Furry Writers' Guild Forum

FWG Anthology Theme Voting

It’s time for voting!

Each person may choose their top two favorite topics. Top scoring topic when the poll closes this time on Sunday will be the theme for our first anthology.

Here are the ideas with descriptions for your reference:

[ul][li]Relationships gone horribly wrong
- Ever thought that you’d found ‘the one’? Ever have that feeling that what you have was perfect and would never go away, whether you’d been together for ten years or ten days? What happens when everything you thought you were sure of comes crashing down on you?[/li]
[li]Writers about writers
- You’re a writer, right? Why else would you be here? What’s a day like in the life of a writer? I don’t just mean someone who sits at a desk and rants in a journal about their day; I mean someone who eats, sleeps (or doesn’t), and breathes writing. The written word is enough to send tingles down your spine, and you’ll do anything to make sure your story is the best it can be.[/li]

[li]Anthro characters created by humans
- The origins of anthros have been a well-debated topic since the idea of them started. How were they created? Do they only exist in some alternate universe? Can they exist in our future? Who made them?[/li]

[li]Tis the season…any of them
- Pick a season; spring, summer, fall, or winter. What is it about that season that you love? Hate? What kinds of stories can be told about these times of year?[/li]

[li]Strong female characters (strong in any sense of the word)
- Girl power. Feminism. Whatever it is that you call it, women are strong, whether it’s physical or mental. They have made their mark on our society. Tell us their story.[/li]

[li]The workplace
- Whether you work the 9:00-5:00 office life or the 3rd-shift stock life, how does it affect you? What’s the mentality of someone working in this sort of position? Do they like it? Do they want out?[/li]

[li]Specified species - pick one (feline, canine, mythological, etc)
- Some dogs spend their nights howling at the moon, while others spend their days sniffing out crime. Some do both. What about cats? Unicorns? Lizards? We know dogs have their stories and we love to hear them, so do you want to tell more? Or do you want to move to another species? Lets pick one and tell their story.[/li]

[li]Things we’ve learned (new, old, remembered, etc)
- What have you learned or been taught in your life? Was it a happy memory? Sad? Did you just have an epiphany at the office? Write about it.[/li]

[li]Crossing barriers, physical or otherwise
- What kinds of barriers are there? Emotional, like a fear? Physical, like a brick wall? Social, like the struggle between financial/racial/gender/sexual classifications? What’s your experience with them?[/li]

[li]Spanning across generations; characters with actual/mental age differences
- What kinds of relationships are there between father and son? Grandparent and grandchild? The mentally undeveloped and mentally developed? What kinds of bonds do they have, whether they are good or bad?[/li]

[li]Struggles
- Whether you’re struggling to find love, having trouble at work, or going on a dangerous mission to save a city, we want your story.[/li]

[li]Opening new doors; tales of first experiences
- This anthology is a first experience for the FWG, though not for all of its members. What kinds of first experiences have you had? Have they been triumphs of love and joy? Or failures of heartache and death?[/li]

[li]Music
- If music be the food of love, sing on. A vibrant anthology of music and how it can mend the deepest wounds and bring together fierce tribes. Music is the universal language, what does it say to you?[/li][/ul]

You can change your vote as much as you’d like, but the votes will be hidden until the poll closes. Trying to make this 100% fair.

Polls will close in 45 minutes; at 5:00pm EST. At that time we shall have our theme for our first anthology.

Immediately after closing I shall open the project up for submissions.

Oh, and in the event of a tie, I will re-open the poll with the top two options for another 24 hours. At that time we’d have our decision.

Voting is closed! There is indeed a tie. With seven votes a piece, “Strong Female Characters” and “Music” are the two top voted themes. I am re-opening the polls with just those two themes and you will have till this time tomorrow evening to vote.

Music is less appealing to me because, if I remember my copyright laws, you can’t use song lyrics in a story. I’m not sure if the same goes for titles of songs. Anyone know more about this?

I would guess that titles would be okay, simply because one can’t really copyright a specific song title. Case in point being that there can be 40,000 songs with the same title, all completely different songs. As long as you don’t say by then you should be good.

It doesn’t need to be an established song; it can be how the simply act of hearing music can change you. Change your mood. Change your life.

And if you still feel that way, we have 19 hours until voting completely ends. Who knows what will happen.

Quoting small pieces of other works, whether music, prose, poetry, or whatever, is a legitimate fair use. Reviewers do it all the time. Just be sure to give proper credit somehow.

Quoting an entire song, or whole chapters of a longer work, would best be done only with permission from the copyright holder.

Of course, works that are in the public domain are just that, and you can do whatever you like with them.

Thanks for the info, Altivo. I actually forgot about that question otherwise I would have looked it up!

Anyway, voting is over. By a margin of two votes, the theme for the FWG’s first anthology will be: Music!

With other works, yes, but fair use doesn’t apply to song lyrics. Titles are okay, but not actual quoted lyrics, not even a couple lines.

(More info here.)

And apparently I blinked and missed the run-off vote… Just a day? :confused:

Wow, that’s really frustrating. Ugh. Means I’m going to have to find a work-around (though not for an anthology piece, for a novel-length work I wrote).