I write fiction occasionally and have one half-written EA story, I’d like to write more. does this put me in your category or are we looking for more commitment than that?
Yep, you should definitely apply if you’re interested. So too should people who have never written fiction before but who think maybe they’d like to start doing so (as long as they can pull together a writing sample by the deadline).
There are no expectations about prior work: if you’re interested enough to put together a sample then I’ll happily consider your application.
I’ve submitted with a 500 word sample. I have a thing I’m working on that’s longer and if I can get it done in time I’ll resubmit. Thanks for organising.
Fiction like Atlas Shrugged and Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Jungle have been massively influential.
A surprising number of people have told me they got into the EA/LessWrong sphere through HPMOR, which at least tells us that the writing doesn’t even have to be good to make a difference.
It is a common misconception that because a piece of fiction was bad for the particular individual writing, or is low status, or is missing some desired marker of ‘goodness’, that it therefore is not ‘good’.
There doesn’t seem to be any commonly agreed upon definition of what ‘good’ means in the context of fiction—so I think it is better to focus on whether it is good for particular individuals, where you can just ask the people if they find the text good.
So while HPMOR is not good for Arjun, it is extremely good for a lot of other text-individual pairings.
Also, if by ‘not that good’ you mean ‘easy to duplicate’, as someone who would very much like to write something that is as powerful, compelling, interesting, emotionally satisfying, multilayered and inspiring as HPMOR, it is not in the slightest easy to write something like it.
It is a common misconception that because a piece of fiction was bad for the particular individual writing, or is low status, or is missing some desired marker of ‘goodness’, that it therefore is not ‘good’.
I should clarify that my potshot was mocking the prose. There are other ways that HPMOR was good (or so I suspect—I only got through the first 5 or 10 chapters). I also failed to get through the first chapter of Atlas Shrugged even though I would probably find its aesthetic more agreeable than most people and even though it was much more influential than HPMOR.
EDIT: Actually, I think my comment had more value than just a potshot. I know a bunch of wannabe writers, my past self included, who were overly concerned with prose quality.
Sure, I agree with you that the prose is passable, readable and fairly solid, but definitely not flashy, literary, or anything special (though I think it reaches a somewhat higher level by the middle, but it never is what is important or fun about the HPMOR).
I personally never had the delusion that pretty prose was particularly important (if anything I go too far in the other direction), but yeah, it is a mistake that people make.
You definitely do not need to write a poem in prose to have a great deal of impact with your writing.
I agree with you that the prose is passable, readable and fairly solid
I didn’t say the prose was “fairly solid.” I would have to go back (and maybe it improves after the first several chapters) but I remember it being bad.
This sounds great! I learned about it after the deadline and it conflicts with EAGxBerlin, but if you run the retreat again, I’m happy to apply! I have a few writing ideas in mind for years. And also a few drafts.
Great, it’s currently unclear whether I’ll run further events of this sort in the future (in part, I want to see how this one goes first), but I may well do.
Responses have now gone out, and I’ve notified both those who have been accepted and those who haven’t. So if anyone hasn’t received a response then feel free to get in touch via forum message.
(I’m not planning to do a detailed post on the application process right now, as I’m focused on preparing for the event, but I’m hoping to do a general reflection post after the event, in which I’ll discuss the application process alongside other things)
(Shortly, I’ll be away until the 18th. I’ll do my best to check forum messages, but please expect replies to be somewhat slow.)
The aim is to notify people who are accepted within a fortnight of the closing date (that’s not an absolute guarantee, but it’s the intention and I think it’s likely to be achieved).
I write fiction occasionally and have one half-written EA story, I’d like to write more. does this put me in your category or are we looking for more commitment than that?
Yep, you should definitely apply if you’re interested. So too should people who have never written fiction before but who think maybe they’d like to start doing so (as long as they can pull together a writing sample by the deadline).
There are no expectations about prior work: if you’re interested enough to put together a sample then I’ll happily consider your application.
I’ve submitted with a 500 word sample. I have a thing I’m working on that’s longer and if I can get it done in time I’ll resubmit. Thanks for organising.
This is huge.
Fiction like Atlas Shrugged and Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Jungle have been massively influential.
A surprising number of people have told me they got into the EA/LessWrong sphere through HPMOR, which at least tells us that the writing doesn’t even have to be good to make a difference.
It is a common misconception that because a piece of fiction was bad for the particular individual writing, or is low status, or is missing some desired marker of ‘goodness’, that it therefore is not ‘good’.
There doesn’t seem to be any commonly agreed upon definition of what ‘good’ means in the context of fiction—so I think it is better to focus on whether it is good for particular individuals, where you can just ask the people if they find the text good.
So while HPMOR is not good for Arjun, it is extremely good for a lot of other text-individual pairings.
Also, if by ‘not that good’ you mean ‘easy to duplicate’, as someone who would very much like to write something that is as powerful, compelling, interesting, emotionally satisfying, multilayered and inspiring as HPMOR, it is not in the slightest easy to write something like it.
I should clarify that my potshot was mocking the prose. There are other ways that HPMOR was good (or so I suspect—I only got through the first 5 or 10 chapters). I also failed to get through the first chapter of Atlas Shrugged even though I would probably find its aesthetic more agreeable than most people and even though it was much more influential than HPMOR.
EDIT: Actually, I think my comment had more value than just a potshot. I know a bunch of wannabe writers, my past self included, who were overly concerned with prose quality.
Sure, I agree with you that the prose is passable, readable and fairly solid, but definitely not flashy, literary, or anything special (though I think it reaches a somewhat higher level by the middle, but it never is what is important or fun about the HPMOR).
I personally never had the delusion that pretty prose was particularly important (if anything I go too far in the other direction), but yeah, it is a mistake that people make.
You definitely do not need to write a poem in prose to have a great deal of impact with your writing.
I didn’t say the prose was “fairly solid.” I would have to go back (and maybe it improves after the first several chapters) but I remember it being bad.
Lol, it’s consistently readable. If you expect more, you need to widen your reading horizons.
I think Eliezer really needed an editor to cut it down at points.
This sounds great! I learned about it after the deadline and it conflicts with EAGxBerlin, but if you run the retreat again, I’m happy to apply! I have a few writing ideas in mind for years. And also a few drafts.
Great, it’s currently unclear whether I’ll run further events of this sort in the future (in part, I want to see how this one goes first), but I may well do.
Thanks for putting this together. Any idea of when participants will be selected? Sept 15 is only a few months away!
Responses have now gone out, and I’ve notified both those who have been accepted and those who haven’t. So if anyone hasn’t received a response then feel free to get in touch via forum message.
(I’m not planning to do a detailed post on the application process right now, as I’m focused on preparing for the event, but I’m hoping to do a general reflection post after the event, in which I’ll discuss the application process alongside other things)
(Shortly, I’ll be away until the 18th. I’ll do my best to check forum messages, but please expect replies to be somewhat slow.)
The aim is to notify people who are accepted within a fortnight of the closing date (that’s not an absolute guarantee, but it’s the intention and I think it’s likely to be achieved).