I am a creative writer and would like to start a blog, but I've been repulsed by the platforms I've seen. Does anyone know of a blogging platform that is only or primarily for creative writing? I've read about Wordpress, Tumblr, Blogger, and other popular ones. Most of them seem very customizable and flooded with images. I'm sure there a niche platforms out there, but even the alternative ones that I've found basically follow suit and deviate little. I'm trying to find a platform that has a user-base interested in creative writing, not journalism, image browsing, social networking, etc. I suppose I might have ended up at deviantArt if writers there were more serious and the audience for writing was larger. According to my mentor, blogs have killed zines, otherwise I would have loved just do that. (zines would have been ideal for me). Most of my writing is no longer than a three pages, vignettes and poetry, pretty much, if that helps narrow it down. Maybe blurred with flash fiction. Any suggestions?
I like Wordpress - the variety of themes available means you can do pretty much anything you want with it. You don't need to use an image-heavy design. That said, Wordpress - more so than places like Blogger or Livejournal - is really just a website-building system. If you want eyes, you have to go fetch them yourself; it doesn't come with a built-in reader base for you. If that's what you're after, and you're not bothered about having an actual website of your own, there's a couple of fiction writing groups on Livejournal you could join. The reader base is nowhere near what it used to be since Facebook stole the crowds, but there's still some people lurking.
Well, I understand that, more than anything, the presence of readers is dependent on your own effort, planting yourself in every opportune place at every opportune time. What I meant that I would rather not go to a site to which most people go to without the intention of actually reading anything. And I wasn't really talking about have a design too based on images more than a site that is popularly used or known for image browsing (for example, I'll avoid Tumblr because I've never known someone who goes there do more than browse, post, and repost images). I'm not sure if that clarification changes your answer, though. Thank you for it.
Wordpress tends to have more professionals on in. There are several agents who are on Wordpress and John Scalzi, current president of the SFWA is on there also. I would say unless you buy your own domain to run things, then that will be your best bet.
There's fictionpress.com which houses original fiction and poetry, although it's a ghost town in terms of getting people to interact with you through feedback. I would also avoid Tumblr. Like some others here, I suggest you give Wordpress another go. People will wander by and often "like" your work, but you'll have do the same and comment. It's exactly like making friends out of acquaintances. You'll have to entice some regular readers and build your own community/circle.
I've used blogger, wordpress, and tumblr. Tumblr isn't overly friendly to long text posts. Not the users more the format of the text editor. It tends to act up when trying to write long posts. Wordpress I have only used as a platform for my business website so I don't know much about how it works with blogging. Blogger is by far my favorite for long text posts. I think it's the most straightforward one to use.
I've used WordPress for a few years now, and love the interface. I find it really easy to use and post to, and the range of visuals you can get for your blog is impressive. I've worked with professional sites which are powered by WordPress, and I know a lot of fellow writers who use it. That said, I don't really have anything else for comparison!
Wordpress for sure! But I think you are getting muddled. You need to remember that there are very few consumers in writer-specific blog communities. People want to further their own blog, not read another. You want to reach readers, not writers. I have been using wordpress as a website platform for about a year, but I only just signed up for a wordpress.com blog. I've been there for less than a week, made four posts, and without any outside promotion, have five followers and about 20 likes... This might not seem like much but I've dipped my toe into a lot of networks and never gotten such a rapid and positive response.
