Welcome to the Writers' Common

If you have ever studied the art of writing, then you probably realize that throughout literary history writers, and literature, have been nurtured in groups. Whether it was Tolkien's and C.S. Lewis' Inklings that met in a pub after their classes, or Hemingway's and Pound's Lost Generation expatriates in Paris, all the greats conversed, shared, encouraged, and competed with one another as they developed as writers. On the other hand, there are probably countless groups in every public library, trendy coffee shop, and university creative writing class that never made a dent on the literary world.

Our goals here aren't really to change the world through literature or written communication. That would be a little presumptuous of us, but rather there are 3 things that we would like to accomplish and cultivate:

1. Relationships - This is a big one. We'd like to put the picture of Wordsworth and Coleridge in front of people to show how valuable close relationships are to writing, but honestly we believe the writing is secondary here. Like it says in Ecclesiastes, it's a miserable business to work and toil without friends in whose company you can enjoy the fruits. No matter how lackadaisical writing may seem, it can quickly become work. We want work to always remain secondary to relationships.

2. Good Writing - We want to provide a place for writers to have their work read. That said, we also want to provide a place for writers to have their good work read. No offense, but one of the problems we've seen with blogs is that they give anybody with access to a computer the ability to put whatever thought they have, developed or not, informed or not, in front of potentially billions (but probably tens) of people. We'd like to save you the embarrassment of having your diary online. So we are starting off with a few limitations on categories that we accept:

• Reviews - Books, Music, Movies, Art. All of these, and they don't necessarily have to be new releases. If you just stumbled upon Matisse, feel free to review one of his paintings. Chances are somebody else has never heard of him, but it's about time they had. We just ask that your reviews be well-founded, well-structured, thorough, and easy to read. If you want to tell us how something made you feel, that's fine, just make sure you tell us why it made you feel that way, what combination of components did the artist use to elicit an emotion from you.
• Essays - Currently, these are limited to theology and culture. Of course, those are pretty wide topics. We would like theology to be edifying studies, based completely on Scripture or respected theologians. Culture is huge, so let's limit it to something manageable like "How does ____ positively or negatively affect culture, and how can you do something about it?" Answer that question with your essay.
• Humor - Lists can be funny. If you're an aspiring cartoonist, that would be awesome if you would submit something.
• Journalism - Stories about people, places, or things that you want to write about.
  

And finally, we have editors to whom you can submit your work as a final filter for this Writers' Common. If we think a piece is good enough, then we'll post it. If it's close, then we'll work with you on the piece. If it's not good enough, please don't feel bad. We'd be happy to give you some pointers and some goals to work toward while you're getting this writing thing down. Give it a year (or 20) of practice. We all did.

(Please notice there are no fiction or poetry categories. We don't feel like we're up to the task of handling that one yet, maybe in the future.)

3. Culture - Finally there is culture. We would like to add to culture something positive. A little thought, a little inspiration to think some more. And as a further caveat, a picture of the culture we want to create here: we want to warm people to the idea of the Gospel.

So if you think you'd like to be a part of the Writers' Common, then please visit the "Submissions" section on the right side of this page, or just read along as other brilliant people exchange their thoughts.