30 Dec 2012
The Last Good-Bye
Just hear this and then I’ll go You gave me more to live for More than you’ll ever know ~ Jeff Buckley Thursday night I went to pieces. It hit me that my biggest life door was preparing to swing shut—forever. My writing partner Adam Byatt (who I met here as a [fiction] Friday punter in 2010!) sat and held a space while everything poured out… down my fingertips, across the wire... read more
11 Dec 2012
The Year of Falling In Love
There was only one thing I wanted out of this year: to fall in love with writing again. At the end of 2011 I was burned out, disconnected and disillusioned with just about everything in my life. I knew the way back to being happy, grounded and focused was through writing. So sitting here at my desk, in a room recreated specifically for writing and reading in April this year, at a computer my beloved bought... read more
7 Nov 2012
Back-slap or Slap Back? Deconstructing Online Commenting Behaviour
Writers seek validation of their work. If sharing it publicly, there is an underlying assumption they would like their work to be read and enjoyed. And nothing smacks of validation like a positive comment. But hang out in any online writing community and you’ll be hard pressed not to notice the prevalence of cavalier back-slapping, where (even in dedicated critiquing forums) praise is given away far... read more
29 Oct 2012
The Best Roads Aren’t Paved, Part 4: Pouring Foundations
BY JODI CLEGHORN AND DEVIN WATSON Community is possibly the buzz word of the past 18 months. Seth Godin says: “The challenge is to look at the rituals and events in your organization and figure out how amplify the real reason they exist. Working side by side doing something that matters under adverse conditions… that’s what we need (to build a tribe).” Working side-by-side under pressure is... read more
25 Oct 2012
THE BEST ROADS AREN’T PAVED PART 3: CURDLING THE MILK
by Jodi Cleghorn and Devin Watson Homogeneity is dangerous. Just as competition in business promotes more choices and innovation, so it must be in the arts. It’s a form of entropy that allows us to grow. The Movie Project is our small effort to push against the insidious creep of geographic and cultural homogenization. HOMOGENEITY, PLAYING IT SAFE Devin American television and film, with the... read more
18 Oct 2012
The Best Paths Aren’t Paved 1: Hybrids Riding the Wave of Change
By Jodi Cleghorn and Devin Watson If you look up the term ‘publishing’ you’ll find it defined differently on Wiki to how many of the writers here articulate the meaning this month. You’ve already read (and you’ll see a few more) about publication meaning the release of a piece of work to the public (ie. people the author doesn’t directly know) and the loss of control once it is in the public... read more
14 Oct 2012
Form and Genre Finale
This is the final ‘official’ post for the Form and Genre Challenge. We’ve made the tough decision to pull the Challenge for the rest of the year, based on the continued low participation rate. For the Challenge to be viable under the judging parametres at least three entries (ideally more) are required each week. For many weeks we’ve been getting one or two submissions. The good... read more
11 Oct 2012
Crowd-Sourcing Fictional Details
(or how the peanut gallery became the brains trust) When I sat down to complete ELYORA in June I was faced with a dilemma. The way the story concluded in the second draft required the retro-fitting of some specific details earlier on. I was so focused on getting the novella tidied up for submission (shoe-string timeline, looming deadline and all that), I didn’t have days at my disposal to brew up... read more
