....by a writing bug. (I hope this one never stops itching.)
For my own benefit, and also for possible feedback from others, I am going to post a list of different Writing Forums that I am looking into. The impulsive side of me would just jump right in and register to all of them....but I'm already having a hard time keeping up with my email. (Not to mention this blog, which is my current writing priority.)
I'm not limiting myself to only one, there are different writing forums with different purposes, but I want to make sure I don't join one that will just be me overextending myself without any added benefit or growth potential in my writing.
One I've already decided on, but it's a little bit different from just a writing forum. My friend Tim Nichols introduced me yesterday to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I have to say I'm rather anxious to try it. Hence.... I'm starting to gear up for that and hopefully find an even better way to motivate myself to start writing even more than I am right now. (Which I know, isn't saying a whole lot, but you have to admit, I'm doing better keeping this blog up than I did all summer!)
Actually, last night when I couldn't sleep, (isn't such a strange thing for me unfortunately,) I took the insomniac opportunity to do a little writing and was pleasantly surprised with the beginnings of a story I ended up coming up with. I'm not going to share it here, this isn't really a "story" blog, but I do want to find a place where I can continue to delve into that genre and hopefully get some feedback as well. (Keeping up more than one blog is proving a little too difficult for me.)
But anyway, I might as well stop explaining myself and get to it.
~ NaNoWriMo
~ Writing Forums
~ Writer's Beat Forums
~ Writing.Com
~ LiteraryMary
~ Access for Writers by UniqueCritique
~ Faith Writers
~ Christian Writers
~ Edit Red
~ The Next Big Writer
~ Toasted Cheese
~ Forward Motion
~ Great Writing
~ InkSpot
Well...I think that's a good enough list for now. As I do more research into each site, (not too extensive, just poking around to see what the offerings are,) I'll probably edit this post to jot down my thoughts; what the pros and cons of each site are. And again, if anyone has any feedback about any of these sites through either using them yourself, word of mouth, or looking them over, please feel free to share.
Alright, off to do research!
2 comments:
As a full-time professional writer, I would encourage you not to get involved in any writing forums. I don't trust them. It's hard to know who is credible and who isn't, so you could easily get bad advice and mutually hurt one another. They say to never try to quit heroin with another fixer; I would say to never try to break into publication with another unpublished writer.
My favorite quote on the subject:
"Like it or not, there is a culture of unpublished writers. It includes its own mythology (sending yourself your own ms by registered mail to somehow secure magical protection from plagiarism and copyright infringement), superstitions (paperclip or not?), hagiography and so on. In that culture it's a fairly widespread belief that there is no real communication between an editor and an unknown writer."
-- Fred Welden, SFF-Net, Feb. 1999
...I didn't want to discourage you from writing, of course. Keep writing, keep reading. But if you're going to seek out writing advice, get it from a book in the library, not a website or forum.
See you at NaNoWriMo!
Post a Comment