Wait. What? That's not what I heard...

[maygra]

The No Stairway Anthology


To be upfront and honest, we're not quite ready for the reveal. Neither the comm nor the website are entirely ready, not all the process and procedures have been honed or tested, and our proposed staff have neither been allowed to review the project nor opted in on any level.

However, I seem to be doing a poor job of defining just what this project is and what it intends -- mostly because we've been using the procedure process to help refine our scope and better define our mission and goals -- but I did hear what people were saying and we did make note of their concerns. We can't guarantee this will satisfy everybody, but we do hope it at least gives people a place to start assessing what we plan on doing instead of what they think we are doing -- or even why.

People form opinions and take positions that are entirely valid to them -- and the information in the link below may change no one's mind, and it is as likely as not to generate more questions and possibly more concerns. Fair enough. But I'm sincerely hoping that at least some information -- as opposed to speculation -- might at least give the project a chance.

So, please go here: http://community.livejournal.com/nostairway/

at least this way, if you still think it's a bad idea, at least it will be the right bad idea.

*and for anyone keeping track, the "Anthology" part of the idea jumped in and wrestled us all to the ground around midnight Friday. *g*

Comments

[destina.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, you had downplayed the use of the word 'literary' to me, and now I see it's front and center in the description. But I have no idea what this means: "Please note that 'literary' in this instance refers to form and function and not to genre." So what, exactly, does 'literary' mean in this context? Form and function is such a nebulous definition; it's practically meaningless, if you don't outline some parameters of the type of form and function you actually mean. For instance, to some folks, 'literary' form means 'pretentious and artsy; pretty words without much of a point'. To me, the broader inference says some version of 'we only want people to submit if they are Very Serious about their writing'. So perhaps y'all could work on clarifying that.

Actually, I'm wondering why the inclusion of this term is important to what you're trying to do here at all.

[maygra.livejournal.com]

Because the process is geared more toward literary or hardcopy publishing than it is Just recommendations with caveats: i.e. there's a submission process, there's a screening process, there's an editorial review. What there isn't and won't be is a requirement for extensive rewrites on already published works. IF people want to go that route because they aren't accepted, we'll do our level best to assist them, but acceptance is based on a story as submitted, not on acceptance and implementation of edits.

And because the anthology volumes themselves will be themed. Some of them will be general and broad, others may focus on specific characters or types or stories by genre or theme.

If that single word is really a stop-block then I'll consider removing it, as for the other, I'd like people to be at least as serious about their writing presentation-wise, as I am about promoting it.

And given how I tend to post my own stories? There's a reason why I'm on the administrative staff and not on the editorial board, which is pretty much the same reason why I never did any of the heavy lifting when we published FWE. Ithink I have a fair grasp on what's good writing, but I have less of a skill at coaxing people (or myself) to make it better or even consistent.

[traveller.livejournal.com]

so, in sum...

if they call it 'good' fiction, people are insulted.

if they call it 'best' fiction, people are insulted.

if they call it 'literary' fiction, people are insulted.

any word that indicates a qualitative ideal, that's pretentious, it's elitism, it's snobbery, it's mean.

what WOULD make people happy? here's our zine, we just picked stuff at random 'cos we don't really care about what it's in it. sorry about all those typos and formatting errors and the fact that a sentinel story got in there by accident, but that's fair, right?

[destina.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure there's nothing you would pick that would make everyone happy. I'm pretty sure you know that, too. I'm raising the issue because I think the terminology is something you'll have to take on directly if the project is going to succeed. Using the term 'literary' as a way of saying 'grammar and spellcheck your story, please, and while you're at it, don't write Sam as a fifteen year old girl' doesn't quite seem to hit the mark. For me.

[traveller.livejournal.com]

if it was up to me -- it isn't -- literary is exactly the word to describe the ideal that should be strived for by anyone who's not writing just for fun. and i'm the first to defend the thousands who're writing just for fun, and i hate it when those people are denigrated for not living up to the standards of others. those people already know they don't want to go through the pressures of the process of being in a zine like this one.

i should bow out of this conversation now, my only place in this project is aesthetic anyway. css doesn't get mad if you sometimes call it html. :\

[destina.livejournal.com]

literary is exactly the word to describe the ideal that should be strived for by anyone who's not writing just for fun.

I don't get this, unless you're equating 'writes just for fun' with 'doesn't care about quality in their work'. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but I think it's entirely possible to care greatly about craft and still write just for fun. I do write professionally, and I'm pretty serious about my craft, but that doesn't negate the fact that when if I should happen to write wingfic, my worries about adverb elimination and magnificent, evocative turn of phrase are secondary to how hot Dean is with wings. That doesn't mean I don't care about the quality of the sentences describing his hotness, though.

Anyway. I think I should bow out now, too.

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

if i may, very briefly?

i've participated in dozens of conversations about the quality of fanfic, and if i say but what about characterization, plot, pacing, these foundations of good writing, frequently someone will reply, oh, i am just writing for fun, i don't care about any of that.

if you care about both, that is awesome. more power to you. and maybe you'd consider letting us read something of yours.

there are those who do not. that too is awesome, and more power to them, but they probably won't be picked up by this little net we've devised. it isn't because they're worth any less, they're just rubies instead of emeralds, and we like green. :)