|
|
Inaugural Issue: Q3 2008
(subscribe to the rss feed)
Inaugural Issue Editorial: Welcome To The Future
 NOTE: Assignments are ongoing through the remainder of the third quarter. Each quarter will include another "issue" of the literary journal, filled with original content from the participants in the writing symposium.
HISTORICAL FICTION
The first assignment was listed as follows: "200-600 words written as a letter from one historical person to a loved one."
This assignment was given with a minimum of guidance from the editor in an effort to evaluate the individual levels of preparation for both giving and receiving criticism. In order to be paid professionally as an editor, the writers would need to get acquainted with working with copy in a very detailed fashion. Likewise, in picking historical figures, it would require the writers to develop research skills and critical analysis in picking what elements of their subjects lives they could incorporate into their work.
The results?
OPINION-EDITORIAL
The second assignment came through the following message from editor Hannibal Tabu:
The next thing we will all write, which will have a good deal more guidance from me along the way, will be an essay. It will not be any fewer than 600 word nor shall it exceed 1,200 words. This will, in effect, be what's called an "op-ed" piece, a piece of writing aimed at ... well, I'm not going to say your goal is to change anybody's mind. But what you do intend to do is make the reader feel empathy/sympathy for your perspective.
Each of you is going to write a serious piece discussing the feeling of loss. You may choose to make that loss from betrayal, loss from tragedy, loss from random circumstance or loss from disenfranchisement. Each one of you gets to pick one, so call dibs. I'll take whatever's left.
Those are your only choices. You are allowed to use the first person perspective (i.e. "I felt like ..." -- I know I probably don't have to say that for any of you, but I like to be extra paranoid). I say "serious" in that this piece is intended to be emotive and moving. That's not to say there's no room for humor, but if it's to be used, it has to be sparingly and in the service of creating a greater emotional truth (if you've ever been a fan of the show Scrubs, they do this about once every five episodes between really ridiculous concepts).
I also have to say you are allowed, if you choose, to have a "happy ending." The goal of your piece is still in your hands. You will, before writing the piece, write in one sentence what your piece is about. You will not reveal that sentence to anyone until after you've had your second set of notes back from your partner. Once all is said and done, we'll all "vote" on how well you hit the target, on a scale of one to ten (yes, I allow decimals).
"Why am I doing this?" Well, because when my friend, best-selling novelist and college professor [NAME REDACTED], was asked to write a fairly similar assignment for the now-defunct [PUBLICATION NAME REDACTED] in 1994, he was paid somewhere between seventy-five cents and a dollar a word for a piece that came in at about 900 words. You can do the math on what that's about.
By way of advice, this is an area where the works of Jon Carroll will be superlatively instructive. He's a master of doing this kind of work. His column archives are here ...
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/archive/
... and you should in particular focus on works prior to 2004. You may know of other examples -- I remember a lot of James Baldwin essays hit this mark quite well, and if you have any other works in mind that might help each other, feel free to share.
The results?
ORIGINAL WORKS
Each writer was given the opportunity to present an original work of short fiction from their own work before they entered into The Hundred and Four, to show where they were coming from. These could be complete works or fragments of larger projects. What did they have to present?
ORIGINAL WORKS: MICROFICTION COMPETITION
One of the early assignments was a "Twitter deathmatch" where one "apprentice" was chosen to judge as two others competed for the right to pen an editorial summing up their experiences in the first quarter. Chinedum was chosen to judge as Rumond and Ritch competed. The exact rules are as follows ...
Partially inspired by a half-remembered paragraph from Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian," the conditions are as follows:
The assignment will take the form of a series of six Twitter posts. Each will feature a natural phenomenon (be it meteorological, geological, optical or what have you) but written in euphuistic language -- with the ultimate goal of making them *seem* supernatural. Bonus points if you can get all six to tell a story.
Success conditions are, if the instructions remain unchanged, to be decided by me (via a top-secret and supremely subjective process). Knock yourselves out and enjoy.
However, Chinedum got so excited by the idea of it, he had to write up an entry himself, further following the "lead by example" ideals of The Hundred and Four. The results?
ORIGINAL WORKS: INVENTORY
In the world of serialized fiction, most smart editors know that -- sooner or later -- their beloved, intrepid writers will not show up for the job. Uncles get hit by trains, people contract cholera on trips to Akron, real life happens every day. In preparation for that, smart editors stockpile "inventory stories," standalone pieces of content they can publish to keep the production schedule going. The Hundred and Four is no different, so here are some of the ones that were saved for just such a rainy day.
- I Know by Hannibal Tabu (online October 1st, 2008)
- Hero by Hannibal Tabu (online October 8th, 2008)
Who's doing all this writing?
|
|
