I recently joined an online writing community called ‘Scribophile‘, following a recommendation from fellow blogger DHH.
Scribophile’s website is very well designed. There are the usual personal profile pages, forum, blog and FAQ, but for me the main draw is its comprehensive critiquing system, based on ‘karma’. It’s really quite neat: you earn karma for critiquing others’ works, and then spend your karma to post your own writing for others to rip apart comment on. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. It’s not possible to game the system; you can’t avoid doing your fair share of critiquing if you want to post your own work.
Possibly best of all, there’s a free option. It’s fully functional, although limited (for instance, as a ‘basic’ — free — member you can only have a total of two pieces of writing up for critique at any one time — whereas a ‘premium’ member enjoys unlimited works). So it needn’t cost you a penny to test the waters.
If this is of interest to you, when you get there please do look me up!
In other news, I’ve also joined a writing group near where I live, but that means I have to go out into the big wide world to meet people face to face… scary!
Interesting, will forward that (and this post) to one or two writers I know.
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Thank you!
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I’ve joined, I’ll have a mooch around later and check it out, a great idea, and yes, I’ve looked you up on there, *beams a smile out*
– Esme Cloud
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Terrific! See you there :)
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Everywhere I look, there you are! You’re a pre-emptive stalker of sorts :D
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A pre-emptive stalker. In other words you’re stalking me! Hahahahaha
– Esme potently omnipotent upon the Cloud
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No! You wait for me hiding in the bushes!!! I know your methods!
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He said.
– Esme falling about upon the Cloud
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Is that Sarah Ferguson? Time has not been kind!
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Hahahahahahaha.
You’re going to get us kicked out!
Mr Wibble, please feel free to delete this frippery at will.
Poor Will!
– Esme Cloud pegging it fast
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I wouldn’t dream of deleting this thread, it’s the first time in years (literally) that there’s been this much activity at the Wibbloratory.
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Then by the Gods of all sizes we’ll stay!
– Esme of Cloud fame setting up camp under his dining room table
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Thank you – will check this out for sure!
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My pleasure, hope you find it of interest!
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Brilliant recommendation and one that I will most certainly follow up early next week. I must say that there are more and more wonderful software applications and websites coming along all the time. Once again, Colin, well done!
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It would be great to see you on Scribophile, Paul. Don’t you have another book in the works?
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Yes. About half-way through but struggling dedicate time each day to it. But Scribophile sounds like a great community. Will sign up before the end of the week!
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How’s that book coming, Paul?
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Hello Colin,
Thank you for this heads up. I’ve signed up and will get round to checking out the platform when I catch some time. BTW, I put you down as the guy to blame when they asked how I got to learn of them.
Cheers,
Eric
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I’m very impressed with the place so far, Eric. I think you’ll find it a useful resource.
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I love/am terrified by the idea of submitting my word children to thoughtful critique by knowledgeable peers. I would love to hear how the in-person group works for you.
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I’ll post an update on that when I have something of use to report.
PS Love the term ‘word children’ :)
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I promised to let you know how the ‘in-person group’ worked for me, revruss1220. Sadly, it didn’t. Nice bunch of folks, but I felt too awkward to stay long enough to get to know anyone. Scribophile, in contrast, is so much more convenient — I can ‘go there’ whenever I want to, I’m not restricted to set meeting times. And of course there’s no tedious mucking about with actually getting my body there, no traffic, no parking issues… Yes, you’re right, I’m making excuses :/
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It seems like you’re “liking” the posts on my site without actually reading them. If that’s the case, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do it.
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I don’t know what would give you that impression… :(
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If you’re reading them, it isn’t reading that you’re clicking on them; the only # going up is “like.” The number of posts read isn’t going up, and the site isn’t showing that those posts have been clicked on.
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Uh… don’t know what to say to that. Rest assured that I did read your poems.
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Cool, it’s a glitch. I have had people—usually those with about 40k followers or some crazy # like that—go on and just click like on a number of posts in about ten seconds. Sorry for thinking that was the case here. Thanks for reading.
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I am not a proper writer. I came here because Facearse p@£#ed me off. I felt like an outsider there in the one place I should have felt at home. I will have a little lookie though.
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I sometimes wonder what a ‘proper writer’ might be. I know I’m not one, but I keep trying because I enjoy it.
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Yes me too. I think it helps express some of my feelings. I can’t do that on Facearse people avoid you like the plague or tell you to pull yourself together. Yeah right.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I set up my profile. I think that most of the site is dedicated to novels, short stories and poetry, which are not my niche. I will have to look around for some nonfiction articles to see if I can fit in somewhere.
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As a basic (free) member you can post up to two pieces at a time, so you could try using that to test the water maybe, see if you get any useful feedback? There is a category called ‘articles’. Just a thought.
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Thanks. I will try that!
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I just had a look — if you browse by ‘Browse by genre’ in the ‘Writing’ tab, ‘all’ ‘articles’, it does present five articles currently. So although you’re right, the site is predominantly non-articles, there are some there.
Give me a shout when you post something (you need to say ‘hi’ to me on the site so I know who you are) and I’ll happily give it a review :)
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By the way… there are about a dozen ‘Lauries’ on Scrib: which one are you?
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Meditations in Motion
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Ah, no, my mistake, I didn’t make myself clear. I was talking about Scribophile. Did you set yourself up there? If you did, I don’t know which of the umpteen ‘Lauries’ there is you.
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I love the idea of people having to contribute in order to get their work critiqued.
I’ve recently started participating in Reedsy Blog prompts. They have this thing called a critique circle. For every story you submit, I think you get two links in your email that lead to other people’s work. The idea is great. The problem is that people just end up spamming “Like” and not leaving a comment. I will definitely check Scribophile out. Having 2 piece up at one time is no problem. How do you take it down/ close it? Are you able to do it whenever you choose?
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I can see that would be a problem with the ‘Reedsy Blog’ thing you’re talking about. Scribophile is extremely well organised; you really do have to pull your weight in order to get anything useful out of it. You can just leave comments about a piece of work, but that doesn’t gain you any karma (the ‘coinage’ in Scribophile). You get karma for contributing solid suggestions for improving others’ works.
Your work on Scribophile is your own (there’s no copyright issues). You can copy it back to your own filestore as and when you like, and delete it from Scrib if you feel that’s necessary.
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