The Writ is dead.

It’s a sad but true eventuality.  The project began as a group: a poet, an organizer, a webmistress, and a calming voice.  It grew into a community.  In the beginning, it was an edited online journal overseen by Sarah Dopp.  With the guidance of Jeremiah Gould, it soon evolved into a thriving online workshop.  Under the later leadership of Julian Esteban Torres, The Writ grew to thousands of members from all over the world.  However, it faded with time. With each of the founders and members finding new paths in their lives, the writ was slowly dying.  In November of 2008, I began a blog post:

Despite the best efforts of The Writ’s finest minds, The Writ’s problems have always seemed to outweigh the energy and abilities of those trying to resolve them. From the beginning of the workshop back in 2004, we have struggled with a weak infrastructure and an incomplete site. Over the years, many of us have taken on the challenge of solving this from every angle we could think of. We applied for grants. We tried to go non-profit. We tried to go for-profit. We tried to create a formal organization to gain tax exempt status. But no matter what we do, it always seems like there are more problems than solutions, and that the solutions take more time and energy than anyone who loves the site can commit.

Mine was among the most recent surges to revive the drying dream. All summer I worked on organizational structure and fund raising plans, but continued to hit road blocks. In October, I took a trip to San Francisco and confessed to The Writ’s webmistress that I too had failed, and was ready to give in.

I then went on to talk about new hope.  But again, I was misguided.

Each member of The Writ both old and new hoped to resurrect the site to its former glory and each, in their own way, and not for lack of passion or talent, failed.  No one wanted to pull the plug on the dying site, but no one had the medicine to fix it either.  The cure was passion and cash.  Both were present, but the site needed more of each than any individual could offer, and there was no group to resurrect it.

Finally, this spring, the failing infrastructure gave way and the site crashed beyond repair.  Now The Writ is tenuously held in thousands of pages of raw data, which we have in spreadsheets and word documents on our home computers.  It may not be feasible to send everyone copies of the work they had posted to the site, but we will do our best to return work to the individuals who ask for it.

If you want us to try to return your work, send me an email at writservice@gmail.com, and I will do all I can to get it back to you. If possible, please do this from the email address that your Writ account was associated with.

The Writ was a beautiful dream. Its time had come.

Sincerely,

Timothy Greenlaw
IPoS, TheWrit.org

You’re just a little teardrop-shaped, dangling lump of skin,

That hangs down at the back of my throat with no clear next of kin.

You sway a bit, both back and forth, when I breathe in and out,

Kind of like a punching bag before a boxing bout.

You get swept back when I ingest those rich and creamy sauces

And then get tossed the othe rway when I am feeling nauseous.

Despite those minor obstacles I’m envious, no doubt.

Because it seems your only job is simply to “hang out”.

Hey everybody!

It may not look like it, but the staff is hard at work behind the scenes on some major changes and updates, both technologically and organizationally!

Stay tuned for a big update in the coming weeks!

I’m a sucker for reality TV.

 I’d like to say I’m intellectually amazing all of the time, but the truth is that sometimes I grab a bag of chips and plop down in front of Rock of Love, or Top Chef, or MTV’s True Life. I draw the line at American Idol because that’s just way too much commitment for me. Top Chef has been one show that I continually tune into lately. These people have to be insane to cook gourmet food in a matter of minutes with all the restrictions the show puts on them. If someone gave me 10 minutes in a grocery store and $10 to put together a meal for a family of four I’m pretty sure I’d have a panic attack. The part of the show that I’m always really interested in is when the time is up and everyone mentions various things they would have done differently or tweaked in various ways. Writing is a lot like cooking in that it could always use a dash of salt or a minute more in the oven. There is always something in your writing that can be reexamined and made better with a little more time and effort. Fortunately for most of us, our creative writing is not on a timer and we have the opportunity (if we so choose) to edit our work and edit again and again and again. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve found a crumpled piece of paper or an old notebook with some poetry and thought, “Whoa! I could totally make this piece better!” So the next time you’re thinking about throwing that bit of poem/fiction/manuscript out the window, take a deep breath, pull out the salt, and season that writing!

some of us writoricians met up a few weekends ago to discuss the future of the writoracle as well as many other exciting thoughts we have in the works.

one item that was discussed was the idea to have members of thewrit.org community submit articles for publication in the same way that poetry/prose/fiction is submitted. this way we will be able to craft a very different publication every time. this is also another way that everyone in the community can participate to put together a really well rounded and diverse publication. if you don’t think we have enough articles about music-go ahead and write us an article! if that new poetry anthology that just came out isn’t your favorite-write a review! we are very open to all types of articles. if you’re worried about the possible content of your article please do not hesitate to send me an email (juliek@thewrit.org).

we will not be publishing an issue of thewritoracle until the new website is up and running and we do not have a definite time frame for the new website as of yet, but i encourage anyone who has written an article and would like it considered for our first publication on the new site to email me (juliek@thewrit.org) with your articles.

Charles Simic on Writing Poetry from the Library of Congress

**The internet is full of wonderful pieces of information. The Library of Congress website, kind of a square one of American Poetry, contains some interesting links, from Poetry Webcasts to the following petite list of suggestions from current Poet Laureate Charles Simic. I enjoy these not only for their simplicity, but for outlining the mentalities that surround crafting poems. Not quite as epic feeling as Letters to a Young Poet, but a good piece of perspective. Hope you like it — Jeremiah**

A few things to keep in mind while sitting down to write a poem:

1. Don’t tell the readers what they already know about life.
2. Don’t assume you’re the only one in the world who suffers.
3. Some of the greatest poems in the language are sonnets and poems not many lines longer than that, so don’t overwrite.
4. The use of images, similes and metaphors make poems concise. Close your eyes, and let your imagination tell you what to do.
5. Say the words you are writing aloud and let your ear decide what word comes next.
6. What you are writing down is a draft that will need additional tinkering, perhaps many months, and even years of tinkering.
7. Remember, a poem is a time machine you are constructing, a vehicle that will allow someone to travel in their own mind, so don’t be surprised if it takes a while to get all its engine parts properly working.