Can anyone recommend any good mailing lists or forums for writers? Ideally, people dealing with large projects like novels and screenplays, rather than short stories, and particularly groups who talk about theory and structure?
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6 responses to “Writer’s groups?”
The Yahoo! Groups one that I am a member of is oww-sff-writing, which has 779 members and is full of people at all different abilities, most of them working on novels. It’s fantasy & sci-fi stuff. Alternatively, try oww-sff-chat (again, Yahoo Groups) it might be a bit friendlier cos I’m not sure how on/off topic Ariadne would be. Hope that’s of some use to you…
Thank you, Ms Nutkin. I’ll check ’em out.
Check out The-Write-List, also on Yahoo Groups. It has a large membership made up of professional writers. They cover a wide variety of industry topics and there is a terrific archive of industry links. There is also a related Crit List but it has been quite inactive for the past few months.
Is there a particular genre you write in?
Cheers
Thanks for the links.
I want to talk to writers about how they go about the creative process, and what they’d benefit from in a computer program. While I can’t help with the imaginative bit, I think I can help with the organisation and visualisation of stories and all those elements like characters, actors, locations, plot points, etc.
Whenever I try to write, I always find I’m terrible at coming up with story – the plot side of plot and character. Characters I can do, no problem. But plots always stump me, so I end up writing very little.
Plot
This is a direct quote from Stephen King’s book “On Writing”, p.164: “Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.”
The story is within you. You have to unearth the same way an archeologist unearths the fossil of a dinosaur. Very carefully and methodically. Stop having expectations based on result (which is my problem)(a mental image of the finished product). Just write freely … but write nonetheless.
Yes, I think The-Write-List would be a good resource for you, however they are touchy about solicitations, so couch your words accordingly. Self-promotion is okay, done by everyone who has something to boast about. But hard sales pitches, nuh uh.
Otherwise, have fun! And good luck with your project.
Re: Plot
So you reckon that a story will develop out of a set of story bits like characters, locations, and relationships?
I could give it a go and see what happens.
I think I’ll lurk for a week or so on the list and then post when I’ve got more of an idea about the group. Thanks.