The Story Mint was launched on March 30, 2012 and I’m infatuated. I don’t want to be the type of person who calls it “love” after a first date, but this site made such a good impression. Sure, The Story Mint isn’t as attractive as some other sites. And yes, there are strings attached (the site is free for now, but will eventually be  a paid service), but that can’t overshadow the excitement of the first minutes of our relationship.

The Story Mint is a simple, three-part site. In the first part you can read and edit, or sign up to add to, a serial story. The latest serial “Thabazimbi Heat” is now underway. You can also read the recently completed serial Deep River here.

The second part of the site is called “The Story Refinery”, where you can submit a sample of 250-2000 words and the generator will analyze your work and compare it to sections of other books (look for my results posted in “Mmm… minty pt. 2” later today). This comparison gives you constructive feedback on the stylistic techniques you are using and how they do/do not work for some authors. It also provides you with a series of questions to think about when going over your work. Though I’ve only submitted a couple pieces of creative writing to this site, I’ve already found that the feedback I received (again, posted later today) has made me notice things about my writing that I had been doing unintentionally, and the literary consequences of those choices.

The third part of the site allows you to submit a manuscript for assessment and feedback: “If you have a novel at its third draft and not larger than 85,000 words and would like an assessment, please submit it to us here.” I have not yet taken advantage of this feature, and likely won’t, as I’m a bit paranoid about sending my material off into cyberspace.

I’ll write more (with pictures and actual samples of my creative writing! Yay!) later today. Keep checking back, reader!

Mintily yours,

S.E. Lund