Discussion → Group Project
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I'm relatively new at fictionaut, but was curious about "group projects" listed by some groups. I'm trying to think about how to be more responsive to the actual pieces posted here. I have a personal blog I've kept private and am retooling it to open up for general reading. What if we did something like the 52/250 project only on our own blogs, with links posted here in a thread when we post a new story. I wrote 100 stories in 100 days once as part of an inter-blog challenge (some people did 100 paintings) and it was exhilarating. I'm up for something like that again, expecting some/most will be terrible, but I'll walk away with a few gems. Any ideas from a group-building writing challenge perspective like that? It's very easy to create a blogger blog just for that purpose, as a playing area.
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I'm a member of a private writing group here, Gloria - and would certainly be interested in joining other private groups. If this group were private - meaning that the pieces we posted here did not show on the public wall - I'd like to join and submit unpublished flash work to it. The group would then function as a workshop.
I do like 52/250 and submitted work there, but I consider that work - from an editor's standpoint - as published.
I never post - or nearly never - unpublished work to the public wall. I'm one of those who treat work posted here - or at blogs, facebook, personal websites as published work. All editors, of course, don't treat work posted to FN - and the like - as published, but many do.
Something to think about. At any rate, I'm glad you've started this group.
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sounds like a great idea, gloria. and sam, i wonder about posting my unpublished work on the main wall, but i've never run into an issue over it yet. still, it may happen.
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At Blue Fifth Review - if we want to publish a piece that has, for example, been posted here at FN - is to ask that writers either take the work down or post a credit and link here.
Here's the specific guideline at BFR:
"The editors welcome unsolicited submissions of poetry and flash but do not consider previously published works. Please send no work that has appeared previously in print or online. The editors will consider work that has been posted on a personal or public blog, Myspace, Facebook page, or workshop site with the following stipulation: Should the submission be accepted at Blue Fifth Review, the work should be removed from all posts and archives. If, however, publication credit, listing Blue Fifth Review, is added to the posted page of the online site, the work may remain in all posts and archives."
http://bluefifthreview.wordpress.com/submission-guidelines/
I'm always happy to have a link placed in the FN page and credit listed. That's good for both the writer and BFR. I prefer not to ask writers to take down a piece. Truly. But then, our policy is clear up front that our preference is to consider work that is unpublished.
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There's a great deal of disagreement among editors and writers about this. There are also many variations on this type of policy in different venues.
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I suppose if I started a private microfiction group, then there would be no point in keeping this "unpublished." This could be for microfiction in general and the other the Microfiction Workshop Group, kept private. Can anyone join a private group or is it by invitation only? And is it listed with the other groups? Will look into that.
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Private groups are by invitation only. They aren't listed with the other groups.
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Something to consider down the road. Right now I'd like to make this group as active as possible. I like that you posted links to your published microfiction. That could open up the possibility for more learning from published pieces and broaden the involvement of members. We could discuss published microfiction pieces, why they work, and what the author thinks about writing them.
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I'd like to - and will - comment on all pieces posted here. Just letting you know that I'll only post to the public wall or public groups works of mine that have been published - to keep them available for all venues.
But there are many who will post unpublished work here, and as a writer, I'm fine with that and understand it completely.
I'm glad the group is here.
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So are you saying you'd be happy to have this group opened to published work so you and others could mingle your work with the unpublished work?
Group Description
ALL MICROFICTION ALL THE TIME.
Here's a place to post both published and unpublished Microfiction and a place to discuss and debate the special aesthetics of the genre.
Some sources claim word count under 100, others under 200, others under 400 and still others under 500. Your guess is as good as mine, but 500 is the absolute limit. The shorter the better. Poetry welcome.
Joseph Young in FRIGG, Spring 2009, wrote,
"To be its own genre, microfiction needs to do something that other forms won’t. It needs to use language, description, dialogue, character to tell a story that can’t be told any other way. It’s not just compression, and it’s not just leaving things out, background info on characters or such. Microfiction needs to carve out whole worlds in a space small enough to fit the eye. You look, just once, and there the whole story is, on the page...
"If fiction (e.g., narrative) is time, then microfiction is microtime. But let me caveat. A microfiction can describe the entire life of a character. It can illustrate birth, marriage, death, 80 years of experience. But the amount from that 80 years that actually occurs in microfiction, in microtime, is nearly nothing, a tenth of a second."
Me? I think of microfiction as the miniature galaxy inside the marble hung from the cat's collar in Men in Black.
To keep this group vibrant and alive, don't just post and run. Take the time to comment and especially engage in the discussion threads. It will make for a richer group experience.
--Gloria Garfunkel, Micro Cafe Barista
This is a public group.
Anyone can see it and join.