It's Not Just a Figment of my Imagination--I Promise!

Do you like to write?
Do you ever wish that someone would give you great prompts for writing?
Do you like to read?
Do you ever wish that someone would critique your writing and give you pointers?
Do you like to give people feedback on their writing?

If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions, you should definitely check out Figment.com. Figment is website where teens, adults, authors, and authors-to-be create accounts to write, read, and help others with their writing. The Figment homepage bears the words "figment. WRITE YOURSELF IN."

WRITING CONTESTS
To help us blooming writers stir up our creative writing juices, Figment features frequent writing challenges. These challenges relate to everything from seasonal-themed stories to companions for well-known books or writing styles. It's great fun to see what wonderful ideas people all over the country just like you are cooking up on their computers.

FIGMENT DAILY THEMES
Figment also offers members another invaluable resource in the creativity department: daily prompts.
Figment sends me daily emails, each with a specific daily theme, or prompt. These prompts, as the emails proclaim, "push you to work on the range of your craft [writing], focusing on character, setting, dialogue, personal essay, verse, and more."
For example, several Figment Daily Themes over the past few weeks have been challenges on writing form and description, or, like today's Theme, writing a scene or a poem that is inspired by a certain image of the day. The goal of these Themes for me as a writer is to challenge myself to experiment with new kinds of writing. In a way, these Themes give us writers permission to try totally new and exciting writing styles and formats. Of course, upon responding to the Themes, we can always log in to Figment.com and publish a piece of writing inspired by the Theme. Other members and Figment staff can view published pieces and provide helpful feedback, encouragement, and inspiration. Plus, it's quite motivating to know that other people are pushing themselves to try new things in the prose world, like you.

TAGS
For each story or poem that you write on Figment, Figment lets you place tags to let others know what sort of genre or writing style you've used. Therefore, if you're looking to read a certain kind of writing, you can find it easily on the website. You can also easily organize your own writing on your Figment "desk" to keep everything in order. Also, I should mention, Figment lets you add cover art to each story or poem, keeping things colorful, lively, and fun.

LIVE CHATS
Figment also has another awesome feature: live chats with authors. The thousands of Figment participants include everyone from ten-year-old fantasy-lovers to real world professional authors. Figment offers live chats (communicated through keyboard chatting rather than video) with two authors at a time on a once weekly/twice monthly basis, allowing young readers and aspiring writers to ask authors firsthand for advice and info about their experiences in the writing world.

So, if you are interested, check out Figment today by clicking here! Enjoy, and happy writing!