Need a place to post my Stories

nightmarenny

I know what your thinking. "go to the Writers block idiot". Well I did and that's why I'm here. I posted there and I'm not really getting any responses and I have a feeling its because my stories arn't even good enough for people to bother finishing. Not surprising honestly. I haven't really tried writing in six years. Even then it was nothing big. Thing is though I really want to keep writing and get better but for that I need some peer review to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

So my question Penny Arcade forum is this. Are there any other places on the web I could post my stories in hopes of getting useful advice to improve my writing?

Aldo

I can recommend asking some specific questions for the Writers Block folks. If there's a specific section you're uncertain about or a character you personally like but wonder how he comes across to someone else, ask them directly. Another thing to keep in mind is that the Writers Block is probably our smallest subforum and it often takes some time for people to read a complete post and come up with decent feedback. If you're really not getting any replies it's probably not because your story is bad, it's easy to tell someone what's wrong with your story. It's probably because it's on the right track or kind of middle of the road. If there's no glaring flaws it's tough to come up with constructive feedback.

Baron Dirigible

I think the main issue here is that you started a thread in the WB without really posting in there before, and then put your entire story behind a spoiler tag, with no explanation or requests or anything at all to make people want to help you. I'm honestly kind of surprised you got the two responses you did. Aldo's right: the WB is the smallest forum here by far, and is the slowest moving forum as well. That's compounded by the fact that critiquing a story well takes a fair amount of time and effort, and we need to see that the time and effort will be justified, which means the poster needs to make some sort of effort themselves. Just rocking up and posting a story behind spoiler tags (extra click = extra effort) won't endear you to anybody.

To answer your question, there are a lot of writing communities out there, both on the internet and in real life. I don't have any personal recommendations because I barely even post in the WB anymore, but Something Awful's Creative Convention always looked pretty promising, if you're the type to pay $10 for a forum account.

[edit: hurrrr I write good

Hahnsoo1

There are quite a few critiquing and writing communities out there. My girlfriend was involved with critters.org, for example.

nightmarenny

Baron Dirigible wrote:

I think the main issue here is that you started a thread in the WB without really posting in there before, and then put your entire story behind a spoiler tag, with no explanation or requests or anything at all to make people want to help you. I'm honestly kind of surprised you got the two responses you did. Aldo's right: the WB is the smallest forum here by far, and is the slowest moving forum as well. That's compounded by the fact that critiquing a story well takes a fair amount of time and effort, and we need to see that the time and effort will be justified, which means the poster needs to make some sort of effort themselves. Just rocking up and posting a story behind spoiler tags (extra click = extra effort) won't endear you to anybody.

To answer your question, there are a lot of writing communities out there, both on the internet and in real life. I don't have any personal recommendations because I barely even post in the WB anymore, but Something Awful's Creative Convention always looked pretty promising, if you're the type to pay $10 for a forum account.

[edit: hurrrr I write good

I posted my story under a spoiler tag because I looked around at other threads and that seemed to be the etiquette.

As for the lack of information I did originally write some stuff in the OP I erased it when I posted the new version of my story. Probably not a bad idea. I'll add some stuff back in.

noir_blood

Like a lot of critique groups, the Writer's Block can be kinda insular. If you want to post there, I recommend hanging around the chat thread a bit, and more importantly, making sure that you don't post 1st drafts or word vomit. Like others have said, critiquing is time intensive, and from my experience, the folks at WB give some great advice, but you need to show them you gone over your own stuff a couple of times before hand.

If you're just starting off, that might not be the best place to go though. There's tons of websites up for people to post stories, though you might have to try a couple to find one you like.

Try meetup.com also. If you live in a bit enough city, you might find a group that meets up.

Also, as silly as it might sound, check out twitter. Tons of writers are there, and if you have a specific genre you write in, you'll find like minded people. Plus, if own a kindle or have the app, there's tons of cheap, actually decent books to pick up that they'll advertise.

illirica

One thing I've found on any story critiquing area is that it really helps if the first thing you post in that area is NOT one of your stories. Stick around for a while - like a couple weeks - just critiquing other people's stories. Then the regulars look at you and say "Oh, yeah, I know that guy. He posts all sorts of helpful, insightful stuff." This puts you up on their mental list of people to bother with. Generally there are way more people who want other people to critique their works than there are people who bother critiquing the works of others, and those who are doing the critiquing just don't have enough time to post comments on everything that gets put up there, so everyone has a priority list of what they're going to spend their critiquing time on. Spend some time making yourself useful. Find out who the regulars and most active members are, and be sure to comment on their works. They will almost always return the favor.

Also it usually helps if the first few things you post are relatively short - it's a lot less of a time investment for someone to go through a few pages you've written than to go through half a novel. Break things up if necessary, or post a shorter work initially, so people get to know you and your writing style a little better before you bring out any major works.

TheBigEasy

www.absolutewrite.com/forums

Is one of the biggest writer forums on the net I believe. You should give it a look. They have sections for nearly everything. To get your work critiqued you need 50 posts I think and it is encouraged to critique others first before offering something of your own.

But overall this is a big resource for tips and tricks for your writing.

nightmarenny

Thank you very much.