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This is where I write my ramblings on life, the internet, and creative writing. 🙂 |
 Scribbles & Notions Welcome to my blog. This space exists mainly for me to keep myself focused and writing regularly. |
I have to say, for being a site that was made in the year 2000, Writing.Com still somehow manages to maintain its appeal (at least to me) in terms of aesthetics and also usability. There’s something about it that I can’t quite place my finger on, but it makes me want to write more than any other site ever has. I guess I’m a sucker for minimalist user interfaces and websites. WdC just works, and it works well, even for little things like changing the site’s skin or customizing your profile. Whoever designed and coded this site did a really good job at making the simplicity of the platform its strongest point, as it looks and feels good to use. Or maybe that's just me. I’ve recently felt the urge to write again, mostly because I’m nearing the end of my second to last semester at WGU and I have time to actually consider other interests and pursuits in my spare time. Being a software engineering student can feel all encompassing at times and as such it has paralyzed me from doing other things that I love. My free time is scarce these days and whenever I attempt to launch a new project (like writing a novel) or play a new video game, it always feels like I’m cheating myself out of hours of my day that could be better spent studying or finishing classwork. I can’t enjoy my other hobbies because I’m always thinking about due dates. And let me tell you, that is a sure fire way of burning out. For that reason, I think I need an outlet to let myself just enjoy the moment and embrace being creative rather than productive. Utilitarian as I am, even I know not to put all my focus on work and school, because it’s not healthy and it will cause me more harm than good in the long run. So I'm glad that I re-discovered Writing.Com and I plan on writing more in the future, for my own sanity’s sake. I returned to WdC a few days ago because of a review that was left on one of my short stories. The review came in through my Gmail inbox and even though normally I don't click on notifications from websites I haven't used in years (as many of them are spam), I was curious as to why I was receiving a review alert from Writing.Com when I hadn't posted anything there in more than a decade. The review was from Tiggy   who had read my "Dimensional War"  short story. I wasn't expecting a good rating since the story was written during a time when I was still fairly new to crafting narratives... but to my surprise, the reviewer left me some positive feedback! Here's an excerpt from the review:I’m not a sci-fi fan but the setting of this tale made it an interesting read. In fact, it was the short description that made me click on this story because I was curious what you would do with this idea. There was a lot of focus on the soldiers and their mission, especially at the beginning, which was quite detailed and seemed well researched. It was soon forgotten though when the aliens landed, but you brought it back to the soldiers and why they were there at the end. I, too, wondered if anyone would believe them when they reported what they had seen, but I assumed that this wasn’t an isolated occurrence and the aliens probably landed in other places as well. It was a good story that made me wonder how it might continue. For a bit of context, Dimensional War is a story that takes place during WW2 and involves portals opening up and strange beings emerging from them. I don't really know what made me write it at the time, but I know there were more chapters I wrote in that same setting (but those documents are now long gone, lost to time 😔). After saying my thanks for the review, I started considering why I hadn't visited Writing.Com in such a long time. Had I forgotten about it? Did I consider it at some point bween 2011 and now and just thought it to be outdated or archaic? Did I find other sites for storytelling? I really don't know. I remember that it was one of the first sites I visited in my youth that allowed people to share stories and get them reviewed by a community (long before sites like Wattpad or RoyalRoad even existed). Perhaps I hadn't consider it because my writing days were mostly behind me. So I started thinking: what if I started writing again? What if I posted new stories? Before I knew it, I was customizing my profile and uploading new pictures of myself. I began to consider whether or not to purchase the "Upgraded" membership, allowing me to create books and even have a blog. As you have probably guessed, I ended up pulling that trigger, and well, here we are. In the coming weeks, I plan to start drafting some new stories and posting them on WdC. I also want to talk about how my writing journey is going thus far. Weekly updates is what I'm aiming for, but we'll see how that goes. |
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