By Annie Hartley
There are more student writers in high school than teachers and other students know and most of them can be found online.
“Writing is my life. Writing and reading other people’s writing is something I have done since I was a little kid,” Temptest Wisdom said.
The world of online writing is a vast community for like-minded readers and writers to share their ideas, opinions, and stories. For many, it’s one of the most important things in their lives.
“There’s a strong sense of community that is really evident,” Temptest Wisdom said. “Almost everyone is there to write and improve their writing, so people make a real effort to help each other out with their writing.”
Publishers are selective and critical. Most won’t even look at a submission if they didn’t ask for it or if the author doesn’t have an agent.
“I don’t think there’d be as many opportunities as people think there will be,” says Gwyneth Forsythe. “I feel like there wouldn’t be, well, any opportunities really. Unless you did a workshop.”
Luckily, with the creation of the Internet, there are lots of places people can go to get their beloved work published.
“I don’t think there’d be a lot of chances to get published,” Bralt said, a writer on fanfiction.net. “If there weren’t sites to put it on, I don’t think I’d have shared it. I’d probably be writing just for myself, but I wouldn’t have shared it. And that’s pretty important if you want to get published.”
Online writing sites provide places for people to get published and read. They can post their work anonymously and then receive feedback and reviews. They can talk with other writers around the world with instant messaging, and they can read all sorts of different stories written by people like them.
“I like online writing sites because they give me a chance to share my writing as well as get feedback on it and look at other people’s writing,” says Gwyneth Forsythe.
Her writing can be found on Figment and FictionPress.
“Well I like them, and I think others like them, because it’s easier over the internet to show your work than do it face to face,” says Bralt. He has been on Fanfiction for just over a year, writing a variety of humorous Rangers Apprentice stories. He is a popular author and that status is well deserved. “I like that there’s more people like you because there might not be a lot of people you’re comfortable with seeing your work outside of the internet.”
Online writing sites also help budding writers improve their skills and become better. People can ask other writers on the site to ‘beta-read’ them. They send a chapter or story to their beta-reader who then edits it, makes suggestions, and points out things like plot-holes and inconsistencies. Writers can also get help from reviewers who point out typos and ask questions about things the author might not have noticed.
“They allowed me to see other peoples’ reactions to my writing, as well as improve mistakes,” says David Vincent, a Canadian writer on Fictionpress and Noveljoy. Vincent hopes to be a successful fiction writer after college, and his time on online writing sites will certainly help his chances.
Teachers like online writing sites as well because they give students a purpose for writing and a broader audience than just one or two people. It brings out the best in the students and capitalizes on their desire to write for themselves.
“Online creative writing encourages students to write their best,” says English teacher Daphne Foreman, “not just their most unfettered or rudest.”
Since Bralt has been on Fanfiction, his grasp of comma usage has gotten much better with the help of reviewers. His sentence structure has gotten better, too, with fewer run-ons. His spelling has gotten better as well because he knows that other people are reading his story.
For Forsythe, online writing sites have helped her with things such as plot holes and making sure everything makes sense. Just because things make sense to the author, doesn’t mean they make sense to the reader.
“It’s a lot easier to get constructive feedback this way, too,” agrees Wisdom. She is another author on Figment.
But putting the product of your imagination out for the entire world to see isn’t all fun and games.
“I was pretty nervous because I was afraid that it was either going to be made fun of or, not nice things would be said about it,” says Forsythe.
The unfortunate part, though, is that her fears aren’t completely unfounded. But for the most part, the people on these sites are fellow writers looking to help people out.
“I was really worried when I went to put it out there for the first time,” says Bralt. “I think it was mostly because I hadn’t shown my work a lot, so I didn’t know what to expect.”
A common misconception is that the readers will be hostile or mean. Writers worry that the readers will simply judge the story as good or bad and won’t even say why. They’ll just leave the author to figure out what they did wrong by themselves.
Mean people and reviews aren’t the only things to worry about when publishing online, though. There’s also the issue of work getting stolen. Lots of sites promise that a writer’s work is copyrighted and belongs to them alone, but is that really enforceable? A person could read something, change the idea slightly, and claim it as their own.
“I was terrified someone would steal (my work) and get published and famous off my hard work,” says Vincent.
Writers are possessive of their stories.
“I don’t like the idea that there’s the possibility that my writing might get stolen,” agrees Forsythe. “And copied.That kind of worries me.”
Writers online don’t steal other writers ideas without asking first. Sometimes, reviewers even offer writers ideas to put in their stories which makes writing, and reading, them more fun.
“You can interact directly with readers, give input, and have your own ideas put directly into the story,” says Xilla Meraz. Meraz doesn’t do much writing online, but she is an avid reader on Fanfiction.
But there’s a darker side to the world of online writing. There are people who leave constructive criticism – whom most people like – and then there are the people who are mean just to be mean. They’re called flamers.
“I get that not everybody is going to like your writing, but I don’t like how they attack you personally sometimes or go too far,” says Bralt. “They don’t really hurt me much, it doesn’t upset me, but I think there should be a monitor for reviews on some sites that prevents reviews that go too far.”
Flaming reviews are something quite a few people have to deal with.
“Because I was RIGHT!The zombies are here and then they’re story is very missleading.I suggest you put this story to rest,in THE NAME OF ALL THATS GOD!!” reads a flaming review for the story ‘Pokemon: An Undead Adventure’ by David Vincent and Enia Silverson (the alias for Annie Hartley).
A lot of the people who leave flaming reviews do so anonymously so it’s impossible for the people who they are insulting to respond to them. They give no reasons for their criticism or any ways for the author to improve.
But some people won’t even insult the authors to their faces, instead using other online sites to make fun of a story.
“I think you should know that some jackasses called the PPC has been making fun of a lot of stories, including yours,” one reviewer was nice enough to inform Vincent and Silverson.
The reviewer even left a link so the authors could see exactly what the flamers were doing.
“They call what they’re doing a “parody”, but they’re not brave enough to even tell the authors of the original stories. It’s not parody, it’s just someone putting their own self-insert characters into other people’s stories, then having them kill the authors’ main characters.”
But if one can grow a thick skin and be brave enough to put themselves out there, it’s possible to find an entire world and community of people who all like the same thing; reading and writing.
“Again, it comes down to it’s easier sharing it over the internet and not face to face,” Bralt says. It’s great that you can get help with writing or ideas and it won’t be graded. It’s not like an English assignment and it can be about almost anything you want.”
Most people think that fanfiction is dirty, but it’s really not. Admittedly, that might be a small part of it, but fanfiction is so much more.
“It takes place in my favorite universes, fandoms, and expands on pre-existing quality materia,” says Meraz. “You can easily access other stories by the author. It helps fandom develop its own culture and life.”
Fanfiction is a place for lovable characters to live on, unseen scenes to be seen, and plot holes to be filled. Occasionally, the writing is even better the original.
Fictionpress is the sister site to Fanfiction for original work, poetry, short stories, novellas, and full-length novels. One of the great things about these two sites is their PM feature, allowing people to send messages directly to other authors from all over the world.
Figment is a very popular site. It covers poetry, short stories, original work, and fanfiction.
“I think the way that it shares stories is really good and it makes it accessible to see other people’s writing instead of scrolling through long lists,” says Forsythe. Figment also allows authors to upload covers for their stories.
Noveljoy is a relatively new site, having come into being at the beginning of the year. They’re still working out all their features, but so far it has contests, forums, and everything else a good writing site needs. They also require authors to apply for an ‘author account’ to be able to publish work.