If you enjoy blogging, the logical next step for you is to start dabbling in Wiki (no, that’s not Wicca—something else entirely). Think of Wikis as “super-blogs,” easy-to-find blogs encompassing the whole world. Although a Wiki site is often started by an identifiable person or group, the site as a whole seems to lack the stamp of one person’s personality, as is often the case with blogs (although Wikis also involve comment and interaction).
A Wiki is above all a place for collaborative work (as well as interesting reading).
The characteristic linking lists with others you find on personal blogs is done a little differently in the Wiki world, although in my limited experience, the line blurs. You won’t usually find such lists.
What is being done in Wiki World is developing fast and in a lot of different directions (like the Big Bang), but in essence you find a number of interested people working on texts as such or ideas expressed in texts in different ways (really different ways). In actual practice, this includes writers workshopping poetry and prose.
A very simple approach is to post something; then other people “edit” that idea, that is, note their modifications, approval, rejection, etc. of the idea. Others can “edit” the response or go back to the original and it takes off from there. Wikis characteristically have a table of contents to help you begin to navigate the site.
A Wiki can encompass all sorts of sites, including personal blogs. A good example is the famous Wikipedia.
Here are a couple of Wiki-type blogs to get you started. I’ll put them in my “Links” section: Check out wetpaint (easy place to start), wikiwikisandbox (introductory), novelas (a fiction wiki), and everypoet (a poetry wiki).
You enter everypoet.com like any web site. This site has many interesting sections, such as the poetry free-for-all where you can enter poetry for serious criticism, a showcase where you can just post a poem for the world to enjoy, a nice index of full text classics, a choice of different types of poetry: dark (for those days), formal, and so on. There’s even a link to site where the authors have devoted themselves to amassing a collection of poetry about the Table of Elements you remember so fondly from high school, poems about actinium, astatine, lawrenciem and a whole bunch I think they’ve added since high school.
Don’t forget to visit the haiku generator for such masterpieces as
cloudlessly cackling
abstractly patiently juice
hastens formlessly.
Hey, the syllable count is right on target!
And as your final treat, visit 43 folders, which includes a wonderful page for those of us addicted to Moleskine notebooks and just the right pen and ink.
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