5 Wonderful Writing Communities
August 22nd 2009 23:07
Writing is, for the most part, a solitary thing. You spend hours by yourself on the computer typing away, getting your story out onto the screen, replacing the blank white screen with a screen full of black text.
But one of the things that has influenced and helped me most as a writer is community, starting with some communities I've mentioned in previous posts (some of them quite often). I'm a mamber of several writing communities, and each one has helped me in its own way.
Here are five of my favourite writing communities, which I visit every day:
1. Nanowrimo.org Anyone who has been following this blog for any significant period of time (I know there are at least a couple of you) will know that I can't talk about writing communities without mentioning Nanowrimo.
Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month, an annual challenge every November to people from every walk of life, every profession, every class, every country, to write 50, 000 words of fiction in one month. There are incredibly active forums, especially in November but also all year round. The members are absolutely amazing, coming from all different places in their writing, all walks of life, and helping each other without a cruel word.
Nanowrimo is one of the most amazing things in my life. Not only is the online community absolutely amazing, with great forums where people will help you with anything writing-related, cheer you on, and where you can do the same for other people, but they have Municipal Liasions and actual offline groups in a number of cities around the world. I absolutely adore Toronto's Nanowrimo community, and I've known a lot of them for several years.
I grew up with Nanowrimo. Nanowrimo inspired me-as it has inspired thousands of others-to write my first novel, and many more since. Nanowrimo is my most productive time of year, and I absolutely love this event and community.
I can be found on Nanowrimo and a number of Nanowrimo related sites with the account name Litharukia.
2. YNaNoWriYe Forums Nanowriye, or Wriye, was inspired by Nanowrimo and is one of many spin-off communities. The goal is to write a certain number of words (this can include monthly challenge word counts, creative non-fiction, poetry, et cetera) over the course of one year. While the community is nowhere near as large as Nanowrimo, it's an incredibly supportive community with some great members.
This challenges you to push yourself, and gives you leeway if for some reason you can't write for a few weeks-you still have time to catch up. You can also change your word count goal at any time throughout the year.
I've been doing Wriye for the first time this year and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm having a great time with the community and I'm working hard toward my goals, finding myself motivated.
3.Accentuate Writers Forum This website includes a number of forums for freelance writers of both fiction and non-fiction, including listings of paying markets and contests for fiction and non-fiction, a general writing forum and forums discussing a number of freelancing websites.
I don't spend nearly as much time on this forum as I do on some of the others that I currently take part in, but it's a great resource, as is the blog of the woman who runs it, which you can find links to in her signature (Michy, the one who started a variety of market listing threads).
4. Critique Circle this is an online workshop for critiques. You can critique a variety of work from any genre, of any length depending on your free time. You can also put your work up and receive critiques-this is where I've gotten my most in-depth Critiques. The forums are good but I don't spend as much time on them.
The only sad thing about CC is that unless you have a paid account, you have to wait for your short story/chapter to go up through sometimes multiple critiquing rounds (stories go up for a week from one Wednesday to another), up to three or four weeks at times. I don't really have the patience to do this with a whole novel, so I've never put a full one up for critique, just a few chapters of each. I spend a lot more time working with other people on their novels/stories, because I love to read and here I find stuff I'd never see otherwise, and because I have a lot of fun critiquing others' work.
This is a great site, especially if you can afford a premium account, which gives you the ability to start your own private queues.
I'm Diannaskye on CC.
5. NanoPubYe The goal for this is to get your novel (Nanowrimo novel or other novel) out to agents and editors within one year. I originally joined this community in 07, and worked on my 06 Nano for some time before realizing that there was no way I'd have it ready to send out queries in that year, because I had to basically rewrite the novel from almost-scratch.
This community isn't too active, unless it's changed since, with a burst of activity in December/January and many people dropping out throughout the year. I do intend to take this challenge on again next year though, with Moonshadow's Guardian which was my 06 Nano and is almost ready.
My username there is Diannaskye.
...And now it's time for me to head out to the Nanowrimo summer event in Toronto: Nanowrimo Karaoke! *Waves*
Have a good night everyone.
But one of the things that has influenced and helped me most as a writer is community, starting with some communities I've mentioned in previous posts (some of them quite often). I'm a mamber of several writing communities, and each one has helped me in its own way.
Here are five of my favourite writing communities, which I visit every day:
1. Nanowrimo.org Anyone who has been following this blog for any significant period of time (I know there are at least a couple of you) will know that I can't talk about writing communities without mentioning Nanowrimo.
Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month, an annual challenge every November to people from every walk of life, every profession, every class, every country, to write 50, 000 words of fiction in one month. There are incredibly active forums, especially in November but also all year round. The members are absolutely amazing, coming from all different places in their writing, all walks of life, and helping each other without a cruel word.
Nanowrimo is one of the most amazing things in my life. Not only is the online community absolutely amazing, with great forums where people will help you with anything writing-related, cheer you on, and where you can do the same for other people, but they have Municipal Liasions and actual offline groups in a number of cities around the world. I absolutely adore Toronto's Nanowrimo community, and I've known a lot of them for several years.
I grew up with Nanowrimo. Nanowrimo inspired me-as it has inspired thousands of others-to write my first novel, and many more since. Nanowrimo is my most productive time of year, and I absolutely love this event and community.
I can be found on Nanowrimo and a number of Nanowrimo related sites with the account name Litharukia.
2. YNaNoWriYe Forums Nanowriye, or Wriye, was inspired by Nanowrimo and is one of many spin-off communities. The goal is to write a certain number of words (this can include monthly challenge word counts, creative non-fiction, poetry, et cetera) over the course of one year. While the community is nowhere near as large as Nanowrimo, it's an incredibly supportive community with some great members.
This challenges you to push yourself, and gives you leeway if for some reason you can't write for a few weeks-you still have time to catch up. You can also change your word count goal at any time throughout the year.
I've been doing Wriye for the first time this year and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm having a great time with the community and I'm working hard toward my goals, finding myself motivated.
3.Accentuate Writers Forum This website includes a number of forums for freelance writers of both fiction and non-fiction, including listings of paying markets and contests for fiction and non-fiction, a general writing forum and forums discussing a number of freelancing websites.
I don't spend nearly as much time on this forum as I do on some of the others that I currently take part in, but it's a great resource, as is the blog of the woman who runs it, which you can find links to in her signature (Michy, the one who started a variety of market listing threads).
4. Critique Circle this is an online workshop for critiques. You can critique a variety of work from any genre, of any length depending on your free time. You can also put your work up and receive critiques-this is where I've gotten my most in-depth Critiques. The forums are good but I don't spend as much time on them.
The only sad thing about CC is that unless you have a paid account, you have to wait for your short story/chapter to go up through sometimes multiple critiquing rounds (stories go up for a week from one Wednesday to another), up to three or four weeks at times. I don't really have the patience to do this with a whole novel, so I've never put a full one up for critique, just a few chapters of each. I spend a lot more time working with other people on their novels/stories, because I love to read and here I find stuff I'd never see otherwise, and because I have a lot of fun critiquing others' work.
This is a great site, especially if you can afford a premium account, which gives you the ability to start your own private queues.
I'm Diannaskye on CC.
5. NanoPubYe The goal for this is to get your novel (Nanowrimo novel or other novel) out to agents and editors within one year. I originally joined this community in 07, and worked on my 06 Nano for some time before realizing that there was no way I'd have it ready to send out queries in that year, because I had to basically rewrite the novel from almost-scratch.
This community isn't too active, unless it's changed since, with a burst of activity in December/January and many people dropping out throughout the year. I do intend to take this challenge on again next year though, with Moonshadow's Guardian which was my 06 Nano and is almost ready.
My username there is Diannaskye.
...And now it's time for me to head out to the Nanowrimo summer event in Toronto: Nanowrimo Karaoke! *Waves*
Have a good night everyone.
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