Those Were the Days My Friend

Posted to Gather August 15, 2009 01:29 PM EDT

In December 2005, there were few things I had not done, seen, or felt. Journals kept the details of my experiences, and major influences lived in memories and emulations. I used some of them in my novel writing and was ready to explore and reflect others in shorter work. Comfortable with where I was in life and in my writing, I settled into my seat at the Gather table, excited about the opportunity to read, meet, and mix with writers from whom I would learn to hone my skills and pour fifty years of highs and lows, loves and losses, friendships, life lessons, and opinions into fine-tuned essays, short stories, articles, and opinion pieces.

I read everyone on Gather, pleased to discover that my position—midway between beginner and accomplished—presented equal opportunity for give and take. I posted a few pieces and waited. A few people complimented my technique, debated my opinions, and discussed my reflections. It felt great, until I realized something was missing. No one suggested ways in which I might improve my writing. This was fun but I was not honing.

The writers I knew outside Gather appreciated anyone who was willing to comb their work for typos, or errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. They treasured those who also looked for inconsistencies in tense, detail, or voice, and who recognized problems with style, awkward wording, character development, or dialogue. Maybe writers in this community expected me to pay my dues before they would invest time in my work? I would give first and see what happened.

I scoured the site and commented on content. I also identified the obvious, simple errors. For the more complicated finds, I explained my critiques and suggestions and linked to educational sites and/or appropriate books. Then, I sat back and waited for the recipients of my time and effort to appreciate my diligence and thank me with genuine critiques of my work instead of the generic nice job comments I was seeing. (It’s okay to laugh and wonder how I could be so naïve after touting all that worldly experience in the first paragraph.)

The writers in this community were different. A few insisted they were professionals and therefore perfect, and that anyone who dared point out an error was jealous and not welcome. And there were others who insisted that only thugs and mean people thought there were rules to writing. They expected praise and high ratings, despite their errors, since they never intended to be real writers. I should be grateful they slopped some words on the page and allowed me to read them.

I adjusted my not-so-comfortable-any-more seat and considered the options: I could quit, or forget standards, or try to affect change, or wait to see if other writers came in. My decision to wait ended up being one of the best I have made. That probably surprises those of you who have suggested (so many times) that I should leave if I am so unhappy. I will explain my Those Were the Days experience and hope you will understand why I stick around longing to find people who will recreate those times.

A few brave souls came forward to admit that they, too, cared about the integrity of writing and hoped that we could stick together and hold one another to high standards and honesty. My Gather mailbox filled with encouragement from people who supported my position, but weren’t brave enough to risk the fallout that found people who openly admitted they cared about standards on this site.

A few more writers showed up, and soon, key elements stewed in an undercurrent of potential: intelligence, skill, discipline, strength, eagerness, vitality, ethics, talent, and wit. One great piece of work inspired another. On one side of Gather, writers linked to other writers and encouraged great work, while the other side screamed about being bumped out of top spots by grammar police and elitists. It was easy to ignore the screaming while I expected the undercurrent to burst into something phenomenal.

A human catalyst--posing as a teen werewolf--entered. Most of us feel something special when we see pictures of babies or puppies even if we have not and will never meet the subject of the picture. We fall in love with words in a song, and emotionally attach ourselves to characters in books and movies. Ideals grab our hearts. Art changes our lives. Once in a great while, for reasons we can’t explain, some identity—real or not—wins a permanent place in our heart. So it was for me, with the talent behind the teen werewolf (sometimes known as the wherewolf after long absences) icon.

Not only was he the catalyst I needed (I think I speak for others as well), he was a talent magnet. He raised the bar and silently issued constant challenges for me to be at the top of my game. He entertained. He demonstrated a perfect mix of perfectionist and humility. Before long, young, passionate, intelligent, witty, altruistic, humble, disciplined, cultured, eager, earnest, generous, and inspirational artists surrounded him. Many in that group were young enough to be my children, yet I felt privileged to be in their presence and to learn from them.

For a while, Gather was filled with creativity and growth (of the personal kind, I don’t know about membership numbers). I credit those passionate young writers, and believe their energy would have pulled in more members like them if Gather had appreciated and protected them and what they (and many of us) believed was the original vision of this site. Unfortunately, instead of protecting them, quality content, or that evasive vision - Gather allowed people who resented grammar police and elitists to harass, flag, misrepresent, and chase them off to share their brilliance where it is appreciated.

Spirits and motivation dropped. Writers stopped writing or left when their readers and inspiration dwindled, and their work was buried so deeply between games, diary entries, and single-line questions that no one could find it.

Recently, I accepted a position as member editor for the Writing Essential group, hoping I might infuse a new wave of inspiration and challenge, collect people who are passionate about the art of writing, or at least promise that on one day of the week, I would sponsor a collection of inspired, creative writing. I thought maybe, if readers and writers knew where they could ‘gather’ to meet other passionate writers with similar interests, the momentum would grow.

After several months and few responses to several appeals to the group for feedback, it is obvious that most members do not share my interests. I’m extremely grateful to those who do share my interests and to those who responded to my questions. I’ve heard from a few others, and have to assume that the majority who did not respond agree, that my focus is too narrow (fiction, prose) and my standards (must care about technique) too strict. Therefore, I plan to take my project out of the group and leave Tuesday open to a theme and moderator/host that will better serve its members.

Last night, I stood before the tavern (listen to the song if this makes no sense) and heard Monica and X Tabber call my name.  I’m not completely ready to give up my dream of creating a cozy corner in Gather where we might bring back or recreate a Those Were the Days atmosphere. I want to see if I have different results in a location where I am able to deliver exactly what I promise.

I created three new groups for writers and readers who care about the art of writing:**

• Character Development Workshop
• Fiction Headquarters
• Creative Non-fiction/Personal Essays

(Groups are not fully developed. I hope to get them cleaned up over the next few days at which time I will formally introduce them with guidelines.)  

UPDATE: Gather no longer exists as it was. It has changed hands and doesn't pretend to be a site for writers. If you manage to get in, or happen upon the old links that many of us posted to our work, you will only find fluff pieces, or something that one of the originals wrote, accompanied by a photo of their new fluff writer. Very deceptive. And disappointing.

Each group will have strict posting guidelines and content will be monitored. These groups are for beginning and accomplished members – anyone who promises to think before they write, edit before they post, treasure readers and writers who offer critique, to accept personal responsibility for remembering the group purpose and guidelines. Members must have thick skin, accept critique and praise graciously, and understand that members will read and comment on what interests them which means some members will receive more attention than others.

In other words, if you can’t remember that they sell food in the grocery and flowers at the florist, that you work on Tuesday but not on Saturday and your book club meets on the third Wednesday of each week, you don’t belong in these groups. If you are not capable of separating the writer from the writing, or you suspect these groups are cliques and that posting to them guarantees friendships or exclusion of people you don’t like, you don’t belong. What you post to an anything goes group does not belong in these groups*

Long-term goals:

• To twist a few arms and expand this beyond what I can comfortably handle. I would like to link each of these groups to poetry and other non-fiction groups that commit to the same standards.

• To promote these groups outside Gather and see if they attract new writers and readers.

* That doesn’t mean that you don’t belong, only that your anything goes post doesn’t belong.