Hello, friends.
If you haven't seen me around, I'm Gentleman, but you may refer to me as whatever you feel like referring to me as.
I only have one writing friend IRL, and it troubles me that I have no one to critique the things I write aside from this one individual. No one else really reads my drafts (though, part of this is my own shyness to show people these drafts, truthfully, but… never mind that).
I thought it might be an interesting idea if a small group writers were to create a dm thread on this site solely for discussing and critiquing each other's writing. I struggle with being very open about my ideas, but maybe doing this will help me.
I only have a few requests if you wish to join.
Please do not use harsh language above that of a PG-13 level while in group discussions.
If any of your story snippets have anything NSFW in it, please make sure to specify that and place a warning before linking to your work. Please don't put inappropriate scenes directly into the chat where people will have no choice but to see them. Example: if Gerald's head gets sliced off in this scene and lobbed at his sister and you've decided to describe this in great, gory detail, put a gore warning at the beginning. It's not a big deal if your descriptions aren't too gory, but if they are, make sure everyone knows before reading. If Robert and Tina are gonna get jiggy, make sure you warn your readers.
It's preferred that you don't post actual chapters to the dm, but rather links to documents with your chapters. That way people don't have to scroll through your entire chapter if they don't have time to read it all yet. It's more efficient.
When critiquing other people's work, be nice. Don't just say, "I don't like it." Kindly inform them, "I really liked the characters in this scene, but there was something unnatural about the dialogue." Don't lie, though; if you hated the whole thing, don't tell them you liked it. Just be nice about saying you hated it. I do encourage honesty, because it's the only way we'll improve.
Don't start drama. I don't have time for extra anxiety.
I can't think of anything else at the moment, but if I do, I'll let you know. If we want to use Google Docs, we could leave comments on each other's work. The only rule is to NOT use ANY cursing or inappropriate language when commenting on someone's work. Please and thank you.
So to join… just say so! And tell me (us) a bit about your writing. What genre do you like to read and/or write? Have you ever written a complete story before? How many characters do you have? Favorite tropes? You don't have to answer all of these— just as much as you like.
