Under that system, I definitely wouldn't end up doing both steps of the process. Even when I did feel up to doing Permission requests, I don't think it would have worked well. Especially if the mission was on the longer side. It feels a bit like adding on having to beta a mission, but potentially especially thoroughly, and I was already having to heavily limit both how much betaing I committed to doing and putting a page limit on what I was willing to take on. The writing samples gained a preferred word range for a reason.
What's more: some people, myself included, end up finding it easier to write interludes than missions. I had all kinds of mission plans, back when plotbunnies were eating my brain back in 2013; I'd have to go back to check, but...no, actually, I really don't. I remember now: my first posted mission was an April Fool's Day version of what was planned to be my first one. After that, I began cowriting, and I'm not at all sure any of those first cowritten missions have been released. I do think some interludes were, and I contributed to an edition (two, actually, I think) of the Multiverse Monitor and similar things, and ran an RP, and participated in others...and then I was doing Continuity Council interludes, and then began cowriting an arc's worth of missions and interludes that were released, and, all in all, I can tell you I'm pretty sure I've never released an actual solo mission. I say this because the first one I finished, complete with an a/n talking about it, is currently sitting in a folder called "Ready to go up", because I did that final edit and updated the a/n and it's now ready to be part of an effort to put up a bunch of story pieces and fragments that I know I'm not going to continue but feel I should maybe share to kind of...close out that chapter of my writing.
I have been a Boarder for over nine years.
All this to say: in my opinion, adding having to go over a first mission seems impractical both from a PG perspective and from a non-PG perspective. Unless cowritten missions count for this (I suppose logically they might well), I would still not have Permission under this system today, or would have gained it something like 3-5 years in (I think the first draft of that solo mission was completed around 2016, and needing to post it to finish getting Permission might have pushed me to finish editing faster...or else it would have made me take even more time with it, given how thoroughly I polished my writing sample). Going by posted cowritten missions, I think it would have taken me about two years, which isn't as bad--until you consider all the non-mission writing I did in those two years. I developed my characters, made new ones, wrote all kinds of things, contributed to a bunch of silly meta things...I had many plotbunnies, and because I had Permission, I was able to do much more with them than I would otherwise have done. Getting Permission actually sparked a fair amount of it, I think, because it opened that door.
Just as we have Boarders who never get Permission, we also have Boarders with Permission who may never write a mission, or take years upon years to finish and release one, while still writing other stories. I can't possibly be the only one. Moreover, even if we shifted it to allow multiple interludes before a first mission, unless the second interlude could take the mission's place, ultimately there would be people writing stories in this weird sort of limbo that I can't imagine would be comfortable or welcoming. If anything, I feel like this system would add stress to completing a first mission, which just...isn't the point of writing in general. So that's another part of it.
As to "being Old and Busy pretty well keeps us from becoming super-tight chums with most newbies" - ohh, yes, for sure. I used to make a lot more effort to engage, to the point where at one time I had a goal to do a bunch of cowrites with people I never had before, including or with a focus on (don't remember now) newer Boarders; however, by now I've become thoroughly inactive on the Discord (I might occasionally lurk in the food channel, but shh, that's a secret) (I do appreciate not being removed from it, though - there's story planning in there that I don't want to lose access to, for one thing), and infrequently active on the Board, and I just...don't have the energy to try too hard to make those connections these days. I'm sure we get many nice newbies, but at this point I'm more concerned with maintaining and hopefully reactivating what have become essentially long distance friendships/relationships with friends and family, including some who live relatively close by. I kind of...made my bubble and mostly stuck to it. So...welcome to all the newbies I never welcomed. I hope you've been having a good time, and apologize that we're unlikely to have much interaction. The reasons are very much on my end. I'm sure other people have been talking to you plenty, though, at least.
And with that, I really need to get moving already...but at least I'm thoroughly awake now!
~Z, apparently back to making long Board posts for the moment. Who knew?
