I remember having a conversation with a classmate once back when NaNoWriMo was happening.
She asked me how I manage to write so much while still managing to ‘be a nerd’. She was under the misguided notion that writers get into the zone by isolating themselves from the outside world, locking themselves up in a room and punching in words into their keyboards. Maybe some writers do that (the 1% I bet you) but that definitely does not apply to me. If at all, my writing has grown immensely over the years by doing the exact opposite.
/flash-back begins/
July 9, 2009 – 12 year old Beatrice returns home from school and settles into browsing her Facebook feed (she was super interested in the mechanisms of social media back then *cough* especially MSN messenger *cough*). She notices a cute little advertisement to the right corner of the page for a writing community called ‘Protagonize’ and decided to explore and give it a shot. Little did she know it would change her life f.o.r.e.v.er.
/flash-back ends/
I am not being dramatic.
Joining Protagonize did change my life for the better. I was on the younger end of the writers on the site but talking, collaborating and sharing my work on the community did wonders for it. Comparing and contrasting my writing from the pre-Protagonize-era versus when it really started to boom on the community, it’s pretty clear how much I’ve improved.
Unfortunately, the community shut down June of last year. It was difficult, to say the least, to bid farewell to that small but golden corner of the Internet that I’d come to call home. My time on the community spanned eight years of friendships formed, collaborations entered into with fellow writers and literary adventures I’ll never forget. I will always treasure Protagonize for what it was and still continues to mean to me.
Since then, I’ve migrated to Wattpad , another writing community much larger in scale than Protagonize was with millions of readers and writers. Wattpad is great, especially in terms of finding a marketing base and target reader segment due to its size, but I feel it doesn’t come anywhere close to capturing the magic of what Protagonize was. Nevertheless, being part of an online writing community is always something you can do to step up your writing skills.
Why?
- You have a platform to showcase your work and meet like-minded writers and readers that can help cultivate your skills.
- Constructive criticism is necessary to grow, as tough as it may be to hear. Getting feedback from other writers and reviewers can help you nurture your weaknesses into strengths.
- It’ll discipline you. Once you get a steady base of readers expecting updates from the other side of the world, you’ll be more motivated to keep the words flowing and it can help establish a routine which could be just what you need to keep your writing intact.
- You’ll have inspiration in abundance that can help keep writer’s block at bay. When you’re not busy writing, you’re reading other people’s work. This can help form ideas for your own stories and get the ball rolling again!
- Friendships are formed. I met some of the most amazing people online on Protagonize and Wattpad – some of them very dear to my heart. We became writing partners and collaboration buddies and not only is it fun, it helps you grow and pitch ideas off one another.
The evolution of writing communities has also led to a new wave of self-published authors.
Writing online helped me find the confidence to publish my first book, A Midnight Reverie and is the very reason I’ve embarked upon the journey of publishing my second. You get a support system and you find a place to share your writing. It only gets better from there.
I still believe because of Protagonize – in who I am, not just as a writer, but as a person. If you’re a writer, I urge you to join an online writing community. There are so many to choose from but once you find the perfect fit, there’s no going back.
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