nonBlog: May 2008

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The Dog Ate My Website—Tuesday, May 20, 2008

It is four solid weeks since I have posted a piece on the much-read-by-six-people nonBlog. But I have a good excuse: FieldReport.
 
FieldReport is an online community of writers and readers devoted to sharing—and rewarding—great true-life stories. Another web site, you may be thinking. I don’t have the strength. Fair enough. But consider this: as of last month, blog-posting has exceeded newspaper readership. We are all writers now, creating our own content. But the average blog draws, what, a half-dozen readers? (I love every one of you, by the way.) What if true-life storytellers had a big audience? Not sold yet? Let’s buy you then. What if true-life storytellers could compete in front of a big audience for significant cash prizes? I see I have your attention.
 
Here’s what I would like to do with it. Ask you to check out FieldReport’s beta contest at www.fieldreport.com. Type in the password truelife. The contest is judged through a member ranking system that is new on the Internet; in order to post a story you must become a judge in the competition. This way the stories are ranked by quality, not popularity. The top prize during the beta period is $20,000 for the best overall submission, plus 17 prizes of $1,000 to $2,000 each in categories from Love + Hate to Travel + Nature and everything in between. Prizes will be awarded July 1. Post a story or tell a friend (and give them the beta password). Since we don’t expect the beta period to have a very large attendance, the odds are good. Cash money!
 
I’ve known about this launch since winter and I joined the team three weeks ago, working more or less full-time for the foreseeable future. I am suddenly consumed by something other than my own writing. I am consumed by other people’s writing. It is an unexpected and liberating turn

 

 

 

New, or Practically New

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  • I review Anne Lamott's new novel in the April issue of San Francisco magazine.
  • Fame and Fortune: Currently working on, and shocked to find I’m making headway with, the latter. Partly because of a bit of movement on the former. Perhaps endurance is the key to everything after all.