A question of integrity - or not

At a local writing group I attended last Sunday the question was raised about the integrity of entering work in a competition after it had been critiqued by a number of other people – the question being at what stage did a story move from being a sole effort to one of collaboration. The person who posed the question was not asking from a position of ‘sour grapes’, as she neither wrote for nor entered competitions, so I accepted her concern as genuine.

As the founder of a critiquing  group (and as a member of many writer’s groups over many years)  where the focus has always been on assisting the writer further develop their skill, I have openly encouraged beginning writers to present their work for critique prior to submitting anywhere (be it competition or publication). The purpose of this was to ensure their work was at its polished best; to optimise their chance of having their work accepted. I saw this as an integral function of the group.

Alternatively, I have seen some stories presented in their rawest, most grammatically incorrect form – little more than a concept thrown on the page - and watched them over a period of critique sessions, and with the input of half a dozen other writers, transform into a well-shaped, fine piece of writing. I never gave a thought as to whether these stories might then be entered into a competition and the question of integrity in this regard never arose.

These were my thoughts as I attempted to respond to her question, as several of my own arose from her single one, so I’m asking for opinions on the following:

1. Would it be a more appropriate to submit a group -worked story to competitions or publications where entries are invited from collaborative efforts of writers rather than an individual?
   
   
2. If a writer pens the original concept, does that make them the sole author, despite input on grammar and syntax from others?
   
   
3. As writing competitions are judged on a number of elements, not the least being use of language and punctuation, and if the story has been critiqued and structurally edited by a series of writers, is it ethical for it to be submitted as the work of one writer? 

Please help with this one – it would be much appreciated. ~Merlene 

Reflection

Christmas and new year have come and gone with barely a beat missed in my writing schedule - well, maybe one or two - but basically I've managed to stay on track. Most of my blogging during January will be done on my River of Stones blog http://aros-merlene.blogspot.com/ with the occasional writing post here.

2011 began as a year of poetry in development, incorporating two River of Small Stones writing challenges in January and July, and finishing up with NaNoWriMo in November. In between I worked with various forms of traditional poetry, combining this with an ocasional photogaph - my other interest.

During this year I ran writing workshops on topics ranging from Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers, Poetry - Haiku and Free Verse, Novel Writing, Punctuation, Judging Short Story Competitions, Epublishing and Social Networking for the Writer, Life Story and Memoir Writing, and creative writing in general.

I will be scaling back on this in 2012 to concentrate on my studies and to keep pace with my increased freelance editing workload. I will be running a series of writer's workshops at Melton  library for those wishing to complete a longer work, fiction or non fiction, and locality specific small group sessions (more on this later)

I finished the NaNoWriMo self-challenge with over 50,000 words for the month and continue to work on development of this manuscript, not working at the initial pace of course, but still taking a more disciplined approach to my writing. I will blog about the process from time to time, more as a reminder to myself of my own progress.

Poetry will continue to feature in my life and on this blog, although I have yet to decide what form that might take - it will unfold as the year goes on.

It is also my intention to blog occasionally about the good, the bad and the ugly of the writing world from my own experience; the humble yet brilliant writers I've met who lack confidence to promote themselves and the empty vessels who spend so many words in self-promotion they forget they need the product to back this up; the wonderful poets I know who feel unworthy of the name and those who rattle off a few lines of doggerel and call themselves poets; the writers who have turned social networking into a unique skill of ackowledgement and sharing and those who pass off the teachings of others as their own, ignoring the source.

My writing competition blog http://writingandpoetryopportunities.blogspot.com/ was well received and I look forward to keep this current over the coming year.

Unfortunately, other goals have fallen by the wayside of circumstance to be picked up some other time.

Overall, 2011 was a productive year for me in many ways and I look forward to new learning and new challenges of 2012. You've all been great company and I hope you'll journey with me.

~ Merlene