It was the longest running online writing site for readers and writers. That's what I saw when I typed it into a Google search.
It was a long, hot September day and I was so frustrated with Wattpad of all places. They had announced some changes that at first I wasn't so happy about, new website design. Why fix something that ain't broke? Good question. I looked at Fictionpress and said to myself that it looked nice and simple, nothing too fancy, plenty of stories to read on there. Let's do this.
I made the account and customised it to match my personality before going off to join different forums and exploring the hideouts of the site. And I discovered that many users who had joined... hadn't been active in months, oh joy. I was stumbling onto some good looking stories on user accounts but to see the amount of inactivity, I felt bored. But I wanted to give things a try.
I posted two old story drafts up on my profile and I waited, and waited, and waited. On Wattpad, whenever I post something now, I have people message me on my new update within 5, 10 minutes or an hour afterwards. But on Fictionpress, I wasn't sure where to navigate to when it came to looking for feedback. I found a couple of people that were helpful but that was about it. And since then, nothing since.
As a reader, I don't have a problem with using Fictionpress but as a writer, I've struggled to really try and meet new people. The site was founded in the late 1990s after all, a lot earlier than Wattpad's 2006 launch.
I like reading some of the longer fiction novels there, when I have nothing else to do. If I was to do the same promotional things as I do on Wattpad, I might get some new readers on very old draft stories that haven't been touched for months. I do follow authors of novels and short stories who are generally nice people to talk to and leave feedback on their works but as someone who was used to the hustle and bustle of Wattpad, it was too quiet for me. Maybe on a lazy day.
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