I've heard again and again that having a writing group helps, and helps a lot. But sadly, I'm the only one in my group of friends who even like reading, much less writing voluntarily. My question is: Is there any way to form a writing group online or something? Maybe another equivalent to writing groups? I don't know-- anything that helps like the way a writing group does.
Um, @mysterynonamer, you have just joined an online writing group: this forum! That's part of what this forum is. Read the rules, participate, and you'll find just about everything here that you'd find in any writing group. So come on in - the water's fine!
The difference is, as many have pointed out, posting your work here (or anywhere on the internet) makes it published and thus not appealing to publishers for future publication. I think the OP is asking about writing groups that don't have these limitations.
Yeah, I understand that, but the OP was asking about online writing groups, and I interpreted that to mean material would be posted on some website somewhere. Sorry if I got that wrong.
@mysterynonamer - You can get around the 'publishing online' problem by working up a few particular friends on this forum—I've already done this myself—and exchanging works by starting 'Conversations' with them. Just hang around a while and you'll get a feel for who might be a good person for you to be friends with and whom you'd feel comfortable exchanging work with. You can post work to them privately via the Conversation option and they can respond to it, but because it's not available to the public, it won't be considered 'published.' This forum offers the facility of including a few other people in each Conversation, so you could, in effect, create a group-within-a-group. Of course, if you end up trusting the other person, you can also exchange emails and go from there. This also bypasses the online publishing problem. This forum is a great place, and I love and support it. However, it has its limitations, mainly because entire works can't or shouldn't be posted here. Either they are too long in the first place—novels—or you can't risk posting a whole novel or short story because it would be considered 'published' if you ever wanted to take it further. However, every writer needs people to read and react to a finished piece, not just snippets. So the private Conversations are an excellent tool.
Wow. That's a lot of replies O.O @minstrel: well, I suppose I meant without taking away my chances of being published. Thank you so much for the answer, though. Is this site really a form of writing group? @jannert: Make a few particular friends, huh... but how? The advice is pretty awesome, though. Thanks. @stevesh: can I trust this site? As in, make sure no kidnappers or identity thieves or something is waiting to lure me out? The Internet is a scary place... Also to the rest of the people who replied: lots and lots of thanks are headed your way!
It's something that takes time. If you spend time on the site, reading reviews and other postings, do some reviews of your own, get involved in exchanges, you'll get a feel for who might be compatible with you. People who either write similar things to what you write, or seem to be wanting the same kinds of things from the forum that you do. Then you can approach these people via the private 'Conversation' mechanism on the forum. Just click on their avatar or name and you'll get the option to start a conversation. It's just between you and them, but you don't need to reveal any more about yourself than you want to. If you get to the point of trusting them a lot, THEN you can exchange real emails, etc. I've not only done that with several good people on the forum, but have actually had the fun of meeting one of them in person only last week. It does work, if you use your noodle, follow your instincts, and don't reveal too much about yourself too soon. We're all writers or wannabe writers on this forum, so you've already broken through a barrier, simply by joining up! Have fun.
Just wanted to note that putting your work up on a writing forum is not necessarily publishing it. Many forums (and someone in charge can speak for this one since I've never looked at that area) have password protected critique areas, and those cannot be searched by robots and are not considered "public access". So they are not 'published'. You'll even see this mentioned in many contest guidelines.
I've never heard of anyone being kidnapped as a result of joining a meetup.com group, but I suppose it's possible. The world is a scary place, depending on how you look at it.
There is a stickied thread at the head of this section of the forum on that very subject. If your intention regarding a particular piece of writing is to have it published, I would not post it here.
Yes, what Ed said. Don't post anything here that you want to publish. Truth be told, I've never understood why some places consider work posted in password protected areas to be unpublished; anyone can make a free account and gain access to these areas.
I believe it's because of the search engines. While members can access those areas, search robots can't and neither can the general public. So unless you're a member and have the password, you won't know it's even there. And, of course, most forums don't encourage/allow members to post complete novels, only excerpts to be critiqued.
Wow. I pretty much summed up: this is a great place to start a writing group (using the more private, password-protected areas), or maybe go on meetup.com for people near my place, or make a few friends interested in my subject areas and use the PM thingy to talk and write, etc. In other words, lots of stuff I can do. Again, big big thanks to everyone who replied and elaborated, etc. Hope to become closer to all of you in the future somewhere.
From the stickied thread to which I referred earlier: However, as @jannert said earlier, you can get to know people on this forum and show them some of your work. And you can post samples, as long as you follow the rules in Writing Workshop and you don't plan on publishing that particular piece.
Well, this forum may not encourage posting for critique, but others do and take appropriate precautions. I would assume that people posting excerpts for critique are not posting things that are ready for publishing (ie, there will be changes/revisions/whatever made), and the idea of someone stealing raw material and posting it online seems a bit paranoid. JMO, of course. However, while I have seen many statements by journals/magazines/contests/agents to the effect that posting for critique in password protected sites is not considered published, I have not yet seen one that says they will not consider these. That doesn't, of course, mean that there aren't publishers who won't accept them, but from what I've seen and what I've read on other forums (including statements from agents and people in trade publishing), it isn't really an issue. But it's up to the writer to decide.
Here in my little poe dunk town there is nothing like a writers group. So if I am going to join one it will have to be on here. But that is something I think would be awesome to do.
