The only people who should be doing this are those who actually want to. With this in mind, it has been determined that no one need pay money to maintain their membership. This is not to say that you pay nothing; further obligations are listed below. There will, however, never be someone who thinks to themselves “Gee, I don’t give a damn about doing this anymore, but I DID already pay for a full year....” Dead weight is undesirable. If someone gets tired of doing this, there is no reason for them not to withdraw from the site.
Ideally, all members would be actively contributing and meet any of these obligations without too much effort. But then everyone slides. If each person could write prolifically and effortlessly, there would be no need for them to be a part of this.
By “chunk”, it is meant some significant piece of writing that can be critiqued by the members. It should probably be more than a description of the sunset, but by no means does it need to be a complete piece. In fact, submissions are rarely complete. They can be a reworking of a previous chunk, of course, but shouldn’t be the same thing that was previously submitted now run through the spell-check. Basically, if it honestly interests you to get feedback on the piece, it is probably fine.
The writing obligation is then a variation on the “3-year/30,000 mile warranty” idea. If you only submit one piece in the two week period, it should be at least 2000 words. If you submit two or three pieces at 600 words each, that’s fine, too. Again, it is hoped that each of the members will surpass this without undue consideration, but the rules are here for those inevitable periods that writing becomes arduous.
Critiques from others are a main reason members participate in a site such as this. The site's purpose is to impel you to write even when you may be disinclined to. It then stands to reason that if members occasionally experience periods in which writing burdens them, they are less likely to write critiques, as well.
As such, the site requires members to submit 3 critiques or critique responses of other members' work per period (as periods are defined above). There is no minimum word-count or length to these critiques - they are sometimes a paragraph, somtimes over a page - but they should be meaningful.
Another very important rule relating to the Critiquing aspect of the site is that no one at any time in a critique may employ the word “interesting”. It is evasive drivel and never really helps.
As stated above, the site doesn’t cost anything and there is no reason to be a part of this if someone is not interested in writing for themselves and, secondarily, the site. As such, the site requires a login name and password to participate. The only measurable requirements to remain are that you write a certain amount in a certain time period (as described above) and that you give feedback to others about their writing. If the writing obligation is not met for a given period, you’ll be warned. If, within the following five periods, this obligation is again not met, you will be removed from the site. (It should be noted here that the site is not unrealistic about this. Vacations from the site may be requested and sudden life-changes are accomodated easily. It is not the site's objective to find people to kick out.)
If this sounds too much like homework, this may not bee for you. The point is that you want to force yourself to do this, not that you want the site to force you to do this. You will not be given a grade for any of this. No one will report your successes or failures to anyone. This site is meant as a good tool for those who want to use it. But in order for it to be a good tool, its members have to want to be an active part of making it a good tool. This means writing regularly, critiquing objectively and sticking with it. If someone cannot meet the basic obligations, then they are not interested in writing in the way the members of the site are. The site doesn’t need the dead weight and the person doesn’t need some site trying to force them to do something they don’t want to do after all. For the people who want this for themselves, the threat of being booted out provides impetus for them to do what they want. For those who don’t want this, the threat of being booted out provides clarification. No harm done.
If, after reading through the above descriptions and The Idea (on the adjoining page), you feel our philosophies appeal to you and want to be a part of this format, please let us know by emailing us at the_management@shotgunmuse.com .
-The Management