GFF Literary Workshop: A Proposal

NEWSFLASH
The first trial week has begun! Download, read and comment upon our first entrant here. Updated rules and queue are there too!

Project Outline
While browsing the old WotW threads, it occurred to me that WotW is a lot like the Best Song Contest—brackets, voting, held once a year. But there's no real counterpart to the Song of the Week feature, which offers similar content to the BSC year-round, at regular intervals.

So I'd like to throw out this idea: how about a semi-permanent, rotating literary workshop here at GFF?

Unlike War of the Words, where pieces of writing are pitted against each other in death combat (not that there's anything wrong with that) this would revolve around reading and offering constructive feedback to pieces of original writing with the aim of helping people become better writers and editors. Obviously, the more one participates, the more likely others will be to read their work when it's their turn.

So here are the main things I'm curious about:

Would anyone be interested in doing this? There'd have to be a decent pool of people to allow for failing to make deadlines and life intervening.

What format would it follow? I was thinking of something along the rough lines of SoTW in GGMD: every week, or two weeks, or month, the author at the top of a queue submits a short story, poem, essay, play excerpt, or novel excerpt, and people read it and offer constructive feedback (it wouldn't have to be brand-new; pre-existing works would be fine too). At the end of the period, the author gets to make a statement and respond to the criticism. But that's just one possible method.

Who would run it? I'm happy to volunteer my time for reading and thread creation, but it doesn't have to be (and maybe shouldn't be) a one-person show.

Relationship to WotW? This struck me as a possible entry-level venue for WotW—that is, it would allow people practice in writing, editing, and making comments (as well as providing a little off-season action).

Any thoughts or comments?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Hm, there's some interest! While I'm waiting to see if there's any more, does anyone have any thoughts about the time period that ought to be involved?

Would two weeks be too long for a single session (keeping in mind that if we had a queue of 5 people, it would take 10 weeks for your turn to come) or would one week with the possibility for extension work better? In that case, a queue of 5 people would mean your work would get reviewed every five weeks.

I was thinking of something along these lines:

Queue
Person1
Person2
Person3
Person4

Week 1 sees Person1 turn in a short story. We all read it and post critiques, and at the end of the week Person1 makes their own comment. The next week, Person2 submits a poem, and we all read it and post critiques in the following week, and so on.

That way, you'd have notice in advance to prepare something, and we'd move along at a designated pace.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Matt

I'd be interested in participating, but I'm a little unclear on a few things.

Well, I'll throw out my ideas and see what people think.

Originally Posted by Matt

Like how long do you expect submissions to be?
As much as I'd love to read other people's stuff and write my own, I don't have very much free time on my hands.

I thought that we'd have a minimum and maximum word count, at least as far as fiction goes. Less than 500 words is probably too short for even flash fiction, while 5000 words is pushing ten pages. So I'd say 500-5000 words would be a good guideline, with the 2500 of WotW serving as a nice medium. People could always submit part of a longer work if they're over the limit, and it wouldn't be hard-and-fast, just a general guideline.

Originally Posted by Matt

Also, will there be anything in place to prevent this from turning ugly? I'd hate to start seeing authors compete or try to one-up each other.

Having taught a writing class, I know what you mean. We'd have to be on the honor system, and people would probably want to follow the standard procedure of starting out with positives and keeping criticism mild and professional. If it does get ugly, we could ask one of the mods for housekeeping support, I suppose.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Fresh Frank

Would this be the limit for poetry as well? It sounds fine for all the other forms you mentioned, but a little much for poetry. Then again, I'm not queing up, so feel free to ignore me completely.

I don't know enough about poetry composition to make a determination; I taught prose writing. Do you have any suggestions?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Pyromanic

Just say that they should be at least a couple stanzas long, with at least 5 lines in each stanza. Okay, a simpler way of saying that is 10 lines. lol

10 lines minimum sounds good; no real need to put up a maximum I suppose, since I doubt anyone'd be submitting an epic poem.

No one's mentioned it, but I suppose a similarly base 10 rule for drama (10 pages or less, at least 500 words) would work nicely.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Ozma

Btw, about poetry stuffs. Does it have to be only 10 lines long? I have the tendency to make a long poem which sometimes have more than 30 lines in it.

10 lines was just the minimum, so 30 lines would be fine. Any attempts at epic poetry would probably be curtailed by the 5000 words/10 pages limit that seems to be evolving, hopefully.

Here's the list of interested parties so far:
Dark Nation
Lycanthrope
Acro-nym
Fresh Frank
Matt
Pyromaniac
Ozma
RainMan
orion_mk3

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well, I suppose I'd best get keep the ball rolling.

I was thinking of running a couple sessions just as a trial run--two people submit, two week-long threads are made, and we see what sort of participation we get.

So, would anyone like to volunteer to be a guinea pig? This would involve having a story, poem, or play already on hand and submitting it at once. I'd need two to start, and any additonal people with ready submissions could go to the head of the queue.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Ozma

I'd like to, but how to submit them?

Well, I was thinking that people would volunteer first and then send the stuff, but you're a step ahead.

I was going to have people submit to my Yahoo address, orion_mk2@yahoo.com , after which I'd post the document in the thread. Submissions should be in .doc, .rtf, or .txt formats only.

Originally Posted by Helloween

I would like to put my name down for probably participation. I have a very defined period of time in which i have to work on extra curricular pieces. As of Wednesday i'll be entering this period, and towards the end of November i'll be right in the middle of essay season again.

Well, would you like to be bumped up to the head of the queue? When there is a queue to be bumped up to the front of, that is?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Looks like we've got our two volunteers, Acro-nym and Ozma!

Go ahead and mail a copy in .doc, .rtf, or .txt format to my Yahoo address, orion_mk2@yahoo.com . Once I've got it, I'll start a new review thread and an official queue and we'll give this thing a try.

I think I'll structure the queue in the order that people volunteered to participate, with myself at the bottom and our volunteers at the top. People who have submitted (or indicated that they will submit) will be in bold, while people with no submissions will be in normal text:

Brave Volunteer
Non-Submitted Ned
Submitted Sue
Lazy Louie

In the example, Ned would have the remainder of the current week to make a submission. If he doesn't, Sue would go next, and Ned would go to the bottom again:

Submitted Sue
Lazy Louie
Brave Volunteer
Non-Submitted Ned

New participants would go to the head of the queue, giving them a week to come up with something before going into the normal rotation.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Matt

Sounds good.
As far as formats go, are there any objections to using .pdf? I have a nifty program called PrimoPDF that lets me print directly to PDF, so I was going to just use that instead of submitting a Word document. I figure it'd be best since some people might not have Word or a similar program, yet everyone seems to have Adobe.

If not I can submit in Word, but I figure I might as well ask.

How big a file is it? If it's small enough, it might work--best send both formats the first time, though, in case someone can't read one or the other.

EDIT: I've recieved Acro-nym and Ozma's submissions in that order, so the first trial thread will go up in a little bit.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by The Wise Vivi

Where do I sign up?

You just did! In the future, though, I'd urge people to sign up in the trial threads--we can return to this one if needed later.

Vivi, I've added you to the top of the queue after Ozma, whose place was determined as part of our trial. Feel free to submit something (you have a week to do so before going to the bottom of the queue), and please read and comment on our selection this week!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.