WomenCo.

Hi, I have a suggestion.  How would you guys feel about starting a game of writing a story one or two sentences at a time and then making it into a book to sell on etsy, sending all of the proceeds to the National Domestic Violence Organization?  We could all contribute our talents to it, and then we could arrange for someone to put it on the sale site, if you like the idea.  It would need to be thought out and planned, I know, but I thought it would be something that we could all do together.

stgreg11 says ...

I would be okay with a story, but sentence by sentence themes tend to be awkward and disjointed.

good point.  What do you think of doing it one paragraph at a time?  It doesn't have to be a novel, but if enough of us contribute, it could be a good enough size. 

Great, thanks!  If the paragraph idea doesn't float, I had another thought after I had signed off last night, that each of us could contribute little stories, articles or poems and we could e-publish the compilation.  Whichever one works.  But I rather like the idea of each of us contributing to the thread in some way.  It works so well with the poems!  What do you guys think?

Yes, but I'm also wanting to hear what others want to add and suggest.  My idea was that we would make it very positive and powerful.  I wanted it to be a book about the strengths of women and how we use them.  I wanted our power and positive energy as a whole as well as that of the individual to show through, which is why I thought this would be such a good idea.  If each of us contributes something, then the whole would come together as a powerful work.  What do you think?  I thought that if we could sell that and contribute the funds to the DV organization, it would accomplish two things--first, it would empower the woman (or man) who reads the book, and second, it would help the organization to get more women to safety.  So, do we go with paragraph-by-paragraph, or do we go with individual contributions?  There are so many members to this site, and if we all got involved with our individual talents, it would be one awesome piece of work. 

There might be more participants using a paragraph-by-paragraph approach.  If using individual contributions, it might help to have some (voluntary) guidelines as to suggested length, topics, due date, etc. 

Another possibility is to have a forum for a paragraph-by-paragraph essay/chapter as well as allow individual essays/chapters.  That way people with a more developed topic as well as those who only want to contribute a paragraph can be part of this.  It sounds like a great idea.

seabrownthree says ...

AJaneChambers says ...

There might be more participants using a paragraph-by-paragraph approach.  If using individual contributions, it might help to have some (voluntary) guidelines as to suggested length, topics, due date, etc. 

Another possibility is to have a forum for a paragraph-by-paragraph essay/chapter as well as allow individual essays/chapters.  That way people with a more developed topic as well as those who only want to contribute a paragraph can be part of this.  It sounds like a great idea.

awesome suggestion!  We can keep the threads printed out as it grows, as obviously it might get a bit "big" for one forum.  And we can appoint one person to keep it all organized.  I think it should be someone over there in the US, since that's the organization where it would go.  Would it make sense to have both choices for participation available?  We could say that it would be short stories, no more than three pages long, and we know what kind of topics we want.  We want positive stories, experiences or something like that.  In order to give everyone time to get the word out and come up with something, why don't we say by the end of the year?  That's four months.  If we all notified all of our friends to take place, that would help to expand the number of participants.  And if it's successful, we can do it again next year, giving more women a chance.  I'm so glad that you guys like the idea!  Ok, let's figure out a way to invite as many people as possible, and then let's nominate someone to be in charge of keeping it organized and getting it onto etsy.  I could ask Daniela to let me write a little article about it and feature it on the What's Hot section.  If she does that, alot of women would read it and come here to participate.  Does everyone agree?  And we could make the 31st of December the deadline for putting it together, if that's ok with everyone.  What do you think?

Sounds feasible. I'm willing to participate.

Fantastic.  I'll get started on the article.  I just got out of hospital, so it might be the weekend before I get it posted, but in the interests of time, I'll get cracking on it ASAP.  Thanks so much for your participation!

Sarah

Ok, well, whilst I get it sorted out with Daniela how to post it, can we see if someone would be willing to take charge of it? When I post it with Daniela, I'll mention what group we're doing it from, of course, so that might help, but if the admin or moderator of this group could send a group message, that might help, too.

We all agree that we like the participation as it's been marked out, so I'll let Daniela know and see how she wants to post the article asking for participants.  In the meantime, all of you who have agreed to take part could get started on what you want to do.  Let me know when you get it ready, with a private message, if you like.  Thanks, all of you!

Do you have a length or word count in mind?

ingo4646 says ...

Do you have a length or word count in mind?

yes, I thought that since we're wanting to make it a book, it would be good to keep each work to not more than three pages.  We don't know how big of a response this will get, but I'm hoping for a really big book!  But don't feel that you have to do three pages.  If you've already submitted one work and want to do another, I'll keep it in mind in case there's room, but I'm hoping very much that we get a good response once Daniela posts the announcement (which should be shortly after I send it to her!)  I'm on it, I promise!

Thanks, Candy, you can contribute to as much as you want!  Do both, if you like.

Sarah

Count me in

Have you given an outline of this book? Maybe I just missed it, but I'm not sure if you want short story essays, a paragraph or two of personal experience, and what the overall topic of the book is going to be. I want to make sure I'm getting the direction correct.

Watchnstarz44 says ...

Have you given an outline of this book? Maybe I just missed it, but I'm not sure if you want short story essays, a paragraph or two of personal experience, and what the overall topic of the book is going to be. I want to make sure I'm getting the direction correct.

Yeah, what we have planned to do is this:  for those of you who want to, you can write a short story, experience or poem.  The story can be fact or fiction.  When you get them done, email them to me at seabrownthree@btinternet.com, and be sure to put womenco in the subject line so that I don't think it's spam.  I get tons of that.  I'll edit it, get it back to you for approval, and get things finalized to put it together into the finished product.  I'm drawing up a paper for everyone so that we all know all the agreements and have everything very clear.  The works are all copyrighted material, and you own your original works.  The finished product will belong to all of us who contributed, to be sold for the purpose of donating the money to the domestic violence organizations.  I have connections to those on both sides of the pond, so I'll get that going, as well.  I can have a bank account set up to paypal that is separate for this project so that each person can get a report showing exactly how much money was made and where it went. 

For those of you who don't feel up to a story or anything like that, I'm going to start a paragraph-by-paragraph work so that you can each contribute one paragraph.  I'll edit the finished product, and that one will just have to be done as a whole unit.  In addition, you can contribute to both the paragraph one and the other one, if you like.  The more, the merrier!  If you have any questions, just let me know.

Thanks so much for your help, guys, I think this could really work!