Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 99 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#51

Post by sinecure »

swatcoder wrote: post #46
sinecure wrote: post #40

I've spent decades exploring online communities (haven't we all?). From forums to 4chan, from Digg to reddit to hacker news. I would say that hacker news has one of the highest quality, most engaged and passionate user bases around... a rare feat. To replicate a place like this for other interests would be a dream. I think the recipe for a good, interests based community is limited moderation, small scale, and a non-…

That’s interesting that you laud “limited moderation” while celebrating Hacker News. I think of HN as standing out for having more comprehensive guidelines than most communities, a user base that respects and voluntarily enforces those guidelines, and formal moderation that allows few exceptions to slip through. We’re lucky that they’re good guidelines and that we have a community that broadly appreciates them, but “…

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#52

Post by svnt »

PuppyTailWags wrote: post #44
blockwriter wrote: post #15

It's difficult because there is not a lot of news or pressing issues in fiction. Contemporary fiction is not robust enough for it to be the basis of an aspiring writer's study. Canonical works are. This is distinct from coding, where new methods, and news about developments in technology, are directly applicable to the best work being done. You would need to create a sense of urgency about literary criticism, but thi…

> there is not a lot of news or pressing issues in fiction Are you sure about this? One of the biggest publishing houses is being sued by the DOJ to stop a merger. Publishing houses have recently started splitting advances into thirds and quarters over 2-3 years. There's an unprecedented quitting of agents, leaving many authors afloat with no rep. Barnes & Noble recently and suddenly changed how they market hardcover…

Writers are adjacent to journalists. They do not want for news, and realistically their perspective is over represented in media currently, unlike software developers.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#53

Post by Normille »

sinecure wrote: post #40

I've spent decades exploring online communities (haven't we all?). From forums to 4chan, from Digg to reddit to hacker news. I would say that hacker news has one of the highest quality, most engaged and passionate user bases around... a rare feat. To replicate a place like this for other interests would be a dream. I think the recipe for a good, interests based community is limited moderation, small scale, and a non-…

   >I wish someone could make a cheap and easy shell to quickly make "hacker news" like clones that people could run for given interests, to create communities like this one geared towards other interests...
It's already out there: http://arclanguage.org/

or...

https://github.com/arclanguage/anarki

  >Anarki comes bundled with News, a Hacker News style app...

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#54

Post by soneca »

svnt wrote: post #48
soneca wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not my experience at all. I am trying to start a new career as a fiction writer, and writers are very interested in sharing knowledge. I say this for both professional, published authors and wannabes like me. I was part of a long creative writing course (about 9 months), and our class of 20 formed a bond of helping each other A LOT. Sharing tips, beta reading, posting about prizes, open calls for literary maga…

To understand this more fully you’d need to appreciate two things. One is that while there are a lot of things that people will share with you (they often want to share their expertise/craft and be good humans), there are a number of things they won’t share with you. Two is that when you are starting out you are in a position where almost all information from an experienced artisan is helpful. That can mean you may e…

Or, the alternative, is that yours (apparently) and gp’s point of view is not that common as you think it is. So it is not me that have to understand things, it is you that are wrong.

Also, the mentioned example seems very implausible. What makes an author unique is not what source they used for inspiration. Two writers will get the exact same “19th century travel journal” and write to completely different stories inspired by it. In different genres most likely.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#55

Post by InitialLastName »

nottorp wrote: post #34
Noumenon72 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did they split? Why do they exist? I don't see a link explaining why.

Not involved in either community but I somehow don't think stackexchange's "make the answer ready to copy paste and don't link to external content" ethos applies well to creative writing.

The different Stack Exchange communities have very different ethos, and thus their answers have some very different vibes. In particular, the ones related to creative writing (especially https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/ ) are full of speculative and creative conversations that, while still constructed around the Question/Answers paradigm are not quite so draconianly managed as the technical Stack Exchanges.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#56

Post by campbellmorgan »

soneca wrote: post #28
campbellmorgan wrote: post #10

I have discussed this idea with friends who are writers / artists. Call me a cynic, but while many writers / artists aspire to collective shared knowledge, the reality of both the writing and art market is that unique knowledge is an important differentiator and an asset to their careers. If you do find a fascinating, rare 19th century travel journal in some online archive the last thing you are going to do is share…

That's not my experience at all. I am trying to start a new career as a fiction writer, and writers are very interested in sharing knowledge. I say this for both professional, published authors and wannabes like me. I was part of a long creative writing course (about 9 months), and our class of 20 formed a bond of helping each other A LOT. Sharing tips, beta reading, posting about prizes, open calls for literary maga…

Yes I think that's fair especially about writing technique if that was the OP's original analogy, and in particular about new writers as you point out.

What I was referring to specifically was inspiration and knowledge of niche events that become the details that bring prose / art alive. These immediately lose their effect if they are reused which is why my friends who are professional writers dedicate an enormous amount of time to research in the hope that these details may jump out to them.

In a lot of contemporary art, a curator's view of work is often hung around a particular piece of research and that must be unique to warrant the attention of the public - my original point was that that research just can't be shared until the work is revealed.

However, maybe to your point, there is a lot of value in a more technical literary HN which encourages meta discussion on the process of writing rather than the content.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#57

Post by muzani »

seydor wrote: post #31

There is a hacker news for everything, it is called reddit

The mainstram writing groups are terrible. The average writing ability on many of the writing groups are actually lower than the rest of reddit.

I think it attracts hobbyists who refuse to take any advice. It's like how some grandmas refuse to use timers when cooking pasta. These groups are full of people who are always challenging the norm. They spend more time criticizing Stephen King and R.A. Salvatore's writing over making any meaningful output.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#58

Post by PuppyTailWags »

svnt wrote: post #52
PuppyTailWags wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is not a lot of news or pressing issues in fiction Are you sure about this? One of the biggest publishing houses is being sued by the DOJ to stop a merger. Publishing houses have recently started splitting advances into thirds and quarters over 2-3 years. There's an unprecedented quitting of agents, leaving many authors afloat with no rep. Barnes & Noble recently and suddenly changed how they market hardcover…

Writers are adjacent to journalists. They do not want for news, and realistically their perspective is over represented in media currently, unlike software developers.

What do you mean writers do not want for news? Are you sure? Are you aware of Publishers Marketplace?

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#60

Post by 0xdeadbeefbabe »

soneca wrote: post #28
campbellmorgan wrote: post #10

I have discussed this idea with friends who are writers / artists. Call me a cynic, but while many writers / artists aspire to collective shared knowledge, the reality of both the writing and art market is that unique knowledge is an important differentiator and an asset to their careers. If you do find a fascinating, rare 19th century travel journal in some online archive the last thing you are going to do is share…

That's not my experience at all. I am trying to start a new career as a fiction writer, and writers are very interested in sharing knowledge. I say this for both professional, published authors and wannabes like me. I was part of a long creative writing course (about 9 months), and our class of 20 formed a bond of helping each other A LOT. Sharing tips, beta reading, posting about prizes, open calls for literary maga…

> So I call you a cynic, as you asked me to, and a wrong one at that.

Cynics would rather be wrong.

Post reply on HN