I think it's important to be aware that what story you choose to tell is completely independent of how you choose to tell it. Someone could take the same concept (the things I'm discussing above) and present any one of them as prose, poetry, photoessay, comic...and whatever else they can think of. Medium and story are really independent. Sometimes the choice of medium will help get across the message better than another choice of medium: for example, I think alephz' piece this week about rampant consumerism and movies is better because it's told with photographs of toys than it would be if it had just been written in story or essay format.
But I also think that when someone goes into something choosing their medium first, it can actually hinder their process. If you say "I'm going to make a comic this week" without thinking "This is the story I want to tell, what is the best way to tell it?" can sometimes hurt the story you finally decide on. I know it's a bit ironic to hear that coming from me, but there were definitely ideas I discarded last year because they wouldn't work as comics.
I have an aversion to Obvious Prompt Placement, as well, unless it's clearly being done on purpose for some kind of literary effect. And yeah, I think what you're talking about as badly done meta is what I'm talking about in the first example. Once in a very long while, there is an entry like that that I like-- your poem is a good example of that, actually-- but it's pretty rare. Like I said, that kind of writing usually seems like it should be the preparation for the entry, not the thing someone actually submits.
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But I also think that when someone goes into something choosing their medium first, it can actually hinder their process. If you say "I'm going to make a comic this week" without thinking "This is the story I want to tell, what is the best way to tell it?" can sometimes hurt the story you finally decide on. I know it's a bit ironic to hear that coming from me, but there were definitely ideas I discarded last year because they wouldn't work as comics.
I have an aversion to Obvious Prompt Placement, as well, unless it's clearly being done on purpose for some kind of literary effect. And yeah, I think what you're talking about as badly done meta is what I'm talking about in the first example. Once in a very long while, there is an entry like that that I like-- your poem is a good example of that, actually-- but it's pretty rare. Like I said, that kind of writing usually seems like it should be the preparation for the entry, not the thing someone actually submits.