Hello world!

For the first post on my new site, I wanted to share several resources that have been useful to me in my writing adventures. As many of us know, creating a platform and making connections can be tricky for a budding writer. One of the most important – and most difficult – steps is to get yourself out there. Today I’m sharing three resources that I have found useful in building my platform and sharing my work, as well as one to help bring your creations to life.

Submittable

Submittable is a tool for writers, artists, and publishers. Publishers ranging from small online journals to widely read magazines use this site to find writers. The publisher puts out an opportunity and specifies what they are looking for, as well as their guidelines, their deadline for submitting, and what, if anything, accepted writers will receive. As a writer, you can save opportunities that look interesting to you and keep track of what you’ve already submitted. You can also filter new opportunities by category and tag, much like searching for a post on WordPress.

To date, I’ve used Submittable to send over two hundred submissions, and I have very few complaints. The interface is easy to use, and the prompts given by magazines I’m interested in often lead me to create a story I never would have thought of on my own. Submittable can also be used to submit artwork, visual poetry, videos, and manuscripts.

All Poetry

All Poetry is great for poets looking for feedback on their works. The way the site works is that you can’t publish your poems until you have reviewed other people’s poems. You can sort these by topic or tags, or follow poets you like to make sure you’re up-to-date with their works. This ensures that everyone gets feedback in a very low-risk environment. You aren’t sending the poems to publishers, so you don’t need to fear rejection. I’ve only used All Poetry a few times, but I’ve received feedback on both of the poems I have shared. I see it as a good way to practice my poetry, to just get some verses down off the top of my head.

Authors Publish Magazine

Despite the name, Authors Publish Magazine is not a magazine but a newsletter. After signing up, you receive publishing opportunities direct to your inbox each week. What I especially like about Authors Publish is how they list whether a publisher will pay contributors, and if so, how much. The downside of Submittable is that you have to do a lot of digging around to find paid work.

Notebook.ai

Notebook.ai is a digital notebook that primarily focuses on world-building. The interface presents categories to flesh out for your world, and you fill in information in the boxes it gives you. The four categories for the free version are “Universes”, “Characters”, “Locations”, and “Items.” Essentially, you create a world in the “Universes” category, and then add people, places, and things to that world. You can link characters to each other by their relationship, as well as linking them to items and locations that they’ll be interacting with. There’s also a scratchpad and a forum to help you build your story around the world you’ve created.

Notebook.ai also has settings for roleplayers and game designers, so you can choose what experience you want when you sign up. I have only ever tried the writer settings. To date, I’ve logged three universes and thirty characters, and the questions it asks have really helped me bring my creations to life.

 

So those are my picks! What resources have helped you along your writing journey? Do you use any of the same ones as I do? Let me know in the comments below, and don’t forget to subscribe for more content like this.

Until next time,

H.G.