The Impact of Fiction Sites
You’ve just finished writing a new poem or a chapter of a story you’re particularly proud of at three in the morning. What do you do next?
a) Sleep on it. I’ll revise it in the morning when I’m not tired.
b) Go to bed and see if I can get some feedback from people tomorrow.
c) Post it on a Fiction site.
Unless you don’t own the Internet or you’re an established author, the likelihood is that you will go for option C. There are hundreds of such websites to choose from of course, each one with its own unique twist on how you post your contributions and ask others to comment and critique your work. In a way, such comments can be helpful for a budding writer, but as we all know the Internet lacks any ‘Quality Control’ button.
Now before people think that this is going to be another one of my soapbox marathons, I’d like to inform you that I think websites such as DA are actually a good idea. There, I said it. There can be a real community feel on that sort of website, and that in turn gives encouragement to the creative minds of the younger generations. But I can’t help but wonder as to what the impact of these sites is going to be five or ten years down the line, when everyone and their mother thinks they’re the next Emily Dickinson, just because one or two people “luvved da poem! It was soooo good!” Is this casual ‘critiquing’ (if you can call it th—no, I suppose you can’t) or whatever it is going to become detrimental to the quality of published literature in the future?
In this age, when you can throw up any old thing online and have people reading it, sure it’s going to make a number of people think that they know best when it comes to quality of work. There’s an undercurrent of online pretentiousness that can sometimes rear its ugly head and beg the reader to accept them as a real ‘writer’, just because the poem they scribbled down in 5 minutes with the use of three whole brain cells is now accessible to millions of people worldwide – whether they want to read it or not.
I realise that I’m arguing against myself here. After all, isn’t this article doing the exact same thing in being published online for all the world to see? Well, not exactly. It isn’t as though these meanderings would ever make their way into a printed book for example…which brings me onto the main point of my discussion.
The issues of copyright and the public domain are complicated. There’s a clause saying that any limerick posted online during a full moon on the second Sunday whilst the author is eating chocolate ice cream belongs to the website administrator and not the person who wrote it. Well…not really, but how many of us who post creative writing online actually ever read the copyright pages anyway? Surely less than 1%, I know I’ve never done so. Many publishing houses won’t look at things that have been posted online for ‘first hand’ reasons. Which is a shame in some ways, but in others I suppose it keeps that divide between ‘professionals’ and ‘amateurs’. Although having said that, I’ve read some things online that truly take my breath away…and I’ve paid good money for some books which aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
Good or bad; in the long run, these ‘post your own fiction’ websites are here to stay, and I think that when utilised in the correct manner, they can be a fantastic source of encouragement, as well as a way to help individuals to grow as writers through critiquing and gaining a sense of artistic community.
9 Responses to “The Impact of Fiction Sites”
Leave a Reply
Archives
Book of the Fortnight
Powered by Wordpress | Design by ElegantThemes
Have you ever considered adding more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I’m more of a visual learner,I found that to be more helpful well let me know how it turns out. This is good…thanks for sharing
I have actually toyed with the idea of doing a sort of recorded version of ‘behind the screens’, but I’ve not gotten around to doing something like that yet. Perhaps in the future when I have more time to dedicate to something like that.
Hi,I’m taking some time to write you a comment. I hope you don’t mind I’ve bookmarked your page, your post is really helpful for me. Kim x
There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in other Features also. Keep working, great job!
Huh that was odd, my comment didn’t show up. Anyway I just wanted to tell you that it’s good to see that somebody else also touched on this as it was difficult finding the same information elsewhere. Yours was the first place that told me the answer. Thanks.
This is an interesting blog you have her but I can’t seem to find the RSS subscribe button.
I am really enjoying reading your well written articles. It looks like you spend allot of effort and time on you blog.I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work!
Hi – I would like to say thank you for an interesting site about a subject I have had an interest in for a while now. I have been lurking and reading the comments avidly so just wanted to express my thanks for providing me with some very good reading material. I look forward to more, and taking a more active part in the discussions here, whilst learning too!!
I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.