Once upon a time I was a professional

[howeird]

...writer. I worked for newspapers in Oregon and Washington State, my main job was laying out the paper and writing headlines. I have a degree in this, which was earned by not only taking classes, but by writing for the campus paper, working as a proofreader and layout editor and photographer/darkroom tech.

I mention this in light of a recent posting on his blog by Tom Veal which kevin_standlee was kind enough to link to, in which Veal claims a blog's writing quality is going to be poor, as it is usually a "zeroth" draft (not even a first draft). He uses this argument to defend professional writers being nominated for and winning Best Fan Writer Hugo awards. I'm here to say that in my professional writer days, my zeroth draft was better than any amateur writer's "polished" essay. Besides, a professional writer won't be posting what first comes out his fingertips, he will always proofread and edit on the fly, which is something most amateurs will not.

I wonder, if I join WSFS, what I can do to change their constitution to make the Fan Writer Hugo into a "best fiction by a non-pro in a non-pro medium" award. Because, IMHO, they need to do this both to recognize the fen writers, and to make this award more credible.

Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

"...what I can do to change their constitution..."

Ask Kevin what it takes to change the constitution. At the very least it will require your presence at two (at minimum) consecutive Worldcons. Then you have to argue the business meetings at both cons to support your position and vote for it.

In addition to those basics, it'll take some dilligent campaigning, without pissing anyone off.

FWIW, the business meetings are highly conservative (to say the least). The default position is "all change is bad".

[howeird]

Oy. Sounds to me like a windmill not worth tilting with. I don't know why I even got into this topic - I don't put much store by awards anyways.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

And that's part of what the process is meant to do - discourage changes that are flights of fancy.