Today’s plans:
- Some Twitter stuff
- The Proposal
- Show me some research
I want to make sure everyone has their accounts set up. I’ll ask you all to favorite a particular post, and then to follow everyone who has favorited that post. That way, we will all be following each other and will be able to see what everyone else posts.
The Proposal Project
Some nuts and bolts:
- The proposal should be 500-750 words
- The proposal should be draft in Google Docs and shared with me (insignificantwrangler at gmail dot com)
- The title field of the proposal should include your last name. Example: Santos: Fantasy Football
- The proposal should have three major sections: Project Description, Project Research, and Production Schedule
- The Proposal is due Saturday, Sept. 5th at 11:59am. That’s noon people. I have to read all of these things by Tuesday’s class.
I want the proposal to have three basic sections. Each section should have its own heading. The first section should be a Project Description. In a few paragraphs, this section should give me an idea of what you want to write about this semester: the general topic, the people who are interested, your background in the topic, your expectations, etc. The second section should be Project Research. This section should give me concrete specifics about the community. Who are the important people writing on this subject? And/or, where are the important places people write about this subject? Make it clear what places you will be reading for ideas.LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CLEAR: NO MATTER WHAT THE SUBJECT, WRITING REQUIRES READING. WRITING IS RESPONSIVE. I DO NOT WANT TO READ ANYTHING THAT ISN’T A RESPONSE TO A SPECIFIC PIECE OF WRITING NO MATTER WHAT YOUR SUBJECT. This is also the section that should make clear where you plan to write.
Some ideas:
- I’ve mentioned medium.com a few times in class. Medium is a publishing platform and writerly community. You can use the search field and the tags to find topics and conversations. Also, you can comment on articles Perhaps your proposal could include writing a longer essays on medium.com. You need to write 750 words a week, but in your Production Schedule you might indicate that you will take two weeks to publish a 1500 word essay on medium. If you are completely struggling for a topic, then you might want to specialize and simply follow a particular tag on medium–writing comments and response essays.
- Another place for writing and community would be Reddit.com. Reddit has pre-established communities, though there isn’t set rules for writing in those communities (many are built around short posts, not longer pieces of writing). There are other spaces on the net too. Again, if you are struggling for a topic, then maybe you want to join metafilter, an old internet community in which smart people share interesting stuff. Or maybe you want to join slash.dot, a technology centric forum site to discuss a range of topics. And, of course, there’s also specific media sites, like espn.com forums or SBnation. Are you an avid reader? Then maybe Goodreads.com?
- Podcasts. Because sometimes you want to listen to something and then write a response. Also, many popular podcasts have user forums. Check the iTunes store.
- Instagram. When I was planning this site, I came across a really interesting Instagram account: carolinecalloway. Calloway has been writing an autobiography via photos and stories on Instagram. This is a bit of a different kind of project, since you wouldn’t be joining a community as much as trying to make one. But I could see a project in which every week you posted an image to instagram with 300+ words of writing. If all the images shared a common theme, then I think you would have a cool project. And I could see this working for SO many different kind of projects. Imagine if you made this all about comic books. Or imagine if you made this about Black Lives Matter. Or imagine if you made this about… One image. 400 words. A couple tags. Every week.
- Twitter. Finally as you narrow down your proposal, you should identify 3-5 things on twitter that you can follow. This is both to find material to read (ideas) and to help broadcast your work and build an audience.
The final component of the proposal is your Production Schedule. This can be developed as a list or a table–but it should give me a week by week plan for what you might write. You should at least cover weeks 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Give me a sense of what you imagine you will be doing. Do you want to do 3 weeks of short writing and then one long piece on medium? Do you have an idea for a longer post/question you might make on reddit? Perhaps you want to spend a week telling a story about why you care about your topic? Perhaps you want to spend 3 week writing a 2000 word guide for people who are new to the activity, which you can then post to a bunch of different spaces in hopes of gaining feedback? Do you want to read a book on your subject and post a review to amazon.com? Are you going to try and write a post that asks other people what you might read?
Remember, as you imagine what you might do, that I expect you to be reading every week. It is very difficult to get above a C in this class if you don’t read, even if you are a talented and fluid writer.
A Final Thought
Let me reiterate my original idea for how this class works:
- You find a community and write with people. WITH PEOPLE. Weeks 3-12.
- We read two books about fan communities–how they form, operate, etc.
- You write a final paper (weeks 12-16), probably 7 to 10 pages in length, that compares your experiences in a community to those theorized in the books.
But, let me be CLEAR, you have complete freedom to not do this. You have to write online for ten weeks. You have to read two books on fandom. But your final paper doesn’t have to compare your online writing experience to the books. You can do any kind of project you want, and at the end of the year we can figure out what your final paper should be.
My primary concern is that you do something that interests you.
