 Noticing Newbies: October 01, 2025 Issue [#13367] |
This week: Help Is On The Way Edited by: JACE  
More Newsletters By This Editor 
 
1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions
Hi, I'm JACE .
Welcome to this issue of the Noticing Newbies newsletter. Join me as I take you into some nooks and crannies of Writing.Com that you may not have found time to check out yet.
Don't forget to toss me a note about what you liked or didn't like in my column, or about a topic you'd like to see discussed. This newsletter is about and for you. And for you seasoned members, I hope you'll find something you can take from my ramblings. 
Your Noticing Newbies Newsletter full-time Editors:
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Much effort has been expended by the Staff and select members over the past 25 years to create, upgrade and maintain a vast support system for members. From the very beginning, The StoryMaster and StoryMistress recognized the need to help members get the most out of the site created for those members. As Stories.Com, and later Writing.Com, their efforts to make this a premier site for writer have always been at the front of their creative efforts.
Nary a year passes that some new feature is not introduced to improve WDC. Some changes are major, such as the introduction of "Writing.Com 101" in 2010. In just 15 years, there have been more than half a million views of that resource alone. Other features are as simple as creating and periodically adding to a library of Emoticons to facilitate our member's unique expressions.
While most of you new members find these forums on your own, it may take a few days or weeks to arrange your Portfolio pages for easier access to these pages, specifically your Favorites (located on the right side of each page). Marking these forums as a favorite, places them in your Favorites list.
You'll find four icons on the name line at the far right of each item you open. (Please note when opening a member's Port page, these icons and their use change.) Initially, they are:
 places the item in a reading mode, highlighting just the center column.
 sends the item to a connected printer.
 allows you to make the item a Favorite ( ) by clicking once, placing the item into your Favorites list; clicking a second time makes you a Fan ( ) of the item. Read "My Favorites and Fans" for more on this topic.
 allows you to share a URL of the item with a friend by clicking on the link provided.
Help is available through a number of forums (in order of creation) on site:
"Writing.Com General Discussion" created Sep 2000, almost 1,648,000 views to date
"Noticing Newbies" created Feb 2001, more than 1,256,000 views to date
"Technical Support Forum" created Dec 2001, more than 3,554,000 views to date
"Non-Technical Support Forum" created Jun 2003, more than 214,00 0 views to day
WritingML Help: https://www.writing.com/main/tools/action/writingml
Official WDC newsletters: https://www.writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives
There are a number of UN-official WDC newsletters, created and hosted by various members. Some include:
"Grammarama" created Sep 2004, with 31 entries on some aspect of Grammar.
"Unofficial Erotica Newsletter Archive" created Apr 2006, with more than 200 newsletters
"Reviewing Handbook" created Mar 2007, with 58 newsletters
"Unofficial Hero&Vill Newsletter Archive" created Jan 2014, with three newsletters
Some key entries in "Writing.Com 101"
"Get Started With Your Account"
"Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)"
A final, but very important Help resource are the members themselves. Members often answer the queries posed in these forums. Collectively, a huge amount of writing knowledge and WDC savvy resides in the members. In those cases when an answer about the site is too technical for the general membership, The StoryMaster will be there.
Suffice it to say, help is on the way.
An Upgrade Moment
In my very early newsletters I would highlight a feature available only to paid members at various levels. With so many nooks, crannies, and features available to members, one can hardly comprehend everything. Even older members can't track all the changes WDC has undergone over the past twenty-five years.  Most are explained in " Writing.Com 101" , and are marked with a symbol indicating to which membership level the feature applies. You may see something you didn't know existed, or something you just haven't tried before.
You can compare all the features available to a given membership level at " Compare Free and Paid Membership Benefits" .
This month, I'd like to discuss the The Review Tool.
 Reviewing is one of the cornerstones of WDC. Literally millions of reviews have been submitted by members since WDC's inception. Okay, we're just a helpful lot.  Whether you're an experienced reviewer, or manage a couple a month, the Review Tool is a basic weapon to have in your WDC arsenal. No, I mean it's available to the Basic membership level and above.
The mechanics of the Review Tool are outlined in a couple of entries in "Writing.Com 101" , specifically "The Review Tool" and "Creating Review Templates" . I won't regurgitate that info here. Check out some sample templates for reviewing stories and poems contained in "Sample Review Templates" . Use them as a springboard for creating your own personalized templates. Often each reviewing group or reviewing contest has a specific signature or statement that must be included to make it easy for the group organizer to find and credit the review on the Public Review Page. To avoid having to re-type the same information for each review, put it in your template. You can customize your templates for each reviewing group you're in.
The Review Tool is accessible from two places--the review area at the bottom of each reviewable item, and a personal Review Tool located in your My Account area in the navigation menu. The tool provides a pop-up, full size review box with additional tools including a character counter, WritingML icons for easy formatting, and a spell check function.
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Check out this forum designed to assist Newbies.
Then drop in on these Newbies. Take a moment to review this offering ... or something else in their Port. Welcome them to WDC through a scribble in their Notebook.
| | | Validation (E)
This poem is about how you receive validation in your work and how you deal with it
#2346944 by Shan_writes  |
| |  | Four Tongues (E)
A short description that suddenly came to mind one day, felt compelled to share it
#2347230 by Freddy Cole |
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
Thanks for spending time with me today. At the bottom of every newsletter is a section entitled:
followed by a text box. If you liked what you read (or if you didn't), please take time and drop me a line. I'd love to hear your ideas.
From the MailBag:
From Dawn Embers  : I'm the same. 20 years on the site and with all of the different features we get each year, along with the current ones, I get lost. I have to research and check how to do things often. That and I'm not tech savvy. But will help out anyone that asks, even if I am searching around for a while to find the answer.
I read a forum response from a Moderator back in the early years of the site. She said she'd rather take the time to research, and be the second person with the correct answer, than the first person with the wrong answer.
From the Newsfeed for "Little Victories"
From Jim : When I can't write, I start writing about not being able to write. Sometimes it's a list of excuses that I use for not writing. Other times, it's writing about the intimidating blank page just waiting to pounce on my ideas.
Should I get stuck, I'll have to try this.
From Arsuit : I spend two hours watching YouTube videos I've already seen a hundred times while I complain about how much I could get done if I had an extra two hours every day. Every once in a while I wrest enough control from my mind to make progress on a story.
Funny how many other tasks I can find to do than the one I need to do.
From Tannus : I usually brainstorm and write all my thoughts down.
From gracy04  : Once I feel overwhelmed by a task, I compose myself and take the task.
Sounds like a good plan.
From Mousethyme  : Constantly. There are so many decisions to be made. I just start scribbling. I love it when a story presents itself with character names and settings and all that. It's when there is just a vague that the real work begins.
My stories tend to come into existence kicking and screaming.
From Marvelous Friend : Anytime I feel overwhelmed with anything, one of the first things I do is prioritize the tasks that I want to do or need done.
I make lists too.
From Killer Quokka of County Kš¤¦ : I have to say, no I don't. But if people do feel overwhelmed, then just try writing random words. No structure, no relationship, fill a page with random words. Write them in different fonts with different sizes and spacing and direction. Do it by hand.
Do not think, let the words just come out. Nothing may come of it, but it just gets writing happening.
My first wife would do that when she was stuck; I couldn't.
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