I wrote a novel more than ten years ago and I finally want to give it another go, only this time I want to harness the power of social networking and technology so that I’m not doing it entirely alone.
Some of you may know I write articles and do radio commentaries on education issues, I wrote a thesis about American missionaries in China at the turn of the twentieth century, I had a regular column in the South Lyon Herald for a couple of years - that I do that kind of writing. Fewer people are familiar with my novel, short stories, poetry, etc., but I like to scratch that writing itch, too.
I’m not doing this for money, which may or may not seem obvious, depending on how familiar you are with Substack. Some writers do charge subscription fees for their newsletters, but only a relative few make any kind of money this way. Mine is a free newsletter, at least this one is ;-) I’m proposing this collective endeavor for the creative challenge, because writing is a part of me, and to try to combine an old idea (writing a novel) with a twist (doing it collaboratively with many people), and using the power of technology and social networking to make it all possible.
I think it sounds fun, and I’m hoping some other people do, as well.
Essentially, it will work like this: Once a week, I’ll “publish” (via this newsletter) one chapter, in chronological order, of course. I’ll give subscribers several days to give feedback, suggestions, etc. and, based on that, either write the next chapter or go back and rewrite/edit the last one. As the chief author and publisher of this newsletter and the novel itself, that decision is up to me. Still, I promise all who take the time to give feedback to consider it with earnestness. You may take me in directions I would not choose, or make me go back and change or delete some of my “little darlings” as Stephen King called them in his book, “On Writing,” (favorite passages of the author that don’t truly serve or advance the story). But, to me, that’s part of the experiment and, yes, part of the fun.
You can also just follow our joint efforts, of course. If you don’t want to give feedback, just read along as the novel takes shape. That process is actually an old one we don’t really see anymore, that is to say, serialized novels that quite routinely used to be published a portion at a time in magazines and periodicals. Some of Mark Twain’s novels were published that way, as was, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” for example. And if you miss a week or three , you can always catch up by going back to the chapters you missed.
If you’ve made it this far, I assume you have at least some interest in this notion/experiment/creative endeavor. I hope you’ll join us in the way that makes sense for you and brings you some enjoyment.
Next week …Chapter One!
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I look forward to at least reading it.
Looking forward to Chapter 1