Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

It was around this time last year. I was researching short story markets, and having a vague memory of an advert for a writers’
magazine called Writers’ Forum, typed those words into Google and
came up with ‘WriteWords Writers’ Forum, an online resource for
writers...’ It looked interesting. Intending only to have a quick browse before getting back to gathering outlets for my own work
I ended up staying for over two hours, trawling the ‘Jobs and Opps’
and reading interviews with prominent agents and writers, as well as stories and poems posted by the members. But what impressed
me most were the comments posted by members on each piece of work. They were without exception supportive and encouraging, even whilst suggesting revisions or pointing out typos. Having visited
a few similar sites and been dismayed by the harshness of the
criticism, the atmosphere of WriteWords delighted me. I have a
theory that creativity flourishes in a positive climate. Remember the
feeling at school when praised by an enthusiastic teacher for a piece of work? How it made you want to try to do even better next time? Writers are individuals with varying sensibilities – some may rise above destructive criticism and emerge stronger for it, but others may suffer serious setbacks, possibly even give up writing altogether.

   So it was with a sense of having found an online home that I put my name down for a trial membership and posted my first piece of work – Fear of Bulls – a short story about a woman confronting a lifelong terror and emerging from the experience to reorder her life. I didn’t have long to wait for my first comment. I remember it well, it began, ‘Ho ho ho, what a bull!’ and went on to describe the impression made on the reader. The comments were positive, in spite of the somewhat ambiguous opening, and were followed by others equally encouraging. The effect on my confidence is easy to describe – my feet hardly touched the ground all day – and Fear of Bulls went on to be a published prize-winner in Writers’ Forum Magazine.

   But WriteWords is not only about receiving support and encouragement for one’s own work. I began to read the work of
others posted on site and to leave comments. I felt it a responsibility
to make sure that they began and ended with the positive aspects of
the work whilst offering some constructive criticism, and in a very short time began to see just how valuable this exercise is as a tool
to improve one’s own writing. Something that is mentioned again
and again in interviews with established writers and agents on site is the advice to ‘read, read, read.’ But in reading published –
and therefore edited and polished – work there is nothing to snag the
eye; one tends to finish the book with an impression of having liked
or disliked the story or the writing – or both – but with one’s critical
skills un-enhanced. I can honestly say that reading and commenting
on the wide variety of members’ work – from first drafts to professional and polished pieces – has improved my own enormously, and studying the comments of the site experts is like having a series of small tutorials.

   The WriteWords team of experts spans all fields of writing and
publishing, from agents to poets. It was through the site that one of
my unpublished novels was read by a top agent for the first time in its entirety, and although not taken up I received some encouraging
feedback. I think of WriteWords as an ever-deepening pool of karma that circulates endlessly, sustaining and supporting its members through the inevitable rejections that all writers suffer and communally celebrating their triumphs.

   Over the year that I’ve been a member of WriteWords I’ve come to feel that I’m among friends. In many ways the Internet is a refuge,
offering anonymity to its users, yet that same anonymity can have the
effect of liberating the individual and allowing one to be truly oneself. It is your words on the screen that tell the world what you are like rather than your appearance or the way you speak. During the relatively short time since the inception of WriteWords I believe that we’ve built up a strong atmosphere of trust that enables honest and considered criticism between members. With the increasing popularity of the site this may become less easy to maintain, but with care it can be done. A group of us met in Brighton last summer; it was a strange and wonderful day that deserves a story – or perhaps a poem – all of its own.

   Being primarily a fiction writer it was with some trepidation that I
recently ventured into the Poetry Section of WriteWords. My first
novel, Solitary Pleasures, featured poetry by the eccentric heroine – not too difficult since she and I have much in common! The poems for the novel I’m working on at the moment have to be ‘good’ – but
that’s something of a subjective description in these days of free
verse, and I desperately needed feedback. It’s difficult to judge one’s own work. The encouragement and support I’ve received have been invaluable, and I’m learning with every comment posted, every poem analysed, whether of others’ work or my own. And it’s fun too! So here’s to WriteWords – long may it continue to nourish and support writers worldwide.