Diana: You can keep your imperialist attempt to change my spelling! I will not be moved!

I knew someone would try to guilt me into joining. I just knew it! Maybe I’ll join RWA . . . or the authors’ guild. Anyone know about the authors’ guild?

well, to start with, we spell it with a ‘z.’ You’d be surprised how much zing you get out of such a small change.

Other than that, the politics is such a soul-killer. caused more heartache. still, i wouldn’t be pubbed without rwa, so I put up with it. can’t live with, can’t live without… also, if the good people who can’t handle all the crap politics abandon the orgs because “I don’t need it anymore and I can’t deal with the crap” then the newbies who are so much like I once was will have no one to show them the ropes but the emotional vampiric power trippers. can’t have that, can we? think of the children!

That’s what I’d like to know too. *rollseyes*

I am currently not enjoying the university version as well. luckily for me, there are pockets outside the influence of the crap which i have more or less managed to find my way into. so i’m not insane yet. as for organized writing orgs, the closest i come is a critique group, which i like. this probably has something to do with the fact that it only has six core members. i’ve never been much for sticking steadfastly to stuff larger than that, because chances are quite good that i won’t agree with every single thing they stand for. so i prefer to drift, doing what i can where i can without tying myself down to one org or another. when i do join them, they’re always small ones, where i have access to what’s going on and can know about the inner workings. that way, i stay informed and if/when they start doing things that don’t work out, i’ll know.

Cecelia: So pleased you’re excited about Magic’s Child—I reallly hope you can manage to wait until March. It’s really not that far away . . .

Sherwood Smith: I have to say I’m majorly squicked by the way the Nebulas work. Seems to me that having the nominating proccess secret and the way the actual voting works public would make a lot more sense.

And good on you for beavering away from within.

an organization is what one makes of it. I do think that if one volunteers in areas one likes, tries to do a good job, one’s own effort will totally fly under the radar that blips on the nutcases and the splashy personalities, but it contributes to the overall good.

(my take–i also have no quarrel with those who don’t join things.)

by the way, i can’t wait until magic’s child come out. it’s killing me!

the politics are a bitch, no two ways about it. and i’ve been burned repeatedly. but i stay in and do my part because what you get out of it is power. power is such a dirty little word; we all have to pretend that we aren’t power hungry, but we all are. feminists and other types of activists are seeking power. the members of professional organizations are seeking power. even the lowly writer in the garret seeks power, if only that electrical surge that fills your body up to the skin when the words are flowing well.

and the power of organized groups is mind boggling when it comes together. there’s a high you get from working inside a functional group that’s like nothing else … and the results are bigger, smarter and hundreds of times higher impact than anything you can do by yourself.

if you see something wrong and actually want to fix it (rather than just complaining about it on your blog) then the best way to do it is to join or start an organization and deal with the bullshit and the compromises. if you want to do something that’s bigger than your own personal power can manage, then getting together a group of the like-minded is the only way.

and frankly, that’s more than half of the human experience, isn’t it: dealing with groups of people. you don’t have to be a part of an organization to do this, but joining an org is like mainlining group dynamic. some people are good at it. some are less so. but unless you’re a hermit, you have to do some of it.