The IWW as Urban Myth
I recently attended a writers conference in San Diego where a freelance editor with long-time involvement in the conference had occasion to comment on online critique groups. Her response, down to her body language, was enough to scare away any newbie searching for a place to have their work read.
Ironically, I had received the opposite advice from an author-presenter Peggy Vincent at the same conference several years earlier. She recommended the Internet Writing Workshop based on her own experience of sending her memoir through the peer-critiquing process. Such is the range of opinions from those who "should know," so it's not hard to see how the imaginings of some outside the loop might stray to the fringes. What's an innocent to think?
The freelance editor might be chagrined to know that the people behind the IWW are not too different from those who run the annual conference that she is a part of. IWW volunteers carry on the business of our respective writing lists because we think it's a good thing to do. Although we are spread across the U.S. -- with a few beyond its borders -- we have ongoing virtual meetings where we trade administrative woes, discuss email protocols and formatting problems, and even offer the occasional birthday greeting.
The internet is a great leveler, and as an internet presence, our writing cooperative lines up alongside big corporations, small start-ups, and scam artists of all stripes. The public, including editors, are all but invited to project their preconceptions of all the bad things that go on "out there." A freelance word doctor, accustomed to control her projects, may be prone to see the risk of adverbs run amok, point of view hopping without rhyme nor reason, or a story line beyond comprehension -- with no one qualified to tell it like it should be. Or worse, pretenders coming out of the woodwork giving bad advice. In my experience, however, our members have the skills to cover most problems, whether it's just fresh eyes needed on near-ready work, or help with major reconstruction. What's required of the submitter is to develop his or her powers of discrimination to decide what advice to keep and what to toss. No magic bullet. It's called learning how to self edit and create a story that works.
Peggy Vincent is the author of Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife who has had essays published in a variety of venues, including Notre Dame Magazine. She remains a member of the IWW.
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