Good places to share your writing?

[Ponyfan]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a good place to get critiques on a beginner’s writing? I don’t have a lot of real life friends that would be interested in the subject but everyone once in a while I wonder if my writing is good enough that others would find it interesting.

Ponyfan

[Snapdragon]

That's a good question! I am in a similar boat. Amateur local writing groups?

[Ponyfan]

I hope you find somewhere to share your writing too, Snapdragon. I'm not sure if my area has any  local writing groups.   I'm afraid that people that aren't interested in reading my story will either be so bored that they don't try to read it for long or won't give me honest criticism. There are several places where I know my writing needs improvement but I've worked on this for so long it would be nice to have another person look at it.


Ponyfan

[Endless_collectathon]

There are websites like LiveJournal and fictionpress, where you can post your story and see how interested people are and ask for critiques it's a little intimidating but I've NEVER gotten a negative comment- people aren't too eager to be rude, and if you like what you've written there's no doubt someone else will too

[HelloGoodbye]

I post my fanfiction on Archive Of Our Own and I love it!  It's a great format and it's a good community.  People can also post original pieces that aren't fanfic on there, but I don't think it usually gets a ton of hits since it's primarily a fanfiction archive.  It has an excellent tagging system which I think is the best part of it. 

[Ponyfan]

Thank you Endless_collectaton and HelloGoodbye.   It is a fanfiction story but is far from being complete. Can you post work in progress fanfiction on Live Journal or Archive of Our Own?

Ponyfan

[HelloGoodbye]

Archive of Our Own is perfect for in progress fan fiction!  You can upload stuff chapter by chapter as you work on it, so it's a really good system.  I had one story that I posted over the course of about two years on there as I finished bits and pieces of it.  You can also go back and edit things after you post them which is nice.

[Ponyfan]

Thank you HelloGoodybe. Archive of Our Own sounds like the perfect place to post my fanfiction story when I'm ready.


Ponyfan

[roye387]

Hi Ponyfan! Is there a genre you generally stick to? This is just a guess, but you're probably talking about writing short stories? Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[bright rabbit 1]

I use both FanFiction.net, and Archive Of Our Own websites to post my fanfic stories.

[Ponyfan]

Hi Ponyfan! Is there a genre you generally stick to? This is just a guess, but you're probably talking about writing short stories? Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I'd call it an epic adventure story. Only about 1/4-1/3 of the story is organized but I have several hundred pages of ideas written out. I'm kind of stuck in the middle of the story trying to figure out where I want the characters to go.


Poynfan

[ladybastilla]

Yes, if it's Fan Fiction I use fanfiction.net or Archive of Our Own. Good luck!

[Taffeta]

With fanfiction I had some of the (very old cringy) stuff on my website (but I left it there because it's all part of the process of my writing, even though a lot of it got written when I was 18 and I'm now 35) and then moved to FFnet when I got into writing anime fanfiction. I wrote for Tenchi Muyo, Fushigi Yuugi and Bleach, plus a couple of Saiyuuki drabbles - it really depends on the popularity of the show/series/book/whatever it is you are writing fanfiction for as to the reception you get in number of comments.

I wrote fanfiction for fun and to improve my writing and I found the most useful one for me with that was Bleach because I had a lot of reviewers and a lot of people who read from the start of my writing through to the nominal end (I am still working on one story but it is piecemeal and inspired because of the evil done to Bleach in the last manga arc, and so the Bleach fandom is not as active now).

I don't know Archive of Our Own and I'm not going to comment in terms of which site - I think FFnet has stupid formatting rules these days but since I began there, I'm staying there - but in terms of what you post, if you want genuine writing feedback, it helps to write about a genre that people are currently very interested in. You can write a brilliant fanfic story for a lesser genre and get only a few comments. I've seen that a lot. So it's really whether what is important to you is getting feedback and constructive criticism, or writing a story you really love about something you really love, even if other people are not so engaged in that genre.

Of course, if you're writing fanfic for a popular genre, like FIM, then it probably wouldn't matter either way
Just thought I'd put that out there, because number of comments and reviews doesn't necessarily relate to the quality or otherwise of what you are writing, but the popularity of that topic at any one time.

Good luck! I miss having enough time to write :/ but all I seem to write about these days is mediaeval Japanese warriors in my PhD. Maybe one day I'll write a novel about that...

[Ponyfan]

Thank you, Taffeta.    Working on this story has improved my writing a lot even from when I first started on it. When I look back at the early sections I can see how much I've grown as a writer and I have to admit the early sections do need some revision work to bring them up to the same level or writing as the other sections.   

I do enjoy writing the story except when I can't figure out how to move on to the next scene or what I want to happen next. I have written the same scene sometimes 10 or 11 times changing one or two things (maybe replacing a character with another or changing the dialogue) and sometimes I still don't feel like the scene is complete.  I love the basic plot of the story (I think that's why I've never given up on it completely) and if ever completed I think it could fit in well with the established characters.


It's very true that if I don't get a lot of comments that doesn't mean that the story isn't good, just that people might not be interested in reading it at the time.


Ponyfan