Comunities like OCR for other hobbies?

[mickomoo]

Basically I wanna know if there a communities like ocr, but centered around other activities. So just like ocr is a community for people with an interest in video game music and composition are there communities for writers and artists?

So I know for art for example I'm assuming deviantart would be a good place, but does anyone know any for creative writers, specifically for short stories, science fiction, poetry, and/or graphic novels. Are there sections of people on ocr with these interests with their own sub-community? I'm aware of the writing competitions, but I was looking for something more. If not we can turn this topic into a place for people to link their own writing, if not create or go somewhere especially dedicated to these things.

[Otakatt]

DeviantArt lets you share writing too. If you're looking for critique on your writing, however, I don't think much critique goes down at DA. Aside from that I'm not too familiar with non-RP writing communities. I've seen some things around Livejournal, so you could try searching around there?

Google lead me here: http://www.writerscafe.org/ Maybe something like that is what you're looking for? Or http://www.nanowrimo.org/?

[Swifthom]

Many, many years ago I used to join in writing competitions at the Terry Brooks website forum...

Terry Brooks being a fantasy writer who'se been publishing since the 70s, his website was operated by a would-be author Shawn Speakman on Terry's behalf, they had a fairly good community for encouraging would be writers and discussing the craft and their opinions of other authors.

Though I stopped posting there regularly about 5 years ago I occasionally glance in and it still seems to be going

So, not just a shout out to that 'particular' writer but if you find an author YOU like in the genre you want they may, just may, have a forum and a community of fans who can help you out.

OR perhaps I should set something up at Distant Spires for other would be authors like me... If there's an interest out there

The thing is, people who write are much MUCH worse than musicians about this; they only care about their own stuff. You can listen to a piece of music and give feedback fairly easily, so music communites swell as people applaud each other's work and creativity flourishes. Without a LOT of effort from the organisers writing communities tend to stagnate...

90% of the writers forums i've checked in on feature a tonne of people just dumping their latest creation, waiting a few days, then complaining that nobody has read it and given feedback. Cheifly because the act of reading something more than a thousand words, digesting it and giving feedback is actually fairly difficult and time consuming (unless it's litered with spelling mistakes / no paragraphs / no full stops or commas at all, in which case it's easy )

[HalcyonSpirit]

90% of the writers forums i've checked in on feature a tonne of people just dumping their latest creation, waiting a few days, then complaining that nobody has read it and given feedback. Cheifly because the act of reading something more than a thousand words, digesting it and giving feedback is actually fairly difficult and time consuming (unless it's litered with spelling mistakes / no paragraphs / no full stops or commas at all, in which case it's easy )

That's pretty much the problem I encountered when running the writing competition here. Even when there were good entries, voting participation was usually nil. I've been pondering ways to increase participation in all stages of the competition, but nothing has really come to mind so far.

[Swifthom]

A couple of months back I 'nearly' decided to submit something i'd written to one of the competitions here...

But there was a catch 22... Looked at how much responce you got and thought it wasn't worth it. But then again if i'd bothered to respond there might have been A responce and then other people might have been more inclined.

And so the circle of disinterest goes around and around

Edit: Just noticed the hiatus.

When you DO come back, with enough warning i'd definitely be up for it.

[XPRTNovice]

mick,

You'll definitely want to checkout http://farlandswritersgroups.com

It's a collaboration of online writing groups centered around SF/Fantasy, sponsored by David Farland (David Wolverton), author of the Runelord series. The community is very tight knit and has proved a great budding ground for me as a young author (check my website if you want to read a bit of how my career has gone in the last year at http://josephzieja.wordpress.com).

You could also try absolutewrite.com, but that community is considered very cutthroat and a bit snooty. I recommend Dave's site.

If you do sign up, send me a PM. My handle there is "PermanentNovice". I'll help you get set up.

[mickomoo]

Thanks for the quick responses. And XPRTNovice, I definitely have to check that site out. Yeah I was looking for big sites, but I forgot sometimes small knit communities significantly provide more fertile ground than larger ones with more people. It's just that it's always so hard to find such communities aside from word of mouth and a handful of other means.