Sex. Suicide. Memories and Mexico. Beijing. Why “Nobody
Loves an Asian Boy.”
These are some topics writers have tackled on Heelpress.com, a
year-old online writing circle for college students and alumni.
Since its launch date last January, the site has grown into a
community of about 600 authors from 100 colleges and universities
across the nation, said Nick Miller, who founded “The
Heel” with his former roommate, Jesse Young.
“We’re not trying to be prestigious, we’re not
trying to do anything crazy,” said Miller, who graduated from
UC Berkeley in 2005 in legal studies.
“The whole heart of the site is these writers. It’s
not a pretentious site, it’s not huge or anything,” he
added. “It’s a lot of these writers … working
together. They want to help each other.”
Anyone with an e-mail address that ends in .edu can sign up to
publish, Miller said. Writers can post their photograph and list
their favorite authors, books and publications on personal profiles
that also feature their Heelpress.com articles.
To get published, writers submit work anonymously for other
users to review.
Anyone who has previously been published on the site can then
cast a ballot for or against the anonymous articles and can offer
private critiques and suggestions. Writers’ votes are
weighted based on how many times they have been published on the
site.
Authors can submit to three “tiers.” Those aiming
for lower tiers need fewer votes to get published, while tier-one
stories, which appear at the top of the page, require the most
votes.
Some stories get posted publicly in 10 minutes, Miller said.
Others might take three days. Those that don’t make it simply
expire.
Darren Chan, a third-year psychology student at UCLA, said he
writes on Heelpress.com because it’s a way to get exposure in
a forum that holds writers to standards, a medium more formal than
a blog.
He added that he likes the competitive spirit of the site.
Chan said he writes to entertain and still gets e-mails about
“Nobody Loves an Asian Boy,” a piece he published last
May.
“We are shunned by girls of all races. … We tried
turning metrosexual, never letting anything but Banana and Express
touch our bodies,” Chan wrote in the submission.
“We tried gelling our hair in ways previously unfathomable
to man. But alas, all of our efforts proved fruitless. In the face
of such depressing prospects, there remains only one solution,
shining like the forehead of a puberty-stricken teen.
“I must rice out my car. I need a kit. … The new Paul
Oakenfold CD. And then I must cover my naked body in peanut butter
and rub bread all over myself, because if everything fails, I will
have, at the very least, sandwiches,” he concluded.
For Tien Nguyen, a fourth-year mathematics/economics student,
The Heel is a way to get in touch with his North Campus
instincts.
He exchanges advice with other authors, critiques that range
from questions on grammar to concerns about writing structure.
He said regulars have gotten to know one another’s writing
styles so well they are often able to put a face on the anonymous
stories even during the voting procedure.
Miller said he has received e-mails from users who say the
suggestions they receive on the site have helped them become better
writers.
“These people are really honest with each other,” he
said.
“People take it very constructively ““ it’s
really cool.”
Posted alongside recently published work, comments from users
are a testament to The Heel’s tight-knit atmosphere.
An author, responding to a critique on a piece she submitted for
publication: “Thank you regarding the “˜Utopia’
article. I just resubmitted it for Tier 3. I figured why not. …
It’s one of my favorite pieces I’ve written. But again,
thank you, I appreciate it! Your “˜Tuscany’ article was
amazing as well.”
From one writer to another: “I gotta confess, I
didn’t like this article at all when I started reading it.
But it’s pretty damn good writing.”
And from a devout reader, shortly after midnight on Tuesday:
“This is really special, man. Very inspiring, great writing.
You have established yourself as one of the best writers
here.”