One Small Step

false Finally, FieldReport is back up for general use--a small step at least, and we can put a little of our anguish behind us. During the past month, we've rewritten FieldReport's database code to make the site much faster. We've also simplified the WRITE process, and we hope our members can start to have fun with us again. Though we've got the site back up, it will still be a while before our "official relaunch," and we hope you'll give us your support and patience so that we can do it right. Here are some of the hurdles we have to clear before we are fully up and can announce dates for the resumption of our contests: 1. We are committed to using some of our experience of the last 8 months to take our ranking engine up a level before we relaunch. 2. We are yet again rewriting our submission agreement to make it even better for our authors. Upon our relaunch, we want to make sure that our submission agreement does not stand in the way of anyone's using the site. 3. Finally, there is no denying that we have lost some momentum through our recent service outage. We want to make sure that our relaunch is planned and timed to give FieldReport--and the community we're building here--a fair chance of success going forward. We are committing to our members that the resumption of our contests will be announced within this year. Actual contest dates will be announced in a letter to our members upon our official relaunch. Feel free to keep checking our blog for reports of our progress. Best, Will

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2009-01-22T14:39:58-08:00

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2009-01-22

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This FR Blog post contributed by Will

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One Small Step

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2009-05-07T00:56:17-07:00

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false <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;"> “I write for myself and strangers.” Gertrude Stein</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;">I was reading a magazine and came across an ad for Field Report. Two thousand words, a true story, the possibility of a cash prize. A part of me said, “if it feels too good to be true…” but I logged on anyway. What I found was a whole that was far more interesting than the sum of its parts—a range of voices on every possible topic and writers from everywhere who did not know each another. They are writing for themselves and strangers.</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;">I read, and read and read; about crises, faith, failed and failing marriages, blooming relationships, dark nights of the soul, leaving home and coming back to it. I read until I got the courage to post my own story, and some time later, read the comments of my fellow writers, who “got” where I was going and wanted to help me get there.</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;">Which brings me to Gertrude Stein. She knew that while writers tend to be a pretty reclusive lot, we are always looking for connections—to our pasts, dreams, to others who see the world as we do and more especially to those who don’t. We shut ourselves into dark rooms on bright days to find common ground with the world as we know it, even when that world shuts its eyes and ears to us. And we do it again and again and again, because we know that writing matters, and that good writing is serious business. And I think the founders of Field Report know this, too.</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;">Because Field Report is something more than a contest. It is a community of writers, once strangers, maybe, but now colleagues who support, read, and perceive each other. I am honored to be among them.</div>

2008-11-21T08:53:12-08:00

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2008-11-07T08:46:36-08:00

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2009-02-27

1978

2008-11-07T08:46:36-08:00

This FR Blog post contributed by JenZark

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“I write for myself and strangers."

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2009-05-07T00:56:14-07:00

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false As with most American families, we've had to cut back on our spending, watch the grocery list carefully, and limit our gas consumption. For someone who loves shopping the sales and putting together outfits, the changes meant being more practical. I had resigned myself to my new budget, grudgingly I'll admit. I passed store windows and dreamed. I cleared all debit card numbers from my favorite store accounts so I wouldn't be tempted to do impulsive online shopping. So when I heard I was one of the October winners of FieldReport and could be expecting a $1000 check, I passed it over to my husband to put into our emergency account. To my surprise and delight, he passed it right back. "You earned this," he said. "Go out and have some fun." I did have some fun. I bought some Christmas presents, but I also splurged on a new winter coat and some new jeans. I treated my best friend with a nice lunch at her favorite restaurant. I got a badly needed haircut. It really does seem like Christmas this year. Thanks FieldReport!

2008-11-15T12:13:12-08:00

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2008-11-01T11:56:23-07:00

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2008-11-01T11:56:23-07:00

This FR Blog post contributed by BamaKathy.

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Seems Like Christmas

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2009-05-07T00:56:12-07:00

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false Every day, I hear from writers who tell me that in just a few weeks on FieldReport they've learned lessons about their writing that might have taken years otherwise. I'm sure this is because we're all reviewers in this community as well as writers. When we look at other people's work, its much easier to see the warts than it is to see them in our own precious creations. And having seen a wart on someone else, we have to admit that it would look just as bad on us as it does on them. Each time we come to a conclusion about how someone else's writing could be better, we're becoming better writers ourselves. So I'd like to share with you some of the big conclusions I've come to about writing as I've immersed myself in this site over the past few months, noticing what does, and does not, make a great fieldreport: 1. Good thinking equals good writing. I've noticed that some people get caught up in the idea of being "writers" and forget to think clear thoughts. It's not about your wonderful vocabulary or your god-like use of complex grammatical structures--good writing is simply about thinking clear thoughts and getting them on paper, so that your reader can experience those thoughts as clearly as you did. 2. Don't tell me; show me. Readers want to experience for themselves what you are writing about. It's the little things that bring your reader viscerally into a moment in time and give your story life. 3. Stories are about feelings, not events. It doesn't matter how amazing the events of your story are, what matters is that the reader feels them the way you did, and changes the way you changed. 4. Don't be afraid to let your personality shine through. If I get to choose between a highly polished but voiceless story, or a rough story that's full of personality, I'll choose the personality every time, and I'll bet you do too. Actually, when I look back at these, I think they could all be boiled down into a single maxim: "If your story has a heart, it doesn't really need fancy clothes." I guess that makes writing just about like almost everything else in life.

2008-10-04T17:03:26-07:00

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2008-09-20T16:57:55-07:00

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2008-09-19

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2008-09-20T16:57:55-07:00

I'd like to share with you some of the big conclusions I've come to about writing as I've immersed myself in this site over the past few months

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What makes a great FieldReport?

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2009-05-07T00:56:07-07:00

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false It's mid-morning and I'm sitting in Mel's on Lombard Street. I generally write best in solitude, but over the years I've found that slightly scruffy diners work almost as well--probably because the experience of sitting alone with a laptop here occupies a special rung on the ladder of social unease: just embarrassing enough to focus the mind inward, but not so embarrassing that it has to distract. And sometimes it just feels good to have a background of human company while writing--especially the kind that would never interrupt except to ask if I want more Coke. To understand FieldReport, you have to know that it didn't start out as a contest site; it actually started out as a site for sharing true life stories and a new kind of quality ranking system that would be fairer than any other on the web. We decided early on that our highest values would be those of fairness and human-connection. The contest came later, when we realized it would make an exciting driver for our system. But the contest is not why we are here, and our original values--fairness and human connection--are still the ones that inspire us to get out of bed each morning. When we look at FieldReport's future, this is what I hope we will see: 1. A place where great writers and story-tellers can become widely recognized for their gifts, without having to write a novel, and without having to endure years of snail-mail rejection letters. 2. A way of organizing the blogosphere, so that any great blog post can find a large audience, independent of the writer's self-promotional abilities. 3. A great form of entertainment, that makes the pleasures of writing and reading more accessible to a mainstream audience. 4. An encyclopedia of human experience, where the experiences of others can help us come to grips with our own lives. 5. A safe place where we can anonymously share some of the more confusing aspects of our lives, and find support from others in the same boat. 6. An ultimate archive of our members' journeys on this earth, the place where they keep the stories of their lives for posterity. 7. A new way of publishing, in which a community of enthusiastic and impartial readers functions as both publisher and marketplace for an authors' work. I'm looking forward to writing more of these posts, in which I'll talk about each of the above parts of our vision individually. I'd also like to hear from our members. If you're curious about something and would like to read a discussion of it in the FieldReport Blog, please write to me, williampetty@FieldReport.com. Will (the CEO)

2008-09-12T21:31:18-07:00

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2008-08-29T21:21:22-07:00

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2008-08-29

1978

2008-08-29T21:21:23-07:00

To understand FieldReport, you have to know that it didn't start out as a contest site

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Sitting in Mel's

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2009-05-07T00:56:05-07:00

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