The Scribe’s Experiment

-Foreword-

Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.-Ernest Hemingway

A writer’s responsibility is simple: to tell a story, whether his own or those that are entrusted to him by the people whose paths he happens to intersect. Through the means of his own voice, many tales and narratives will find a way to the outside world, the world of the living; a place in which their mere existence can transcend the boundaries of paper and ink; just as the souls of those who are to come and even those who have left us seek, words also long for life and meaning.

The ideas and thoughts that a writer is gifted with or the ones he gives birth to, ought to be shared and be given the chance to resonate in the hearts and minds of the audience, hopefully gracing those who listen with something of value; perhaps love, fear, thought or maybe even doubt. In the long run, a storyteller who fails to effect a change in others, even the slightest, is one whose words were incapable to both attain and give the gift of life.

In many ways, a writer is a vessel for the ideas he is given from all places and all people but also a source for new visions and perspectives. The problem (or blessing) is, as both Hemingway and Asimov concur, that to write is to be alone. Writing involves only the author, his thoughts and his demons, all facing the empty space that arrogantly challenges him to build something of value from the ink within the pen or the pixels on the screen.

The risk of this is that the writer can become too lenient towards, or even numbed by a particular style, a specific vision of the world, to a single voice: his. One’s emotions, one’s fears and prejudices will always permeate into our words, it is simply inevitable: we are not wired to remain neutral to our surroundings, but to be inspired, affected, motivated or even infected by it. Sadly, many have chosen to become immune to the world around them, making them incapable of seeing life in another shade other than the one they are accustomed to. Ultimately the writer can become his worst enemy when trying to tell all the stories from all people, as he can only see through what his soul allows him to, a perspective that will never be absolute.

This is why the Stories other people tell become so important: they bring us closer to what we don’t know or haven’t experienced; they dare to tell what we may not have the courage to hear, say do; or are even capable of transmitting just what we long for in a moment of need. In spite of who or where they come from, words will always retain their power and here, my dear friends, is where you come in.

As a writer I’ve shared my stories and my voice with others; I genuinely believe some of the people who have read my work have found something of value in it, something they can take along with them even if I don’t see them or hear them ever again, and that is all I’ll ever need. But as a writer I also believe we all have a voice, a particular way of telling our stories and, contrary to what some may believe, we all have something to say. Therefore, in a continuous quest for new stories to tell, I’ll opt to silence my own and invite you to give us yours. For now I will choose not to tell the narrative but to keep a record of them, becoming not a writer or narrator but a scribe and instead pass the baton and the pen on to you.

What this project is about?

By definition a scribe is:

A person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession and helps the city keep track of its records.

The part I’m interested in is the record-keeping part. Record of what? Your stories! Who is “you”? Everyone! From where? Everywhere!

The original idea was to ask for people’s stories during my travels, since I like to travel a lot and I’m currently in a position to keep at it for some time. But that would be a bit slow so in trying to capture “all the stories from all people” so I thought: why not just ask as much people I know if they want to share their stories, even if I don’t necessarily get to meet them directly.

So, in a nutshell, the aim of The Scribe’s Project is to get all the stories from all people and share them with the world. Or, in a more technologically comprehensible language, I’m crowdsourcing story-telling.

How do you come in / What I am asking for?

The simplest answer to that is: your stories, whatever you want to share. The only catch is that it does have to be about you.

Maybe you want to tell something about your life, how you got where you are, why you do what you do (or how you are not really sure why do you it). Perhaps you have some great advice to give, a great tale of victory or sorrow or a terrible story you think can help others in a similar moment of need.

The point is to give your words, your story and your voice as a gift to the world and to allow others to take something from you with them and hopefully learn something along the way.

Where will the stories go?

The idea is the following: in the upcoming months (once I start work and have a stable inflow of cash) I’ll buy a website domain (on WordPress or something) and publish every single story there. I’ll also create a nice Facebook page to go along with it in a few days, maybe even a twitter account. Once the site goes live, I’ll let everybody know

In the mean time, I’ll post them on my personal blog (revolucionx.wordpress.com) until I have both the means to buy the website and enough stories to jumpstart it. Additionally, if I’m going to ask more people in the future to join this, it would give me some credibility if the site is already up and with a few things to read already.

The fine print 

The only fine print is there isn’t any. I don’t have to know who you are: your name, contact information are yours to keep and not disclose, if you so desire, but a first name or pseudonym would be nice. On the geek side of things, I would like to know your age, gender and where you are from, if you think it is ok for me to know it…think of it like simple information you could very well be providing to a poll regarding the opening of a new shop; I am a nerd and I like data, this data specifically serves as means of classifying the contents that will be accumulating, but ultimately you decide what information you wish to provide.

Additionally, I’ll never discriminate against or for any story in particular. All content is welcome, I just ask to keep it civil and respectful to others.

On the length of the stories, that’s up to you. I think anywhere from a couple of lines, a few paragraphs or a page or two should be just fine. As a personal literary rule of thumb: if it can’t be said in under a thousand words, it needs some more thinking. But that may be a lot for some or too little for others. Just share whatever you want!

I almost forgot, if any of this interested you please send your stories to:

[email protected]

It can be a word, text, PDF or anything that allows me to cut and paste. Scanned hand-written pages are also nice and more than welcome; those will be published as images and, if time permits, I’ll transcribe them to a Word document…just be merciful with the handwriting.

If it didn’t…well…just help me share it :D

Also, you can drop me a line if you want:

[email protected]
@revolucionx
FB: Rod Sandoval Rivera

Looking forward to your words

–The Scribe