The Writer's Community is Toxic

The least informed are often the loudest

In 2006, I spent a semester as a student teacher for high school seniors.

Within the first month, I had to stop telling people about it.

“Oh, you’re going to be a teacher? How exciting. Make sure you’re a good teacher though. Here’s my list of do’s and don’ts to make it fun for the kids.'“

Everyone wanted to give me stupid advice, though they’d never taught so much as a macrome lesson. These people had been students (as have we all) and thought they knew what it was to be a teacher. They didn’t. And more than one of them suggested I do illegal stuff like have “camping trips” with my students.

“Writers” and Opinions

I’ve found an even more plentiful source of bad advice in the online writer’s community. Unlike the well-meaning teaching advice I got as a college student, the uninformed, unserious tripe some “writers” dole out comes with a heaping side of judgment, gate-keeping, and even threats.

There was a kerfuffle on Twitter involving a successful cover artist threatening to blackball indie authors from future promotions (Don’t worry, I have a spicy video coming up detailing it in full). The pompous artist himself was a master in his craft and well-connected, hence his ability to threaten us measly indie authors.

The commenters in support of his vicious rhetoric on the other hand… weren’t.

The loudest and most ridiculous cretins word-vomiting all over social media have never finished a book-length manuscript. Never been published. Never worked in the publishing industry. They’ve been working on the same WIP for years, or hopping from unfinished project to unfinished project, spending most of their time using #writers community hashtags and haranguing authors who actually have a book out. These people have never:

• Hired an editor or cover artist (because they’ve never finished anything)

• Funded a book launch promotion stack

• Reached out to big-platform ARC readers for reviews

• Executed a PPC marketing campaign for their backlist

• Or sold more than 50 books EVER

But they sure like to post on social media about their rules, don’t they?

“Anyone who uses adverbs in their books is subpar.”

“Present tense in books is childish and shows a lack of talent.”

And on and on it goes. It’s noise, but there’s a real danger the noise could interfere with your ability to write… or even the desire to.

Small Solutions for a Big Problem

If you were wondering why I started a critique community, instead of a general writing community on Facebook or Discord, I hope you have a better understanding of why now.

In order to join the group, you MUST have a work in progress. You MUST be able to verbalize your praise or criticisms of other writer’s work. And you MUST be willing to pay a small fee. These are not high bars. But they’re enough to actually create a community of people who have the same mission. We’re here to write and publish book-length works. And short stories for some. We’re here to make them as good as they can be before the general public gets hold of them.

Part of that journey is getting told what you wrote needs work. Observe this exchange for instance:

That wasn’t good to hear, I’ll be honest. But I’d rather hear it from skilled writers so I can fix it, instead of angry readers who give me a bad review and/or return my book.

I can take Terri’s opinion seriously, even though I was quite surprised by it, because I’ve read her work. I know she has a background in copywriting (the subject of the chapter she reviewed), and I know she has an eye for detail and nuance that I often miss.

I would never accept that feedback from some random cartoon profile pic on the internet who one-star review-bombs other authors.

Knowing the quality of your critics matters because writing is hard.

That feeling you get when your book isn’t turning out the way you’d hoped can be crushing. And you’re never quite sure if you are being over-sensitive or if the story actually does not work.

The peanut gallery isn’t going to help you with that assessment.

Other writers with skin in the game WILL.

That’s why I keep it private, keep it small, and keep it for the ones who are serious.

I recommend you do the same in your online life.

If you like the sound of the critique group, you can join us HERE. If you’re not quite ready, that’s cool too. We’ll be ready when you are.