Hi guys,
Sorry it's been a while since my last post; I've been spending my time out and about trying to drum up some publicity for I want a word, as well as working on another project (which you'll hear more about in due course).
So, the publicity. Just over a week ago I wrote to a reporter at the BBC news website. Basically, she had posted a message saying that she was looking for stories and anyone with anything interesting to tell should get in touch. And it was good news - she seemed really keen on I want a word, interviewing me over the phone and asking me to send her my picture. All good. Then, a few days later she wrote back to inform me that the article was not going to be published - the reason being that I am asking people to pay for their words.
Now, I understand that the BBC is non-commercial and I can respect that. What's annoying is that this rule is applied inconsistently. There have been loads of articles about the new Harry Potter book on the BBC news website over the last few weeks. You can, for example, read one here. Or here. Or here. And it's not like those books are being given away for free!
Most annoying of all was when I found an article at the weekend about a project called MyFootballClub (you can read the article here). This is a community website where the organisers are looking for people to sign up and pay £35. All the money is then pooled and used to buy a football club, and all of the members who have signed up will be able to vote on the running of the club - everything from transfers to formations. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a fantastic idea and I am seriously considering taking part myself! What's annoying is that this scheme, which I don't think is so much different from my own, has been given space on the BBC website, with all the exposure that goes with it, while my own has effectively been barred. I am, to say the least, disappointed.
Still, the work goes on and I will most definitely live to fight another day! It's back to the drawing board for the moment, but I hope to come up with a few more ideas in the not-too-distant future.
Take care,
Chris
www.iwantaword.com
Monday, 6 August 2007
Friday, 20 July 2007
On A Wing and a Chair
Hi Guys,
How's everything going?
Things here at I want a word have been going quite slowly recently, certainly more slowly than I would have liked. The major problem, I think, is that all of the initial publicity for the site seems to have dried up. So, I'm currently exploring a few new methods for generating some interest in the site. Hopefully they'll pay off, but I guess we'll have to wait and see...
In the meantime, I have just posted a new piece of travel writing on the "My Writing" page of www.iwantaword.com. It's about a very strange night out that I had in Oxford a few years ago - very much a "once in a lifetime" experience. As well as posting my article on the site, I thought I would post it here. It's down below the end of this message and I'd love to know what you all think of it.
Take care, and I hope you enjoy the article.
Chris
www.iwantaword.com
It’s a strange place, Oxford: full of weird and wonderful traditions that would, in any other city, have been consigned to history long ago. People can’t believe it when I tell them of the students hurrying to their exams in ‘sub fusc,’ the oddly archaic uniform of the university that includes a mortar board, a black gown and a white bow tie. But it’s true, and it’s so common that, somehow, I no longer think it strange, or really even notice it at all. Nor do I notice the bells that chime according to Oxford time (five minutes behind London time) or the bowler hat wearing bulldogs that stand guard outside Christ Church College.
There are still plenty of strange traditions that do surprise me though. Plenty that baffle me, confuse me, or just make me wonder ‘why?’ Unusual events, interspersed among the everyday traditions, that familiarity has not yet made normal. On Ascension Day of each year, for example, students stand on the roof of Lincoln College, throwing heated pennies onto the lawn below for local children to collect. The pennies are heated to teach the children a valuable lesson about greed; the children seem to have learnt a rather different lesson and nowadays attend wearing thick gloves. On the very same day, students from neighbouring Brasenose College are granted free access, and free beer, by Lincoln College as reparation for an occasion when they refused to open their gates to a fleeing Brasenose student, who was subsequently killed by an angry mob of townspeople.
Bizarre as these ceremonies may be, and even accounting for the fact that they are but a few of Oxford’s many eccentric events, the one we’re waiting for now must surely be the most surreal of all. It’s a freezing cold night in the middle of January and the small group of students jockeying for position around the gates in hope of a better view might just as easily be huddling together for warmth. We’ve been here for hours already: nobody really knows what’s going to happen or when, but still we wait. A few people suggest going home, but nobody does. There’s no way we could leave now: we’ve waited too long for this. In fact, we’ve waited a hundred years. Well, we haven’t waited that long, obviously, but it was a hundred years ago to the day, on 14th January 1901, that Oxford last bore witness to this particular celebration.
Our setting, in Radcliffe Square, outside the gates of All Souls College, must be one of the most beautiful in the world. The soft, warm curves of the Radcliffe Camera rise from the ground behind us, the yellow limestone glowing where it meets the fuzzy spheres of light surrounding the antique, cast-iron lampposts. In front of us the intricately carved towers of All Souls extend languidly to the sky, perhaps the most glorious of all of those famous dreaming spires. Spectacular as it may be, however, the beauty of the location is, for tonight at least, of little concern to those of us waiting outside the gate. Ignoring our surroundings we strain to see through the intricate black metalwork and into the quad, the immaculate grass square at the centre of the college’s finest architectural achievements, where eventually the fellows of All Souls will emerge from their fourteen course dinner to begin the ceremony. It doesn’t help that the college have decided to erect a large board in front of the gates to keep out most of the prying eyes.
But then suddenly, without explanation, the board is removed and our view is extended. We hear a noise and everybody peers yet more intently into the gloomy darkness on the other side of the gate. There’s no sign of any movement on the rough stone slabs that pave the cloisters, but the noise grows steadily louder, and more melodious; although we can make out none of the words, it is singing that we can hear. We wait, staring resolutely through the gates and into the darkened college, as the sound of the singing grows louder. Flaming torches appear, drawing slowly closer to the gate as the singing gets still louder. Slowly, steadily the disembodied orange orbs bob gently along the darkened path until, after what seems like an age, the torches finally pass by the gate at which we stand, their flickering light illuminating their bearers and the sight that we have all come to see: a man bearing a wooden duck atop a tall stick, pursued by a man held aloft in a sedan chair, who is in turn pursued by all of the remaining fellows of the college, their long, black gowns dusting the stone floor as they repeat their single song. This is it, the highlight of “Mallard Night”.
The precise reasons for this ornithological obsession have been lost to time, but it is said that when builders were digging the foundations for the college, sometime around 1437, they freed a mallard that had been trapped underground for many years. It is the search for this fabled mallard, led by the Lord Mallard on his sedan chair, that is the purpose of the current procession.
In what seems like a flash, the slow moving procession has passed and the singing begins to fade once more.
“Is that it?” A voice from the crowd murmurs, sounding somewhat disappointed.
“I think it might be,” replies another.
But nobody moves. We’ve been here so long that it seems worth waiting, just in case; after all, the torches are still moving and the song still drifts gently over the quadrangle. Deep down we all reluctantly acknowledge that the debauchery of previous years has probably passed - we don’t expect to see forty fellows marching along the roof of the library as they did in 1801 - but surely this event that has been one hundred years in the planning has a little more life in it.
Gradually silence falls over the college again; darkness returns where the torches briefly shone and people begin to discuss leaving more seriously. But still there is a lingering doubt amongst most of the crowd. Imagine the disappointment, to have waited for several hours in the freezing cold only to leave early and miss part of a ceremony that will not happen again for another hundred years. We stay where we are. Suddenly, as we continue to stand uncertainly in the dark, gazing hopefully through that gate, there’s a shout from the other side of the square.
“They’re on the tower,” the anonymous voice exclaims through the darkness.
We look up to the skies and sure enough, high above us, there is the telltale flickering light. For the past few hours people have jealously jostled for their position, edging and elbowing their way as close to the gate as possible, but in a moment, all is forgotten. Everyone at the gate breaks from their hard fought berth beneath the tall college walls and sprints across the cobbled square for a better view of the tower. A small group of figures stands at its summit: their robes flap gently in the breeze; their faces glow eerily in the torchlight, and they begin to belt out their song, louder now than ever before. By now, we have heard the chorus enough times that we can begin to discern what they are saying:
“Hough the bloud of King Edward,
by ye bloud of King Edward,
It was a swapping, swapping mallard!”
As the final chorus draws to a close, this strange collection of flickering flames, robes and mallards says its final goodbye to 21st century Oxford and fireworks begin to burst overhead. Flashes of coloured light bathe the square and everyone seems happy to accept that this must be the true end to the ceremony. It doesn’t matter that the words to the song make no sense. After all, in the finest of Oxonian traditions, nothing about this evening really makes sense.
How's everything going?
Things here at I want a word have been going quite slowly recently, certainly more slowly than I would have liked. The major problem, I think, is that all of the initial publicity for the site seems to have dried up. So, I'm currently exploring a few new methods for generating some interest in the site. Hopefully they'll pay off, but I guess we'll have to wait and see...
In the meantime, I have just posted a new piece of travel writing on the "My Writing" page of www.iwantaword.com. It's about a very strange night out that I had in Oxford a few years ago - very much a "once in a lifetime" experience. As well as posting my article on the site, I thought I would post it here. It's down below the end of this message and I'd love to know what you all think of it.
Take care, and I hope you enjoy the article.
Chris
www.iwantaword.com
On a Wing and a Chair
It’s a strange place, Oxford: full of weird and wonderful traditions that would, in any other city, have been consigned to history long ago. People can’t believe it when I tell them of the students hurrying to their exams in ‘sub fusc,’ the oddly archaic uniform of the university that includes a mortar board, a black gown and a white bow tie. But it’s true, and it’s so common that, somehow, I no longer think it strange, or really even notice it at all. Nor do I notice the bells that chime according to Oxford time (five minutes behind London time) or the bowler hat wearing bulldogs that stand guard outside Christ Church College.
There are still plenty of strange traditions that do surprise me though. Plenty that baffle me, confuse me, or just make me wonder ‘why?’ Unusual events, interspersed among the everyday traditions, that familiarity has not yet made normal. On Ascension Day of each year, for example, students stand on the roof of Lincoln College, throwing heated pennies onto the lawn below for local children to collect. The pennies are heated to teach the children a valuable lesson about greed; the children seem to have learnt a rather different lesson and nowadays attend wearing thick gloves. On the very same day, students from neighbouring Brasenose College are granted free access, and free beer, by Lincoln College as reparation for an occasion when they refused to open their gates to a fleeing Brasenose student, who was subsequently killed by an angry mob of townspeople.
Bizarre as these ceremonies may be, and even accounting for the fact that they are but a few of Oxford’s many eccentric events, the one we’re waiting for now must surely be the most surreal of all. It’s a freezing cold night in the middle of January and the small group of students jockeying for position around the gates in hope of a better view might just as easily be huddling together for warmth. We’ve been here for hours already: nobody really knows what’s going to happen or when, but still we wait. A few people suggest going home, but nobody does. There’s no way we could leave now: we’ve waited too long for this. In fact, we’ve waited a hundred years. Well, we haven’t waited that long, obviously, but it was a hundred years ago to the day, on 14th January 1901, that Oxford last bore witness to this particular celebration.
Our setting, in Radcliffe Square, outside the gates of All Souls College, must be one of the most beautiful in the world. The soft, warm curves of the Radcliffe Camera rise from the ground behind us, the yellow limestone glowing where it meets the fuzzy spheres of light surrounding the antique, cast-iron lampposts. In front of us the intricately carved towers of All Souls extend languidly to the sky, perhaps the most glorious of all of those famous dreaming spires. Spectacular as it may be, however, the beauty of the location is, for tonight at least, of little concern to those of us waiting outside the gate. Ignoring our surroundings we strain to see through the intricate black metalwork and into the quad, the immaculate grass square at the centre of the college’s finest architectural achievements, where eventually the fellows of All Souls will emerge from their fourteen course dinner to begin the ceremony. It doesn’t help that the college have decided to erect a large board in front of the gates to keep out most of the prying eyes.
But then suddenly, without explanation, the board is removed and our view is extended. We hear a noise and everybody peers yet more intently into the gloomy darkness on the other side of the gate. There’s no sign of any movement on the rough stone slabs that pave the cloisters, but the noise grows steadily louder, and more melodious; although we can make out none of the words, it is singing that we can hear. We wait, staring resolutely through the gates and into the darkened college, as the sound of the singing grows louder. Flaming torches appear, drawing slowly closer to the gate as the singing gets still louder. Slowly, steadily the disembodied orange orbs bob gently along the darkened path until, after what seems like an age, the torches finally pass by the gate at which we stand, their flickering light illuminating their bearers and the sight that we have all come to see: a man bearing a wooden duck atop a tall stick, pursued by a man held aloft in a sedan chair, who is in turn pursued by all of the remaining fellows of the college, their long, black gowns dusting the stone floor as they repeat their single song. This is it, the highlight of “Mallard Night”.
The precise reasons for this ornithological obsession have been lost to time, but it is said that when builders were digging the foundations for the college, sometime around 1437, they freed a mallard that had been trapped underground for many years. It is the search for this fabled mallard, led by the Lord Mallard on his sedan chair, that is the purpose of the current procession.
In what seems like a flash, the slow moving procession has passed and the singing begins to fade once more.
“Is that it?” A voice from the crowd murmurs, sounding somewhat disappointed.
“I think it might be,” replies another.
But nobody moves. We’ve been here so long that it seems worth waiting, just in case; after all, the torches are still moving and the song still drifts gently over the quadrangle. Deep down we all reluctantly acknowledge that the debauchery of previous years has probably passed - we don’t expect to see forty fellows marching along the roof of the library as they did in 1801 - but surely this event that has been one hundred years in the planning has a little more life in it.
Gradually silence falls over the college again; darkness returns where the torches briefly shone and people begin to discuss leaving more seriously. But still there is a lingering doubt amongst most of the crowd. Imagine the disappointment, to have waited for several hours in the freezing cold only to leave early and miss part of a ceremony that will not happen again for another hundred years. We stay where we are. Suddenly, as we continue to stand uncertainly in the dark, gazing hopefully through that gate, there’s a shout from the other side of the square.
“They’re on the tower,” the anonymous voice exclaims through the darkness.
We look up to the skies and sure enough, high above us, there is the telltale flickering light. For the past few hours people have jealously jostled for their position, edging and elbowing their way as close to the gate as possible, but in a moment, all is forgotten. Everyone at the gate breaks from their hard fought berth beneath the tall college walls and sprints across the cobbled square for a better view of the tower. A small group of figures stands at its summit: their robes flap gently in the breeze; their faces glow eerily in the torchlight, and they begin to belt out their song, louder now than ever before. By now, we have heard the chorus enough times that we can begin to discern what they are saying:
“Hough the bloud of King Edward,
by ye bloud of King Edward,
It was a swapping, swapping mallard!”
As the final chorus draws to a close, this strange collection of flickering flames, robes and mallards says its final goodbye to 21st century Oxford and fireworks begin to burst overhead. Flashes of coloured light bathe the square and everyone seems happy to accept that this must be the true end to the ceremony. It doesn’t matter that the words to the song make no sense. After all, in the finest of Oxonian traditions, nothing about this evening really makes sense.
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Buying Time
The internet really is an amazing place. There's new ideas and new experiments starting all the time, some of which you've heard about on this blog. Yesterday afternoon I was reading a magazine and stumbled across another of these curious ideas. It's not based around writing, but it was so intriguing that I thought I would write a bit about it anyway: an internet entrepreneur is selling time.
Now, I don't know to much about the project at the moment as the website isn't yet live, so all the info I've got is based on the magazine article I read. Anyway, Thomas Whitfield is allowing people to buy time at $1 per minute through a website called "design the time". The idea is then that people can use their minute to upload contact about what they were doing at that time. So, for example, you could buy a minute during your wedding and upload your wedding photos, or whatever.
Sounds interesting? I think so. Will it be a success? I don't know - it's hard to say without a few more details. However, there are some people who certainly think so. With this idea, Thomas won the "Idea Idol" competition within the University of Oxford. The prize? Unlimited access to a $100 million dollar fund to develop his idea!
Wow, with that kind of backing you'd expect Thomas to be able to do some pretty big things, and the fact that I'm already reading a magazine article about the project suggests that it's going to have no trouble generating publicity. In fact, I've already seen the site listed among the top 25 UK web startups, before it's even launched.
On the one hand, I'm pleased for Thomas. I know how difficult it is to get a project up and running, and I wish him every success with it. On the other hand though, I'm a bit gutted. I don't think the idea behind "design the time" is really any better than that behind "I want a word" but it's already getting a lot more publicity, and with $100 million of backing it's hard to see how it can fail.
I guess I'm just jealous really! But I'm trying not to let it get me down: I'm going to keep plugging away with my own project, and hopefully I too will eventually be able to generate a similar level of interest. Keep checking the blog to find out if it happens!
Take care,
Chris
I want a word
Now, I don't know to much about the project at the moment as the website isn't yet live, so all the info I've got is based on the magazine article I read. Anyway, Thomas Whitfield is allowing people to buy time at $1 per minute through a website called "design the time". The idea is then that people can use their minute to upload contact about what they were doing at that time. So, for example, you could buy a minute during your wedding and upload your wedding photos, or whatever.
Sounds interesting? I think so. Will it be a success? I don't know - it's hard to say without a few more details. However, there are some people who certainly think so. With this idea, Thomas won the "Idea Idol" competition within the University of Oxford. The prize? Unlimited access to a $100 million dollar fund to develop his idea!
Wow, with that kind of backing you'd expect Thomas to be able to do some pretty big things, and the fact that I'm already reading a magazine article about the project suggests that it's going to have no trouble generating publicity. In fact, I've already seen the site listed among the top 25 UK web startups, before it's even launched.
On the one hand, I'm pleased for Thomas. I know how difficult it is to get a project up and running, and I wish him every success with it. On the other hand though, I'm a bit gutted. I don't think the idea behind "design the time" is really any better than that behind "I want a word" but it's already getting a lot more publicity, and with $100 million of backing it's hard to see how it can fail.
I guess I'm just jealous really! But I'm trying not to let it get me down: I'm going to keep plugging away with my own project, and hopefully I too will eventually be able to generate a similar level of interest. Keep checking the blog to find out if it happens!
Take care,
Chris
I want a word
Friday, 29 June 2007
Fame! (Well, kind of)
Hi Guys,
How's it going? Things here at "I want a word" are pretty good - the words are still coming in, slowly but surely, and I'm now up to a grand total of 46. That still may not sound that impressive, and I know that there's a long way to go, but I'm pretty chuffed just to have made it this far.
I'm pleased to say that there have been a few developments since my last blog entry. Last Sunday I was featured in the Sunday Post, a Scottish national newspaper, which was pretty exciting. I'd been interviewed by their reporter about six weeks earlier, so was starting to give up hope of the article ever appearing in the paper, but there it was. It was a bit tucked away, on page 64, but I was still quite pleased, and relieved that the picture wasn't too bad! Unfortunately the Sunday Post website isn't really that great, and only features about 5 news stories per week. As mine was on page 64, you probably won't be surprised to hear that it didn't make it onto the website...
"I want a word" did make another appearance on the web this week though - on the biblioatry blog, run by my myspace friend "bibliolatrist". She gave a nice little summary of the project, as well as some other interesting reading/writing info, so I'd thoroughly recommend that you check out her blog!
And as if that wasn't enough for one week, I discovered that "I want a word" actually received a mention in a podcast. Mark Putnam, the coordinator of the plotastic project, did an interview with "The Writing Show", and gave me a mention, which was nice. Or at least I hope it was. Owing to the rather low-tech nature of "I want a word" HQ I haven't actually been able to listen to the mp3 recording of the interview. If anyone else is interested, you can download it here, and please do let me know what's said!
Thanks for checking out my blog.
Chris
www.iwantaword.com
How's it going? Things here at "I want a word" are pretty good - the words are still coming in, slowly but surely, and I'm now up to a grand total of 46. That still may not sound that impressive, and I know that there's a long way to go, but I'm pretty chuffed just to have made it this far.
I'm pleased to say that there have been a few developments since my last blog entry. Last Sunday I was featured in the Sunday Post, a Scottish national newspaper, which was pretty exciting. I'd been interviewed by their reporter about six weeks earlier, so was starting to give up hope of the article ever appearing in the paper, but there it was. It was a bit tucked away, on page 64, but I was still quite pleased, and relieved that the picture wasn't too bad! Unfortunately the Sunday Post website isn't really that great, and only features about 5 news stories per week. As mine was on page 64, you probably won't be surprised to hear that it didn't make it onto the website...
"I want a word" did make another appearance on the web this week though - on the biblioatry blog, run by my myspace friend "bibliolatrist". She gave a nice little summary of the project, as well as some other interesting reading/writing info, so I'd thoroughly recommend that you check out her blog!
And as if that wasn't enough for one week, I discovered that "I want a word" actually received a mention in a podcast. Mark Putnam, the coordinator of the plotastic project, did an interview with "The Writing Show", and gave me a mention, which was nice. Or at least I hope it was. Owing to the rather low-tech nature of "I want a word" HQ I haven't actually been able to listen to the mp3 recording of the interview. If anyone else is interested, you can download it here, and please do let me know what's said!
Thanks for checking out my blog.
Chris
www.iwantaword.com
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Suffering for your art
Regular readers of this blog will know that "I want a word" is far from being the only community writing project out there in cyberspace. You may, in particular, remember plotastic!, a project run by Texan Mark Putnam.
None of the other writing projects I have yet come across, however, are quite as unusual as the one that I was introduced to yesterday. One of my myspace friends left me a comment about a writing project "where people around the world got one letter from this book each tattood on their body somewhere". At first the idea just seemed a bit too outlandish to be true, but I was intrigued enough to investigate further, and after a bit of googling, I eventually stumbled across the home page for the "Skin" project, coordinated by artist and writer "Shelley Jackson.
In her owns words, Skin is "A story published on the skin of 2095 volunteers", and she goes on to elaborate further:
"Each participant must agree to have one word of the story tattooed upon his or her body. The text will be published nowhere else, and the author will not permit it to be summarized, quoted, described, set to music, or adapted for film, theater, television or any other medium. The full text will be known only to participants, who may, but need not choose to establish communication with one another. In the event that insufficiant participants come forward to complete the first and only edition of the story, the incomplete version will be considered definitive. If no participants come forward, this call itself is the work."
It sounds fairly crazy, but at the same time also rather cool. And in a world where strageness sells, Shelley has received a lot of media attention, and it seems, a large number of willing volunteers.
Where, in my humble opinion, the idea has problems, is that it sounds like a logistical nightmare. After a willing participant contacts the author, she then chooses whether to approve them as a word or not. If so, she sends them a disclaimer, absolving herself of blame in the event of "health problems, body image disorders, job-loss, or relationship difficulties that may result from the tattooing process". Assuming they agree to that, they are then sent a word, which they are free to tattoo on any part of their body (although font and colour restrictions are applied).
The project began, as far as I can tell, in 2003 and Shelley has (as of December 2006) received over 10,000 applicants for the project. Very impressive indeed. Less impressive is that so far 1409 disclaimers have been returned and around 470 words have actually been tattooed. Don't get me wrong, I am still hugely impressed that the project has got that far. I know how difficult it is to run a writing project and must take my hat off to Shelley for getting it that far along, but I'm guessing it's going to be a fair while longer before the project is complete.
Reading about this project has also given me a shot of confidence. If there are ten thousand people out there who are prepared to tattoo a word on themselves, then surely there a are ten thousand people who are willing to cotribute a word to a book. Of course, on the other hand, I suppose it's possible that "I want a word" just isn't extreme enough for the modern world....
I guess we'll find out in due course!
Take care, and I hope you're thinking of your words!
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
None of the other writing projects I have yet come across, however, are quite as unusual as the one that I was introduced to yesterday. One of my myspace friends left me a comment about a writing project "where people around the world got one letter from this book each tattood on their body somewhere". At first the idea just seemed a bit too outlandish to be true, but I was intrigued enough to investigate further, and after a bit of googling, I eventually stumbled across the home page for the "Skin" project, coordinated by artist and writer "Shelley Jackson.
In her owns words, Skin is "A story published on the skin of 2095 volunteers", and she goes on to elaborate further:
"Each participant must agree to have one word of the story tattooed upon his or her body. The text will be published nowhere else, and the author will not permit it to be summarized, quoted, described, set to music, or adapted for film, theater, television or any other medium. The full text will be known only to participants, who may, but need not choose to establish communication with one another. In the event that insufficiant participants come forward to complete the first and only edition of the story, the incomplete version will be considered definitive. If no participants come forward, this call itself is the work."
It sounds fairly crazy, but at the same time also rather cool. And in a world where strageness sells, Shelley has received a lot of media attention, and it seems, a large number of willing volunteers.
Where, in my humble opinion, the idea has problems, is that it sounds like a logistical nightmare. After a willing participant contacts the author, she then chooses whether to approve them as a word or not. If so, she sends them a disclaimer, absolving herself of blame in the event of "health problems, body image disorders, job-loss, or relationship difficulties that may result from the tattooing process". Assuming they agree to that, they are then sent a word, which they are free to tattoo on any part of their body (although font and colour restrictions are applied).
The project began, as far as I can tell, in 2003 and Shelley has (as of December 2006) received over 10,000 applicants for the project. Very impressive indeed. Less impressive is that so far 1409 disclaimers have been returned and around 470 words have actually been tattooed. Don't get me wrong, I am still hugely impressed that the project has got that far. I know how difficult it is to run a writing project and must take my hat off to Shelley for getting it that far along, but I'm guessing it's going to be a fair while longer before the project is complete.
Reading about this project has also given me a shot of confidence. If there are ten thousand people out there who are prepared to tattoo a word on themselves, then surely there a are ten thousand people who are willing to cotribute a word to a book. Of course, on the other hand, I suppose it's possible that "I want a word" just isn't extreme enough for the modern world....
I guess we'll find out in due course!
Take care, and I hope you're thinking of your words!
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Exciting times!
To be honest, I was feeling a bit despondent at the start of the week. I hadn't sold any words since the previous Monday, and I felt like I was struggling to maintain any real momentum with "I want a word".
You can imagine my sense of relief and excitement when I logged on to e-mail account on Monday morning to discover that I had sold another five words, bringing the grand total up to 29. Woo! That may not sound like a huge total, but it was a great feeling just to know that things were once again moving in the right direction.
Things then took another positive turn this morning when I received a phone call from a press agency. They informed me that an article about "I want a word" had appeared in the Herald Express (the local newspaper for Torbay, where I grew up). That was exciting enough in itself, but the press agency also wanted to write a story about "I want a word", so I spent a while this morning sending them pictures and giving a telephone interview. This came totally out of the blue and was a really pleasant surpise: my fingers are now firmly crossed that it could lead to some more coverage elsewhere.
I also discovered in the last few days that "I want a word" has featured in a couple of blogs: it really excites me when I find out that there are people interested enough in the project to give it even a passing mention in their own writings, so that was pretty cool. The furst of these blogs was "Tampa Book Buzz", which I very much enjoyed, and the second was a blog called "Shakespeare I ain't" which described the project as "(a) creativly lazy way to get paid". While I appreciate the sentiment, I can assure them that it has taken a lot of work just to get the project this far, and I don't see that letting up any time soon either!
Keen readers of the blog will remember that in my last entry I asked people to vote for a new choice of profile song for my myspace page, to replace Natasha Bedingfield's "These Words". The response wasn't overwhelming, frankly, but I did receive one reply, from Andy. He came up with a few suggestions, my personal favourite being "Paperback writer" by the Beatles. As yet, I've not found a version of this (or any of the other suggestions) that I can put on my myspace page, but I will keep working on it! In the meantime, I'm going to keep the vote open on a rolling basis, and try and change the song once a week (unless people vote to keep it!), so if you have any suggestions, let me know.
And in the meantime, thanks for checking out my blog.
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
You can imagine my sense of relief and excitement when I logged on to e-mail account on Monday morning to discover that I had sold another five words, bringing the grand total up to 29. Woo! That may not sound like a huge total, but it was a great feeling just to know that things were once again moving in the right direction.
Things then took another positive turn this morning when I received a phone call from a press agency. They informed me that an article about "I want a word" had appeared in the Herald Express (the local newspaper for Torbay, where I grew up). That was exciting enough in itself, but the press agency also wanted to write a story about "I want a word", so I spent a while this morning sending them pictures and giving a telephone interview. This came totally out of the blue and was a really pleasant surpise: my fingers are now firmly crossed that it could lead to some more coverage elsewhere.
I also discovered in the last few days that "I want a word" has featured in a couple of blogs: it really excites me when I find out that there are people interested enough in the project to give it even a passing mention in their own writings, so that was pretty cool. The furst of these blogs was "Tampa Book Buzz", which I very much enjoyed, and the second was a blog called "Shakespeare I ain't" which described the project as "(a) creativly lazy way to get paid". While I appreciate the sentiment, I can assure them that it has taken a lot of work just to get the project this far, and I don't see that letting up any time soon either!
Keen readers of the blog will remember that in my last entry I asked people to vote for a new choice of profile song for my myspace page, to replace Natasha Bedingfield's "These Words". The response wasn't overwhelming, frankly, but I did receive one reply, from Andy. He came up with a few suggestions, my personal favourite being "Paperback writer" by the Beatles. As yet, I've not found a version of this (or any of the other suggestions) that I can put on my myspace page, but I will keep working on it! In the meantime, I'm going to keep the vote open on a rolling basis, and try and change the song once a week (unless people vote to keep it!), so if you have any suggestions, let me know.
And in the meantime, thanks for checking out my blog.
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
Monday, 4 June 2007
Looking up, and name that tune
Hi Everybody,
Thanks for coming along to check out the "I want a word" blog.
I'm pleased to report that I'm feeling a lot more positive than I was when I posted my last entry. For those of you who haven't read it, I'd been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism on a writing forum: people seemed to think that I had launched "I want a word" as some kind of sinister attempt to rob them. So, I guess I want to start out by saying a big thank you to everybody who responded to my previous entry: the responses were uniformly supportive and went a long way towards reaffirming my faith in the online population. I'd also like to say a big thank you to everybody who posted comments on my myspace page. Whether they were in response to my blog or not, they were a big help in convincing me that "I want a word" could be a worthwhile and succesful project.
On that note, word sales seem to have been picking up over the last week too - averaging about 1 word a day. Now, if I'm going to get to 10,000 words before the end of 2008, things are still going to need to pick up a bit more, but it's a step in the right direction. If I really am going to make it to 10,000, words I think that the key is going to be publicity. Which is why I am still a little disappointed. Three weeks ago I was interviewed by "The Sunday Post" (a Scottish national newspaper) about "I want a word", but sadly there has not yet been any sign of the resulting article. Still, you can be sure that next Sunday I'll be in the newsagent with fingers crossed and bated breath, just as I have been for the past three Sundays. On a more positive note, I have been informed that there should be an article in the "Herald Express" (the local paper in Torbay, where I grew up) sometime in the not too distant future.
Anyone who has looked at the myspace page for "I want a word" will know that the current theme tune for the project is "These Words" by Natasha Bedingfield. When I was setting up the site it seemed like a most appropriate choice, and I also love the lyrics:
"Read some Byron, Shelley and Keats,
Recited it over a hip hop beat"
Over the last few days a few people have been suggesting that the song "Word Up" (either the Cameo or Korn version) would be a good alternative. So, I'd like to throw this question open to the floor: should I keep my current profile tune or change it? If I should change it, what to? Anything goes, except for the fact that suggestions must be word related! So please, let me know what you think and, as long as I can find the tune, I'll go with the most popular suggestion.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all thinking of your words!
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
Thanks for coming along to check out the "I want a word" blog.
I'm pleased to report that I'm feeling a lot more positive than I was when I posted my last entry. For those of you who haven't read it, I'd been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism on a writing forum: people seemed to think that I had launched "I want a word" as some kind of sinister attempt to rob them. So, I guess I want to start out by saying a big thank you to everybody who responded to my previous entry: the responses were uniformly supportive and went a long way towards reaffirming my faith in the online population. I'd also like to say a big thank you to everybody who posted comments on my myspace page. Whether they were in response to my blog or not, they were a big help in convincing me that "I want a word" could be a worthwhile and succesful project.
On that note, word sales seem to have been picking up over the last week too - averaging about 1 word a day. Now, if I'm going to get to 10,000 words before the end of 2008, things are still going to need to pick up a bit more, but it's a step in the right direction. If I really am going to make it to 10,000, words I think that the key is going to be publicity. Which is why I am still a little disappointed. Three weeks ago I was interviewed by "The Sunday Post" (a Scottish national newspaper) about "I want a word", but sadly there has not yet been any sign of the resulting article. Still, you can be sure that next Sunday I'll be in the newsagent with fingers crossed and bated breath, just as I have been for the past three Sundays. On a more positive note, I have been informed that there should be an article in the "Herald Express" (the local paper in Torbay, where I grew up) sometime in the not too distant future.
Anyone who has looked at the myspace page for "I want a word" will know that the current theme tune for the project is "These Words" by Natasha Bedingfield. When I was setting up the site it seemed like a most appropriate choice, and I also love the lyrics:
"Read some Byron, Shelley and Keats,
Recited it over a hip hop beat"
Over the last few days a few people have been suggesting that the song "Word Up" (either the Cameo or Korn version) would be a good alternative. So, I'd like to throw this question open to the floor: should I keep my current profile tune or change it? If I should change it, what to? Anything goes, except for the fact that suggestions must be word related! So please, let me know what you think and, as long as I can find the tune, I'll go with the most popular suggestion.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all thinking of your words!
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Down in Flames?
Hi Guys,
Thanks for stopping by. It's been a busy weekend here at "I want a word". The good news is that a few more words have been sold, bringing the grand total up to 19. Still a long way to go before I reach 10,000, but definitely on the right track.
Less welcome has been some of the feedback that I've received over the weekend. On Friday I posted a message about "I want a word" on a writing forum. I was hoping to get some advice from other writers but was instead met with a maelstrom of suspicion and cynicism. Don't get me wrong, within the responses there were some valid criticisms, but many of the posts were just ridiculous.
The whole debate is too long to publish on here, so if you want to read it in full you can find it here. In the meantime here are some of my favourite posts, along with my thoughts on them:
Thanks for stopping by. It's been a busy weekend here at "I want a word". The good news is that a few more words have been sold, bringing the grand total up to 19. Still a long way to go before I reach 10,000, but definitely on the right track.
Less welcome has been some of the feedback that I've received over the weekend. On Friday I posted a message about "I want a word" on a writing forum. I was hoping to get some advice from other writers but was instead met with a maelstrom of suspicion and cynicism. Don't get me wrong, within the responses there were some valid criticisms, but many of the posts were just ridiculous.
The whole debate is too long to publish on here, so if you want to read it in full you can find it here. In the meantime here are some of my favourite posts, along with my thoughts on them:
- "Have to agree with the others, it won't work. How do you intend to collect the £1's to start with, which ensures the contributor is guaranteed their word- what happens if a word is selected too frequently? Pretty expensive word!Many people view things like this as a potential scam, and will avoid it. What effect could this have on other legitimate work, now and in the future?"
So, where to start with this one?! The first point is ridiculous: does the poster honestly imagine that I haven't thought about how to collect the money? Even if it wasn't ridiculous a simple glance at the website would have been enough to show how I was collecting the money. The second point raised is also addressed on the website. So, after two questionable points the poster goes on to suggest that the project is not legitimate. How she came to that conclusion without even looking at the website I don't know.
- "I think this is a hoax. If it isn't, come down to earth, friend, and think logically and sensibly about a writing career of your own."
This poster doesn't tell us why she thinks "I want a word" is a hoax but on her forum profile she says that she is "working currently with spirit companions to write books."
- "I don't think this a hoax Dorothy, have you seen the web site? I just looked."
This poster didn't give her opinions on the project, but I am grateful to her for at least taking the time to look at the site before deciding whether on not this was a 'legitimate' project.
- "There are certain groups of people I have no time for whatsoever, and in some case don't deserve - I dare not print what I want to say. Among that groups are cheats, I think you fall into that group chris.Try another site where the members are more gullible"
Ok, this must have been the most extreme reaction that I got. And I'm not really sure where it's coming from. If someone doen't like "I want a word" I can understand that, but at all times during this project I have been completely open and upfront about what I am doing and why I am doing it. I have in no way attempted to deceive or defraud anyone. It's possible that "I want a word" might be a bad idea (although I don't think it is!), but that doesn't make me a cheat.
I think those are the most interesting of the posts: the others were very much variations on the same theme. Now, I was a bit shocked by these responses as most of the other feedback I've got for the project has been pretty good, and not just from people I know. For example, the comments I've been getting on the "I want a word" myspace page have been generally positive.
I guess the question that's raised is "why is this group of writers so opposed to I want a word"? The honest answer is that I don't know. But in a way it saddens me that a group of people can be so cynical and close-minded. When greeted with a new idea most didn't even bother to take a look at it, just instantly dismissing it as a scam.
At the same time as I was posting, there was another active thread posted by somebody who had just received their first letter of rejection for an article they had submitted. The responses to this were uniformly positive. Everybody was saying things like "CONGRATULATIONS! [That] certainly does mean you are a writer." I don't want to belittle this guy's post - sending off your first article is a big deal and, in terms of rejections, I've been there myself. What was strange though was that the forum users seem to feel that there's only one way to become a published writer, and that is to do exactly the same thing as everybody else is already doing. I disagree. I think that writing (along with many other industries) is just so competitive nowadays that you have to do something to make yourself stand out from the crowd. I guess we'll find out if this is a good way to go about it!
Thanks for checking out the blog, and I hope you're thinking of your words! Before I go, I'll leave you with a quote from the Scottish chemist James Dewar:
"Minds are like parachutes; they only work when they're open."
Take care,
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
Tuesday, 22 May 2007
Monkeys with words
In the modern world, words are all around. Our constant companions as we go about our daily life: on walls; on doors; on cars; on computer screens; on food; everywhere. But even so, you don't expect to see giant words held aloft by 30ft monkeys. So, you can imagine my excitement last week when I read an article about a Scotland-wide art exhibtion currently on show. The exhibit in question is part of a global project by the Austrian artist Stefan Sagmeister called "Things I have learnt in my life so far" and features six giant monkeys in different cities around Scotland, each holding a different word which, when combined, make up the phrase "everyone always thinks they are right".
All well and good you might think, but what does that have to do with "I want a word"? Well, on the face of it perhaps not much. But I think it's interesting to see that I'm not the only person interested in looking for new ways to use words. Admittedly our approaches are slightly different, but an interesting comparison nonetheless.
On Saturday afternoon I headed down to Princes' Street Gardens to check out our local monkey for myself, and was disappointed to find it had gone AWOL. The reason, I presume, was that it was extremely windy on Saturday, which is not ideal for a 30ft inflatable. The exhibition's on for a few more weeks though, so maybe I'll get to check it out later. I'll let you know...
There was a bit more disappointment on Sunday too. Last week I was interviewed by "The Sunday Post", a Scottish national paper, and I was hoping that the resulting article would appear in this week's edition of the paper. Unfortunately it didn't, so I'm now crossing my fingers for next Sunday.
Don't be too distressed though, the weekend wasn't all bad news as I did find out that someone in Brazil had written about "I want a word" in their blog. I've no idea what it says, but I thought it was pretty cool anyway!
I guess that's all I've got to say for the moment, except for a big thank you to the people that have bought words over the last few days.
I hope you're all doing ok.
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
All well and good you might think, but what does that have to do with "I want a word"? Well, on the face of it perhaps not much. But I think it's interesting to see that I'm not the only person interested in looking for new ways to use words. Admittedly our approaches are slightly different, but an interesting comparison nonetheless.
On Saturday afternoon I headed down to Princes' Street Gardens to check out our local monkey for myself, and was disappointed to find it had gone AWOL. The reason, I presume, was that it was extremely windy on Saturday, which is not ideal for a 30ft inflatable. The exhibition's on for a few more weeks though, so maybe I'll get to check it out later. I'll let you know...
There was a bit more disappointment on Sunday too. Last week I was interviewed by "The Sunday Post", a Scottish national paper, and I was hoping that the resulting article would appear in this week's edition of the paper. Unfortunately it didn't, so I'm now crossing my fingers for next Sunday.
Don't be too distressed though, the weekend wasn't all bad news as I did find out that someone in Brazil had written about "I want a word" in their blog. I've no idea what it says, but I thought it was pretty cool anyway!
I guess that's all I've got to say for the moment, except for a big thank you to the people that have bought words over the last few days.
I hope you're all doing ok.
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
Thursday, 17 May 2007
I guess I'm not the only one...
Yesterday, quite by chance, I came across a blog article that someone had posted about me, or more specfically about "I want a word".
That somebody was a Texan by the name of Mark, also an aspiring author and also with his own community writing project designed to further his career. His project is called Plotastic! and he is looking for people to take a survey that he's set up, in which you get the chance to vote on various aspects of his novel-to-be. It's definitely a good idea and, from the sounds of Mark's blog, it has been generally well received. In fact, he has now had over 100 responses (he's aiming for 1,000).
Mark also gave his own opinions on "I want a word", which I'm pleased to report were generally supportive. However, he did also raise his concerns about the project. Now, that might not be something you would expect me to be happy about, but in fact I am. It's good to see these things from an outside perspective, and if Mark's got some concerns, then it follows that my potential contributors might share those concerns, and this gives me a chance to address them. So, here's what Mark had to say:
- "Pay-to-play: Chris asks each contributor to pay one pound (nearly two American dollars) just to make their contribution. His reasoning for this is that he needs to support himself while writing. Well, I need to support myself, too...plus my wife and two kids. So I have a full-time job. That means I'll write in my spare time. I don't like the idea of asking your contributors to pay for your time. And I don't think a lot of possible contributors care to pay, either. We'll see."
Personally, I think that every time you buy a novel you are paying the author for their time. Admittedly, in that case you already know that the novel is of a high enough standard to have made it into a shop, so it is perhaps a bit less of a gamble. However, the price is considerably higher (amazon seems to suggest that the standard RRP for a paperback novel is around £7.99) and you don't get the chance to contribute to the novel yourself.
I should also add that supporting myself is only part of the reason that I am charging a fee for word submission. The other is that I think it will encourage people to think harder about their choice of word. If people didn't have to pay there would be much more of a temptation to just stick in the first word that you thought of. By charging £1 per word, I hope that I will encourage people to think carefully about the word they submit. In the long run I hope that will lead to a better, more interesting book. - "Inviting trouble: If you take a look at the words so far you will see that Chris is inviting a lot of trouble. By making the contributors' submissions entirely open-ended, he is just asking for it. I prefer to set the parameters myself, and then let others choose their favorite result."
This is definitely a valid point: some of the words that are coming in are very obscure, which is going to make life difficult. However, I think it also makes the project more exciting: at this stage I genuinely have no idea what I will write about. And it gives contirbutors more freedom to express themselves in the way that they want. My aim is "one book, ten thousand authors" and I think if I'm to achieve that goal, I have to let contributors have as much freedom as possible. - "A daunting goal: I thought 1,000 contributors was going to be tough. I can't imagine how difficult it will be to attract 10,000 contributors. And at two dollars a pop!"
Again, a fair comment; it is going to be difficult to get 10,000 people to contribute to the project. However, I'm optimistic that there are people out there who will see this as a genuine chance to part of something new and orignal, something worthwhile and to which they can make a real and lasting contribution.
Ok, so that's what I have to say in response to Mark's concerns. I'd love to know what anyone things about those concerns and/or my responses, so feel free to leave a comment.
In the meantime, I'd like to wish Mark all the best with Plotastic!: I hope that it's a big success, and that we'll meet someday as published authors.
Take care, and I hope you're thinking of your word!
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Welcome to I want a word
Hi,
I'm Chris and I'm the founder of a new writing project called "I want a word", which has the aim of producing the biggest multi-author book in history.
Basically, I'm looking for 10,000 people to each contribute a single word via my website www.iwantaword.com. You can choose any word that you like and when all 10,000 words have been submitted, I'll add a few more of my own to create a single, coherent story. One book, ten thousand authors - that's the aim.
So, I thought I'd start this blog to keep a record, of the project and how it progresses. It's been going for almost two weeks now, and to be honest it's got off to quite a slow start - so far I've sold 9 words. I say sold as I'm charging people £1 for the right to choose a word for the book. The purpose of this fee is, firstly, to support myself during the project, and secondly, to really encourage people to think about the words that they submit. What I've learnt from the nine words that I've sold so far is that writing the book is going to be pretty tough. Don't get me wrong, I never thought it would be easy, but some of the words that have been contributed I've never even heard of. Still, as a famous man once said "nothing great is easy" (that famous man died whilst trying to swim across the rapids at Niagara Falls...).
Although I haven't sold many words so far, I am still quietly optimistic. I think that if the project is to suceed, publicity will be key. And yesterday "I want a word" received its first press coverage, in my local paper: the Edinburgh Evening News. Since the Evening News is part of the Scotsman group, the story also appeared on the scotsman.com website, and you can read it here:
http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=746622007
It's only a small story, but hopefully it will generate a bit more interest and things will build from there. Keep reading this blog to find out!
It was pretty exciting to see I want a word in the paper, but what was even more exciting was that, when the story was first posted, I was up there alongside a couple of other Edinburgh authors - J. K. Rowling and Ian Ranking! I'm not sure if it's a bit lame, but that was really exciting for me. So exciting, in fact, that I even captured a screen shot! If you want to check it out, it's at:
http://www.iwantaword.com/scotsman_screenshot.jpg
Well, I think that's all my news for the moment, but keep an eye on this site and in turn I'll keep you up to date with all the developments at I want a word. In the meantime, don't forget to check out the site at www.iwantaword.com, and get thinking of your words!
Chris
I'm Chris and I'm the founder of a new writing project called "I want a word", which has the aim of producing the biggest multi-author book in history.
Basically, I'm looking for 10,000 people to each contribute a single word via my website www.iwantaword.com. You can choose any word that you like and when all 10,000 words have been submitted, I'll add a few more of my own to create a single, coherent story. One book, ten thousand authors - that's the aim.
So, I thought I'd start this blog to keep a record, of the project and how it progresses. It's been going for almost two weeks now, and to be honest it's got off to quite a slow start - so far I've sold 9 words. I say sold as I'm charging people £1 for the right to choose a word for the book. The purpose of this fee is, firstly, to support myself during the project, and secondly, to really encourage people to think about the words that they submit. What I've learnt from the nine words that I've sold so far is that writing the book is going to be pretty tough. Don't get me wrong, I never thought it would be easy, but some of the words that have been contributed I've never even heard of. Still, as a famous man once said "nothing great is easy" (that famous man died whilst trying to swim across the rapids at Niagara Falls...).
Although I haven't sold many words so far, I am still quietly optimistic. I think that if the project is to suceed, publicity will be key. And yesterday "I want a word" received its first press coverage, in my local paper: the Edinburgh Evening News. Since the Evening News is part of the Scotsman group, the story also appeared on the scotsman.com website, and you can read it here:
http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=746622007
It's only a small story, but hopefully it will generate a bit more interest and things will build from there. Keep reading this blog to find out!
It was pretty exciting to see I want a word in the paper, but what was even more exciting was that, when the story was first posted, I was up there alongside a couple of other Edinburgh authors - J. K. Rowling and Ian Ranking! I'm not sure if it's a bit lame, but that was really exciting for me. So exciting, in fact, that I even captured a screen shot! If you want to check it out, it's at:
http://www.iwantaword.com/scotsman_screenshot.jpg
Well, I think that's all my news for the moment, but keep an eye on this site and in turn I'll keep you up to date with all the developments at I want a word. In the meantime, don't forget to check out the site at www.iwantaword.com, and get thinking of your words!
Chris
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