Writers Forums

If I wasn't an extreme introvert, I would love to join a writers group. To discuss writing with people who understand would be a salve for the soul. I don't have anyone in my life I can talk to about writing; it would be like my next-door neighbor wanting to have a discussion with me about rebuilding an engine. "Sounds really complicated, man. I hear ya," would be the best I could do.

If I was comfortable with strangers, I could possibly even stand up in front of my hypothetical group and read something I'd written without keeling over from embarrassment. (Tip for when you're feeling self-conscious: find someone who's even worse than you and constantly remind yourself of that.)

I have no real idea what writers groups are like. I picture a smattering of supercilious jerks, one of them smoking a pipe, talking about their favorite literary fiction author, who's no doubt French, and spouting quotes from his most obscure novel; each person trying to one-up the next with their deep interpretation of what the author meant to convey. 

They're probably not like that, though, are they? It's a moot point anyway. If I did show up for a group session, I'd find a chair near the door and do my best to look inconspicuous. Maybe drape my coat over my face, which would kind of defeat the "inconspicuous" vibe I was going for. Well, I'd think of something.

In lieu of an in-person group, most writers join online forums. With the number of writers out there, you'd think those would be easy to find. Not really; not good ones. When I first started writing fiction, I didn't know anything except that I needed to learn something. So I searched online for writing forums. I only found a few, and most of those were echoey, with only a tiny core group of members sticking it out. The sites reminded me of a songwriters forum I once belonged to that boasted a couple of successful members with real expertise, but eventually it dwindled so much that only about five or six people remained active on it. While I only ever made two or three posts (I'm more of a rubbernecker than a participator), I hung around until it inevitably ceased to exist.

The only forum I found that seemed to be buzzing with activity was Absolute Write. At the time, I didn't know that writers forums weren't supposed to be snooty and bitchy, so I accepted it for what it was. There I began to learn things I didn't even know I needed to learn, such as what a query was (biggie for me, since I intended to pursue trade publishing), how to format a manuscript for submission, even that it was no longer acceptable to leave two spaces after a period (seriously). I stuck with the site for years, visiting it daily, until I reached a point where I could no longer tolerate the attitudes, especially those of the moderators. In a way it turned into its own version of Goodreads with regard to negativity. Anything a newcomer posted was bad, amateurish, or a stupid question. The place became very cloistered. People got banned on a regular basis "just because". AW became wildly out of the loop once self-publishing took off. The site came down firmly on the side of trade publishing and in fact, only had one sub-forum, which it labeled, "Self-Publishing: Print, Audio, Digital, Papyrus or". Yes, it ended with "or". And what the hell is papyrus? Ohh, it's paper! Betcha there's a bunch of writers who use that medium! I'm shocked the title didn't include chisels.

I see that the sub-forum is still there...

Absolute Write is old, crotchety, rigid, and wildly hard left in its politics, which by the time I left, most of the threads were about, rather than the craft of writing. That's a sure sign things are heading for the end.

Once I left, I felt no need to join another forum, and I doubted that any existed that were created for writers to simply talk to one another. I don't think that's such a difficult concept to grasp. Sometimes we just need to talk. The only reason I joined Reddit was because I'd learned that it had an ARC subreddit, but then I kind of got hooked on it. I joined a few subs that interested me, most of them non-writing related, but my main focus remains the r/selfpublish one. Don't get me wrong; that one can be snotty, too, but it's comprised of mostly young(ish) people, and they can be forgiven for their attitudes. It's a generational thing. Their snottiness is generally funny, whether they mean it to be or not.

Looking around today, I find there are different forums that were possibly started after my time, but most appear to be lightly visited. One with the original name of Writing Forum boasts a whole 265 members.  

Writers' Cafe, a sub of the kboards, has about 100,000 members according to Google, but when I looked at it, it's a mish-mash, with no individual sub-forums. It must be hell trying to find a particular topic there. It could potentially be beneficial to KDP-only authors, though. I signed up for a free account to see what the interaction is like, which one cannot view without a membership. I pulled up a topic and it had a fair number of responses, so especially for technical questions, it might be a good resource.

I should mention that marketing guru Thomas Umstattd has his own forum, AuthorMedia,social, and if your genre and interests tend toward Christian writing, you might enjoy it. It doesn't appear to be heavily utilized, but it does have some dedicated members. I don't necessarily feel like part of that interest group, unfortunately. 

Scribophile looks to be the most interesting. It seems to be quite active, which is what one wants in an online forum. According to Google, it has "hundreds of thousands" of members and 7,000 beta readers, if that's of interest to you. I also set up a free account there, and I'll dive into the threads at some point to see if the place is as welcoming as it professes to be. I hope it is.

That exhausts my online search, other than pay sites. (Both kboards and Scribophile have a paid option, but damn, why does everyone want to be paid nowadays? It's as bad as forced tipping. Really, they should be paying us for our expertise.) 

I once toyed with the idea of creating my own forum and attaching it to my author site. You can create one for free, you know. But when I had a forum for my band (I know; a really narrow topic of discussion), it only attracted three members plus a few spambots. One member was my sister and the other two were friends. The inherent issues with something like that are obvious. How would anyone find it? Why would someone want to participate? I'd just be talking to myself, not that I don't do that already. In my fantasy, though, it would be a place for writers to talk about actual writing and the frustrations we all feel. And you could only hawk your book(s) in your profile ~ that's it.

Bottom line, if you're interested in virtually meeting up with fellow writers, you should try out a few different places until you find one that feels like home. Each has its own vibe and that becomes clear really quickly. 

Beats sitting in a corner with your coat pulled over your face.