, 2012 - 12:48pm
Yeah, and those little babies we make sometimes turn into great short stories.
I like that 500. Just a barn burner.
jyh
from VA is reading whatever he feels likeMay 19, 2012 - 11:53am
Needed: in cases where file conversions are necessary, a way to verify formatting prior to polls opening, so no one thinks you slung your shit into the ring without thinking about it.
I'm not bitter (I didn't think I'd even get into the tourney), but when I got wind that my final story had formatting issues, I was a bit annoyed that I didn't find out about it until the voting had already commenced.
Just a thought. Also, I didn't read the previous four pages, which doesn't help my case that my last story wasn't done without thinking. But I'm admitting it.
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersMay 19, 2012 - 12:56pm
JY - I was not aware there were formatting issues. I'm very sorry. I wish someone had let me know, and I could have corrected any problems. It all looked fine to me.
Could someone let me know what the issues were?
jyh
from VA is reading whatever he feels likeMay 19, 2012 - 1:07pm
AD -- That's just what I heard from Beka. Maybe people just thought some of the paragraphs were too long or something. I can't confirm or deny anything because I never saw it. Not a big deal anyway, but it could be an issue in the future, I guess.
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersMay 19, 2012 - 1:22pm
I double checked the file I posted against the file you emailed, and they look the same to me. That is not to say that something couldn't have gotten lost in the wash or whatever. I think the best thing would have been if you had access to the poll. We should have gotten you a temporary pass as we did the people in round 1. I apologize that we didn't. Live and learn. I appreciate you bringing this up though. I plan to do this adventure again - bigger, longer, and uncut - and I would like to know as many issues now as possible to make it smoother next time.
Bekanator
from Kamloops, British Columbia is reading Ugly Girls by Lindsay HunterMay 19, 2012 - 1:30pm
It just looked like there were issues with paragraphs when I read Hopkins' story. For instance, different dialogue in the same line, stuff like that. I figured it must have been a file transfer issue, like maybe it was fine from Avery's end in her word processor, but when she uploaded it and other users downloaded the file, it might have not "rendered" the same.
That's just what I think.
I use Open Office and I know I have issues with .rtf files.
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersMay 19, 2012 - 1:40pm
Okay - yes. I know what you mean. That's how it looked to me, and I just figured that was how he wanted it. Which I guess may have been silly of me. It didn't occur to me my computer would do something funny to it. I sort of feel bad.
Thanks for letting me know about this.
jyh
from VA is reading whatever he feels likeMay 19, 2012 - 1:45pm
If it was just the dialog not starting a new paragraph for each sentence, that is in fact how I wrote and intended it. It may not be common, but it's not unheard of to have short exchanges go off in a single paragraph even though the speaker switches. The Exorcist does it and that's not an experimental book.
Anywho, I'm okay with it. People liked the other one better, so they voted for it.
Poo-tee-weet.
So it goes...
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersMay 19, 2012 - 1:49pm
Oh thank God.
jyh
from VA is reading whatever he feels likeMay 19, 2012 - 1:53pm
^ I'll have to think of something else to blame you for. ;^?
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersMay 19, 2012 - 1:54pm
I'll email you a list of the most common complaints.
Dwayne
from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updatedMay 19, 2012 - 7:54pm
An article on the main pageish area explaining what WAR is and how it works since we have a lot of new guys.
Americantypo
from Philadelphia is reading The Bone ClocksMay 19, 2012 - 8:39pm
I second the formatting issues- Syrup looked sloppy. Though I would've voted for Historical Hotties regardless. I guess it's like having two songs and one of them was recorded properly while the other was a microphone recording of a radio station playing a song that while good, still wasn't preferred compared to the other regardless of sound quality.
Liana
from Romania and Texas is reading Naked LunchMay 19, 2012 - 10:15pm
How about we have a mandatory format so no one stands out if there's funky font or spacing or other stuff?
I kept thinking about that thing. I even tried to change my own format in the second round so I'd throw people off because mine was too sandard.
wickedvoodoo
from Mansfield, England is reading stuff.May 20, 2012 - 6:36am
I agree with Liana. I wondered about that a couple of times before subbing stories. Similar thing with the language format.
Next time round we should agree to a set format. Size 12 font, double-spaced, one inch margins, title six lines down etc. Probably all in US format as it the majority amongst the LR members.
jyh
from VA is reading whatever he feels likeMay 20, 2012 - 9:03am
Syrup looked sloppy
*arms akimbo*
I stand by my decision not to have eight paragraphs every time the girls start gabbing. When the rest of the story is mostly devoid of dialog, it seems pointless. Everything else was running simultaneously (thoughts, sights, actions) so why give some idle chitchat the artificial weight of line breaks every six or seven words?
jyh
from VA is reading whatever he feels likeMay 20, 2012 - 9:03am
I also agree that a standard font & format is a good idea.
Americantypo
from Philadelphia is reading The Bone ClocksMay 20, 2012 - 10:35am
Sorry, didn't read your last comment closely- didn't realize it was intentional. I assumed it was like that because of formatting issues.
I'm sure other people will agree with you. It didn't really work for me, but this isn't really the place to write out a constructive criticism, so I'd just chalk it up to my opinion as being subjective as anyone elses. Maybe "sloppy" came off as a harsh criticism. I wrote that based on the belief that all the dialogue wasn't supposed to run together like that.
jyh
from VA is reading whatever he feels likeMay 20, 2012 - 10:51am
It's cool, AT. (If I was actually mad, "akimbo" wouldn't be the word of choice.) If the reader's first impression is off that there are mistakes, it will negatively color the opinion. It'd be different in print, I think.
And yes, this is not in line with the thread topic, so I won't say any more about it.
Bekanator
from Kamloops, British Columbia is reading Ugly Girls by Lindsay HunterMay 20, 2012 - 2:40pm
Just gonna say it, but that was probably the most well-handed argument I've seen on a forum ever.
Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazMay 20, 2012 - 3:28pm
I am not sure about this mandatory formatting concept.
I mean, sure, font and font size. Title placement, etc. But not strict standards. For example dialogue in quotations? It depends on the style of the piece. Some formatting decisions, when done well, can really lend to the rhythm of a piece.
How many restrictions do we really want? Just an initial reaction. I mean, look at Caleb's As a Machine and Parts. Now I am not saying to go to those extremes, but do we want WAR to become devoid of risk taking achieved through the parlance of signs and symbols, syntax and word placement?
Americantypo
from Philadelphia is reading The Bone ClocksMay 20, 2012 - 3:42pm
I guess unless the story is experimenting with a visual style, we should assume that people follow basic rules of grammer and formating? Double space, etc. But if someone wants to make a story look a certain way, then have at it? I don't know. There was only a few stories where formatting was very specific.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that we adhere to format the same way a publication would expect you to be double spaced, etc. I think the question was whether or not a file had gotten screwed up when converting it to a doc. Though I'm not so sure that's the case and was just a matter of people slagging Syrup for the way some of the dialogue was written (which was intentional).
So all this formatting discussion might be over nothing, ha ha.
wickedvoodoo
from Mansfield, England is reading stuff.May 20, 2012 - 3:51pm
I don't think anyone is suggesting that we adhere to format the same way a publication would expect you to be double spaced, etc. I think the question was whether or not a file had gotten screwed up when converting it to a doc.
Well I was kind of suggesting that.
I am not sure about this mandatory formatting concept.
I mean, sure, font and font size. Title placement, etc. But not strict standards. For example dialogue in quotations? It depends on the style of the piece. Some formatting decisions, when done well, can really lend to the rhythm of a piece.
How many restrictions do we really want? Just an initial reaction. I mean, look at Caleb's As a Machine and Parts. Now I am not saying to go to those extremes, but do we want WAR to become devoid of risk taking achieved through the parlance of signs and symbols, syntax and word placement?
But Chester already supplied the counter.
And I have to agree with him, I wasn't thinking very far ahead before. I mean one of my own stories this time round used multiple fonts etc.
Hmm. Yeah, scratch my last. I was just thinking aloud anyways.
Moderator
Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryMay 21, 2012 - 5:45am
Good stuff here, everybody. Very constructive.
And going forward, WAR-Mistress Avery and I will likely come up with some slightly more confining parameters for structure. I doubt there is any need to tell people how to punctuate a story. Charlie Huston doesn't use quotation marks in his Joe Pitt novels, but I'll bet he still would've had a good chance of winning the golden tiara. However, I do think standard publication format is a good guideline. And there is a convenient article right here on LR that we can link to and make everything easy. Then maybe add the caveat that, if you want to do font experimentation, that's all good, but we won't be keen on accepting responsibility for any formatting issues.
Something like that.
Good game!
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinMay 21, 2012 - 7:11am
Is it going to be 32 contestants again?
Because 32 stories/16 rounds to read in week one is quite a lot (depending on other time commitments) so to increase the participants may also mean those in the later rounds don't get so many votes.
However at the other end of the spectrum, i think pretty much everyone from War 1 wants to be in war 2 plus there are lots of people who weren't and want a chance to fight...
Here in lies the problem :S
Moderator
Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryMay 21, 2012 - 7:51am
We have some organization stuff to work out, but I'm fairly certain I would like to pursue a 64 contestant WAR this time.
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersMay 21, 2012 - 8:34am
I feel like the excitement of Round 1 overshadowed the "obligation" of reading all those stories. By which I mean, I think people really wanted to read them all and were thrilled to do it. I'm all for a larger group next time, just to make sure everyone gets to play. I expect everyone who played in War one to come back with a vengeance. And I expect everyone who didn't to walk around feeling smug about how much better of a job they could have done.
Moderator
Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryMay 21, 2012 - 8:40am
Furthermore, I expect everyone who participated in WAR 1 to keep writing intensely. Because you've all seen what the competition looks like. And if some of that competition keeps writing their asses off and you do not...well, you will be eclipsed early in the next competition.
Bekanator
from Kamloops, British Columbia is reading Ugly Girls by Lindsay HunterMay 21, 2012 - 9:07am
I've already got new work on the go!
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersMay 21, 2012 - 9:10am
Shut up, bitch.
I mean....congratulations on your win....
Bekanator
from Kamloops, British Columbia is reading Ugly Girls by Lindsay HunterMay 21, 2012 - 9:12am
@Avery - If you're the war mistress, you should be holding a whip or something in your avatar.
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersMay 21, 2012 - 9:18am
I am, it's just out of frame.
Bekanator
from Kamloops, British Columbia is reading Ugly Girls by Lindsay HunterMay 21, 2012 - 9:25am
Put it in the frame! Nobody will believe you if it's not in the frame!
Dwayne
from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updatedMay 21, 2012 - 9:28am
It could be a round robin.
Liana
from Romania and Texas is reading Naked LunchMay 21, 2012 - 9:43am
@ Chester, I think no one wants to impose restrictions on experimental structure and play with language and even grammar. What I meant was, can we all have Times New Roman, size 12, double spaced, and title 6-ish lines down? Creg Clevenger, in his class, asked everyone to submit all stories in that format so they wouldn't create some kind of bias, because stories with other formats tend to bias the readers who are used to the standard. Plus, it's good to get used to the standard because everything you submit for publication should be in that format.
I'm sure you can change formats inside the story to make something stand out, and to experiment.
You're certainly welcome. *chuckles evilly and ascends spiral staircase into Tower of Doom*
@Utah - I expect all your posts to end with this from now on.
Yeah, it definitely makes sense to keep it simple for now. You guys have done an amazing job making it look simple, though I know that is just because you are geniuses.
I don't know if there ever will be a loser's bracket or double-elim, though it would be cool to see everyone get another chance, especially after seeing the quality of writing the so-called losers brought to the table--you just know they could bust out a mind-blower at any moment.
Basically, just like the winners, the losers would also be writing stories right now and that bracket could continue on parallel to the winners. Maybe the winner of the loser's (you like that don't you?) gets reintroduced into the winners bracket somehow.
Could be interesting. Another possibility would be to stagger it so that there are always stories to vote on every week. One week the losers, one week the winners. This, however, would mean a one-week adjustment in the first round and another at the end. Kind of like the break before the bowl games or the Super Bowl.
EDIT: Or the loser's all get thrown into a FLASH round that first week and those get voted on during the winner's writing week?
Also, I just had Another™ idea. A Flash version of WAR. Basically the same thing, just much, much faster: Nitrous WAR.
And with a 1,000 word limit.
A round every two hours?
Write! Vote! Write! Vote!
I'd love to try typing out a story "live" viewable to other people while they write aswell. But moreso so I could see how other people write. If there were some interim contest doing that, I would shit in Chester's pants.
That would be amazing to have someone else shit in your own pants for a change. Then there'd be a scapegoat.
Actually, there is this thing in Portland that I got invited to called Sledgehammer, which sounds kind of like what you are talking about Rennie--only it is at a Wine shop. Anyway, I think they announce a prompt and you have 36 minutes to write.
One of the main ideas is that it breaks writer's block and gets you to just let it flow. I think I will try to go next month and see what is up with that.
We could do something like that, but make it a one day thing. Everyone signs up, then the gun goes off and we turn all of our stories in to a third party moderator to post them anonymously. Fairly simple.
i think these could be fun. the idea of a flash fiction contest, where the prompt is given out at 7 am and the story is due by midnight, next day is for voting, could be really cool. whole tourney would be done in about two weeks. 500 words max. anything to get us writing.
Yeah, and those little babies we make sometimes turn into great short stories.
I like that 500. Just a barn burner.
Needed: in cases where file conversions are necessary, a way to verify formatting prior to polls opening, so no one thinks you slung your shit into the ring without thinking about it.
I'm not bitter (I didn't think I'd even get into the tourney), but when I got wind that my final story had formatting issues, I was a bit annoyed that I didn't find out about it until the voting had already commenced.
Just a thought. Also, I didn't read the previous four pages, which doesn't help my case that my last story wasn't done without thinking. But I'm admitting it.
JY - I was not aware there were formatting issues. I'm very sorry. I wish someone had let me know, and I could have corrected any problems. It all looked fine to me.
Could someone let me know what the issues were?
AD -- That's just what I heard from Beka. Maybe people just thought some of the paragraphs were too long or something. I can't confirm or deny anything because I never saw it. Not a big deal anyway, but it could be an issue in the future, I guess.
I double checked the file I posted against the file you emailed, and they look the same to me. That is not to say that something couldn't have gotten lost in the wash or whatever. I think the best thing would have been if you had access to the poll. We should have gotten you a temporary pass as we did the people in round 1. I apologize that we didn't. Live and learn. I appreciate you bringing this up though. I plan to do this adventure again - bigger, longer, and uncut - and I would like to know as many issues now as possible to make it smoother next time.
It just looked like there were issues with paragraphs when I read Hopkins' story. For instance, different dialogue in the same line, stuff like that. I figured it must have been a file transfer issue, like maybe it was fine from Avery's end in her word processor, but when she uploaded it and other users downloaded the file, it might have not "rendered" the same.
That's just what I think.
I use Open Office and I know I have issues with .rtf files.
Okay - yes. I know what you mean. That's how it looked to me, and I just figured that was how he wanted it. Which I guess may have been silly of me. It didn't occur to me my computer would do something funny to it. I sort of feel bad.
Thanks for letting me know about this.
If it was just the dialog not starting a new paragraph for each sentence, that is in fact how I wrote and intended it. It may not be common, but it's not unheard of to have short exchanges go off in a single paragraph even though the speaker switches. The Exorcist does it and that's not an experimental book.
Anywho, I'm okay with it. People liked the other one better, so they voted for it.
Poo-tee-weet.
So it goes...
Oh thank God.
^ I'll have to think of something else to blame you for. ;^?
I'll email you a list of the most common complaints.
An article on the main pageish area explaining what WAR is and how it works since we have a lot of new guys.
I second the formatting issues- Syrup looked sloppy. Though I would've voted for Historical Hotties regardless. I guess it's like having two songs and one of them was recorded properly while the other was a microphone recording of a radio station playing a song that while good, still wasn't preferred compared to the other regardless of sound quality.
How about we have a mandatory format so no one stands out if there's funky font or spacing or other stuff?
I kept thinking about that thing. I even tried to change my own format in the second round so I'd throw people off because mine was too sandard.
I agree with Liana. I wondered about that a couple of times before subbing stories. Similar thing with the language format.
Next time round we should agree to a set format. Size 12 font, double-spaced, one inch margins, title six lines down etc. Probably all in US format as it the majority amongst the LR members.
*arms akimbo*
I stand by my decision not to have eight paragraphs every time the girls start gabbing. When the rest of the story is mostly devoid of dialog, it seems pointless. Everything else was running simultaneously (thoughts, sights, actions) so why give some idle chitchat the artificial weight of line breaks every six or seven words?
I also agree that a standard font & format is a good idea.
Sorry, didn't read your last comment closely- didn't realize it was intentional. I assumed it was like that because of formatting issues.
I'm sure other people will agree with you. It didn't really work for me, but this isn't really the place to write out a constructive criticism, so I'd just chalk it up to my opinion as being subjective as anyone elses. Maybe "sloppy" came off as a harsh criticism. I wrote that based on the belief that all the dialogue wasn't supposed to run together like that.
It's cool, AT. (If I was actually mad, "akimbo" wouldn't be the word of choice.) If the reader's first impression is
offthat there are mistakes, it will negatively color the opinion. It'd be different in print, I think.And yes, this is not in line with the thread topic, so I won't say any more about it.
Just gonna say it, but that was probably the most well-handed argument I've seen on a forum ever.
I am not sure about this mandatory formatting concept.
I mean, sure, font and font size. Title placement, etc. But not strict standards. For example dialogue in quotations? It depends on the style of the piece. Some formatting decisions, when done well, can really lend to the rhythm of a piece.
How many restrictions do we really want? Just an initial reaction. I mean, look at Caleb's As a Machine and Parts. Now I am not saying to go to those extremes, but do we want WAR to become devoid of risk taking achieved through the parlance of signs and symbols, syntax and word placement?
I guess unless the story is experimenting with a visual style, we should assume that people follow basic rules of grammer and formating? Double space, etc. But if someone wants to make a story look a certain way, then have at it? I don't know. There was only a few stories where formatting was very specific.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that we adhere to format the same way a publication would expect you to be double spaced, etc. I think the question was whether or not a file had gotten screwed up when converting it to a doc. Though I'm not so sure that's the case and was just a matter of people slagging Syrup for the way some of the dialogue was written (which was intentional).
So all this formatting discussion might be over nothing, ha ha.
Well I was kind of suggesting that.
But Chester already supplied the counter.
And I have to agree with him, I wasn't thinking very far ahead before. I mean one of my own stories this time round used multiple fonts etc.
Hmm. Yeah, scratch my last. I was just thinking aloud anyways.
Good stuff here, everybody. Very constructive.
And going forward, WAR-Mistress Avery and I will likely come up with some slightly more confining parameters for structure. I doubt there is any need to tell people how to punctuate a story. Charlie Huston doesn't use quotation marks in his Joe Pitt novels, but I'll bet he still would've had a good chance of winning the golden tiara. However, I do think standard publication format is a good guideline. And there is a convenient article right here on LR that we can link to and make everything easy. Then maybe add the caveat that, if you want to do font experimentation, that's all good, but we won't be keen on accepting responsibility for any formatting issues.
Something like that.
Good game!
Is it going to be 32 contestants again?
Because 32 stories/16 rounds to read in week one is quite a lot (depending on other time commitments) so to increase the participants may also mean those in the later rounds don't get so many votes.
However at the other end of the spectrum, i think pretty much everyone from War 1 wants to be in war 2 plus there are lots of people who weren't and want a chance to fight...
Here in lies the problem :S
We have some organization stuff to work out, but I'm fairly certain I would like to pursue a 64 contestant WAR this time.
I feel like the excitement of Round 1 overshadowed the "obligation" of reading all those stories. By which I mean, I think people really wanted to read them all and were thrilled to do it. I'm all for a larger group next time, just to make sure everyone gets to play. I expect everyone who played in War one to come back with a vengeance. And I expect everyone who didn't to walk around feeling smug about how much better of a job they could have done.
Furthermore, I expect everyone who participated in WAR 1 to keep writing intensely. Because you've all seen what the competition looks like. And if some of that competition keeps writing their asses off and you do not...well, you will be eclipsed early in the next competition.
I've already got new work on the go!
Shut up, bitch.
I mean....congratulations on your win....
@Avery - If you're the war mistress, you should be holding a whip or something in your avatar.
I am, it's just out of frame.
Put it in the frame! Nobody will believe you if it's not in the frame!
It could be a round robin.
@ Chester, I think no one wants to impose restrictions on experimental structure and play with language and even grammar. What I meant was, can we all have Times New Roman, size 12, double spaced, and title 6-ish lines down? Creg Clevenger, in his class, asked everyone to submit all stories in that format so they wouldn't create some kind of bias, because stories with other formats tend to bias the readers who are used to the standard. Plus, it's good to get used to the standard because everything you submit for publication should be in that format.
I'm sure you can change formats inside the story to make something stand out, and to experiment.
@ Beka, did you get a knife yet?