Hello blog. I know, I know, it’s been a while. But I’m
afraid that I have been cheating on you with another writing platform…
About a month a month ago I watched a John Green ‘Vlogbrothers’
video where he recommended that young writers join a website called Figment. Not expecting much out of it, I
checked it out. I am incredibly glad that I did.
Figment, if you
are unaware, is a website for young writers where they can post their work, receive
feedback and interact with other young writers. It’s brilliant if you’re like
me and you are in general terrified of people reading your work, because it’s
so much easier letting total strangers read it. The positive feedback and
constructive criticism I have received (on a piece I put up there purely for
practice and to test out my style) had been so motivating and really improved
my confidence. I even – shock horror – allowed my friends to take a look at it.
Trust me, that’s a huge improvement on practically hyperventilating anytime I
considered showing anyone my stories.
One more really cool thing has come about from my joining Figment. I joined up with some other
like-minded writers for a project called the ‘Amateur World Architects’, a vlogging
project where we aim to create a community for aspiring fantasy and sci-fi
authors. Each of the nine have a day of the week (with obviously a couple of
doubled up days) where we post a vlog talking about the writing process, world
building, writers block, general fantasy/sci-fi and basically anything under
that theme.
Our founder Joe, and his magnificent goatee, introduces the project
It’s been really fun getting to know everyone involved and I’m
very excited about this! We already have a week of videos up, so it would be
awesome if you could check us out. We’re all still brand new to vlogging, and I’ll
be honest; it’s a bit scary! But, like I said, also very exciting and I think
it’s going to be really beneficial to our own writing.
If you’re interested in checking us out on YouTube, or
having a read of that story I mentioned, I’ll post the links below. And if you’re
a budding writer yourself, I would highly encourage you to join Figment!
Figment Story: ‘Only Skin Deep’
