I’m not sure why I’ve never gotten around to mentioning Critters on my blog, but I think it’s time I do.

Andrew Burt and I don’t know each other personally, but we do have a long history together. Years ago, when the web was really young, Unix was in its hay day, blogs didn’t really exist, and I had a Commodore Amiga, I was a user on his free public internet system, Nyx. I used Nyx to host my “homepage” and telnet’d into it to play with Unix. Nyx, I believe, was one of the first freenet systems in existence at the time.

Nyx still remains free, but has changed owners. Aburt has moved on to other things. Among those things is Critters. Critters is best described in Aburt’s own words:

Critters is an on-line workshop/critique group for serious writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. You get your work critiqued in exchange for critiquing the work of others, both of which are invaluable ways to improve your writing. It’s run by Dr. Andrew Burt, vice-president of SFWA and his army of software minions. Critters is free (except for the work of doing critiques!); if you find Critters useful, you may make a donation (appreciated but in no way required).

Critters requires some commitment on your part to keep up with critiques, but is most definitely an invaluable resource towards improving your writing. Critiquing other works requires analysis that is appropriate for your own work and, of course, having your work critiqued is a bonus.

If you write in one of the genres that Critters caters towards, be sure to check the site out. Let me know what you think of it.