Comments on: Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 5: Writing Groups

By: Revising Meet the Larssons, Day 6: The Value of Crit Groups. « The Unfocused Life

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:11:32 +0000

[...] In episode 5 of season 2, the Writing Excuses team discussed critique groups. Several of the hosts talked about how important their writing groups had been to their development as authors, but one mentioned that one thing that can drive him crazy is a writing group where the participants don’t just tell you what did or didn’t work for them, but offer you suggestions on how to fix your story. [...]

By: Raethe

Raethe — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:37:28 +0000

The thing about poor man’s copyright is that apparently it doesn’t stand up in court. I don’t know if this is true, but I heard somewhere that the poor man’s copyright isn’t accepted at all in court situations because it’s apparently possible to send an envelope without even sealing it and slip the the lyrics/tape/CD inside afterwards. I have no idea if this is actually true but there seem to be a number of people out there who share this opinion.

When it comes to establishing copyright proof for songs – well, here in Canada there’s the Songwriter’s Association of Canada. Once you’re a member, you can send them a recording of your songs and a cheque and they’ll send you proof of copyright registration for whatever. It’s a LOT cheaper, and probably much easier, than sending your stuff to the actual copyright (which doesn’t take recordings anyway, only copies of your lyrics). I have no idea if you have a similar organization wherever you’re located, but I’d suggest you take a look. You never know what you might find

The other thing is, to the best of my knowledge, the LYRICS of songs aren’t copyright-able, only the melodies. I mean, if someone lifts your lyrics wholesale there’s obviously room for you to retaliate, but they can’t let people sue every time someone else accuses them of stealing the line “I love you” or “you’re beautiful” (or whatever for their song).

I don’t think any editor would actually be displeased, particularly, if you submitted a book that you had already registered the copyright for, but you’re probably wasting your time and money if you do. As far as I know, if a company buys your book, they’ll register the copyright for you – and even if you’ve already registered it yourself they’ll probably end up doing it again, because presumably it will look different after their editors have gotten ahold of it. And as long as you do your research and are submitting to legitimate publishing companies, you don’t have to worry about them stealing your work. Why? If they like your work, they’ll make you an offer. If they don’t like your work well enough to buy it, they won’t like it well enough to steal it either.

By: Karl

Karl — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:30:17 +0000

There’s always the ‘poor man’s’ copywrite. Print a copy for yourself, stick it into an evelope and mail it to yourself. Do not open it. The date from the post office will establish a time by which you had created the work. Then you can share your work.

This is not fool proof, but at least it keeps out the lazy or stupid fools.

By: Isix

Isix — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:43:26 +0000

the question I have about writing groups is how do you protect your work when your unpublished ideas are being shared amongst other people. i have been answered before with make sure you trust the people in your group, but this entails that these people would be your friends and may have biased opinions towards your work. where does copyright come into play in protecting your work, and should you copyright your own work, or rely on a publishing company for that. i know this falls under the buisiness of writing umbrella, but it has not been discussed. i bring this up because i have written lyrics for a living for about 4 years now and in starting out, i had several of my works stolen, copyrighted and lost to me forever. i now work for a company writing only for them so this is not a problem for me anymore, but in a market where your on your own until you sell a book, how do you keep your properties safe, yet still get feedback, and will submitting pre-copy written manuscripts raise the rath of editors?

By: Karl

Karl — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:00:26 +0000

That’s what I like! Go away for a really long, internet deprived weekend and come back to find the problem solved! I should have thought of this sooner!

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:31:28 +0000

WEKMs solution would also work to solve timezone issues.

Thanks Dan

By: Raethe

Raethe — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:12:58 +0000

My suggestion was not to exclude other MEMBERS of the TWG, just to make the forum only available to members… But I think WEKM has the best solution, actually.

Thanks much, Dan!

By: Dan Wells

Dan Wells — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:59:56 +0000

Reading Excuses is live: http://www.timewastersguide.com/forum/index.php?board=29.0

By: WEKM

WEKM — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:52:43 +0000

I imagine that the pieces being worked could be emailed to those wishing to participate, then it would just be the discussion of them in the forum.

Send your piece to a group email, (or have an email list of those wishing to participate) then we could go over it before the discussion starts on the forum. As well, that would allow people with odd work scheduals like mine to participate too.

Would that work?

By: admin

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 06:17:32 +0000

We already have a writing group forum on TWG and a group that uses that forum to coordinate meetings over IM.

I think that Reading Excuses should be the same, use the forum to coordinate meeting and talking but send people stuff over e-mail. I’m really hesitant to have any section on TWG’s forums that are only accessible to certain people, I’m also hesitant to host people writings due to legal issues.

~Jordan