My first short story on Helium
By Zairo7
@Zairo7 (78)
Canada
February 23, 2009 10:56am CST
Well, I've submitted my first short story online today, to ANY website (be it Helium, AC, whatever). I'm a bit jittery over it and I keep on rationalizing to myself that if my foray into Helium goes well, then I definitely made the right choice in terms of university programs (I'm in my 3rd year now). Before I go into any more of a rant though, here's the story I submitted:
http://www.helium.com/items/1352410-short-stories
Currently it's ranked at 34/136, something I was rather surprised at. My next submission was an article listing a couple tips on how to get back into the gym, which also ranked favourably at 5/21. Sadly though, my third submission is faring not so well (29/50 - I sincerely hope it rises), it's an EXTREMELY short story about a man I remember from my childhood. I never talked to him because I was scared, and really it wasn't until I sat down and started brainstorming that I began to remember his nuances. I wish I could say "Hello" to him now. I've also just submitted my fourth short story, no ratings yet, but we'll see how it fares. I'm not too optimistic at this point. I think the quality of my submissions have been dropping.
Any ways, just wanted to get some comments/constructive criticism on what I have thus far.
3 people like this
6 responses
@ljbinkop (744)
• United States
23 Feb 09
Well I say congratulations and good luck with your submission! I have published six articles on Associated Content, and I do find it rather rewarding when they are accepted, not to mention that they pay you there immediatly. I really should check out Helium, but I think that now that I've established a few articles on AC, they could be hood for me for a while. Do you earn on Helium directly for the article, or just by page views and revenue sharing? I wonder, so if you have the time to answer this, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!
1 person likes this
@Zairo7 (78)
• Canada
23 Feb 09
Thanks :)
From what I've seen you CAN earn directly for the article, either by freelancing on the marketplace against competition or by having a certain writing star level, though this amount is rather low. You also earn by page views, and so long as you have 1 rating star you can continue to earn via page views for as long as you care to keep the account active.
1 person likes this
@iakulchen (615)
• Singapore
23 Feb 09
You'll earn based on your writing sites, which is a measure of both the quantity and quality of your work published on Helium. It starts from $0.50 per article for someone with a single writing star, to $2.50 per article for someone with 5 writing stars. There are other criteria you'll also have to meet. You'll need at least 1 rating star at the end of the month, and not all topics are eligible for upfront payment e.g creative writing isn't eligible. There's also a $1 bonus for writing to an empty title.
Regarding page views, think Zairo already answered that part of the question.
1 person likes this
@iakulchen (615)
• Singapore
23 Feb 09
correcting a typo, should be "writing stars", not "writing sites"
1 person likes this
@paid2write (5201)
•
23 Feb 09
I enjoyed reading your short story, 34 out of 136 is a good rating and I can see why. It may rise higher, or drop lower. Ratings change all the time, when new articles are added and old ones are leapfrogged (revised).
Have you visited the Helium community message boards (from the community link at bottom of each page)? You can ask for help or get a critique there.
I hope you will have continued success at Helium. With a lot of good articles you can make a nice monthly income from it. I've been writing at Helium for one year now, I'm very active at the site and enjoy my participation.
@Zairo7 (78)
• Canada
23 Feb 09
Thank you :)
I'll be taking a peak at the Helium community forums later on to get some input there.
Truth be told, I'm just glad there seems to be a decent community for writers. The money is just an added bonus for me. Right now I'm setting my goals on winning one of the contests that has a writer/editor workshop as part of the prize :)
1 person likes this
@AnythngArt (3302)
• United States
23 Feb 09
You are doing pretty well with the rating, and they go up and down all the time, so any given day, it's likely to move one way or another. I think creative writing may be even harder to rate fairly because it is such a subjective process. I wouldn't discourage you from using Helium. I write over there myself, but you might want to explore more fiction writing-oriented sites...that is, sites dedicated only to creative writing.
With Helium, you are just a sideline from the main business, which is the nonfiction article. There are a lot of fiction writers on the Internet, but they are probably oriented more toward sites that feature fiction writing or have journals that showcase fiction writers.
Good luck with your writing!
@underdogtoo (9579)
• Philippines
27 Feb 09
That is a big accomplishment and I hope that it gets good reviews. I like to write too but I have not had any success at all in this endeavor. I just write for mylot and it seems to be more consistent in regard to the money I make. Cheers!!
@iakulchen (615)
• Singapore
23 Feb 09
Welcome to Helium :)
If you are looking for constructive criticism, there's a section in Helium's forums where you can have people critique your work. They're amazing detailed when it comes to critquing.
Since I haven't really done any creative writing for Helium, guess the only article I can really comment on is your gym article. It appears to
to be quite a good piece of work.
1 person likes this
@zhuhuifen46 (3483)
• China
24 Feb 09
Congratulations! I have been fond of writing, and did write something about people around me, about what I experienced, and I translated something from english journals and books, but never dared to submit to any agencies. Mostly because I am not familiar with the procedures, and I am scared of anything technical. I just leave them there as means I kill my time, and as symbles of my accomplishment.
Good start is half done, however, continuous endeavors are needed in improving writing skills, in accessing to the society, and in upgrading your own self, in a comprehensive way.
