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HISTORY

WRITERS' VILLAGE UNIVERSITY - THE HISTORY

R.J. (Bob) Hembree started what has become Writers' Village University in 1995.  The best way to explain how it all came about is to use Bob's own words with excerpts from an interview he gave in the T-Zero Xpandizine (September 1998):

Several years ago, a classmate and I were talking about what to do with ourselves after we finished school. I was an undergraduate then and he was in the MFA program. His idea was to get a seminar together and take it on the road. I like to travel, but I also like my family close by, so it wasn't likely to work for very long.  I had toyed with the idea of teaching on-line, and had even tried a couple semi-online philosophy courses in 1992. They were primitive compared to what's going on now...everything was telnet.

Much later, I tried an on-line class at Spectrum Virtual University. I was impressed by the way they set up everything, but remember feeling very frustrated and alienated by the experience. I saw that others were having the same problems, so we grouped together to get through the class. We formed a study group called the Cyberhouse 7, which kept growing as the class progressed. I think we ended up with over 20 members, but we stuck with the name. Several of the original members are now WVU members. And occasionally, I still get a letter from some of the others.

I asked everyone if they'd be interested in trying a class if I put it together. Most said yes, so I began work on Fiction 301 in May 1995. It was a trashy looking site; I used everything animated I could find and put everything in fat-bordered tables. The class turned out to be a real nightmare. I'm surprised any of the students in that class still talk to me, but that was the first WVU class. I kept trying, each time making changes and looking for better ways of making the site interactive. Eventually, I learned a little about CGI scripts and Java; that's when things really started coming together.

WVU began in 1995.  It moved full-steam ahead in December 1997 when I registered 4-Writers.com as a domain. Writers' Village University is a long-term commitment for me. I plan on doing this until my fingers fall off. I like the idea of working from home and I especially like working with other writers. I've always found creative people easier to get along with … I feel comfortable with them both on and off line, and the older I get, the truer this becomes. I've seen which side of the line I need to stay on to find satisfaction in life.  

WVU is change. It changes every day as it adapts to new students and members. There was one major change from the original inception. I had planned on teaching classes for a fee after two years of developing and testing. The interest was minimal, only a few students signed up, so I stopped taking new students and shifted my focus to what was working, and that was the Fiction 98 format. So rather than trying to force an idea to work, I found it best to let the idea find its own shape. It reminds me of the Architect who built a college, choosing to plant grass and wait before adding the sidewalks. A year after school was in session, student traffic created natural walking paths leading from building to building. This is where he built the sidewalks.

To see the direction that these natural walking paths have taken WVU in, read more in the Writers Village Today section.