The Impact of the Internet on Writing

I’ve always been a pretty avid reader; the first books to capture my interest were picture books about various fantastic creatures. Dragons, gryphons, hydras, the list of creatures featured in the stunning illustrations goes on. Those books sparked a life-long affinity for all things fantasy and that carried on into the more advanced books I read. Around middle school, I began to think, after reading countless books, embarking on countless adventures, how about I have a shot at it? My first attempts at writing were… Not the best. I didn’t really know how to pace my story and the “chapters” were only a few hundred words long. I’ve since grown, but this isn’t going to be about my endeavors in writing, this post will be focusing on the impact of the internet on writers all over the world.

The internet is an amazing thing, it allows billions of people to communicate ideas and share content, and there’s quite a few people aspiring to be writers. I’ve seen and used many sites that are a great place to share your writing, and it really makes me realize how lucky I am to have these services at my fingertips. Before all this happened, if you wanted to get your writing out there it must’ve been an absolute struggle. Getting published, printing up manuscripts, not a lot of people have the connections or resources to do that. If you’re writing just for a hobby and you want to share your work with people to get feedback and grow as a writer the internet is an amazing place to do it. If you’re writing for a living, you can still have some amazing reach with online downloads of your books with e-books and get your name out there with advertising.

A few sites I regularly visit are mostly for what’s called “fan fiction”. Fan fiction is writing that is about a certain series of books, games, comics, cartoons, etc. They use the characters and plot of the series to weave their own stories and it’s honestly really exciting to see what some people come up with. For more original writing I usually visit sites like Tumblr or FictionPress which has a wealth of original stories for me to read. It’s never been easier to get your writing out there with a plethora of writing sites and services at your fingertips.