 Your Guide to a Successful Writing Career
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Welcome to Writing-World.com! Here's a bit of background on who we are, and what you'll find here. About Me First... who am I? (I tend to use the imperial "we" as I dislike saying "I, I, I" all the time.) So let's try this in third person. Moira Allen is the founder and editor of Writing-World.com. A freelance writer since 1989, Allen is the author of several hundred published articles, and three books on writing published by Allworth Press: Writing.com, The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches, and Proposals, and Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer (now in its 3rd edition as of January 2018). Allen has also served as the editor of the national magazine Dog Fancy, as well as the editor of several online/electronic publications. Author, book-lover, world-traveler, and collector of Victorian ephemera, Allen definitely knows how to make her life sound more exciting than it is! As a book-lover, Allen's first consideration in looking at a potential home is "will it hold all our bookcases?" (A friend once asked, in bewilderment, "Do you actually read all those?) World-traveler - yes, true, the Allens have lived in England and Germany, and visited quite a few other countries, which explains a digital photo collection of over 60,000 images and growing. Allen is also a collector of Victorian magazines and ephemera, which has led to the founding of her newest website, VictorianVoices.net, a growing archive of articles from Victorian periodicals. Allen is also a cat-lover, fledgling weaver, crafter, and (given there isn't much time left in the day) a rather indifferent housekeeper. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband and a well-traveled cat. About Writing-World.com Writing-World.com was born in 2000, rising from the ashes of a greater site: Inkspot, the leading writing site of the day. I worked as a contributor and then an editor at Inkspot for several years, but when it was acquired by another company, I set out to establish the "#2 site for writers." Then, to the astonishment and dismay of the online writing community, that "other company" decided almost overnight to shut Inkspot down. In the blink of an eye, the #1 writing site was gone - and Writing-World.com became its startled successor. Since then, the site has grown steadily, and now features over 1000 articles and columns by a host of expert writers. Today, the site attracts over one million visitors every year. Our mission, however, has remained the same since the beginning:
That's our mission statement. It breaks down into three parts. Let's start with the middle, because that's you: Writers. While it's never possible to be all things to all people, our goal has been to be as inclusive as possible in the definition of "writer." We didn't want to be a site "just" for fiction writers, or nonfiction writers, or business writers, or whatever. And while we have an extensive section for new writers, we didn't want to be just for "beginners" either. We also recognize that writers may begin a career in one area and then move on to another, so this site offers tools for the poet who wants to become a newspaper freelancer, and vice versa. We also recognize the international scope of writing. When this site began, the writing world in general was moving into a new era of international communication. The Internet was bringing together writers from around the world, and making it possible for writers to reach out to publications outside their own country. Hence our name! Equipping. "Equipping" is defined as "to furnish or provide whatever is needed for use or for any undertaking;" and "to furnish with intellectual or emotional resources; prepare." (Dictionary.com) Synonyms include "provide, furnish, supply, issue, stock, provision, arm, endow, rig, prepare, qualify, suit, train, ready." When you are properly equipped, you can take on tasks you might otherwise have been unprepared to handle. If, however, you are ill-equipped, you are much more likely to fail. And writing is a task that does require "equipping." The physical equipment required has changed dramatically over the years (I can still recall a day when editors were just beginning to insist that all submissions be typed). The skill set that is required to become a successful writer, however, has remained unchanged for, literally, more than a century. (You can read advice to writers in Victorian magazines that is almost word-for-word what editors keep trying to tell would-be writers today!) Information is the most important tool for writers. To succeed, a writer needs to understand what paying markets expect and require - and to be able to provide those things. These are the tools we've striven to provide. We set high standards for the quality of those "tools," insisting that our contributors be experienced in their respective fields. Put simply, we have never been willing to accept a "how-to" article from a writer who can't demonstrate that he or she has successful done it. Success. Now, that's a tricky word. I won't attempt to define what success actually means. That's something you'll have to define for yourself. "Success" is not only a word that has different meanings for different writers, but a word whose meaning can change over the course of an individual writer's career. When we're just starting out, "success" often means simply getting published in the first place. For some, it might mean getting published in a particular type of publication. For one writer, it might mean breaking into the local paper; for another, it might mean being published in a noteworthy literary journal. One writer may seek to get a book published; another, who has already reached that goal, might define it by the size of an advance or the number of sales. For one writer, "success" might mean achieving a particular creative goal, while for another, it might mean being able to earn a living from one's writing. While your definitions of success may vary and change over time, it is helpful to actually have a definition. If you can define what would mean "success" to you, you'll be better able to determine what sort of tools and equipment you'll need to get there. So we leave that step to you - and then do our best to be there with the tools and resources you need to make your definition a reality! Visit Our "Sister" Sites... In addition to Writing-World.com, Allen hosts several other intriguing websites that are packed with fascinating information for the writer and reseacher:
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