As a writer, getting feedback on your work is invaluable –
it helps you to progress and improve and also lets you build up an audience.
One of the easiest ways of doing this is through online writing sites like
Figment and Wattpad. I have used both sites and this post is on why each is
great.
My accounts: http://figment.com/users/255846-Heather-James
Wattpad: One of the things I am most proud about in my writing, was that within a few days of going up on Wattpad, the first three chapters of Fire made it into the top ten fantasy stories on the site. It was also top of the Fantasy Teen Reads for quite a while.
Good For
Long stories with
lots of chapters
Practice at sticking with one stories, dedicating a lot of
time to it and updating frequently
Practice marketing and publicising
Reading series
Measured in reads – so people don’t have to comment or vote
for your rating to go up.
Not so good for
Short stories (harder to build an audience)
Figment: The best thing about Figment is the competitions. Whereas
Wattpad works best for long stories, which are updated frequently, Figment is
all about challenging yourself to write small pieces on a wide variety of
subjects. On Figment, I have written about scenarios and characters very
different to anything from the Elements of Power series. I think that I have
learnt a lot more from doing this.
Good For
People can react – quick way to engage, instant feedback
It tells you how long it takes to read each one
Easy to ‘swap’
Competitions – lots of inspiration and prompts
Not so good for
Longer stories - Comments are on the whole story, not
specific chapters, so people will generally only comment once
People will ‘swap’ hearts – so won’t necessarily actually
read what you’ve written.
If you don’t
already have an account on either of these sites, I really recommend that you
look into them now; even if you are a reader, rather than a writer, you’ll be
amazed what you can find on them. And the best part? They’re all free! Hundreds
of brilliant stories at your fingertips, without it costing you a penny!
And if you do have an account on either site, comment with a link so that I can check it out. I'll feature anything that I really like on the blog after the tour is over.
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