Home Page

Introduction

I have always followed the advice of philosopher J. H. Marx¹ by never joining a club or group that would allow someone like me to be a member. Because of this, I have aggressively not joined any number of groups for as long as I can remember, probably some I never even heard of.

But even when you don’t actively choose to join, you can find yourself in a group. Such as being a writer of fiction; that puts you squarely in the group of a person who can probably use the help of others.

Writers need sets of eyes they don’t own, because there comes a point when their own words have become so familiar they can longer see them clearly. If those borrowed eyes are also encased in a being who is willing to take the time to make comments and render an opinion on the words, so much the better. Seven-fold delights can occur when a reader is willing to engage in a discussion of all the details embodied in the words. Best, when the relationship is reciprocal.

Even in the absence of exchanging words, writers can help each other.

That’s pretty much the idea behind this site.

Invitation

If you are a writer and you need some help, maybe you’ll either find it here, or you’ll find something to point you in the right direction. I have some plans and ideas, but I’m open to suggestion, so let me know what help you need.

If you are a writer and just want to talk a bit, feel free to drop me a line. I love hearing about what others are doing and planning.

Some Details

I really like the IndieWeb and keeping things small. I am constantly amazed by the things I find on the interwebs that have clearly taken hours and hours of work, yet are offered up for free. Hence, the name of this site and what you won't find:

Nothing for sale, no advertising, no “buy me a coffee” or patronage asks. Also, no data collection, no SEO, no information is collected, nothing is tracked, so unless a visitor interacts with me through the Contact form, I have no idea they have been here. I doubt I’ll ever offer anything like an RSS, and there definitely won’t be newsletters. You won’t find daily blog entries and topical essays, although I do plan on making a companion site where I talk a bit about writing, someday … (sigh).

Links

Maintaining a links page is a royal pain, so I'm trying something different: a Raindrop.io account (free) with a shared links page. If it works out, we'll be able to collaborate on the links, so no one person has to maintain them. I have moderately high hopes for this working out.

Discussion

Earlier I mentioned plans and ideas, so I've written a page or two where I go over some of what I think I think about how writers can help each other. A lot of it deals with critique partners, writing groups, and other aspects of writing. The nuts and bolts, if you will, of helping and receiving help. You can find that discussion here.

1. aka Groucho.↩︎