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PenFM: Fall back in love with writing via your terrible friends

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Re: PenFM: Fall back in love with writing via your terrible friends

#13

Post by neoveller »

etherextraction wrote: post #12

Other then the export features to epub, how is this different then just using google docs?

For one, google docs has a free-form dynamic that doesn't really prevent people from cannibalizing each other's work. PenFM, like its predecessor Neovella, enforces a turn-based writing collaboration. But that's entirely just in terms of how it differs from GDocs in the sense of sharing the production of content.

Collaboration in PenFM happens in another, more powerful way: the ability to react to parts of a story with simple likes and more thorough commenting. Imagine having written a story, and now you have to send it out to friends & peers to review and give feedback on. Would you really rather have a back-and-forth over IM, constantly having to find the part they're referring to? On PenFM, they just click the section, type a comment, and you get notified to go take a look at what they wrote. It's asynchronous.

Re: PenFM: Fall back in love with writing via your terrible friends

#14

Post by ChristianMarks »

An online writers' workshop--not the same as Google Docs. There are online subscription systems that support such activities, such as http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/ Getting decent feedback is a problem. Perhaps there is a workable system that would compensate good reviewers. Most writers aren't rich, but they might be willing to pay other writers (who aren't rich) to review their work.

Re: PenFM: Fall back in love with writing via your terrible friends

#15

Post by neoveller »

ChristianMarks wrote: post #14

An online writers' workshop--not the same as Google Docs. There are online subscription systems that support such activities, such as http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/ Getting decent feedback is a problem. Perhaps there is a workable system that would compensate good reviewers. Most writers aren't rich, but they might be willing to pay other writers (who aren't rich) to review their work.

You sound like you really understand the pain-points pretty well, and while we have a few ways we're considering solving this one, I would love to pick your brain about it. Would you mind shooting me an email at mike@pen.fm?

Re: PenFM: Fall back in love with writing via your terrible friends

#18

Post by neoveller »

oulipian wrote: post #16

Using Ayn "Virtue of Selfishness" Rand to advertise your collaborative writing app is like using Donald Trump to advertise hair-care products.

Every collaborative story needs an amphetamine-driven cynic to cause a little bit of chaos.

Re: PenFM: Fall back in love with writing via your terrible friends

#19

Post by oulipian »

neoveller wrote: post #18
oulipian wrote: post #16

Using Ayn "Virtue of Selfishness" Rand to advertise your collaborative writing app is like using Donald Trump to advertise hair-care products.

Every collaborative story needs an amphetamine-driven cynic to cause a little bit of chaos.

That is not how most people are going to interpret that image. It comes across as completely clueless, since Rand is both a notoriously terrible writer and someone who would absolutely abhor the idea of collaborative writing, not to mention the idea of giving someone money.

Re: PenFM: Fall back in love with writing via your terrible friends

#20

Post by fusiongyro »

oulipian wrote: post #16

Using Ayn "Virtue of Selfishness" Rand to advertise your collaborative writing app is like using Donald Trump to advertise hair-care products.

And I hear you can support the capitalist system by buying shirts with Che Guevara's face on them. Or perhaps referencing equal parts Ayn Rand, Hemmingway, Poe and Cervantes might be more of an attempt to bring to mind famous authors rather than objectivism?
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