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  Noticing Newbies  1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions  Welcome to the Noticing Newbies Newsletter! Our goal is to showcase some of our newest Writing.Com Authors and their items. From poetry and stories to creative polls and interactives, we'll bring you a wide variety of items to enjoy. We will also feature "how to" advice and items that will help to jump start the creation process on Writing.com We hope all members of the site will take the time to read, rate, review and welcome our new authors. By introducing ourselves, reviewing items and reaching out, we will not only make them feel at home within our community, we just might make new friends!  Passionate about writing? Take your passion to new heights - with an online Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, available only from top ranked National University. Choose workshops based on your interests. Work with experienced and published faculty. Prepare for a variety of career opportunities. Use a state-of-the art online system: Study where and when you want. Click here to get more information!  Dear Readers, This issue coincides with my first anniversary on Writing.Com, well actually it is a week after that. I’d like to dedicate this issue to my sister, Fireant  , who invited me to this site and has encouraged me in writing, life, and the art of living with joy. She, like many others, is currently serving her country in the Gulf.In the year I have belonged to this site, I have changed from someone who simply kept a journal and sometimes took dictation down from the Muse -- that's what it always feels like to me -- into someone is has become a very active (and noisy) member of an international on-line community. I've also seen this site radically change as The StoryMaster  churned out new tools, and The StoryMistress  has altered the site's look and feel. I've also enjoyed this site's lighter side, laughing hysterically during April Fool's Day and The StoryMaster 's pranks, something I had heard about but was two weeks too late to see last year.I guess the nicest part of ths community is the comfort, the teasing, the fun I have with people here. It has all the goodies of close friendships with none of the annoynaces (like garlic breath!) I just wanted to say I am a happy and grateful member of this community! And I wanted to thank you for your on-going friendship and support. Hugs, Pita  *** Here are five outstanding new members to Writing.com  Kendra As a fly fisher, a fanatical one, I went to look at her poems about fly-fishing. She is lyrical, capturing the beauty of both nature and the cast. weber121 Not only her work, but she has a folder with her children's stories that are adorable :) catgirl6 Is a marvelous very young writer. Her work ranges from Dragons to go-carts in the enchanting dance that only a child's imagination. Please review her with the understanding this is an elementary school age child and should not be reviewed to the same standards as a teen or adult. chopstix99 A teenager with a thoughtful yet fun variety of items in their port. Try the Ice-cream poll, then pop in to say what you think is more important: emotion or intellect in the forum! bazgirl Officially, with this issue, she stops being a newbie. But this port should be read. A lot of great short stories and essays that border on poetry!*** Poetry I discovered this poem when the poet was under 30 days, but because of the schedule for the newsletters, he'll be on the outer-limit of "newbie" when this gets published. This is a charming poem, mysterious and endearing about the path not taken.
The title says it all.
A powerful visual poem where color is color yet so much more. Sent to me by opaltwins
A very interesting poem about war, language, and memory.
Something between a poem and an essay, very Post-Modern in feel.
*** Non-fiction: Featured Essay A shift in the Peds ward. Powerful.
How-To Article Troubled with crashes, lost files, moved or vanished taskbars? Visit this and get wonderfully clear and concise help!
*** Fiction: Historical fiction set in the 1870's.
A photograph alters the division between poetry and short story.
*** Interactives: Featured Word Search A word search that can be a little "Harry."
Poll: Leonardo Di Caprio, heartthrob or has-been? Vote here!
Featured In & Out
*** How To Corner I asked a friend, a newbie and recently promoted newbie, Tevie for suggestions for this issue's letter. She suggested how to manage your portfolio. (Thanks Tevie !)Now to the meat of the issue: Organizing your portfolio! First impressions count. We’ve all heard that expression. In the first excitement and blaze of creativity you just added items as you went, not bothering with sorting them, or how they were ordered. Now you’ve got eleven items in your port in every random sort of order. It’s messy and disorganized. Why does it matter? First impressions count, remember? Lets start with how things automatically get listed in your port: by order of creation date. So your first work should be up at the top and your last posted one at the bottom. If you are happy with this that’s great, but what if you got a wonderful awardicon and you want to show it off? Or if your best poem is at the bottom not the top? Again, why does it matter? Well, when people like me do “port raids,” that is reading the majority of your port in one go, we start at the top. We assume you put your best foot forward and put your very best, most finely honed and polished work. Readers are apt to back out of your port if it’s highly disorganized or cluttered and confusing. So how do you get organize? You’re in luck! The step-by-step, illustrated explanation, has been created for you by frostpe. In his "Invalid Item"  , a journal that is organized by topic, you simply look t the entry list to find the entry to explain how to do what. In the matter of organizing, he has two important entries: "Invalid Entry" and "Invalid Entry" . The first will illustrate how to organize and the latter will illustrate how to create a folder and move items into it. You might wish for a poetry folder, one for short stories. Create another folder for older works. Displaying a highly organized portfolio demonstrates you are serious and professional in your approach to your work. Use the first view someone has of your portfolio to make a statement. Put poems together. Group all interactive items together. Place fiction in a group folder, if it is serialized or chapters, place them in a single folder. There is nothing wrong with using “sub-folders” to get organized. Help your readers find what interests them! Just this small improvement should help convert views into ratings! A more detailed explanation follows, now that we covered all the "whys."Change The Order of Display Portfolio management doesn't seem necessary at first, especially when we only have a few items in our portfolios. Yet it's important, even then! Your favorite, or newest, or best item is something you might want to place first to showcase it! After all, when people "port raid" they often work from the first to the last. How do you control this? Well open your port. See the little box under the item ID? Click it. See the field next to it? Write in 5000. Go to the item you want seen next. Check the box. In the box next to it write 4500. And so on. When you finish, go to the bottom and click on the button marked Update Item Order. The page will reload and you see your items displayed how you want them. Organizing and making folders What about making folders? Well, at the top of your portfolio, you'll see a little folder icon. Click on it. It will take you to a page similar to what you get when making a new static. Make the title obvious, "My Nature Poems," for example. Be careful when you rate this. The folder must be rated to the highest rating of the highest item going in it. So if you have three G rated poems, and one R rated poem, rate the folder R. Once you've saved it, go look at your port. Remember those handy click boxes? Click the ones you want to move into the new folder. Scroll down to Folder Management Utility First use the pull down menu to select "My Nature Poems," and click on the button that says "Move Items to Folder." It's that easy. A good place for references on how to manage your port, create new item types, and other mysteries is:
Many thanks to frostpe for generously sharing his work and creating items to help new users! Kudos! Submit an item for consideration in this newsletter! http://www.Writing.Com/main/newsletters.php?action=nli_form  Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter! http://www.Writing.Com/main/newsletters.php?action=nli_form Don't forget to support our sponsor! %%NL_AD_BOT%%  " I noticed that a lot of people had the same titles for stories or poems. And some times the stories are the same, or have the same lines in them. If I write something I wonder if I can say it is really mine if 20 other people wrote something like it. Isn’t that plagiarizing [sic]? The best way to answer this is to encourage you to visit this item:
This is the official site policy in the issue of plagiarism and copyright infringement. *** W E L T Y 69 asked, "I was just wondering how long do you have to be here to be considered a newbie. I have been here for 6 months. Am I still a newbie? If I am not then forget my question."For the purposes of this newsletter, a newbie is someone under thirty to sixty days, from the time of registration. (The date you created your account is what the editors look at.) We do try and focus on writers under thirty days, but because we only write one issue a month, we have a bit of leeway. Some groups consider a "newbie" to be in the under sixty days rule. There are some groups that stretch to 90 days. It really is a matter of reading the information for a given group, usually listed in their group page or in a forum the group hosts. Careful reading of their rules prevents a suspended or deleted post. Warmest Regards, Pita  Your editors: outlawpoet amawitch yesnomaybe  Have a question or comment for the Editor? http://www.Writing.Com/main/newsletters.php?action=nli_form  To stop receiving this newsletter, go into your account and remove the check from the box beside the specific topic. Be sure to click "Complete Edit" or it will not save your changes. |
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