Former Editorial
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The Power of Ideas, passionately held |
3rd September 2011 |
Related Links: Inspired Retrospective Unheardwords Archive |
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The idea that became this site (unheardwords) stems from a ‘dim and distant’ past; perhaps as far back as the 1990s! The original idea was for a simple newspaper-style self-publication collecting together the words of ordinary folk on a local basis, and distributing these woven words as far and as wide as was possible – and you’ve got to understand me when I say, that with the limited resources I had at my disposal, back then, it probably won’t have been very far. Though, having said that, ideas passionately held can be powerful things – and who knows, how far this home-spun publication would have reached or how wide the circulation would have become. I exclaimed “1990s” earlier because you have to stretch your latter day minds back to get to fully formed recollections of that time – when, the printed word was queen, and if you were an ordinary soul (man or woman of colour, young or older) and you wanted your words to have a legacy, you would be thinking about getting them into print. The newssheet approach represented my way of quickly running off and releasing words written by all, for all. It seemed a quicker and more cost effective way than compiling and print running books. It’s appeal lived in its relative immediacy; ‘come and get your unheardwords’. Of course, at that time the idea stayed put inside my head. I had to wait for a bit more wisdom, a few more resources and some mass-media technological breakthroughs, to put print to electronic paper. In April 2004 therefore, I spent 10 hours or so (a lot more if you add in the background research), constructing my original seven pages before “launching” (too grand a word to use) unheardwords. And, yes, even tracking back through the early toddler-hood of the digital age is hard. The site may have been available across the WWW but the mentality (at least in the UK) was still about hardcopy print. Overcoming the barrier and attempting to free some words of the unheard was still very much, a goal to strive for. I started from scratch, built some good connections with fellow enthusiasts, those in the know, ‘like’ site owners, and sought to create a ‘space’ that would help, support and encourage new writers, and new writing. The recent 'retrospective' shows some of the quality of that writing, a look back and drawing together of seven years of fine contributions – I am grateful to and would like to thank all of those who have participated. As I became more familiar with the medium, I developed and then evolved different aspects of the site: new writer interviews; a you-write serial; your-write to feedback; words-to-images (inspired); the editorial; work-of-the-month; and perhaps the most popular spot – The Community. The digital child, meanwhile, has continued to grow-up, and as we approach 2012 the channels out to the world now seem set for exponential growth; the days of the physical, the hardcopy, the traditionally printed, have met their match (in convenience, volume and mass-market terms, if not in discernment and quality). And, there are now more opportunities for the voices (let alone words) of the unheard to be heard; I believe that’s very positive. And so, by way of writing this editorial I’m letting you know that from 2012, unheardwords will take a back seat, assume what I’m thinking of as an Archive status. Yes – it’s still going to be here. And, yes, it’ll still be possible to Write-in but the focus will be more on showcasing what’s already been collected, on the encouragement that’s already been given – so-to-speak – and by way of showing how an idea passionately held can be put into practice. Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who’ve visited, taken part and especially those who’ve contributed over time. Working with you has been a pleasure and evolving this site has been a labour of love. |
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