It Could Happen to You
By Deb Lehman
Sol Nasisi of Newton, Massachusetts, had a dream. An aspiring novelist by night and a senior vice president of online marketing by day, he wanted more.
Says Nasisi: “How, I thought, how can I best use the Internet and my lifelong passion for writing to advance my literary ambitions and the careers of other undiscovered writers?”
He envisioned an online forum inviting writers to submit their work for critiques while simultaneously giving them the opportunity to read works in progress by other writers. “Feedback from spouses and family members can only take you so far,” Nasisi says. “Writers need reactions from other writers in order to improve. They also need motivation to succeed.”
According to the National Endowment for the Arts, there are 14 million creative writers in this country. In October 2005, Nasisi boldly left the Bank of America to launch TheNextBigWriter.com, a Website designed to help all writers. More than 5,000 short stories, poems, novels, and 33,000 literary reviews later, Nasisi’s dream is a reality: a supportive global writers’ community with industry luminaries as reviewers and more than 2,600 members perfecting their craft in hopes of becoming the Next Big Writer.
Members include doctors, lawyers, innkeepers, a former network executive, a former movie-studio creative director, and published novelists from the United States and 16 other countries including Russia, England, and China.
While the site attracts people of all ages, at least 50 percent of its members are retirees. Not only are they tapping their latent desire to write, they’re also making great “e-friends” along the way “Retirees have the money, the experience, and the time,” says Nasisi. “Many have always dreamed of writing, but never got around to it.”
Sometimes surviving a serious illness in mid-life can spur a dream deferred.
Lesley C. Weston, head of costume design for the New York City Opera, devoted most of her professional life to the theatre, first as a Juilliard student, then as a performer, and finally as a costume designer. When she turned 50, Weston became very ill, and sickness changed her priorities. “I always wanted to write,” she says. “But I kept saying: ‘Someday, someday.’ When I got sick, I realized that someday is today. Time is precious.”
Ms. Weston started writing to fulfill her life’s dream, and that fueled her recovery process. This past December she started logging onto thenextbigwriter.com and discovered lots of benefits. “I had subscribed to online writing workshops before,” she says. “But thenextbigwriter.com has several unique things going for it, like star reviews. It’s great to have your work recognized not only by your peers but also by established writers and reviewers.”
“Beyond attracting undiscovered talent, our site enlists accomplished editors and writers for topnotch critiques,” says Nasisi. “The latest additions are Paul Bagdon, an outstanding writer and teacher who has published 30 novels, and Terry Davidson, the editor of Zoetrope: All Story, a quarterly literary publication founded by Francis Ford Coppola. Davidson has been nominated for nine Pulitzer Prizes.
Among the varied members of TheNextBigWriter.com are Barry Davidson, a computer expert; Rebecca Latyntseva, a Russian poet; Joel K. Baker, author of Top Gun: Consulting With an Attitude; and Diana Methot, a single mother who just received her bachelor’s degree.
Thenextbigwriter.com is built on democratic principles. Writers can choose between two memberships. A free membership allows you to read and review others people’s work; or for $4.95 a month, writers display their own pieces for feedback.
You accumulate credits by critiquing four or five other people’s works of similar genre before posting your own. It gets rated in turn by your colleagues. Many writers revise their work and show it again, in rapid cycle of self-improvement.
“It’s all about reciprocity,” says Nasisi. “Writers can post as much work as they want, provided they log critiquing time. Best of all, writers are guaranteed feedback on anything, even novels.”
“That’s another unique selling point,” says Lesley Weston. “No other online writing workshop provides feedback on an entire novel. The maximum is 100 pages.”
Weston’s novel, Nancy Boy, a story of hope and redemption that explores the perils of homosexuality in the 1960s, is approximately 400 pages divided into 46 chapters. Since posting her work, she has received 2,364 reviews, or about 53 reviews for each chapter. “People have been generous with their time,” she says. “They advised me about what worked and what didn’t.
Some writers gave me line-by-line edits and have been there with me from the first chapter through to the last.”
That’s the kind of commitment this website fosters.
“Harnessing the intelligence of the global writing community has improved my writing and given me an invaluable perspective,” says Weston.
But could worldwide visibility dissuade some writers from posting their work?
Nasisi says the greater risk for a writer is obscurity, not plagiarism.
“Passwords are protected,” he says, and “risk exists even for published writers.” To drive his point home, he cites the recent case of the young Harvard novelist accused of stealing work from several established authors.
The affordable price of this Website also distinguishes it from other Internet writing resources. At $39.95 a year, it’s a bargain compared with the average price of $400 for most online writing workshops. Still, “I don’t think our Website is in competition with online writing workshops,” says Nasisi. “I see it as an extension of work done in workshops.”
The site rewards its own by providing online publishing contracts and $5,000 for the best novel.
Leslie Weston came in second with her novel Nancy Boy, out of hundreds that were submitted, while first prize was awarded to Ivey Banks for Out of the Dark.
Thenextbigwriter.com boasts a couple of commercial success stories. Several of its authors have published works of short fiction and poetry in magazines. One writer has submitted work to a publisher, another has self-published a novel, still another has elicited the interest of a prestigious literary agent.
“I’ve been getting great feedback from members,” says Nasisi. “We’re responsive to their needs, and membership has increased as a result. We are continuing to grow. Our site is a work in progress. One of our future goals is to use the site to publish the work of its members.”
Nasisi is convinced that a novel posted on his site will make it onto the bestseller list within the next two years. It could even be him. Ironically, since he started the Website, he hasn’t had time to finish his own novel. But he’s almost through a rough draft and is very motivated to finish.
Hey, ya never know!
