Several poets who I worked with through the Writer’s Block Party meetings and with the Journal had asked me to look at their poems and edit punctuation errors, or add punctuation to it completely. I realized that, for many poets, the lack of punctuation is not necessarily a creative choice. I wondered, how might punctuation change the tone, meaning and effect of their work if they knew how to use it?
Submitters, supporters and followers of The Watershed Journal (TWJ) may have also heard of the group of writers called The Writer’s Block Party (WBP), a social group for writers that is sponsored by the Journal. It might be confusing when TWJ writers talk about being WBP writers (oh the joys of acronyms!).
Many of our local writers have found blogging to be a great way to reach their audience. Some of them use blogging as a way to journal their creative processes and some use it as a professional platform. However, all of these blogs feature distinct, unique voices that contribute to our understanding of ourselves as creative people and the world around us. Check out our list of blogs by local writers which are in no particular order.
As writers, we bring our own set of experiences and perspectives to whatever we write. That’s part of what makes writing compelling. But with collaborative writing, you bring in the experiences and perspectives of several other writers as well as your own. By including more writers in the process for a single written piece, you enrich the word choice, syntax and thematic elements dramatically. Sometimes the product gets muddled with competing ideas and approaches. But more often than not, particularly if there is no ego or agenda brought to the table, the product of collaborative writing is something that astonishes the participants.
When we started The Watershed Journal, we had the idea to develop a model for the magazine that would be based on inclusivity. Everyone gets in. Our only restriction is to select local writers, photographers and storytellers so that they can best represent the feel of this region. But we aren’t looking to filter out submissions until we get to the best. We want everyone’s story.