Hello, welcome to this index/introduction to some of the work I've been doing over the past three years. This post will provide a short explanation/history of the Random Writer's Showcases written by myself, and will contain links to each of the episodes for easy access. As more showcases come out, I'll make sure to update this article.
What is a Random Writer's Showcase anyhow?
The sheer stretch of time devoted to the creation of only 13 episodes means there is a wide varience in quality and conventions from the first to the last showcase. Each showcase can typically be expected to contain reviews of several curated works from a writer chosen off of the site. The ways an author is chosen varies but is not truly random. The hope is that the selection can serve to shine a light on lesser-known writers who provide creative, inventive, or otherwise interesting content for the Wiki.
The applicable usage of the word 'review' here means, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, "a critical evaluation (as of a book or play)." While this often comes with the contiguous implications of "critical analysis" and "recommendation," the form in which I review different works is different in each showcase. Some are lighter than others and some are lengthier, almost serving as a collection of essays regarding different texts. I will not always provide a layered analysis but my segments are not always fully formulated recommendations either, which is why the most appropriate term is "review." That being said, I of course advocate the work of each writer I showcase. A good example of an archetypal showcase would be the showcase for Kolpik [12].
There are some showcases that do not follow this format. In the installment for Raidra [3], I go over a general impression of her writing style as a whole and the ways a reader can adapt to make it valuable, citing examples of stories to illustrate this, rather than the other way around. Inversely, the Channel Zero Special [8] focuses not on a single creator but the different works each season of Channel Zero, a horror anthology, was based on, and then discuss their adaptations. The showcase for Diexilius [13], part one, features a lengthy analysis of a single story, tackling it from different angles rather than tackling different stories, to make its overall point.
Who are you?
I'm EtherBot. I joined the wiki in late 2014 and at the time of writing have since made 1,203 edits including 20 submitted stories and poems. Despite having more stories than showcases, I definitely consider the showcases my primary contribution to the wiki. My first story, One Single Instant, is bad, and I don't recommend you read it. Although my style has evolved in the past five and a half years towards something more experimental and cerebral, my primary output is in these reviews, and I'm generally more interested in sharing them.
In September 2018 I took a break from writing anything on the wiki at all, announcing it with an article titled Negative Culture and How I Write My Showcases [i], which goes into greater detail on the methodology behind the showcases as well as a tentative look at the philosophy behind them. I returned the following May and posted the next showcase in September 2019, a year after the last.
Outside of my showcases and original works, I also have written a number of analytical blog posts over the years, with topics usually relating to horror fiction in a societal, artistic, or practical sense.
Showcases
1) APONTIS
2) Jay Ten
3) Raidra
4) Doom Vroom
5) Jake888
6) MysticEve
10) J. Deschene
11) SoDaft Potato
12) Kolpik
(It doesn't look like three years of work, does it?)