Are you thinking about joining a writing community? Great! Writing shouldn’t be a solo job. No, we don’t mean you need a partner to write with you, but with the support of the right people, you can get better at your writing approach. Joining a writing community provides you with a lot of inspiration, motivation, guidance, and thoughtful criticism that help you grow as a writer.
In this post, we’re going to review a popular online writing community called Scribophile. So without delay, let’s get started!
Overview of Scribophile
Scribophile is an online workshop and community for writers. Writers of all skill levels can join this community and improve their writing by sharing their critiques and experiences.
Scribophile allows writers to get advice from other writers to sharpen their wiring skills. The community also supports a writing academy that provides users with free articles by professionals on writing, poetry, and publishing tips.
How Does Scribophile Work?
Scribophile works on a karma system. This is how Scribophile ensures that everyone who is posting work is getting feedback. To collect karma points, you need to critique other writers’ work, and once you have gathered good karma points, you can submit your own writing piece for reviews.
Your karma point amount is a measure of how many writing pieces you have added to the Scribophile community and how you have contributed. You will have to spend a certain amount of karma points to post your work on Scribophile. You can earn karma points through the following ways.
Critiquing Other Writers Works
As mentioned above, the first thing you need to do is critique others’ work. The more frequently you make a criticism, the more points you earn.
Likes and Reactions to Your Critiques
You get extra karma points when other writers react to your critiques by clicking the buttons “Like,” “Constructive,” “Thorough,” and more. These reactions indicate that your review is appreciable and deserve extra karma points.
To earn more karma, you can critique works in the spotlights. While you can critique works that are not in the spotlight, you will make fewer points for them. There are five types of spotlights in Scribophile. Let’s learn about them.
Spotlights in Scribophile
When you post your writing piece, you get an option to choose which spotlight you want to add it to. The five spotlights in Scribophile include:
The Main Spotlight
This spotlight comprises 27 works at a time. However, there is a queue for it, which is generally quite long. You might have to wait for several hours to see your work in this spotlight.
The New Member Spotlight
Any latest work from the newest members appears here. There is no space limit on this spotlight.
The Good Critiquer Spotlight
If you can write many quality critiques within one day, you have a better chance of getting your own writing piece into this spotlight.
The Personal Spotlight
As the name suggests, the personal spotlight is your own spotlight. When you submit your work to this spotlight, it appears there right away. Remember, not all members can see your work in this spot – only those who have favorited you or who are in a group with you.
The Beta Read Spotlight
This spotlight is available to premium members only. There is no karma system in this spotlight. It is basically for people who want to use this platform for workshopping purposes without getting involved in the karma system.
Scribophile Membership
Scribophile offers both free and paid service that you can choose as per your budget and requirement. Of course, the free service comes with some limitations. For example, you can only keep ten messages in your inbox and submit two critiques at a time. On the other hand, paid membership offers unlimited posting and various other benefits at the price of $9 for a month or $65 for a year.
Major Features of Scribophile
Variety of Genres
At Scribophile, there are 21 genres to choose from, which means you don’t have to restrict your reading to one specific genre. These genres include the biography, science fiction, erotic, young adult, romance, thriller, mystery, fantasy, literary fiction, etc.
Join a Large Number of Group
Scribophile lets you join and create any number of groups to submit your work to. While most groups are classified by genre, some focus on the writer’s gender, nationality, religion, age, politics, or writing experience. Some groups might be open to anyone while others are private that can be joined by invitation only.
Different Ways to Critique
Scribophile allows you to critique a work in the ways mentioned below:
Leave a Comment
You can leave a short or longer comment.
Rate the Work
You can rate other’s work using sliding scales. For example, you can give a rating for readability on a scale of 1 to 10.
Inline Critique
You can choose to write an inline critique. This option enables you to highlight text, insert comments, and suggest deletions directly on the author’s text.
User-Friendly
Scribophile is a user-friendly platform. You can add writers to your favorites, get updates when they submit new writing pieces, and interact with them in various ways. Additionally, you can join all types of user-created groups.
You Can Post Different Types of Work
At Scribophile, you can submit almost any kind of work such as short stories, plays, scripts, and even a reasonable-sized novel. The platform lets you link different posts into novels so that users don’t have difficulty following the story.
Quick Pros & Cons of Scribophile
Pros
- Members at Scribophile are honest. You can rest assured that you will receive the genuine reviews on your writing that will naturally improve your writing.
- Scribophile’s karma system is a great concept because it ensures that everyone is critiquing others’ work before submitting their own.
- The platform is full of professional writers who are committed to reviewing your work.
Cons
- It may take a long time to get feedback. However, if your work is featured in the “spotlight,” you can receive more reviews in less time.
Is it Worth It?
Scribophile can be an ideal platform for writers to improve their writing by receiving detailed critiques. Users at Scribophile give valuable and actionable reviews that significantly improve your writing. Apart from the thoughtful critiques, you get access to free resources related to writing tips. Furthermore, you get an opportunity to make lifelong friends. Considering everything, we can say Scribophile is worth trying. If you are not sure about it, you can go for their free service first.
