A Little Site Called "Inkpop"

I first joined inkpop in July of 2010, back when it was still green. Admittedly, it was at first a joke. My friend and I stumbled upon it (I’m still not totally sure how), and we were basically like, hey, this site seems kind of ridiculous, let’s join! About a year and a half later, I cannot even begin to express my sadness over losing inkpop.

My first account went kaput pretty quickly. I was a crappy writer, gave one-liners, and couldn’t navigate the forums to save my life. I was never really into it, and I’m not exactly sure what compelled me to make a new account February of last year. I didn’t have a story I was working on, and I certainly didn’t need the distraction. But I did. I made an account.

And I have to be corny for a second and say how much it changed me. As a writer, and a person.
For about the first six months of my new account, I somehow became known as a free reader. I went from giving one-line comments to 2,000 word critiques. My grammar improved, my idea of what makes a story succeed grew, and I realized that writing is a million times more important to me than I ever realized.

I posted a short story on inkpop that peaked in the 70s, but I never really did much with it. I resigned myself to the position of reader, critic, and perpetually annoyed writer who never shared her work.
But that changed on Thanksgiving, when I started writing a story I called The Disillusionment of Winter. I posted it on the first of December, and almost instantly it was critiqued and picked by one of the nicest people I’ve encountered on the site. Good confidence boost, especially since it was only twelve pages and especially rough. March 1st, exactly three months since I posted it, TDoW made the Top 5. It was a bittersweet moment—a spot in the Top 5 means a review from Harper Collins, but it was that same day that inkpop ceased to exist. It merged with Figment, another writing site I’ve never gotten into, and suddenly a year and a half of my writing growth was gone.

Honestly, I’m grateful to inkpop for so many things. For the people I’ve met , for the feedback I’ve gotten, and the incredible support I’ve gotten. I’m pissed at HC for tearing down the site on such short notice, but I have to believe that things can only get better, be it on Wattpad, Figment, with querying, etc. There is so much talent in inkpop that I cannot even handle it, and I look forward to buying every single one of your books and quietly thinking to myself, “I remember you by your inkpop username.”
Inkpop was a huge part of my life, which is sad about a website, but still. It was capital-L Life-changing, and I have no doubt believing that the amazing members of that community will be just as life-changing, too.