Online writers’ communities have become commonplace. A community of writers, all aspiring for publication or simply to reach a larger audience than the collection of their friends and loved ones can be a tremendous boost for a writer, because every writer needs an audience-even those who write simply because they ‘can’t not write’. For many aspiring authors, writing communities and critique partners are a great tool for validation of their craft.

Glowing reviews from peers tell you what works, confirm the correctness of the direction you chose and boost your morale as a writer. While praise is an ego booster, a writer always needs to be level-headed in order to remain focused and keep a consistent quality in one’s writing. Reviews that provide technical corrections (i.e. spelling, punctuation, grammar, typos, homophones etc.) can help improve the quality of a writer’s work.

The problem with writing communities is that feedback is given by writers of varying calibre. Some reviewers write suggestions as though they are law. They rate you down for trivial reasons like neglecting to mention that you’re using non-US English, or because they couldn’t pronounce your character’s name. Read the rest of this entry »