Is This The Community for Me?

[DreamBliss]

That's the question I have been asking myself as I Googled around looking for the best writing forums. I do have an account with Nanowrimo, but I am fairly certain that it is not the best place for me. My wish list for a writing forums would be as follows:

1. NO CENSORSHIP of ANY KIND!

I don't know why so many writing forums want to cater to both young people and adults. Should be one or the other, especially since most writing forums are also concerned about anyone posting anything of a sexual nature. Why is that? I can promise that 99.9% of the kids that come here know more about sex than me, and use more swear words. That's just par for the course going to public school! We need to stop acting like nudity and sex are something dirty we need to protect children from. Simply have a check in your Registration page for "I certify I am 18+" and whatever legal wording is required, then leave it at that.

2. ACTIVE, knowledgeable, loving, and supportive community.

A community of fellow writers that understands a writing project, and the writing initially done for it, is not to be criticize or judged unless specifically requested, and when it is, it is done constructively.

3. Agent connections.

By this I mean there are agents regularly lurking in the background who can and will swoop in whenever a finished work is of interest to them. Make the process a little easier. Stephen King may have enjoyed collecting rejection letters on his nail, but some of us would rather not go through all that.

This is probably not a complete list...

OK, so about me... I started writing poetry in my teens. I started with that, moved on to short stories. Mostly horror. I also started a fantasy story that rhymed - finished about a chapter of that. Many, many starts. Two completions, sort of. Nothing published, though I have entered a few contests and submitted a few proposals. About 20 years or so later, after renouncing my former Christian faith of those last 20 years, I started a blog, Romance Beyond Reality. Other blogs followed, and my current blog is BlissWriter. I will provide a link when I have earned the privilege.

I am now 45 years old, single, unmarried, never been married and overweight. I am what is generally labelled as spiritual, not religious. My writing has been limited mostly to blog entries and the occasional Zen poem I am trying, yet again, to do something with this writing ability/skill/talent. You can thank the author of "Chapter After Chapter" for that. Good book so far. Also "Write Naked" and "Writer's Life." Anyhow due to something I read in "Chapter After Chapter" I decided I that although I could not commit to being a writer, for reasons I may later mention, I can commit to completing one manuscript of publishable length and quality, with at least 3 edits, by May 1st of next year. That's the goal and intention. I want to get just one finished book under my belt. I would like to see it published, but just having it ready with some editing done will have to be good enough. Please do not challenge or criticize this goal! Just accept it and respect it, whatever your experienced or personal opinion.

The book I am working on (which I probably can't share any of here) is for now simply entitled, "Furry Sex Story." It is meant to be a romance - nothing more or less - with fantasy elements. Really its all about my two main characters having a lot, and I mean a LOT, of sex. There are a few things about this story you might call twists. One is that it is focused on a male character. No female focused romance with some tall handsome stranger here! Another is that my male lead is 45, overweight and he lives alone. Yeah, he's based loosely on me. The biggest thing is that the female lead is not human. She is from another world entirely. She has heightened senses and is extremely sensitive. She is covered in blue and silver fur over most of her body, (except the sensitive parts.) She has long hair, ears and a tail. Otherwise she is very similar in appearance and build to a human. Oh and she finds my male lead to be very attractive! So all you furries out there, you will finally have a romance seemingly written just for you! If I can finish it that is. Not sure that this will be the One Book (the book with which I meet my goal) or not. If you don't know what a furry is, Google. Probably can't say more here.

So that's me and what I am doing in a nutshell. Feel free to tell me if I will fit in here or not. I figure eventually I will find my tribe, as it were. Thank you for reading this to the end.

 

[CupofJoe]

Hail and well-met DreamBliss
Good to have you here.
I hope you find a home here.
I can't imagine there are many Agents lurking on forums waiting to pounce. They get enough stuff sent to them that they don't have to chase it.
But I could be wrong.
Most forums have some rules on what can and cannot be said, and how what is said is phrased. This forums rules are expressed here
Forum Rules
They help keep the place and the conversations civilised and polite. That doesn't been bland and passionless. I have rarely if ever found the rules to have limited discussion here.
What you will find at MythicScribes, is a host of active, knowledgeable, and supportive people. I don't know about loving - I don't know them THAT well.
And I'm sure if I have anything wrong a Mod will wander up and nudge things right.

 

[pmmg]

1. NO CENSORSHIP of ANY KIND!

I don't know why so many writing forums want to cater to both young people and adults. Should be one or the other, especially since most writing forums are also concerned about anyone posting anything of a sexual nature. Why is that? I can promise that 99.9% of the kids that come here know more about sex than me, and use more swear words. That's just par for the course going to public school! We need to stop acting like nudity and sex are something dirty we need to protect children from. Simply have a check in your Registration page for "I certify I am 18+" and whatever legal wording is required, then leave it at that.

I think the 'rules' protect sight owners more than the members. but it is still true that without any limits to civility, the site will degenerate into everyone calling everyone else Hitler. So, I doubt you will find a writers site that does not have some limits on the content they want posted in public. In my experience, if you have subjects that dont fit well in public, they are usually good material for private conversations with others on the site, if you stay around long enough to make friends. If you want a world where kids are not protected from more adult content, I suspect you will find many do not share your values, and on any site that has a large enough community, limits on that content will appear. Just kind of life in the great big world.

Though, I might suggest, there are plenty of sites that cater to adult content.

 

[Ned Marcus]

Welcome to the forum. Of course, only you can decide the answer to your question.

My wish list for a writing forums would be as follows:
1. NO CENSORSHIP of ANY KIND!

Good luck with that. I don't think any forum has no censorship. Certainly, they all have rules for smooth running.

2. ACTIVE, knowledgeable, loving, and supportive community.

I think this forum passes on these, but of course, feedback on writing can sometimes be felt as being harsh, even when it's done constructively. I've been hurt many times by criticism, but I've also learnt from it.

3. Agent connections.

I doubt that agents lurk in the background waiting to swoop. If anyone has been swooped upon, please let us know.

 

[DreamBliss]

Well the issue with looking for an ADULTS ONLY writers forum is that the focus will likely become very limited. The reason I jumped in here is there are a variety of sections, even Nanowrimo. I am not sure I could find a good, quality adults only forum community for writers. But if anyone here knows of any, I am all ears.

As far as protecting kids from sexual stuff lemme ask you this... Do you think our children are being taught to love and accept themselves as they are, including whatever body they may have? Do you think our children have received enough information to know what do to when they have sex for the first time? Did your parents teach you about sex and support you running around naked? Or did they make you feel ashamed for being naked? Mine did. Did they punish you if they caught you spending private time with yourself? Mine did. Did they teach you anything at all about sex? Mine did not.

This is what I am talking about when I speak negatively about protecting our children from sex. Childhood doesn't even exist! It is a human construct. Our society has devolved in this sense. Modern society has more in comment when it comes to the bedroom with the Quakers living out in the Midwest. That's a serious problem!

Of course a writer's forum is not the place for this sort of debate, so I will leave it at that. Just want to clarify my stance. As far as protecting the site, the aforementioned checkbox and legal wording should be enough.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

This is not an adult's only forum. We welcome fantasy writers of all ages and levels of experience, some young, indeed, but in exchange there are adult-oriented topics that are considered off-limits, both to protect our younger writers and to discourage those who would prey on them from finding our site easily in searches.

Have you taken a look at over at Absolute Write? I think that they have at least one adult sub-forum and are a larger community where you might have an easier time finding writers who would like to explore similar topics as yours.