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Larry Smith had a dream of letting you and me tell our stories to the world. As simple as it sounds, a publication about average folks telling their above-average tales wasn't a quick sale (damn those cold-hearted execs!). Undeterred, Smith toiled away, writing and editing for national publications like Men's Journal, Might, and Yahoo! Internet Life. Finally, in 2006, with the help of some volunteer editors, a clear vision, and fortuitous timing, Larry launched his namesake SMITH.

In an age when MySpace and Facebook rule the roost, the world blogs itself silly, and social “interconnectivity” is blowing up bubble 2.0, SMITH mag is in the right place at the right time. Larry's vision is to spread human tales—what he calls "personal media"—online and, eventually, in book form. With a much-hailed graphic novel and a slew of intimate, personal, and top-notch contributions, we think Larry's just cracked the book open.

The moral of Mr. Smith's story? Stick to your dreams and never let someone say "the end" before your adventure's even started.

The Craigslist Curmudgeon certainly can't be reaping financial rewards for his efforts at exposing the myriad indignities suffered by professional writers on the vast online classifieds site. Still, we're hard-pressed to call his entertaining blog, which culls the most insulting help-wanted ads for writers, a labor of love. Maybe a labor of crankiness? The Curmudgeon's chief complaint: would-be content providers that offer wordsmiths no pay. More specific no-nos: ads offering piddling in-kind compensation, ads with dubious payment schemes, ads offering nothing but "exposure," and ads offering no pay for ridiculous assignments. The Curmudgeon reserves special scorn for those who request help in drafting term papers or other scholastic assignments (Curmudgeon translation: cheating). Hey Curmudgeon, ask us how much we're making; it might qualify for a post.

The rules of this writing-exercise-turned-collaborative-site are simple: Write two sentences. Create tension between them. Define "tension" however you want. For some people, the strain comes from hunger. For others, it bristles in love, an impending separation, or mismatched affections. Many two-sentence composers go straight for the jugular, littering the list with severed limbs, guns, car-trapped narrators, and explosions of glass. A fair number of contributors skip right to the steamy parts or rely on potty humor. And yeah, this may be one short evolutionary step above "It was a dark and stormy night." But we relish any site that juxtaposes a two-line story starring hideous wallpaper with a mini-narrative that boils every country song and trashy romance down to two simple lines.