Sharing is Caring: How To Start Sharing Your Work

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

You’ve completed your first draft, or maybe you’re half way through. You feel stuck, or have lost motivation to keep writing. Sharing your writing with someone could be very helpful, but you’re nervous about what people will say.

It’s natural to be worried about how others will perceive your writing. The best way to get better at sharing is to start sharing. But how? 

There are a few good ways of doing this. By starting with people you trust to submit to publications, here are some ways to start sharing your work.

Why Share Your Work?

Before we discuss how to share your work, it’s important to understand why sharing your work is worthwhile. These benefits include:

• Getting advice.

• Finding motivation to write.

• Facing your fear of sharing your work.

• Building your confidence.

• Improving your skills.

And most importantly, you’ll start to feel like your writing doesn’t need to be a solitary experience. StoryForge believes in that, too. That’s why the platform exists!

Step 1: Have Something to Share

It’s easy to find yourself stuck in a cycle of editing and not sharing your story with others. The most important step to sharing your work is having something to share. 

It might not be complete, and it certainly won’t be perfect. If you strive for having a perfect story to share, you might not ever share your work. Most people won’t be focused on the perfection of your draft if you let them know it’s a work in progress.

Have a Beginning, Middle, and End

If you’re not sure when something is enough to be shared, a good way to measure it is having a beginning, middle, and end. That doesn’t require the story to be finished, though. Having a beginning, middle, and end can look like:

• Having a beginning and end written, but an unfinished middle.

• Having the beginning unfinished, but the middle and end written.

• Having the end incomplete, but the beginning and middle written.

• Parts of each are in progress but not complete.

• Leaving notes in your work.

• Describing what a scene will be but not writing it out.

The entire story doesn’t have to be finished, but for you to know where the story is headed, even if half of it is still an outline, is all you need to be ready to share. 

You don’t need to show the person you share with all your outlines or plans. And maybe you don’t know where it’s going. That’s ok too! You’re not required to have a beginning, middle, and end, but it can be helpful.

Step 2: Share With a Trusted Friend

When you first start to share your writing, starting with a large audience might be too stressful. That’s why finding a trusted friend can be really helpful.

This could be a family friend, a teacher, professor, coach, or any other kind of friend you have. Remember to let them know if you’re looking for in-depth feedback or you just want to hear what they think about it.

Why Asking Family Might Be Counter Productive

You might be wondering why I didn’t suggest sharing with family or partners. While it’s not necessarily a no-go to share with your family, they may have bias.

Family or partners may feel like everything you write is wonderful, and provide only positive feedback. If that’s a boost you need, then sharing with those people can be uplifting. Hearing positive feedback can be really encouraging.

Maybe your family will be able to give unbiased feedback. That’s great! Just remember that a biased opinion might prevent you from finding areas where your work needs improvement.

Step 3: Share With Other Writers

Asking for advice from people who are experienced in writing is a great way to get comfortable with sharing your work. If you have friends who write, or know of a writing group, bringing your story to them can give you more unbiased feedback.

Trading feedback with another writer can be beneficial for both parties involved. Libraries and bookstores might have writing groups you can join. 

Online forums, Discord servers, and even StoryForge’s Writer Circles can be a useful place to find writers to share your work with. StoryForge has lots of circles dedicated to many genres, types of writing, and aspects of writing. If you’re ever feeling stuck, you can ask for advice!

Step 4: Posting Your Work Online

Now that you’ve shared your work in a small group, you can start to try a larger audience. Places like Wattpad, AO3, and StoryForge will allow you to put your work online for others to read. StoryForge even encourages other writers to provide you feedback. 

Posting your work online can be a great way to test the waters of sharing your writing with a bigger audience. Seeing that people have read your story and left comments can give you confidence. You might even make new friends.

However, publications and contests may not accept your work if it’s been published elsewhere. They want first publication rights. This doesn’t mean that they own your work, but that they’re the first to publish it.

The best way to know what a publisher wants is to check their website for guidelines and what the publication is looking for.

Step 5: Submitting to Small Publications

The last step is a big one. If you want to publish your work traditionally, starting with contests or literary magazines can be a great warm up. These publications are often small, and can feel less daunting than submitting to a big publisher or publishing house. 

The most important thing to consider is what the contest or literary magazine is looking for. Check their submission pages for more information. A great place to look for contests and literary magazines is Poets & Writers. They have a large database of small publications to look into.

Celebrate Rejections

The goal is to get your writing published. But a creative writing professor told her class that she still celebrates her rejections. Why? 

Because someone read her work. She put her work out even when rejection was possible. Celebrating that you took a chance is just as important as celebrating your publication. It can help boost your confidence and lower the fear of rejection.

Start Sharing

Now that you have a guide on where to start, it’s time to share your work! StoryForge and our Circles will be here to help jumpstart your journey. We would love to see your work!

Remember that it’s ok to be nervous about sharing. That’s why it can be helpful to start sharing with only one person. Set boundaries for what kind of feedback you want and don’t be afraid to share a work in progress.

Sharing your work is an achievement in itself. No matter if you’re sharing your story with a friend for the first time, or sending it to a literary magazine, take a moment to pat yourself on the back. You deserve it!