Any copywriters here dabble in fiction?

[Sebastion]

Hi guys. I love writing. I love all aspects of it. I'm looking for a forum to discuss fiction writing as I'm working on that as well. Does anyone know of a good one? Most of the forums I google look like hack sites from the early nineties, crafted by alcoholic low self esteem real estate tycoon soccer moms. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[Oxbloom]

The problem you run into with fiction forums is very much like the problem you run into here.

What you get, mostly, are people posting up "What do you think of my story?" posts.

The stories posted thus are uniformly terrible. And the writers/editors capable of doing even a remotely passable job critiquing are few and far between.

Compounding the problem is the fact that the talent/knowledge gap between these two groups is enormous. So on those rare occasions when a talented critiquer shows up and gives his all, and spells out for the young writer exactly how and why his piece fails in terms of internal logic, or point of view slippage, or telling rather than showing, or beating the reader over the head with unwanted and unnecessary back story...the criticism falls on deaf ears anyway.

The writer will either gush with praise for the critiquer's help, and then disappear never to be heard from again, or more likely, post an entirely different story a week later with all the same, exact problems. Oh, or he'll get combative and criticize the critic for daring to fail to see the genius of his prose in the first place. It's like a tiny little slice of hell with an unreliable narrator.

You might want to reference Bruce Wedding's post about why he seldom critiques here for insight which works equally well in both kinds of forum.

If you have actual fiction writing aspirations, ignore the forums and seek out a good workshop where you can limit story circulation and feedback to a small group you know you can rely on and trust. Some of these DO exist online, but it's been years since I checked them out.

Hell, it's even possible the forum situation has improved in that time, but people being what people are...I doubt it.

[arfasaira]

Try writelink.co.uk - its quite good and has an open forum where you can post your excerpts and have them critiqued (note: I say critiqued, not ripped apart)

There are a few others such as My Writers Circle and Writers FM - although this is not really a forum, more like a radio for writers.

[PhoebeSmellyCat]

Originally Posted by arfasaira

Try writelink.co.uk - its quite good and has an open forum where you can post your excerpts and have them critiqued (note: I say critiqued, not ripped apart)

There are a few others such as My Writers Circle and Writers FM - although this is not really a forum, more like a radio for writers.

I'm a member of My Writers Circle. I like it in that it has a section just for reviews and other sections for specific areas of writing.

It's not just for fiction writers. Check it out, I think you would enjoy it.

[Ted_B]

Hello Sebastion,
Like you, I love writing fcition as well. I've done lots of short stories and have even finished a mystery novel and shopped it around a little.
I was a member at Zoetrope for a long time, it's a pretty unique place. you can submit short stories to be critiqued and also contibute by critiquing others.
Here is the link if you'd like to check it out:
Zoetrope: All-Story: The Virtual Studio
Good luck!
Ted

[wcmylife]

There's a good bunch of fiction writers at OD - opendiary.com - its a free place for folk to blog, you should find fiction writers under the tab CIRCLE..

[Ken_Caudill]

Try Writing Community for Writers, Readers and Literary Agents. Submit Works, Read & Rate Writings.