Writing editorials is a bit like writing stories for Dargon, but with a lot less peer review, and I don’t have to conform to any set pattern, historical information, or what have you. It’s freeing, really. But while they sometimes fly off the page, there are other times when writing the editorial is like drilling out my own cavities, and purposely not using Novocain. Not fun. So, in the instance that the editorial is not striking me like a flash of Zeus’ bolt into my brain, I tend to go out and read a bit of other writers’ works and commentary. This month, I found an article that espoused a belief to which I’ve historically clung, even if I haven’t always practiced (but isn’t that always the case?) The idea is this: if you’re a writer, you should be writing stories that blow your mind. Simple as that. It doesn’t have to be every line of prose, every character’s shrug, gesture, or word … but there needs to be something. Because if you can’t blow your own mind with your dialog, plot, twists, conflict, action, and any other aspect of the story, chances are you’re not going to blow your readers’ minds, either.
Now, DargonZine is not a professional magazine. We don’t pay our authors or staff members (which is one of the reasons we’ve always been free!) and we don’t expect professional-grade work from everyone. We were formed, and continue to practice, under the the idea that aspiring authors collaborating in a shared world can learn a great deal. But along that same line, we do ask our authors to constantly improve, to push themselves, and to really dig deep into the stories they write. I sincerely hope you find some of that in this issue. We want to blow your mind.
This issue, I bring you two stories from the 2012 Summit Challenge. Almost every year at Summit, we issue a writing challenge to our authors to start, complete, edit, or otherwise get a story out during our annual Summit. There are usually stipulations and parameters that the author needs to follow. In 2012, the challenge was to complete a story started by a different author — one author initiates a setting, characters, and conflict, and then hands the story off to another to write the rest of it. Five of us participated in this challenge, and the assignments were randomized so no one person knew what he or she would be continuing when the Summit started. The first story is a collaboration started by Joseph Carney and finished by Liam Donahue, called Fleeing Fears. The second is a piece started by Dafydd Cyhoeddwr and finished by yours truly, titled Insecurities.
We hope you enjoy this issue, and have a happy and healthy holiday. We’ll see you next year.
-Jon
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