Writing.com

Writing.com, where do I begin?

I joined the site in April 2012 after reigniting my passion for writing after a 12-year absence. I was so scared to post my writing to an audience outside of my family. After procrastinating for a week I finally took that huge step and posted a poem for the world to read.

I can honestly say this was the best move in my life. Within an hour I received a review of my work, It was not only positive but helpful. My reviewer showed me the strengths and weaknesses of my piece and helped me to not only improve my work but to help me learn why things worked and some did not. Since then I've been hooked.

I've written for and won contests, met like-minded writers, and have even been published in WDC's very own hard-copy anthology. I have improved so much as a writer it's phenomenal, I've even had the courage to self-publish my own short story via Smashwords and Amazon.

WDC's strength is its community, it is so friendly and supportive words cannot express my feelings towards it. For me it was life changing. After a few months at the site, I joined a group called Brainstormers, a specific group set up for members suffering from mental disorders. I have suffered from depression all my life and I found a great home amongst some wonderfully understanding people. During a conversation, it was suggested that I suffered from Bi-Polar Disorder rather than from depression. After talking to my psychologist, he agreed and after lots of trial and error, I am now on the correct medication for my condition. It truly has changed my life. Not bad for a writing site huh?

This is the true colours of the community shining through. It expands beyond writing, the people here really do care! I have friends from across the globe, they help me improve as a writer, inspire me with their writing and they are there for me when I need them as I am for them. I have never felt less than an equal amongst the black, yellow, blue, purple and red cases within the site.

I could go on for another fifty paragraphs about the positives but instead I ask you to come and join us. My name on WDC is nangwaya and I'd love to meet you.

In all honesty I oscillate right at about a 4.5 with this site, I think it's way better than good but it's not perfect by any means, then again, who/what is?

LOVE the chance to enhance and really work on my craft. LOVE the diversity of all the users from all over the world. LOVE how involved the site creators, staff and moderators are.

If you are serious about getting involved and finding a place for honest feedback (some reviewers are better than others, but it takes all kinds, remember you get what you pay for and you can actually 'pay' for higher quality reviews if you don't want to put effort into participating in a review group) this is an amazing stepping stone. Several writing professionals are hidden among us amateurs (I'm amateur creatively but a technical writer by trade so I like to think I have a little something to offer) and basically donate tons of skilled time.

NOTE: You do NOT have to PAY for anything. I've been active on the site for over a year and have had a 'Paid Membership' for over 9 months. I have never paid a real dime for anything. I HAVE spent a ridiculous amount of time on the site though... but hey, I like writing! You "pay" for things with "Gift Points" that you can either purchase OR earn, through reviewing, winning contests, and otherwise being active. You DON'T have to be an amazing writer but you DO have to put effort into obtaining and earning advanced site features.

Another interesting feature on the site is 'Portfolio Colors'. You can't buy a color change, you have to earn it. Colors are black, yellow, blue, and purple (red is reserved for creators and staff) meaning author, preferred author, moderator, and... senior moderator respectively.

There is a lot of text on the main page but as a beginner I suggest focusing on the left hand panel and the rest will fall into place. It's really not that complicated but I can see how an anxious individual might feel overwhelmed.

The creators are constantly providing small updates and always looking for ways on which to improve, even after 13 years. I know of many sites that insist on operating the same way they did 10+ years ago. I give the creators' and staffs' dedication to changing with the times and continuous quality improvement 8 out of 10 stars. I withheld 2 stars because of time between major updates and lack of graphics, but it's a small writing site run by about 3 staff and a boatload of volunteers, so that's to be expected.

After seeing all the 1-star and 2-star reviews on SiteJabber, my response is that I have actually funded my account since September 2009 entirely in gift points without spending one real life cent (yes, it is possible; it's called being active in reviewing, contests including IM, and the community in general). As a long-time moderator, I didn't get this blue folder by kissing up to anyone; I just wrote from my heart and experiences and participated in the community, and the rest took care of itself. While my activity in the site comes and goes (for years I was part of the admin team of a now defunct small family-friendly community site, and blogged for a year on a virtual world site), I have found both SMs to be fair and reasonable. No doubt they may have a few critics and those who were rubbed the wrong way (who doesn't?), but WDC (formerly SDC) is one of the best writing communities online today and has been really since 2001 when I joined (and I did join several other writing sites similar to WDC, and only one of them, Lit.org, remains in existence today). The only thing I consider a bit of a disadvantage as a moderator is how you can't reduce a rating of an item from 18+ to ASR for instance (unfortunately I got a complaint about that from a parent who chose that higher rating despite having no content in that rating, presumably in case it was decided in the future to put 18+ items in the folder as ratings can't be changed easily as you know), but again, I can appreciate that point of view in order to protect younger eyes from the potential effects of higher rated content. Therefore, I am posting this identical review in SiteJabber with a 5-star rating. And for those authors who may be sensitive to criticism, that is something I welcome (minus the gutless low anonymous reviewers with no meaningful feedback whatsoever) as a few of my writings have been improved substantially over the years because of it, despite the lower rating at the time. Thanks as always to the SMs, staff and senior mods for their hard work! Take care, Stallion

Full disclosure: I have been a member of the Writing.Com community for over a decade and currently serve as a senior moderator. I spent my first few years lurking and not really getting involved in the multitude of contests and activities offered by the site before really taking the plunge and reaching out to participate in the community and interact with other members. Since making that choice, I have found the site to be a greatly beneficial resource to my own writing. I have been published, I have been paid for my writing, and I'm certainly not alone in those accomplishments among Writing.Com members, some of whom have had remarkable success with their writing efforts.

As many other reviewers have pointed out, this is very much a site where you will get out what you put into it. It can be overwhelming and it can be intimidating when you first sign up because there are just so many things to do and explore. And like any community - online or otherwise - there are a mix of members; some will drive you crazy and some could end up being counted among your closest friends. It all depends on how much of yourself you're willing to invest in the site.

If you're on the site solely to promote your own work, it will be a far less rewarding experience than if you *also* read and review other authors, encourage other members with their own writing goals, and generally participate in the community in a helpful and positive way.

To briefly address other review comments about censorship and the difficult personalities of the staff, I would point out that Writing.Com takes its mission of being a resource for writers of *all* ages very seriously. Guidelines for appropriate content (ranging from appropriate for everyone to extremely graphic adult material) are clearly provided and I've never once in over ten years had any of my items "censored" by anyone on the site, nor have I seen any of the staff members or moderators act in an unprofessional or antagonizing manner. I have seen plenty of irate, immature, and combative members try and provoke staff and moderators into a confrontation that ultimately ends in warnings or that member's account termination, but such is the nature of the internet and - as I said - I've never seen an account restricted or deleted for no good reason.

Finally, I'd like to draw attention to the reviews that have been posted for the site so far. The people who have been on the site and put the time into developing a sense of community all rate the site very highly (minimum of 4 stars). The two negative reviews that give the site less that 4 stars make no reference to the amount of time they've spent on the site and are clearly upset about very specific individual incidents. If that's not proof that this site is worthwhile to those who put the effort in, I don't know what is.:-)

I have been a member of Writing.Com for four years now and the site served me well so far, considering I'm not American or even English. I know this probably doesn't mean a lot to you, you might think "who the hell doesn't speak English in the world today", but next time you feel neglect you try to be the only person representing your country in any online community and you will see how easy or difficult (I guess it depend on you as individual) you can grow in such environment, how easy or difficult you can gain readers, reviewers, how easy or difficult you can make social interaction, how easy or difficult is to promote your writing. When I signed up I didn't know I'll stick to it for so long to be honest because I was just someone who loved to keep the journal and someone who had few writing ideas written in Word (how silly is this), therefore I joined online writing community as a total newbie in order to see if I can do anything more than that. I guess you can say I literally learned creative writing on Writing.Com because I can see progress I made in those four years. With this being said, I can only imagine where am I going to be in the next four years from now if I put enough of desire into it. It would be ridiculous to blame Writing.Com if I find myself being in the same place where I am today. I can only blame myself for not putting enough of effort in my writing plans, not an online site that provided me ALL tools to take advantage of them.

Writing.Com is what you make out of it and I honestly don't see the reason why it can't be helpful to someone whether you're total newbie or someone with writing experience. I mean, if you desire to be published author, you can't just write a story, a poem, a novel, whatever and sit in your room waiting for someone to read and tell you how awesome you are because that will never happen. How many famous authors have been turned down before they reached the stars? Like I mentioned above, it depend on you only how you're gonna make your dreams come true and how big your dreams, actually, are. So why don't you first sit down and talk to yourself about what you want from your writing before you proceed to take advantage of writing tools that Writing.Com offers. It's a great platform to display and promote your work, to learn new things by participating in various contests and writing related activities, to read others, get HONEST not BAD reviews, make some friends, and overall being part of drama free community which is so rare to find on the internet nowadays.

I have been a member of writing.com for 8 years. I can't compare WDC to other writing sites because once I found WDC I didn't feel the need to go anywhere else. The site does sell T-shirts {I own two} as well as other branded items, but I have never felt pressured to buy anything, and I have never seen a promotion or ad for any of the things they sell. Buying something in their shop is a way to help support the site, nothing more.
I have made many friends on the site and the help I've received from other writers over the years has been invaluable to my growth as a writer. I came to WDC with very little writing knowledge, and now I've had 9 short stories published in magazines and anthologies.
Reviews are important to writers, and yes, some reviews are not helpful, but most of the reviews I've received have been quality critiques that have helped me to improve my writing.
The site is easy to navigate, and I have yet to meet anyone there who would not help in any way they could. If you have a question about writing, whether the question is about copyright laws, the technical aspects of writing, or just looking for ideas, you'll be able to get accurate answers to your questions. The members are come from all other the world and they have at least one thing in common, a love of writing.
Contests: Anyone can create a contest on the site, and while you do have to be a paid member to enter the monthly site-sponsored contests, the cost for a basic membership is only $19.95 a YEAR. There are groups on the site that help pay for memberships for those members who can't afford to pay themselves.
The site's currency, gift points, can only be used on the site, but if a member is active and enters contests he/she can earn enough points to pay for their yearly membership as well as the site's branded items.
Some sitejabber reviews have mentioned that they don't receive many reviews; you can't expect to join the site, post a few stories or poems in your portfolio and then sit back and wait for the reviews to roll in. By being active on the site, you are in effect promoting your own work,. The activities are almost endless; contests, groups for nearly every interest, forums, classes, are all ways to be active and have fun while learning. Besides, if you don't give reviews to other writers why complain that you're not receiving reviews?
Writing dot com has become my writing home away from home.

My review is back and forth. I love writing.com but I'm disappointed by the community there at times.

I was an active member of this site for a year while I wrote my novel's first draft. At the start of that year, I decided I wanted to write a book and looked for a community to be part of to help motivate me. With writing.com, I used it to get feedback and input from folks that didn't know me or my work. In that regard, the website is invaluable as there a lot of people there and if you are a brand new member, you get a lot of feedback in the first six months. Well... if you can get them to read your stuff. You do have to reach out to people, join contests and such to get attention. My writing improved over the course of twelve months and I couldn't be happier with Writing.com for that. There are also contests and little badges you earn if you win the contest, which is nice. I can't say enough nice things about the website and all that it does. There is a lot of time and effort put into making it work and I think that is awesome.

But there's a price. Kind of.

I'm not talking about the website subscription, but the website currency used to get folks to review your work. It's easy enough to earn with weekly goals, reviews, or contests. And you can use it to "garner" services from others like reviewing your work. Or I should say *if* you can get them to. Trying to get someone to read your stuff is half the battle on Writing.com. The incentives that they have are noteworthy, but it's never a guarantee you can get what you are looking for with feedback. Depending on your content, a lot of people will turn down requests you send--which is fair. Sometimes other will stumble onto your work and leave a review, but most do it to earn the website currency. A few reviewers of my work did it for that reason and only skimmed my writing. Afterwards, they left some really weird reviews not even relevant to the story. Either that or they're not native English speakers. It's hard to say. They also leave ads to their stories at the end of their comments which take up more space than their actual review.

Also, depending on the genre/content of your story, you won't be able to ask for reviews in the common review forum. I posted a request there and because there is profanity and violence in my story, a site admin removed it and sent me a message explaining why. Afterwards, I tried to request reviews for those that had reviews open, but 90% of the time I never got a response. After a month of that, I became disheartened and left the website to join a writing group outside the computer where I could get some guaranteed feedback once a week.

Despite all that, I am still a member of the website. I go back to really admiring everything the site does. If I'd written something more PG friendly, my experience would be different. I hold out hope that someone will find my work or accept a request and give me feedback on what I've done. Just got to hang in there!

I have been a member of this site for a long time. I started with a free account and posted work that I had written. I received good and bad reviews for the work. I received an in-depth, almost line by line review of one of my short stories. This review was incredible in its helpfulness.

Like anything you do, you get out of it what you put into it. If you don't give reviews you are not likely to get many reviews. Posting your work, giving reviews, entering contests let the other members know that you are there. I take spells of my activity on the site, sometimes really busy with it and other times not so much.

I was given a yellow case I believe last year. Preferred writer - I did not do anything special to get it, like I said sometimes I'm active and sometimes I'm not. I have a varied portfolio and some writers like it and some don't. You can't please everyone and I'm not trying to.

The site itself has a lot going on - some things I'm interested in and some not - I've joined several groups and enjoyed them, some I stayed with and some I resigned from. I have always found the owners and staff very helpful and knowledgeable. When I've needed help it has been given. I like being able to just roam around and read, review when I want to, and just spend time learning a little more about writing.

I have received some unflattering reviews, though not many, those I read and respond with a 'thank you for your time.' Most of the reviews have been very helpful - when reading reviews you simply have to remember that these are other humans and their opinions of your writing - take what you can use from it - and remember in the end it is your story or writing - change it or leave it the same. I really appreciate reviews with point of view corrections, grammar, and punctuation; these I have trouble with and appreciate the help.

If you want to improve your writing this site will help you do that, there are many on here who are very good and honest with their reviews - be sure you want honesty before you post. The newsletters are helpful and I enjoy reading them - Jeff has written several very helpful newsletters - I must admit to not reading them all.

I have read some of the different reviews about this site, and like I said - you get out of it what you have put into it. I have entered contests and not won but still enter when I want to. This site has a lot to offer, it's up to you to use it.

Thanks LW

I have been a member of this site since 2013. At first I was apprehensive about posting my writing online due to bad experiences with other writing sites. Other sites like Poetry.com actually allow members to claim your work as their own once an account has been inactive for a while. Also, with some other sites, once you post it to their space, you are giving them permission to use your writing any way they wish. This is not the case with Writing.com. When I post my work to the site, I feel like it is safe.

Another function of this site that I greatly appreciate is the age restrictions. Writing is rated anywhere from E for everyone to XGC for extremely graphic. This protects the reader and the writer. As a reader, I can choose not to be exposed to particular writings if I find them offensive. At the same time, if I write writing with stronger content I don't have to worry about a minor or individual who offends easier reading it.

Memberships are affordable if you choose to have a paid membership. Even the free membership gives you more than most secure writing sites. Though, of course after you become active, you will want at least the upgraded membership. If you are a really serious writer, the highest level of membership includes your own domain name.

When you sign up to writing.com, you are entering a community of writers. The more active you are with reviewing and writing, the more other writers do the same with your work. Such is life, we must give in order to receive. If you just post your writing and are not active, chances are that your writing will get less attention.

Of course some reviews are more helpful than others, due to the variety of individuals that join. One should expect that when they enter a site with thousands of members. For the most part the reviews I receive are honest and helpful. Since I joined the site, I have learned a lot from fellow writers. The result is that my writing has greatly evolved.

The owner of the site is highly active, updating aspects and fixing any bugs that are found. Of course he is a human being with his own non-virtual life and family, but he tries to answer all emails from members. That is more than you would get from any other site owner.

The owner of the site has designed the site in such a way that it encourages community envolvement. He actually rewards reviewers for each review. Then each month those who write extensive reviews have the option to be in a drawing where they can win bigger cash awards.

Overall, this is the best writing site online, in my opinion. I can't imagine ever not being a part of this writing community.