Because I am so new here, I wanted to understand what the policies are about writers sharing their material here for critique or other artistic purposes when the material is for an adult audience. I have been sorta branching out lately as far as trying to write some stand-up comedy and other material with a rough tone. What rules and policies should I abide by?
All pieces posted for review and critique must be posted in the relevant forum of the (newly-rechristened) Writing Workshop. In order to post a thread there, you must first meet a few requirements. Firstly, you must have provided two constructive critiques of other people's work, for each piece of your own that you post. Secondly (and this is new) you must have been a member for at least 14 days, and have made at least 20 posts on the site generally (not including posts in Word Games). More specifically to your query about content, I have to answer "It depends". Specifically, on what you mean by adult. As the rules state: Basically, be sensible with it. We have some fairly young members here, and try to keep the site suitable for all ages, so keep that in mind (some members include a warning in the thread title if posting somewhat violent/graphic material). I hope that helps clear matters up a little.
I hope I'm not intruding on this post, but I have a question. I understand all the rules, but in the book I am currently writing there is a graphic rape scene that is absolutely critical to my storyline. I was hoping to get this critiqued and get input on it. I see that this is not going to be a possibility. Is there anyway to maybe make a post to see if anyone would be willing to critique it for me through pm (of course being sure they were over 21) or would this be against the rules? If it is I will of course do without the critique when I have reached the requirements, but I am admittedly disappointed
That definitely could not be in the general area, since this is an all-ages board, but I am betting if you asked that anyone interested in critiquing that bit pm you, and you took it off-site to email, etc it would be ok. The rules specify those scenes be refrained from (though eluding would be ok) is not acceptable, either in pm or post
Thanks for the great replies! Let me be a bit more descriptive of what I have been focusing on: I have been doing material in the style of George Carlin, Robin Williams, Chris Rock, etc. More of my focus has been more on playing with words and their meanings, how they can be used, how they can be taken, especially when in the context of conversation or phrases. I have been trying to create a play on words in several different ways. So, think about George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words and you'll get the picture as to my content and the language used.
I don't want to get in trouble for soliciting either though......ya know? I've only been here a day, but I like it
I'll let a mod correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you could just post a link in your signature asking for anyone interested in reviewing your scene to PM you.
ok thanks hidden, but then do I have to do it through email? I still will wait until I have reached the forum requirements of course.
Soliciting private critiques is not permitted. Basically, that is considered a "want ad" for a professional service. We have had serious problems around people requesting private critiques, where generous members were hounded because the private critiques were not sufficiently in depth or did not constitute a full edit. So please don't even think of posting a request for private critique, and that includes your signature. As for R-rated passages, the critiquing focus here is on a representative sample, not for specific passages. The idea is to improve your overall writing skill, especially the skill to examine and improve your own writing by sharpening your eye for sloppy or soft writing. It could be argued that the writing in those adult passages are significantly different that it presents unique challenges. It is a valid point, but we feel it is more important to keep the environment appropriate for the full age range represented here. The minimum recommended age for members is around thirteen years, and many of our members are close to that age. Therefore, we limit content on the site to approximately the equivalent of a US PG-13 film rating.
Understood. Thank you very much for clearing that up. I don't want to do anything against the rules, of course. As I said before, I am disappointed, but I'll live. It is not a matter of the writing style being different in that passage, so I don't even have that excuse....lol. I just wanted to know if my depth was enough....if that makes sense. As I said, it's critical. Oh well....life goes on
I have a novel in the works that contains incest, but it's not graphic at all. The readers know it's going on, but there is no detailed description, so is that all right? I've been here for years, and somehow I was unaware that this could be an issue. Yikes!
Adult Content I just read that there are pretty strict limitations to this on another thread, which I was unaware of somehow. (Oops!) May I make a suggestion? I belong to four other writing forums, and ALL of them have a separate section for pieces containing adult content that is only made visible to those members that are 18 or older. Some of us do have serious pieces that we would like to improve, but cannot post them due to the content. Has this been discussed, or is it out of the question?
I think it would be a good suggestion to allow only members who are 18 years or older to view the adult content of a story, but the thing is that many people on the forums, and other websites like Facebook and Myspace lie about their age and put 18 or so on on their registration questions just to see the adult content stories. That's my only problem. Other than this, it's a good suggestion.
Some people will lie. I'm not sure there's a way around that. But it works out well on the other forums. Most people won't lie unless they're just dying to read about sex. In which case, I'm sure we can't contaminate their minds any further anyway.
The other forum I go to has an erotica subforum in addition to the ones for horror, scifi, satire, poetry etc, so I see your point. The only issue I'd have with it is what about the stories that are primarily a different genre (say, country-western) but have one steamy scene? Do we then limit the entire story to anyone under 18? I'm really not comfortable with the idea of doing it in such a way that would lead to censorship. One way to do it might be to add a sub-subforum within the Romance subform. This way, people just looking for tame non-shocking romances could read the regular section, while those looking for something steamier could read the subsection. This way, no one is blocked or censored, but no one is exposed to something that makes them uncomfortable either.
Excellent idea. I don't know if any of this is possible, but I hope it will be considered. On my forum, we're just required to put appropriate warnings about adult content, so that those who do not wish to read know what they're getting into ahead of time. But having subforums is a much better way to handle it.
Don't forget that under the current forum rules, this story wouldn't be allowed on the forums at all if it included that scene, so having an adults-only or an erotica section wouldn't further restrict this; it would give the author a place to post it if he or she absolutely needed to post that scene along with it.
Exactly. I have a rape scene in my WIP that I desperately would like to have critiqued. It's critical to my story line, and when I asked about it I was told no and that I couldn't ask for anyone else to do it privately. It's very disappointing when I can't have something reviewed because it's a family site. Why can't there be a place for me? It's not a gratuitous rape scene, it's from the womans perspective and she ends up pregnant (you see why it's critical?) and I'm afraid I won't have the depth I need. Needless to say, I would literally jump up and down if we could have an 18 and up spot.
If someone below 18 wants to read about sex or watch it there really is no stopping them. This is the internet. I really dont understand why americans in general is so negative about sexual content? You ban sex scenes that are allowed in europe etc. The reason that the land of the painted cave sold so many copies is vastly due to how well the writer describes the sex. We read to envoke emotions within ourself and sexual and romantic emotions are somme of the most dominant ones.
I'm not an American but I do agree - most forums I belong to have an over 18 section that works well. It allows those over 18 to moderate themselves etc. Right now my books don't contain anything that isn't PG-13 but my new one has begun with two blokes in a cleaning cupboard. Getting a sex scene right is very educational and the skills involved can filter down into the rest of your writing - I know learning sex scenes also improved most of my romantic, action and fight scenes. It is also one way someone can make a number of pennnies from their writing.
It will make zero difference, other than people who do have sexual content in their stories will get their stuff critiqued elsewhere. Even before the internet became such an integral part of our lives, erotic content was not that hard to come by if you really wanted it. I have noticed that some things like action and violence is ok, while sex is not. Except in some sacred and holy books, where you sometimes get both and that's ok.
I have noticed this to, how come (im talking about movies and tv shows now) its okey to show violence and murder but not show a person naked? just something ive though about
This thread just needs to wait a couple more hours and be answered properly by north american parents.
Well....as a north american parent I have to say that in my house it's not okay to show violence and murder either. My kids are 9 (10 next month) and 6 and I don't think that's acceptable for them at their respective ages. My son does watch some documentary's about war, and we are a family of hunters, so he's familiar with guns, but not in the ways they are usually portrayed by hollywood. Make of that what you will.
I can see a point to having some limitations on sexual content. If you don't draw the line somewhere, there's no telling what kind of weird stuff might start polluting the site. I actually tried contacting the mods (to no avail) before I joined this forum because the rules when you join say no sexual content at all. I don't write erotica, but I definitely write about sex. Since I didn't hear back from the mods, my strategy was just to join and post something and see if anyone had a problem with it. No one seemed to, so I guess it's sort of a grey area. Correct me if I'm wrong there. As I said, I don't write erotica, but I definitely write about sex. A separate erotica area would be a great idea, but alternately we could just handle it with PMs and email. If someone has something sexual they are hesitant to post, they can just post a thread asking for reviewers interested in having a look at it.
