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.

Thank you. If we do wait until Jan. 1, that would give us time to prepare and me more time to learn from the PYP group.



I don't know. I'm not sure how that would work. I would love to have more qualified people than myself leading, but who?



What I mean is, the members in this group would be free to investigate markets in either General or Christian markets. But, since the Christian market is so small, sometimes longer stories don't have a Christan market. So, leaders of this group could say we'd like to publish this story through HW. We could publish the best of each quarter or assemble them for anthologies after the year is over.





Yes, and if we did an anthology submissions prior to team selection it would help us determine whom to put in what group. (Just realized I didn't mention this yet). So, I've been thinking, if we put this mentorship thing off till Jan 1, there might still be people who want to submit to the anthology prior to that. I'm thinking we could do what I've been saying on top of this, so that people can get involved in either or both. Timing would be an issue though because would the deadline be Nov.1 for anthology submissions? That might get hairy with the HF forum and stuff, as well as nanowrimo, but maybe it will push those who are busy with those to get the work down in the two months prior.


Yes. There may be some people that will have to read on their computers. Either as pdf's or the free kindle to pc download. I'm up in the air about this, for reasons you mentioned, but I expect to make use of the forums for teaching and blog posts to show examples.

This post will be a running count of people who want to mentor and be mentored.

So far:

Mentors:
Luke the Mindwielder

Mentees:
Elly of Zoriah

This is so cool.

Mentees? Awesome.

I'm not sure what I'll be able to help with.

I'm not sure whether I want to be a mentor or a mentee... I'm leaning towards the latter though.

Salivates over the opportunity to help Jay with his writing...I've never even read your stuff Jay.

Varon, you could help by blogging about what you're learning through team pyp. I'm going to work on something to show the growth from the first draft to the last over the three month quarter.

I'm interested in the idea but I would need to know who the mentors are beforehand because I need to know that these are people who are at a higher writing level than I am.

(Not saying I can't learn from other people who are younger/lower level. It's hard, though, if, say, you were assigning a 19 year old with a 15yo mentor on the basis that the 15yo self-published and the 19yo chose not to.) (RANDOM EXAMPLE - I am not thinking of anybody in particular!)

In other words, is there a screening process for mentors?

I'm willing to mentor but I'm not sure I fully understood how this works. I'm a bit better with bullet lists.

Ooh, I am a mentee. . . Sounds like fun!

I'm also willing to help out with making lists and other editor-ish things if you need me to.

I might be interested in being a mentee if I can ever find time to write. School starts this week, and hopefully I'll have a job soon, but maybe by the first of the year reading won't take up so much time and I won't have any projects that need completed.

Good point. We may need to have a submissions period to see your writing and an "application" that discusses your experience in writing and critique groups etc.

No problema.

I think that's a great idea, to 'analyze' the writing skills. Maybe there could be a few days where the mentors & mentees get acquainted (if they aren't already)?

What if we had a writing "competition" and those that are interested in the program all read the submissions and vote for their top three stories. We might be able to get a clear enough rating from that to determine who qualifies as a mentor.

Then, as far as assigning groups, I could tell based on style of writing, which mentor would be best for each group.

Could we have submissions for your story by Nov.1? That would give us a month to read and vote on the stories and then another month for me to choose members.

So the mentors need to submit stories? Or both the mentees and mentors?

Yes, that would be how we could decipher between the mentors and mentees. (wondering how this could possibly fit with anthology, if we would edit the winners or what to publish those stories or not)

Okay... Nov. 1, eh... We'll see what I can do. XD

Blog? I can do that.

How long would these submissions need to be for the mentor and mentee decision?

What do you mean blog, Varon?

They would be a short story. It can be flash fiction. What's most important is how well you tell the story, that it is complete, and that it is powerful.

I'm unsure if the submissions will play a double role in us publishing it, which matters because I don't know if I'm going to submit something I am writing for a different market. I guess the point is to see how well you write, so at this time your submission can be published or something that we can't publish. We'll worry about publishing your guys' stuff later. For now, I want to see how well you write.

Where do we send the stories?

I like the contest idea.

We could send them to [email protected] if we're doing this as a contest.

I too like the contest idea. It would give everyone a fair indication of who would make good mentors or mentees.

Great! I'll send in my worst story so I can be extra sure that I'll be a mentee.

Don't do that, Elanhil 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.

*laughs*

So, are all anthology submissions to that address then?

Yes, but let's not call them anthology submissions. Let's call them mentorship contest submissions, or in this thread, just contest submissions.

So do you want us to start sending those any time now?

And any certain genre?

I'm assuming the email address Jay gave is active, so then yes. I'd like everyone to make their best showing, so that we can encourage strong writing between now and January, but if you've got other things to motivate that and you have a strong story ready, then sure, send it.

If you would send it as an attachment, then in the body of the email a little about your writing experience and dreams for the next few years. Include favorite genres and authors to read and write in. Mention any publication credits and if you have novels completed and/or status.

*cracks knuckles* Right away, Monsieur Timotheus.

I may have missed it somewhere, but if you don't mind repeating it, how short is short in a short story?

Good question, Bushmaiden. What's the word count limit on the contest submissions?

Too late, I sent mine in. Mwahahahahaha!

LOL.

7500 words is tops for a short story. Go above that and it's a novelette.

I don't know yet.

I mentioned that Varon and I could blog about what we're learning in the Team PYP mentor groups to help people in this mentorship program. Things like showing the progression of style from one draft to the finished product and some comments that our mentors made.

Is this for the members on HWSF as well, or just for HWFF?

Good point. This is for all HW members. If we get people on the HF forum that want to join, we'll see about extending the contest deadline for them since the deadline is the same as the launch date for the forum. Does someone want to make a post over on the SF forum to point to this thread? I'll try and remember to do that in the next few days otherwise.

Elanhil just asked if he could ask Scott Appleton to be a mentor. I said yes though I haven't read any of his stuff, but I believe Rob Treskillard had high praise for him. If you know of an author you'd like to ask, let me know, and we'll go from there. I doubt I'll say no, but I'd like to know before you ask.

I'll post your main post over there and then change it to say you posted it, and I'll post a link to this thread for people who want to keep up with the conversation.

Okay, that makes sense. The comment just didn't make sense.

I really want to get Treskillard as a mentor, but we might need to do a collective appeal.

Oi, a little to add to my experience...

I write for a friend's e-newsletter for young Christian writers, and most of you probably know of my blog, where I've posted over 80 articles, many on writing...

I was kidding. I'm all about first impressions.

I would like to suggest Bryan Davis (I think I heard that someone had already suggested him... Anyways, I second him. ) and Sigmund Brouwer.
I have never contacted Sigmund Brouwer before but from what I've seen of him, I think he might be interested in this.

I don't know if Mr. Davis would have time to be a mentor but I'm pretty sure he'd give us an endorsement for the book if he likes what he sees. He's a pretty cool guy.

I have connections with a few MLP authors, and I might be able to get some feedback from Jeff Gerke himself, not sure.