 Noticing Newbies: July 28, 2021 Issue [#10903] |
This week: Corners of the Interwebs Edited by: Jeff  
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"You never know what you can do until you try,
and very few try unless they have to."
-- C.S. Lewis
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff and I'm one of your regular editors for the Noticing Newbies Official Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 350 newsletters across the site during that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email or the handy feedback field at the bottom of this newsletter! 
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CORNERS OF THE INTERWEBS
The internet can be a rather intimidating, crowded place. LinkedIn has 250 million active monthly users. Twitter has nearly 400 million. It's 460 million for Pinterest, 530 million for SnapChat, and 730+ million for TikTok. Instagram averages nearly 1.3 billion users a month. YouTube has over 2.2 billion monthly users, and Facebook is fast closing in on 3 billion active monthly users. That's a lot of people! 
So how does one navigate social media sites that are so large?
The short answer is that most people find smaller communities within the larger social media network.
"Bookstagram" is a niche corner of Instagram for book lovers. Using the #bookstagram hashtag helps fellow book lovers share and interact with other book lovers. There are similar hashtags and Instagram communities for parenting, travel, health & fitness, fashion, and beauty products.
"Screenwriting Twitter" is a lose collection of Twitter users who all talk about the craft and business of screenwriting. It includes accounts everywhere from newbies and aspiring screenwriters to established celebrities and A-list filmmakers. For those that find Screenwriting Twitter too large a pool, there are also sub-communities like #PreWGA (for writers who haven't yet joined the Writer's Guild of America), and #pipelinewriters (a weekly social gathering where people can interact mostly in a Q&A format).
Corners, or sub-communities, are a key way to making sense of a larger online community and getting comfortable with a platform's interface. The same is true of Writing.com. Although I'd have to check with The StoryMaster  to see if we've hit that lofty threshold of a billion monthly users  , the mechanic is still the same. WDC has an immense number of resources available to readers and writers. If, as a newbie, you try to do everything all at once, it'll quickly become overwhelming.
Which contests do you enter?
What kind of items do you create?
Where do you post them?
Who do you want to get to know?
Finding a smaller sub-community within WDC is a great way to begin getting comfortable with the site and starting to make friends. Do you have a particular type of writing you prefer to do? There's a vibrant WDC poetry community, as well as one for short stories. There are smaller communities for members interested in nonfiction, interactive stories, etc. If you're partial to a particular genre, you'll find communities of members dedicated to romance, erotica, horror, science fiction, fantasy, etc.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by options in an online community, look for a smaller corner you can get acquainted with first. Start there and branch out to other areas as you begin to feel comfortable.
One last word of advice on corners of the interwebs. Keep in mind that everybody views their online place and preferences differently. Some will naturally want to explore and find new corners once the old ones have become familiar. Others are fully content to stay in the same comfortable corner they're currently occupying and don't feel the urge to explore much beyond it. In the course of connecting with others, be respectful of their boundaries. For every person who goes, "Oh yeah, I'm totally interested in both horror and comedy!" there is also a person who is likely thinking, "I'm perfectly happy with my historical fiction and have no interest in also getting into science fiction. Or erotica." Respect other people's comfort level with their corners of the interwebs, as you'd want them to be respectful of yours.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"Blogocentric Formulations"
"New & Noteworthy Things"
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This month's official Writing.com writing contest is:
I also encourage you to check out the following items:
EXCERPT: I admire poems written in a colloquial style, such as "Home" by Edgar A. Guest. This poem is my feeble attempt to emulate that style.
EXCERPT: Once, there was a man who worked inside an office. His name was Dr. Thomas, and he viewed his job with indifference. Every day the man would read over papers, staple them, and made sure to do as much as he needed to continue to support himself. He was a lonely man, only 35, and did not think much about his ambitions. Every day felt like a carbon copy of the day prior. However, Dr. Thomas did not seem to mind this at all. After all, he did not seem to distinguish each day as unique anyway.
EXCERPT: a certain topic is not an easy task, the process is tedious and occasionally it's nerve-racking. For this reason, writers are often advised to write only the subject matter that they love to write. Without elaboration it is an accepted fact that people in general don't get easily tired when they are doing the things that they love. Look at the athletes they undergo rigorous physical training everyday and tremendous discipline routine yet they don't complain about that, simply because they love what they are doing. They know that all the hardships that they're going through are necessary to prepare them for the upcoming competition. The same principle is applicable to the writers. They must find their so called niche because that is where their passion is and people are only passionate about the things that they love to do.
EXCERPT: I stood, straining to hold back my tears as the black casket was lowered into the ground. My aunts were weeping, wiping their eyes as the flood of tears streamed down their cheeks. I couldn’t believe Dad was gone. He was a strong man and, until a few years ago, full of life.
EXCERPT: Surely I'm more than just mother and wife?
Surely there's another me, another life?
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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Feedback from "Noticing Newbies Newsletter (June 30, 2021)" about portfolio organization:
From hbk16:
It is good to remind us of this. Till now I do not arrive to organize my portfolio.
Thank you for the feedback!
From flyfishercacher  :
My portfolio organization has evolved as my body of work has grown and my interests have migrated. Recently I realized that I have two characters that I use quite often, so I gave them each a folder of their own.
My portfolio has evolved quite a bit too, especially as I've attempted new forms of writing and find the need to distinguish them. I used to just have fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Then fiction became subfolders for Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror/Thriller, etc. Maybe someday when I write enough stories, each of those folders will spawn their own subfolders as well!
From Whata SpoonStealer  :
If a portfolio isn't alphabetized, the folders within I mean, I won't bother to read through it unless I really need to. It drives me nuts; especially if a member sets up their biography and other tabs, but they don't bother to alphabetize anything! It makes me have to search, and in a big port, that's five minutes I'll never get back  Of course, if I know the name or item number, I just do a real search 
I definitely agree that having to search through someone's port and sift through dozens of items to find the one you want can be tedious and a bit of a turn-off, but I'm not sure I need them to be alphabetized specifically, so much as organized in some meaningful way. A lot of users will organize items by the ones they think are best, or just leave it at the default (most recent item number first). Either of those work for me as well.
From Beacon's Anchor  :
I have always liked your newsletters and I learn a lot by reading them. Keep on Writing. Thank you for the information.
Thank you for the kind words and for taking the time to write in!
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