Aha!
We've been expecting you. I see you've arrived with a hunger for details of the things there are to be done.*
Now then, folks. Where are we?
So far we've collated the markets for Western stories, tidied up the Western forums, started a few new threads, had a few discussions, got our sigs out there and sparked up the Western SYW with a prompt that looks pretty healthy for a three month old. In all these endeavors we've succeeded in getting a decent amount of interest from those interested and managed to grab the interest of a few kind hearted passerbys.
This is, no doubt you'll agree, good.
However, this has been only the incipient stage in our attempted resurrection of the Western genre. If our efforts have so far been DW Griffith and a flickering cowboy on a screen, we need to push onto the classic stage. We need to get John Ford directing and John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart as our stars.
The question is, how to achieve this.
The post you read now is written in an attempt to show how far we have come and to start the gears turning in thought of where we go next. So I think it helpful for us to focus on the ways we can ratchet up our little western revival in an effort to get to the next stage.
My ideas are as follows -- I hope y'all will discuss, pick apart and add to them so we can work out a more solid plan.
1 - Keep up with the monthly prompts, the discussion and new threads in the western forum so the genre stays on the sites radar.
2 - Come Jan (or Feb if Jan is to close to Xmas) organize a western writing competition. The competition would run in the same way as most on site competitions (anyone can enter; set close date and word count; judged by the sites members) and I think it essential to have a proper prize for it rather than pure kudos.
I will be happy to put up a prize - book token, western book, Dvd's -- that sort of thing to the value of 50 dollars and it would be great if other people would put up a 25 dollar and a 12.5 dollar donation for second and third places.
The competition would, with the help of donations, mod support and member support, certainly get people interested and aware of the genre and, after the competition is done, might even get people writing and critting a genre they would never have thought about before.
3 - We should start a Western Writers group. You know the sort of thing -- it's a message board that is sort of behind the scenes. The benefits of something like this is that the genre comes to peoples attention by invite. Once there, everyone will have a chance to engage in discussion of the genre -- in all its facets -- and people who want to give it a go will find people interested in the way they want to write and learn there are many different ways and avenues for them to engage with the genre.
4 - We should try to contact -- in a way that isn't creepy, amateur or just plain weird (which means it shouldn't be me that does it) -- authors, publishers and agents who write and are involved in the western genre and ask them to guest -- or write something inspirational (yes, I know that sounds awful) -- on site for those interested in the genre. This level of professional insight and interest will surely grab some attention, get people involved and not only show the genre isn't dead but also show it is a genre that a living (however meager) can be made in.
5 - We should instigate a cultural exchange of genres on site. By this I mean we should not only swap some prompts with other genres (we write in theirs, they in ours) but also try to get some of the more statuesque and published writers on site to write or crit our stuff. You know, sort of critter/writer of the month type deal.
6 - Anything you your damnself can think of.
So, thats about all I got for now -- after all, I wouldn't want to use everything I got planned for the modern stage up in the classic stage dontchaknow.
Question is, whaddy'all think? What massive problems do you see in my ideas and what ideas do you have to bring? We've done so well so far, who's excited about seeing what happens next?
* In the case of arriving here by accident, please put on your thinking cap and tune to the frequency of things to do to propagate a western revival.