✍️ Writing
A community for writers, like poems, fiction, non-fiction, short stories, long books, all those sorts of things, to discuss writing approaches and what's new in the writing world, and to help each other with writing.
Rules for now:
1. Try to be constructive and nice. When discussing approaches or giving feedback to excerpts, please try to be constructive and to maintain a positive vibe. For example, don't just vaguely say something is bad but try to list and explain downsides, and if you can, also find some upsides. However, this is not to say that you need to pretend you liked something or that you need to hide or embellish what you disliked.
2. Mention own work for purpose and not mainly for promo: Feel free to post asking for feedback on excerpts or worldbuilding advice, but please don't make posts purely for self promo like a released book. If you offer professional services like editing, this is not the community to openly advertise them either. (Mentioning your occupation on the side is okay.) Don't link your excerpts via your website when asking for advice, but e.g. Google Docs or similar is okay. Don't post entire manuscripts, focus on more manageable excerpts for people to give feedback on.
3. What happens in feedback or critique requests posts stays in these posts: Basically, if you encounter someone you gave feedback to on their work in their post, try not to quote and argue against them based on their concrete writing elsewhere in other discussions unless invited. (As an example, if they discuss why they generally enjoy outlining novels, don't quote their excerpts to them to try to prove why their outlining is bad for them as a singled out person.) This is so that people aren't afraid to post things for critique.
4. All writing approaches are valid. If someone prefers outlining over pantsing for example, it's okay to discuss up- and downsides but don't tell someone that their approach is somehow objectively worse. All approaches are on some level subjective anyway.
5. Solarpunk rules still apply. The general rules of solarpunk of course still apply.
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Sorry for missing last month, it was the end of the school year and that's always a bit chaotic getting packed up and prepping the classroom for summer.
I've been doing quite a bit of reading and have written a few book reviews, as well as personal journaling. Its nothing super creative, but its kind of my standby mode to stay writing. Summer has been nice so far, I've gotten many of the house projects I had on hold all school year finished & am finally about to get my office space set up. I really think having a dedicated work space will help me get into a better work flow. Basement life & living out of boxes has really taken a toll on my creative process lol.
Hopefully next month I'll be able to share more & will make some headway into my larger form projects that have essentially been on hold for the last year.
Great to hear from you!
Ooo I love book reviews, although I generally don't read a real, like, "full" review until after I've finished reading the book--I consider it like a little treat for finishing, to dive into the meta discussion. There are so many different types of reviews: teaser/no-spoiler, blow-by-blow (just explains the plot beats), recommender (try to communicate what kind of people would like the book), thematic deep-dive, meta cultural super contextual zeitgeist spiderwebs, highly academic, highly personal (how someone related to the story--love these), etcetcetc. It's like as infinite and myriad as there are people who have lived.
Definitely understand this "standby mode" phenomenon. I suspect for many writers it's the default mode.
My reviews tend towards being discussions of the themes of the book and thoughts on what did or didn't work well. I also have one or two sentences recapping the plot. They're mostly for my own records so I can jog my memory of the book later on. Or so I can find the title of something I vaguely remember lol
I do love spoilers though, so I often read reviews before going into a book lol. I enjoy knowing where things are headed so I can appriciate the journey there. I can fully understand having them as a post book treat though :)
Nice. I can also understand liking spoilers. I love rereading books for this reason. Sometimes it's even better after you know what to expect.
Kind of an aside, but I wonder aloud if there's a book version of "doesthedogdie" for very light spoilers regarding like content triggers. I've certainly got one of two that will make me put a book down.
I love these kinds of reviews! I've been reading so many books that either botch the ending or disregard their core themes in the last few years, that at this point I look for such reviews before putting in the time and effort to read the book itself. Avoids so much frustration!
Same! Endings are the hardest part & soooo many books just completely miss the mark.