As I’ve been working on my first novel, Adrift, I’ve been looking for ways to connect with other writers. Through Facebook, I added an expat writer recommended to me by a woman I know in Malaysia, as she had told me he led a writing group. Well, that had been defunct by the time I added him, but he connected me with another expat writer who organises a monthly reading session for writers. I’ve yet to attend one of the meetings, but following her on Facebook has helped me find other opportunities.
This is how I came across Scribophile. I signed up last month, but given I was just about to head off to France, I didn’t have the chance to give it much of a look.
I finally decided to spend some time looking around the site last night. It’s main function is that it’s a dedicated community for writers who want to have the opportunity to have their writing critiqued by other writers, and offer their own critiques in return. I haven’t had enough time to delve into this side of the site yet, but I have bookmarked a few pieces to have a look at for critiquing later. If you sign up for a free membership like I did, then you have to leave a few critiques before you can have anything of your own reviewed.
However, the site is much more than a place for critiquing. I’ve spent most of my time checking out the forums and connecting with other writers there. I have quite a few writer friends elsewhere on the Internet, but I don’t know anyone else writing about pirate characters like I am. In less than 24 hours, I found three writers in the forums who are. This is exactly the sort of thing I’ve been wanting to find — other writers interested in writing in the same sorts of things that I am.
You hear sometimes that writing is a very lonely job, but it honestly doesn’t have to be. I prefer when it’s not. And now that I’ve found Scrib, I can stop bothering uninterested friends to read my stories for feedback. If you’re a writer looking for any of the sorts of things I mentioned here, I’d definitely recommend you check out the site. So far, the community seems very friendly and welcoming.
Dominica May 
One of the reason for the lonliness is the concern that the unscrupulous may take one’s work and claim it as their own. It is a popular theme among many mystery writer who done its I’ve seen on TV. One of the things I’ve noticed about scribd.com where people can comment on works is that many don’t comment. People read and I suspect put their own writing in not to help others but hope they will be read and helped to improve. The thing I find valuable is there it at least gives you a record of the number of times somethings been looked at so You at least get an idea what people are interested in. For example the thing number one read I have is a short visual stimulus to creative writing for writers. I think if I were to write a full book I suspect this might be the area I’d have the most success as it is supposed to help people over writers block. I used to use things like this in English Classes for creative writing. Had the Head of English at Warnbro give me a lot of positive feed back and shared some of my other notes with the English teachers at the school.
My problem is my interest is more in the exploring and discovery much like in my art than in the bringing something to completion. I find it hard to commit. It is why I’m so proud of you that you are going for such a challenging goal. You can do it. Over and over in my reading about those who succeed it is they hung in when the going gets tough and believed they could do it.
Love Dad
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Thanks, Dad. I guess I can understand that fear because I do worry about that a little myself, but the thing is that when you’re putting it in a place where a lot more people can see it, a lot more people know who the original author is.
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It is interesting that today when I checked out scribd.com where I posted my creative writing notes they have disappeared. Makes me wonder if writing about it cause it to be stolen. It used to get the most hits of anything I had posted there.
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