Archive for the 'The craft' Category

Writing.com the website

Hey guys,

Music to write by: “River of Deceit“ by Mad Season

Welcome to the first in a two-part series on Writing.com. There’s a lot of information to cover on this massive site, so I thought I’d break up the post into one section that details the advantages of using Writing.com’s services, and a second post detailing the negatives. (If you missed the pun in the title, I’ll give you a hint: “Pros” = “Prose”. hahaha…I kill me…).

Writing.com is a massive website that provides a lot of resources for a writer free of charge. It’s a meeting place for new writers and the largest critique group in the world.

Writing.com’s website centers around a writer’s “portfolio”, which is a place for writers to publicly post their work and invite reviews. You can using “Gift Points” to entice other members of the site into giving you reviews of your work (Gift Points are purchased or given as payment by writers you review) . These are certainly not professional quality reviews like you might find on Tangent Online. Usually these are short little shots of encouragement, but sometimes a writer will write you an essay on how to improve your work. Unfortunately, as with any site, Writing.com has their share of trolls, but it’s pretty easy to ignore them.

One of the services that I found most useful was the variety of genre-specific newsletters that get sent to your Writing.com inbox every week. Though these newsletters are often written by amateurs, often they contain valuable tips on how to improve your craft and find markets (much as this website does, but without your charming narrator). Some of the latest newsletter subjects have been “Hero’s Journey – The Belly of the Whale”, “Creating the Perfect Victim”, and “Dealing with Rejection”. There’s a newletter for every genre, including fantasy, mystery, horror, …etc. I’d recommend keeping the number of newsletters you sign up for low, or the reading can get a little intense.

Every newsletter, the editor posts their “picks”, which are often just stories that authors have sent them with a “please put this in your newsletter” note. This is a great way to put your stories in front of a lot of eyes and get some valuable feedback from other readers. Be warned, an “editor’s pick” means nothing, so don’t try to use it as a writing credit or even a good sign about the quality of your story, but it is great exposure.

Other activites include forums to participate in, crossword, games, and contests, so if the two features I mentioned above don’t appeal, don’t write the site off. You can get a base membership to the site for free, so I suggest you check it out.

If you thought this post read like an ad, tune in next post for a scathing critique of Writing.com. It’s sure to be dripping with bile, swimming in sarcasm, and rife with righteous outrage. You don’t want to miss that, do you? Do you? I thought not! See you next post!

Pixel-Stained Wretch Day

Hey Guys,

Music to write by: “How Long“ by Hinder

What is International Pixel-Stained Technopeasent Day? Well, it’s a response to a rant by Howard V. Hendrix, SFWA’s current Vice President. Mr. Hendrix basically complained about people like John Scalzi who promote themselves by posting their own work online for free, calling them Pixel-Stained Technopeasants and webscabs.

As you may remember, Scalzi posted his first novel on his blog as “shareware”, asking readers who liked it to send him a dollar. He ended up making $4000 from this, as well as attracting representation for his next novel. This was a huge boost to his career and other writers have followed suit. Posting your work online for free just plain works (if done right).

A blogger known as papersky and others responded by suggesting that April 23rd be “International Pixel-Stained Technopeasent Day”, a day for writers to post their work online for free.

She writes:

In honour of Dr Hendrix, I am declaring Monday 23rd April International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day. On this day, everyone who wants to should give away professional quality work online. It doesn’t matter if it’s a novel, a story or a poem, it doesn’t matter if it’s already been published or if it hasn’t, the point is it should be disseminated online to celebrate our technopeasanthood.

Of course, yours truly will be participating. Aside from a political statement, IPSTD is a tremendous opportunity for new writers. Many of the editors of today’s leading magazines are also writers in their spare time, and as I’ve said before, reading the work of editors is the best way of getting familiar with their tastes.

One of these editors is Nick Mamatas. He edits Clarkesworld magazine, a professional magazine that pays a stunning 10c a word. He’s already posted his own work online. You can find it here. If you want to get published in Clarkesworld, I strongly suggest you read it.

Got a favorite magazine? Find that editor’s personal blog on April 23rd and give it a read. Enjoy the opportunity!