"The Tide" Revisited

A few weeks ago, we did a soft launch of The Tide (http://www.enmtide.org/, @enmtide), our digital literary magazine. During the course of the school year, there are various writing contests. We thought that timing the launch of the magazine with the conclusion of the Creepy Story Contest at school would be smart. We published the top stories that were submitted for that contest. Since then, a few other non-contest stories have come in and we published them as well. Needless to say, the magazine is in its infancy and there will be many tweaks and changes along the way.

Once we launched, there were a few things that my colleague, Brad Basinger (@sitting0vation), and I wanted to change. This is how we work. We publish the first iteration and then think of things that we want to tweak. After tweaking those, we see what else we can do to improve the magazine. I think this is how most people work. Of course, there are the perfectionists who will not put up anything until it is absolutely perfect. I can't abide that. I have to live with something for awhile, getting the feel of it, before realizing what needs tweaking. Having Brad as a second set of eyes is extremely helpful. He has a ton of ideas, most of which I hadn't thought of. Between the two of us, the magazine is shaping up to be a pretty cool venue for showcasing our kiddos' work. I think we are both excited to see how far we can develop this project.

We think it is important for kids to have many places to display their work, both at school and beyond the school walls. There is something very special about the moment a student sees their work published either in print or online. Sure, kids post stuff on social media all of the time but having their work displayed in a literary magazine that others control is something special. 

While this project is just beginning, we predict that it will grow quickly. Brad is making the rounds to all of the English classes over the next couple of weeks to promote our site and get more kids involved. Once they see it, many will want to be a part of it. We are happy that our writers will have a place of their own to showcase their work.