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]

By the implications of your definition then, Chris would be inelligible too - part of his job as a historian includes writing (any historian has part of their job in writing). So, since he's being paid for some of his writing, he's a professional writer and therefore not eligible.

Unless you want to start limiting to pros in the genre. So - is Micheal Chabon eligible (if he should write something eligible)? He's just written "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" which is sworn up and down not to be genre fiction - yet, it's about what happens when the jews settled in Alaska instead of Palestine in 1949.

Saying a professional writer is automatically better, any more than saying a professional writer is automatically excluded, has many more implications than you have yet shown awareness of. (just critiquing, not critisizing).

Oh- and Harlan has written plenty that could be considered fan writing. He's just not gotten enough nominating votes to find himself on the ballot.

[howeird]

By the implications of your definition then, Chris would be ineligible too
Nah, I'm implying professionally published for the trade. These days almost every white collar worker is paid to write, but not so many are paid to write something which is intended to show up for sale in a bookstore.

And you're absolutely right that being a pro doesn't necessarily mean being better. I suppose I'm thinking more along the lines of "step aside and let the non-published have their 15 minutes of fame".