Novel Workshop Moderator Forum

Hi all. I've been out of this group and writing for a while now, mainly because I'm a freelance programmer and I just got two large contracts which are keeping me busy 110 percent of the time. So my writing time has evaporated. I keep telling myself it's time to retire (I'm 60) and write full time, but I love my work and when somebody offers me a large sum of money to do something that I love, ...

Anyhow, my two cents worth is that I heartily agree with what Max said:

1) The rigid review format does have some justification in that it forces reviewers to hit important areas. Nonetheless, we can encourage that sort of thing without the rigidity. Gentle reminders can do a lot.

2) I understand that it's a pain helping WDC newbies navigate the forum, but still, enforcing a long WDC experience time is excessive. Many times I've recommended WDC to friends who are aspiring writers in need of a good review group, but I cannot send them to the Novel Workshop because they are new to WDC. These are intelligent, motivated people. They can learn quickly.

3) I especially like the P word in Max's message: Publish. Several times in my early days in WDC, I've given thoughtful publication-oriented reviews to people, only to have them scream back to me that they just write for fun and do not care about being published. We should make it clear that publication is our goal, and if you just write for fun you should give your work to your mother for review.

Oops... Sorry for that rant. I'm highly stressed right now. Please allow me to vent a moment. I just got off two days of jury duty in a bizarre trial that left me exhausted. It was a young couple (late 20's). They loved rough sex... really rough sex. In particular, she loved to be strangled during sex, with him choking her until she passed out just as things got going. (Sheesh!) The day came when they went out drinking. By her admission (and testimony of bartenders) she had 12-13 shots of Southern Comfort and some beers. They got home and he wanted sex. She said she was sick and had to go to bed. He slapped her around (in a text he sent to a friend he said he "slapped the s*** out of her") and tried to force himself on her (not clear how far he got). The next morning when she woke up bruised from head to toe, including deep finger bruises on her inner thighs from when he forced her legs apart, as well as throat contusions from strangulation, she called the police and went to the hospital. Long story short, the jury (with only me disagreeing and them beating me down) let him off on everything except a very small assault charge. Their reasoning (including four women!) was that this was just the nature of their relationship, and he should not be penalized for doing what they always did. Sigh. Life is really weird.

Enough rant. I would be willing to do a rotation on updating the board and help keep an occasional eye on things.

For what it's worth, and I apologize to those who have heard this before, is that when I began writing I was in a very active (several dozen members) writing group moderated by Diana Gabaldon. There were no mods as such. We were entirely self policing. On the rare occasions when a member was bad, we piled on that member as needed. We all respected one another and we were highly successful. I think we should give self-policing more a chance and see what happens. Minimal rules. Just my opinion.



Tim, AKA Sandy Samson

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