Writer's Notes - By Jeanne Dininni

Hi Jeanne -

Thanks for writing so many wonderful things about our web site. It's been a long development process. But we want to make sure we get this right. For too long, writers have been left in the dark wondering how to get published. Publishers are similarly in the dark about where the "truly" great works can be found. They rely on third-parties to evaluate and recommend. Seems to us (as writers) a tragic failed business model.

So, maybe we're crazy for trying to change things, but somebody needs to do something - the same old stuff keeps getting published - and I can tell you from what we've seen in both the first-line contest and the new novel competition, that there are some incredibly talented people with very meaningful works out there. Even more tragic are some of the tales of their querying experiences.

The Arc Angel is something we've worked on for 4 years now, and when deployed, we hope it can bridge the gap - helping writers structure their plots and characters for maximum reader satisfaction, and helping the publishers wade through their slush-piles in a more organized way. While it can't "read" like a human - or interpret the social significance of a work, it can accurately detect emotional development, dramatic ebb and flow and chart-out the arc structure for each character and for combinations of characters.

The actual user-interface you will eventually see on the site will be very intuitive, graphical, and integrated with a text editor so a writer can work in the desktop environment and have the Arc Angel analyze the edits on the fly.

Our writers focus groups have given us valuable feedback and even some of the die-hard skeptics remained well afterwards to get more hands-on with the Arc Angel - addicted, as we are.

The novel competition is our beta test - giving the Arc Angel and the processing engines a work-out with real submissions. While we've taken reasonable precautions to protect the entries, writers should always copyright their works. No rights are lost by entering - we only expect to test the system. Eventually, each entrant will receive the analysis output of their entry. And of course, one exceptional writer will also get $1,000.

No entry fee this time around. The first-line contest was an effort to raise money for our literacy partners (Firstbook and National Center for Family Literacy) while providing a fun opportunity for writers. We love competitions and feel it sparks creativity. I think Zirdland will always have some sort of contest running...at least we'll try.

Hope that helps. I'm excited to see so much discussion about our project and we'd welcome any suggestions or insights your readers may have.

Thanks again for great coverage of the adventure!

Joel Ratner, Director
Zirdland.com, LLC

Hi Jeanne -

No problem at all in distributing my comments. Yes, I did see your later post. Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts and comments about Zirdland. I'm glad to get some opposing viewpoints from all the responses to your post - it helps us understand what areas we need to focus on as we develop this site.

It's been a lot of fun and we've received so many well-wishes.

Let me know if you or your readers have any additional questions, comments or concerns. I'll do my best to answer them.