Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 14:46:24 EDT From: keyboard pushups Subject: ALL, FAQ: The Spirit Guide To Misdirection Comments: To: word wanderers [for those who haven't had the pleasure before--first, a few words from me. then the answers you might have thought you would find here. and, if we're lucky, something to end it all...with a BANG!] the smoke hovers. your eyes sting. the ancient figure that ushered you into this strange cavern of shadows seems to have vanished while you were blinking. and... in the east, sunrise blares up from the darkened hulks of sleeping mammoths and other detritus of the city. streaks slide in and up, widen, and slowly feed blood into the dark sky, beating it into blue life for another day. in the west, a hungry thunderstorm slavers and scratches across the quivering backs of foothills. from time to time, it roars out a challenge to the world, afraid of nothing and showing it. do not tease it, for it is cornered and sorely fearful, and its bite is worse than its bark. in the north, the frozen wastes quietly snore their way into crystalline dreams of glory. They glint, remembering the ancient days when ice gripped the wide spaces to the south in a clean white glove of tender glacial calm. They crackle in the cold air, as ears ache and noses drip, with sympathy for the poor enslaved relatives forced into cubes by human technology. They snort, nightmares recurring, as they think of being dunked in soda or alcohol at the hands of a human. Imagine! melting, melting, turning into mere water, just for human tastes. in the south, outlaws cuss, horses rear, and other quaint relics of a mythical past fan their six-guns and stand tall, no matter how short they may be... all this, while in the mystical write direction, words tumble and shimmer, coating ideas with fractal colors and incoherence, cracked! and limited by punctuation, mere passing letters on the river of ink... in the center, spinning slowly inside a tangled web of grammar, lies... [oh, heck, let me put down my tropes and yack at you. this is writers. glad you could drop by. feel free to take part in the continuing mailstorm, and don't feel too surprised if things aren't exactly what you expected. just keep on writing, keep on reading, and you may be surprised to find that while it isn't what you thought you wanted, it may be exactly what you needed...:-] and with a flashing clash of ? and !, he brought the wild sentence to a . and there was a submission: the beginning. by a. writer (next, your words, please?...yes, fill in the blank and send it soon!) tink +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= [Please feel free to print this FAQ and keep a copy for when you have questions! In fact, the author would be pleased if you did that.] The meat in this sandwich - v. 17, July 4, 1995 1. Posting to the list--Submissions and other work 2. Help with LISTSERV 3. Some of our programs 4. Archives and other resources 5. PM&I 6. Poke around with the web... 7. Other questions 1. Posting to the list--Submissions and other work Submissions: To provide all members with a copy, send it as email to writers@mitvma.mit.edu (internet) or to WRITERS@MITVMA.BITNET (bitnet) (everyone will get a copy automatically). Please use the tag SUB: in your subject line. Those who prefer to send their work out individually should use the RFC (Request For Critique) heading below on a general announcement describing your work and saying that you will send a copy to anyone requesting it. You should be prepared for such requests by private email or the list. Critiques and comments for RFC work should be sent by private email. To archive a copy of your work, send it as email to wfiles@mitvma.mit.edu (internet) or to WFILES@MITVMA.BITNET (bitnet). Postings to WRITERS are NOT automatically archived, and material filed in WFILES is NOT automatically posted. It is YOUR decision. To help us recognize the kind of work it is, if possible put the following "tags" in your subject line as appropriate writing SUB: pieces (genre--poem, short story, essays, etc.) CRIT: critiques COMMENT: comments (some people have suggested that detailed technical critiques and quick comments should be tagged differently, thus the two headings) RFC: request for critiques--used to announce availability of a piece with exchange and critiques handled via private email OPIN: opinions TECH: techniques of writing (a good place for summaries of techniques, workshops, or other helpful aids) EXERCISE: exercises ROBIN: round robbins interesting WOW: writing related interesting bits (World Of Writing) WOE: electronic related interesting bits (World of Electronics) FILLER: non-writing related interesting bits FLAME: self-admitted stupidity; or, the dam burst and here's the spill list related INTRO: say hello now BIO: background about yourself (may overlap intro) SOCIAL: addresses, phone numbers, and other personal ads ADMIN: topics about the list use a plain subject line for odds and ends, like everyone else RE: for followups you can also make up your own - useful ones WILL be adopted. [Note: Novels or other longer pieces should be announced and offered to those whose email systems can handle them. Please do NOT post extremely large pieces. my rule of thumb: 50K or 5000 words in one post is pushing. Some people are now using the TOPICS filtering of listserv to limit mail. As a result, the following tags are especially significant SUBMISSION, CRITIQUE, TECHNIQUE, EXERCISE, WOW, FILLER (you can combine tags! e.g. "Subject: SUB, ROBIN: Once More Down the Dandelion Tail" is a perfectly acceptable subject line) As a self-imposed discipline, many of our members use the 50/50 rule - for every "chatter" posting, they try to post one posting relevant to writing. You may want to follow this rule to help maintain the focus on writing. Public chastisement, unfortunately, is NOT an effective method of promoting writing-related postings - it adds one more irrelevant post, and does not provide positive encouragement. 2. Help with LISTSERV To take a short vacation: send email to listserv@mitvma.mit.edu (internet) or LISTSERV@MITVMA.BITNET with SET WRITERS NOMAIL when you leave. Then send email with SET WRITERS MAIL when you return. To have the daily mail collected in one large mailing each day, send email to LISTSERV with SET WRITERS DIGEST To return to normal mailing, send email to LISTSERV with SET WRITERS MAIL To leave the list: send email to LISTSERV with SIGNOFF WRITERS [NOTE: The SIGNOFF is NOT instantaneous. You may want to SET WRITERS NOMAIL first, then send the SIGNOFF command as it takes some time to process. I recommend waiting at least a day before deciding it didn't work.] To subscribe to the list: send email to LISTSERV with SUBSCRIBE WRITERS yourfirstname yourlastname To get a list of members: send email to LISTSERV with REVIEW WRITERS BY NAME To check on your own mail parameters: send email to LISTSERV with QUERY WRITERS To limit your mail to certain topics: send email to LISTSERV with (select your own list of topics) SET WRITERS TOPICS= SUB CRIT You can then go back to the normal full delivery of all topics with SET WRITERS TOPICS= ALL 3. Some of our programs Poems On Demand--on Friday, the challenger posts a challenge (usually describing a form, theme, maybe some allusive references). Others respond with a poem of their own over the next week. If you want to join the challengers, send Roger Giner-Sorolla a message and he'll tell you all about it. To join the challenged--WRITE! Story swap - each participant writes a story around a common theme or title, then the stories are "swapped" - and you rewrite the story you get. (NOT CURRENTLY ACTIVE--needs someone to organize and run it) Critic's Galore--the Critmeister helps make sure everyone gets critiqued, and that we share the load of critiquing! Don't hesitate--let the critmeister show you how to get in there and CRIT! (not active at present as far as I know) Parsons M&I - the small town newspaper of Parsons, Iowa always amuses. A new issue came out in January, 1995 - if you haven't read it, get a copy! Title challenges - these are interesting phrases proposed by a member as possible titles for you to write a piece (story, poetry, or other form) around. Just another one of our ways of provoking writing... Dare to be bad challenge - this is a self-imposed discipline, to write and submit at least one story for publication each week. Variations on the basic challenge are up to you, but several published writers have recommended this program as a definite way to get published. Round robbins spring up from time to time - essentially a form of writer's relay race, with the hope that someone will take up the baton and finish the race. Sometimes we have several participants grabbing the baton at the same time, and somehow these races don't seem to reach a finish line very often, but they are quite entertaining... and another method of provoking writing. Square robbins are another program, with a moderator who paces and selects the public postings to help maintain the integrity of the race. We also have had sine robbins, with a "writer's bible" issued along with the first post which provides guidelines for the style and other issues of the runners. A "convention" for robbins has been the author's name list - each person adds their name with a colon, thus allowing branches if two people want to add sections at the same point. E.g. such a list might look like tink:mji:jane:randy:bill:ming. Just add your name when you post a new section. Other programs include QOTD (quote of the day) and WOTD (word of the day) - both intended to provide you with thoughts to help you keep writing. Note: all of our programs are open to submissions from anyone - but don't overload the list with all of your favorite ideas at once. Pace yourself, and tantalize us with your good taste! 4. Archives and other resources Send a message to WFILES-SEARCH-REQUEST@mitvma.mit.edu with just the number from the following list 3776 FAQ: A Preliminary List of Sparks and Irritants - some upsetting topics Tink's discussion of what causes anger on this list 3777 FAQ: SUB guidelines (DRAFT!) - submission guidelines 3778 FAQ: CRIT guidelines (DRAFT!) - critique guidelines (if you find other helpful documents in the archives, please let me know and we'll add them to this list!) and if YOU want to write one of these useful documents, let me know! To get information from the archives, first send a message to LISTSERV similar to the one between the dashes -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= // JOB Echo=No,Reply-To=None Database Search DD=Rules Echo=Yes //Rules DD * search * in wfiles from 1 jan 1995 to 1 feb 1995 index -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= you may also want to use search lines such as: search * in wfiles where sender contains ( barker ) search exercise in wfiles since 1 jan 1995 LISTSERV will send you a list of available postings matching your search. second, send WFILES-SEARCH-REQUEST@mitvma.mit.edu a message with the number(s) of the pieces you want to get a copy of (change the number to what you want). it's that simple. 5. PM&I The local newspaper is irregular, but you might like to read it. This is the archive number for the most recent issue. (Most of the original issues are now out of print, unfortunately, although I have heard rumors about someone finding some in a spider's web or downspout or something) 115 PM&I Golden 1995 Issue 6. Poke around with the web... try these URLs our very own home page http://www.acci.com/acci/writers.html Others worth looking at... http://bronze.ucs.indiana.edu/~dlodge/writing.html http://www.missouri.edu/~wleric/writery.html http://web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/writers.html general interest http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html 7. Other questions There may be other information or help you would like. Ask, and someone will (usually) answer. Sometimes you may be asked to help turn the answers into a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) piece, sometimes you may have to repeat the question a few times to get an answer, but don't be afraid to ask. -=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=- the end with a bang? well, ignoring the bad jokes which the phrase may suggest, let me recommend: Write until it hurts. Then write about the hurting. Submit, and submit again. And bang! they sold happily ever after... that's it!