1. What is the Kingdom Writers list?
2. What are the requirements for membership?
3. What is allowed or not allowed on this list?
4. How is writing submitted for critique?
5. What are our guidelines for critiques?
6. How can we cope with critiques?
7. How do we protect copyrights?
9. How do we code our subject lines?
10. How does one subscribe or unsubscribe?
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1. What is the Kingdom Writers list?
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Kingdom Writers is an email critique group and
fellowship for Christian writers. These are writers who trust in
Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and desire to write for his
kingdom. Writing may be intended for either a Christian or
secular audience, as long as it is in harmony with the
traditional Christianity of The Holy Bible.
On this list, you may submit your work to other writers for
critique, and critique the works of others in return. You may
also initiate discussion on topics related to writing and the
writing life, or join in on discussions in progress. There are
both professional writers and beginners in this group. All are
welcome and encouraged to
participate.
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2. What are the requirements for membership?
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You do not have to be a published writer to join this Christian list, but you must have a willingness to learn and a desire to write for the glory of God.
All subscribers are required to submit a short biography before being added to the list. This will be stored in a fileof bios available to members of the group. This file can be obtained from the sysop.
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3. What is allowed or not allowed on this list?
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Generally, any type of fiction or non-fiction, short fiction, novel chapters, children's or young-adult writing, poetry, songs, articles, and so forth will be accepted for critique. The writer retains all copyrights and no writing may be copied or used without permission from the author.
We are called to be salt and light in the world. For this reason, we encourage secular writing as well as "Christian" writing. But all writing must come from a Christian perspective and belief in THE HOLY BIBLE as the inspired Word of God.
Submissions, critiques or discussion "pushing" or criticizing other religions may not be posted to the list.
This list is also for general discussion of the tribulations and trials of Christian writing (i.e.: "How do I overcome writer's block?"), encouragement, list-related announcements, market discussions, etc.
You may post short humor, quotations, short inspirational pieces or instructional material if it is related to writers or writing and does not violate a copyright. Please use good judgment here and do not post much of this when the volume of mail on the list is high.
Information about internet resources of interest to writers is always welcome.
You may not post anything containing profanity or explicit details of sex to the list. Any member who does this will be permanently removed from the list.
Flames, personal attacks, for-profit solicitations, chain letters, political or other types of advocacy, etc, will not be tolerated. All posts must be written with an attitude of love.
While advertising in general is not allowed, members may post information about books and other writing they have had published, including prices and availability.
Prayer requests may be posted, but remember this is not a prayer group. Please limit these to requests for yourself, your family, or close friends. And keep them brief.
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4. How is writing submitted for critique?
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All submissions for critique must have the code "SUB" at the beginning of the subject line, followed by another code indicating the type of writing. There will be more information about this later.
Please give every piece of writing a unique title. If your title is temporary, advise the list and ask for suggestions.
Your byline should appear under the title for prose, or beneath the bottom line for poetry.
Remember that email goes through many different networks and types of mailers, which means there are limits to what you may post.
General guidelines are:
Nothing more than 25K (about 4000 words) per post. (You may send it in parts, if you need to do so.)
Novels should not be posted in their entirety, but in manageable chunks of ONE chapter at a time. Allow the other members time to write their critiques on what you have submitted before submitting more.
Keep line length under 80 characters (actually, under 72 is nicer), and consistent. It is difficult to read text that wraps around, or has inconsistent line lengths.
DO NOT submit attached files. Not all mailers can receive them.
Convert your material to .TXT format. In most cases, the best procedure is to copy this to your clipboard and paste it into an email message for posting.
Post only standard 7-bit ASCII characters - no accented characters, no smart quotes, no italics or special formatting. Not all word processing software or mailers can translate the special keystrokes yours may use to produce special effects such as italics, underline, or bold type, so avoid using these when posting to the list. If you wish to indicate these sorts of effects, please use the following Internet conventions:
* Italics may be indicated by a single underline character marking the beginning and end of the section to be italicized.
Example: _Gone with the Wind_ is a book title.
* Accented characters are indicated with a backslash and letter-symbol pair, e\ to show the acute accent over the e.
Example: Re\sume\ is a word with two accents.
* You may wish to develop some other simple codes to indicate other effects, but please explain them at the beginning of your submission.
Text becomes harder to read written this way, so please keep it to a minimum, as we want people to concentrate on the contents of your writing, and not on the formatting.
Please polish your writing as much as possible and proofread it carefully before submitting it. Do not expect the critiquers to do what you can do for yourself. Some critters will not crit careless writing.
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5. What are our guidelines for critiques?
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We will not add any code to the subject line for critiques. To post a critique, simply respond to the submission with your respond command without changing anything in the subject line. This should be sufficient to identify a critique or comment and will enable mailers to group crits with the subs they critique.
Critiquing is not easy. Be honest but kind and loving in your critique. Statements like, "That's nice" or "That's beautiful" are of little help. Tell what you like about it, and suggest changes in what you do not like about it. Please, don't use the word "should" or "change this, change that." Merely SUGGEST changes.
Be careful about respecting the writer's voice when you offer a critique. Please don't rewrite the piece or put words in the writer's mouth. Point out weaknesses and make suggestions, but don't try to make the writing sound like your own.
Some general principles:
* Read the writing, giving attention to what you like and what you do not like about it. Are you interested, incredulous, bored? Is it hard or easy to read?
* Carefully think about your response before writing your critique. If you did not like something about it, what didn't you like? If it was hard to read, why? Were the sentences poorly constructed, was the plot unclear, or what?
* Now, write your comments as honestly as possible in a loving, positive manner that will be helpful and encouraging to the author. Remember, you are critiquing the writing, not the author. Perhaps the author conveyed his or her intentions poorly, so take this into consideration.
* Proofread your critique before sending it in. Are your phrases too harsh? Perhaps you might make the same point more lovingly and gently. An author is more likely to listen when approached in this way. Be careful not to be so flattering that you fail to make your point either. Try to mention the writing's good points.
Be careful about your own syntax and spelling; not only will a poorly written critique be less effective, but it will lose its credibility.
* We ask you to write your critique before reading other critiques on the same writing, so that you may give your own honest impressions.
Please, be honest, but also gracious in your critiques. Harsh or blunt critiques can discourage a new writer. Let's give beginners space to grow. If you see many flaws, why not point out a few that will help the writer learn without being overwhelmed with too much at once?
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6. How can we cope with critiques?
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Receiving critiques is not easy for anyone. There is no fun in having people point out the problems in our carefully written work. Please, try to see critiques of your work as caring people helping you make your work even better than it is. Often, someone else can more easily see why a certain sentence or word does not work in your writing. Give careful consideration to critiques you receive and remember to thank the person for his or her time in helping you. Please, send your thank you notes PRIVATELY, not to the list.
Do not "flame" or argue with a critiquer. If you do not agree with what the person said, merely disregard that statement or critique. If you do not understand what the critiquer said, then ask that person in private email to please explain his or her statement. If you receive a flame from anyone, please tell the sysops about it.
DO NOT engage in public arguments on the list. If you attack those who critique your work, you will find that few or no one will be willing to help you after a while. Time is valuable to people, so try to remember that your critiquers are spending their time to help you.
Also, it is not productive to attempt to explain your work or justify it. Your writing must stand on its own once you post it to the list. Remember, you cannot go out in public and explain it to everyone who might read it, can you? Make your writing clear.
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7. How do we protect copyrights?
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Writings posted here are automatically protected by copyright. Under international law, all material is copyrighted as soon as it is written down, and the copyright remains with the author until it expires (usually after the author expires). In protection of publication rights, a writer may offer a writing to the list and send it only to those who request it, thereby retaining control over the distribution. All original writing posted to this list must bear the author's name and may be quoted by other members on the list ONLY for the purpose of critique.
Members may not make copies of any submission to share with others. If you violate the rights of an author you will be removed from the list.
Writings are posted only for the purpose of critiquing and must be deleted from your computer after you have finished your critique on them.
Please do not ask for copies of any submission for your church bulletin, newsletter, or any other worthy cause you may have. This may deprive the writer of the right to sell first rights to a paying publication. If you are looking for material for such things, post a message to the list telling what you need and let the members voluntarily send you things.
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Send all posts for the list to: KingdomWriters@egroups.com
All submissions for critique must be posted to the list with the code "SUB" in the subject line, followed by an additional code indicating the type of writing.
All critiques must be posted to the list. Do not post critiques privately to the writer.
Please do not ask specific individuals for private critiques. This makes unfair demands on one person's time and is not fair to the rest of the list.
Post thanks for critiques privately and not to the list.
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9. How do we code our subject lines?
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All active writers feel pressed for time. As the Kingdom Writers list grows, the volume of mail will grow with it. To keep this list a help rather than a hindrance to your writing, we use a coding system in the subject line. When you have your mailer sort by subject, you will immediately see the benefits of this system. This should help everyone deal with a large volume of mail quickly and effectively.
*1. Codes for Submissions: All submissions for critique should use the code "KW: SUB" followed by an additional code to indicate the type of writing submitted. They should follow this format:
Your post may look something like this:
Suggested Types:
You do not have to memorize this list of codes. Any recognizable code will be acceptable.
*2. Codes for Critiques: The subject line for a critique should be identical to the subject line of the submission it critiques, with an added "Re:" at the beginning. Your mailer will add this code for you when you use the Reply command. "Re:" before "SUB" should be enough to identify a critique or comment on a sub.
A critique post may look something like this:
*3. Codes for Other Posts: All other posts should use a category code and a short descriptive title. They should follow this format:
Suggested Categories:
That is not an exhaustive list, and again, you do not have to memorize it. Any recognizable code will be acceptable. In addition to this, please make your title an accurate description of the contents of the post.
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10. How does one subscribe or unsubscribe?
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Note that automatic subscription is not allowed for this list. The request will be passed on to the administrators, who will provide the applicant with further information on the list and on how to join.
To subscribe, send a blank email message to KingdomWriters-subscribe@egroups.com
To unsubscribe, send a blank email message to KingdomWriters-unsubscribe@egroups.com
If too many messages to you bounce (return undelivered), you will be unsubscribed until the problem is resolved. If this happens, you may resub as shown above, or simply write to the administrators.
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If you have any questions, write to the administrators.
God bless you as you write for His kingdom.
Sue Hoover
szanne@sprynet.com or sueh@juno.comMarilyn Phemister
marilyp@larned.com================================================
KINGDOM WRITERS -- For Christ and His Kingdom
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Our thanks to the Internet Writing Workshop for
ideas and portions from
their FAQ used in the construction of our own. You will
find their site at:
(http://www.manistee.com/~lkraus/workshop/index.html)
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