Something Awesome is Brewing… Introducing Fiction Friends 2.0!
The virtual coffee shop for fiction writers is back and better than ever
Fiction Friends 1.0 was an experiment, the brainchild of one weekend.
Fiction Friends 2.0 is the product of many months of researching and planning.
I, uh, have a slightly obsessive personality.
When I launched the first version of Fiction Friends a little over a year ago, it was focused around solving one problem: lack of infrastructure for fiction stories on Medium.
Since I joined Medium in 2021, I’ve consistently struggled to find the type of fiction I wanted to read.
Common features on web fiction platforms — like metadata for genre and rating — were nowhere to be found on Medium, making it difficult to narrow options down or even find fiction in the first place.
So, I had an idea
Enter the story listings concept, where writers could submit a form with additional information about their fiction story in the comments of a post, and the listing would be featured on Fiction Friends for readers to check out.
It was a crazy plan and I had no idea if it would work, but to my delight, it caught on. Fiction writers on Medium were actually connecting with new readers because of it!
Six months into the experiment, though, I encountered several fundamental problems, all converging at the same time. I needed to figure out how to resolve them before the publication would be able to continue.
Fiction Friends 1.0 had to go on hiatus, and eventually, was archived.
At the time, it was a really hard decision to make, but it was the right thing to do.
And then robots took over the world
Well, not quite, but just two months later, ChatGPT exploded onto the scene.
Almost overnight, it seemed like everything writers publish online may be under threat, and that included web fiction.
I’m not going to lie: as a self-proclaimed hype girl for web fiction, it was really alarming. It still is.
What was the future of web fiction going to be like? An endless wasteland of AI-generated stories that drowned out human-crafted tales?
How can we stay connected with stories that come from real hearts and minds, when it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell what was written by a human versus a bot?
Suddenly, Fiction Friends seemed like it had a more important role to play than just providing infrastructure for fiction on Medium.
Medium is evolving, too
A lot has been changing on this platform, and taking that into account has been a big part of designing Fiction Friends 2.0.
Medium announced the boost program in February, and Medium’s CEO Tony Stubblebine said in an interview in March that he thinks we’re moving from a creator economy to a curator economy — in part because of the onslaught of mediocre AI content.
I think he has a point. And it raises questions.
How can we effectively promote fiction on Medium, both the crowd-pleaser tales and the stories that embody a very specific genre?
How can we engage with humans more, and algorithms and artificial intelligence less?
Well, here’s one way.
It’s official — story listings are back!
Before, we had a weekly post of stories.
Now, we have a whole library!
The Fiction Friends Library is now open, which means you can now submit stories to be added.
Your story listing will be shelved in the library according to the genre you select, where it will be available for curious readers to browse and click on.
Your story may also be featured in our newsletter, The Story List, which tracks how many new story listings are added to each genre.
Just like Fiction Friends 1.0, these story listings are designed to help readers connect with stories that interest them the most.
Because each listing is reviewed by a human (hello, that’s me) and there is a limit on how many can be submitted each week, the library automatically discourages bots and schemers seeking to game the system with AI-generated content.
A few things have changed, however, so please read the new guidelines before submitting your story!
I am excited to see your stories on our virtual shelves!
But that’s just the beginning
The vision for Fiction Friends 2.0 extends far beyond the library and newsletter.
Without going into too much detail yet, I have plans and ideas to build a community of fiction curators on Medium, a hub for articles about publishing fiction online, and a space for writers to introduce themselves and their publications.
A true community for fiction on Medium, one that offers real value to writers and readers who care about great storytelling — and one that is purposefully designed to prevent being overrun by bots and AI-generated fiction.
Let me know what you think
What do you think of Fiction Friends 2.0 so far?
If you have any questions, thoughts, or suggestions, please post them in the comments!
I’m always thinking about how to improve this publication, and I’d love to hear any feedback.
And if you’re just curious about the logic behind some of the changes and features and plans, I’d be happy to chat about that, too.
Thanks for reading!
Here’s to building a bigger, better fiction community on Medium.
I’m looking forward to reading about your stories!