In 2015, UNESCO measured the world’s average literacy rate at just 86%. That is to say that across the world, on average, only 86% of the population over the age of fifteen can read and write. Now, that may not seem like a very small percentage, but it still means that with the current population figures at around 7.5 billion, a billion people can’t read or write.

People also say that books are on the way out and that trying to become a writer is a dying art. That televisions and video games are killing the novel industry – and yet over the last few years, we’ve had global book franchise successes to the tune of wizards, vampires, and BDSM to name a few. You know which ones I mean – Harry Potter, Twilight, and 50 Shades – because you couldn’t move without seeing someone reading them. And even now it continues.

As a generation, we read more than any other in history. Our word consumption is higher, faster and much more metabolic. I mean that in the sense that when we find something we like, we devour it and everything attached to or associated with it. The power of the internet has made it so that no matter the nature of your perverse literary thirsts, you can satiate them at the click of a button.

You want to read genderbent erotic Walking Dead fan fiction? You can, it’s out there. I’ve seen it. And with this upward trend of reading, and of comfort in ourselves to explore that which we enjoy, comes an equally as thrilling upward trend of writing. Yes, it’s unadulterated, unmoderated, and mostly downright uncouth, but it’s there. If you consider the amount of raw information being penned every moment of every day, in every way possible – novels, emails, press releases, tweets, statuses, business proposals, poems, comments, troll posts, memes, infographics and even this blog post… we are not just a generation of unhinged and unslakeable readers… we are one of the writers, too.

Social Media

We crave attention now because it’s so easy to get at. Social Media. It’s in the name. Social, from the Latin socialis – ‘allied’ or socius – ‘friend’. Media, from the modern Latin tunica/membrana media ‘middle sheath/layer’. You are to the left, your potential reader to the right and meeting in the middle is Social Media. That is the intermediary layer of society now, connecting us all. Information is shared in an organic and rapid way. Mitosis occurs every time something is posted. A status begins a comment, which becomes its own thought and story. Together, we create, even when we don’t realize.

And in this modern melee of information overload, two companies are chiseling out their slice of digital nirvana, offering a straight and smooth path to travel in the social writing pixel jungle of hairpins and rutted tracks.

Different Writing Solutions

Alter stories and Grindstone Literary Services both looked at the same heaving mess of information and said, ‘there are stories in there somewhere – good ones.’

Alter stories is a straight up writing platform that needs no man to call it mister. It blends raw first draft storytelling with social interaction on a minimal basis. Writers collaborate in real time to pen chunks of stories each, letting them unfold with the help of the other’s fingers, shaping them into something great, and fulfilling their two base urges – writing and social adulation. It’s a tightly packed combo that delivers bursts of enthusiasm and support which taste like sweet, sweet concurrence.

Grindstone Literary Services is geared more towards the professional side of the writing industry, offering an intermediary leaping off point for those who want to write beyond their social whims. You can find competitions, writing tournaments, challenges, a young writers programs, and a host of literary services which all serve to improve and sharpen a writer’s craft. They look at writing as a skill to learned and honed and provide feedback to every competition entrant as a result.

And despite both feeding from the same pool, they need not work in opposition, and don’t – in fact, they are banding together, and are hoping others will join their collaborative circle in the future, all championing the same ethos – the salvation of the written and read word. It’s a saturated world of writing out there, which isn’t to say that gleaming gems aren’t to be found, but only that it’s slightly harder for the right people to find them.

You have to be prepared to work now, harder than ever if you want to make a name for yourself in this crowded world of writing. So why not cut your teeth at Alter Stories, leap into Grindstone to get a taste of the real thing with some professional editorial feedback, and then practice your craft alongside others in the same frame of mind back at Alter Stories?

There’s a great quote by author Toni Morrison;
“and I’m going to do the writerly thing here and paraphrase it so I can claim partial credit for it.”
If you can’t find something you want to read, then write it instead… on Alter Stories… and then get the guys over at Grindstone to take a look at it…And the melting pot of social writing just keeps on churning!

You can find Alter Stories at: https://www.AlterStories.com
Or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/alterstories

And Grindstone at: https://www.GrindstoneLiterary.com
Or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrindstoneLS