Greetings! Since joining Holy Worlds, one of my biggest visions has been creating a program to teach guide writers along what will be a long term commitment to excellence in writing. This skill is not one easily or quickly developed, and I want to make a program that combines our senior writers with our novice writers in a challenging and yet doable system (considering most of you are in school and have jobs).
This project is a combined product of the anthology I'm planning and my participation in the program this is copied from, Team PYP (short for Port Yonder Press).
Below is the quote from the planning thread for the anthology:
A couple of comments have really resonated with me today. First, Jay’s suggestion of waiting till the end of the year to close submissions, and then Reiyan saying he has a large workload at school on top of sports. And most recently, Elanhil.
My goal for this project (anthology) is not to exclude a majority of HWers, but to build us up to excellence in writing. If I go ahead with the current idea of closing submissions in a few months, I’m afraid I’m going to discourage too many people, when really there is no urgent need to publish this in the next few months. Writing is about learning patience and how long it takes to develop your craft. It would be hypocritical to impose such a quick deadline on excellence for you.
That being said, I have a rather significant adjustment to present to you.
I would like to create a 2nd generation PYP mentorship program for Holy Worlds, with a goal of closing submissions on Oct. 1, 2012. It will be similar in format to PYP and would give you time to improve your craft as opposed to me saying you must be a great writer in two months or you don’t make the cut. This will also give me time to improve as your leader before I make final decisions, since by this time next year I will have been trained in writing stories from 1,000 words to 7,500 words with expert advice.
What this means for the anthology: I will open it up to any of the three genres (Fantasy, SF, HF) so that we can include as many people as possible writing in their preferred genre. Hopefully, this will mean by Oct. 1 of next year we will have lots of great stories in multiple genres and could produce multiple anthologies, themed anthologies (if over the course of the year people want to write in shared worlds or linked by a shared hook); or even a magazine. *Note, with the HF forum starting Nov. 1, I wonder how that would affect the starting date, and if we should wait until Jan. 1 so our people aren’t too busy.
What this means for our participants: Instead of discouraging people by rejecting their stories within a two month deadline, this allows a teaching opportunity for the leaders and a much needed training program for our many young writers. PYP Writing Groups have professional editors as group mentors, and a small press managing editor as the head. We don’t have those qualifications, but we still have talented people and at least two people (myself and Varon) who are going through this program. We have connections through that to help us lead for the HW Mentorship Program.
Feedback: First, what I need is some general feedback on this idea. It is a major shift, but I think one that better prepares us for long term success. It’s kind of like Major League Baseball’s drafting system. They don’t throw their draftees in with the pros and if they don’t cut it in their first Spring Training, then they’re cut from the team. No, they realize it takes time to develop skills, and surround them with a system that can best prepare them for success.
Format: (similar to PYP, click HERE) Over the course of one year, will divide into four parts. Three months each for writing stories from 1,000 words, 2,500 words, 5,000 words and 7,500 words. At the end of the first month you turn in your story to your team mentor. The second month is a combination of adapting the work per your mentor’s critiques and sharing with team members before turning in again to the mentor at the end of the month. Same thing for the third month, with final submissions going to me (and maybe other people depending on how large a group we have.)
A major difference between this and the PYP groups is that each quarter for PYP groups we are also researching GENERAL markets to submit to. I see the market for this HW Mentorship Program as more akin to Splashdown Books, which is open about their love for Christ, but varies in terms of how much Christianity is included in their works. The other thing is that there are not many markets out there for Speculative Christian Fiction, so we may end up keeping the accepted stories each quarter and then publishing them at the end of the year, or publishing the best of each quarter. (expect much discussion on this point)
How this will work with busy school schedules: I understand this is not your full-time job, and that many of you are in school. God, family, school and maybe jobs come first before this, so this needs to be something that is manageable and yet consistent (not something you work on for two days at the end of the month). The best way to develop as a writer is to write everyday, not binge write for one month a year (ehem, nanowrimo).
Workload: I’d like you to be reading some suggested works to get exposed to excellent stories. It won’t be too much, but there will be some assigned reading. This could include stuff Varon and I are learning from our critiques. Wouldn’t that be cool to see the growth of our writing through expert critiques? We could blog about it on the HW blog…I’d like to break it up into small groups of 3 w/a mentor, but that will depend on how many mentors volunteer. Should we take some time to advertise to see if any published authors want to volunteer? (not that we don’t have published authors on hw already, hopefully they will check this thread out, and if you know them, nudge them over, would you?
)Is this possible? I think it utilizes our talents and opens the door for more people getting published in the long run. Did I pull the rug out from under the project, or open the curtains to a brighter future?
EDITED FOR YOUR CLARIFICATION (9/3/11)
After 4 pages of discussion, here's the bullet point summary of the program:
* Open to all HW members (discussing mentors from outside HW if they are qualified via publication credits)
* To apply, attach your best 7500 word or less short story to an email to [email protected]. In the body of the email, write a short bio of your writing achievements, style and goals for the next year or so. (this will help with placement)
* Mentors will be chosen from the best stories submitted, so if you want to be a mentor, you better submit a great story. If you'd like to be a mentee, that shouldn't be a problem, but if your story is really good, we might ask if you can do both.
* Format and timeline:
Nov. 1 - Short Story submissions due
Jan. 1 - Program starts
TIMELINE (2012):
First quarter, January – March, up to a 1000 word short story (or stories) in any genre. And research on which general market magazines you could submit it/them to. (May be difficult for Christian Market, but worth looking for). At the end of each month, have all team members submit their story to their mentor for suggestions/thoughts. In between, group members will submit to each other for feedback/critiques. At the end of the quarter, send each to me for suggestions/thoughts. THEN, send it out to magazines. If there isn't a market, we can discuss the best stories going to Port Yonder Press Online Mag, or saving them for the anthology.
Second quarter, April – June, one short story in any genre or cross genres, up to 2500 words, along with a list of short story magazine outlets you might submit it to. (ditto above)
Third quarter, July – September, an up to 5,000 word short story of any genre or cross genres, and a list of recognized general market magazines suitable for such. (ditto above)
Fourth quarter, October – December, a short story of any length (up to 7500 words) (ditto above)
The goal is to have your stories submitted into Port Yonder Press Online Magazine, saved for our anthologies, or submitted to the market of your choice. By the end of the year, we should have some great stories.
*** I am using Team PYP as a model, and in the second year of that model, people reassess if they want to continue with the program, which goes into writing novelettes, novellas and novels. More on that later.
). How do you plan to deal with this?
Awesome.
We still want to be able to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses so we can best match you up with a mentor and team. If you request not to be a mentor, that's fine. We still want your best work.
