Write; Edit; Share:
Revise, then Publish
On the internet, sometimes hitting publish is the worst thing that can happen. The drafting process, editing, feedback, and revision, is undervalued. Writing – for class, for work, for life – seems like an automatic process, one which rewards damming up thoughts in our minds and then unleashing them all, at once, as words onto some page, digital or physical. There is an illusion that this is how good writing is produced: write quickly, publish quickly. Too often, getting published is conflated with an author having produced the best they could.
The later an author decides to edit his words, the greater the chance of regret. Escalate is a writing platform that rewards getting your thoughts onto the page, and then not hitting publish. The next step, we think, is sharing the piece with friends and colleagues, readers that you trust to be thoughtful and critical. We believe in letting a piece sit before hitting submit. Even if it is just for a little bit. And if others, a few trusted readers, can give you well-written and careful edits – from copyediting to feedback – there is a chance that this pause allows you to create a stronger piece, and publish a better story. We want Escalate to be the place for thoughtful writers to easily draft, save, share, and edit their pieces. To read and be read by a community of thoughtful people.
On Escalate, individual blogs and themed categories require sharing and feedback. We believe that pieces become stronger not only by community, but also by learning when to trust your judgment in the face of others, and when to revise your words when it becomes clear that what you thought was clear was not clear enough. Everyone on Escalate can immediately create their own personal blog. An author who has given useful feedback to enough writers can create and curate her own category (or categories), on whatever topic she wishes, and can edit or co-edit with as many people as she likes. If enough people care about each other’s writing and a particular topic to make time to write and edit each other’s work, we think the final reading experience will improve. And for those who might visit Escalate just to read, we hope you will see the difference. But we, on Escalate, want everyone to write.
One of the greatest freedoms of the internet is that it makes the power of writing available to everyone. We believe writing is a form of speech that is made for remembering. But writing is tough, and most writing is not worth remembering: What is the internet but a flood of words? This should stop no one from speaking instead of staying silent. But we believe that exercising freedom of speech does not just mean producing an endless stream of words. That is a good start. The fun, and the challenge, comes from speaking well, writing better, and finding readers you can trust, and trusting that if words are well said, they will be well read. Let’s escalate writing. Sign up, and we’ll show you what we’re talking about.
