# "Writer's Discussion" Revamp Ideas



## SkyeLansing (Nov 21, 2014)

So several weeks ago I talked with one of the Forum Admins (briefly) about the possibility of revamping this section of the forums. Obviously this is a fairly low priority as this board doesn't see much use. Then again it also hasn't had anything really change much in the past several years (back when it was still called the _Writer's Block_).

I figured that because this is probably a low priority it would be a good idea to have ideas for what people who use the board actually want. Since I'm not the only person here it seemed that the thing to do was open this up to other users to give their ideas for what they'd like to see changed.

Before we start, some ground rules:

*1 -* Understand that making suggestions here does not mean they will happen. Nor that the change will be quick. This isn't a super active board so we cannot expect the admins to dedicate a lot of resources to us unfortunately.

*2 -* Rather than just list everything that you personally want to see try to also comment on what other's suggest. Ideally this shouldn't be a huge list to sift through, but something that an admin can look to in order to gauge which changes are most important to the community.

*3 -* Be respectful of other's suggestions, especially if you disagree. If you see something you disagree with then lay out the reasons so that a discussion can happen.


So with that out of the way, I suppose I'll start things off.

Most of the things I'd like to see involve the stickies. A lot of these haven't been updated in a year or more. My specific concerns are with:

_Please Read This Before Posting
_This is basically a rules thread, which is fine. The board needs rules. But we only have the 3 and they are pretty vague and aren't necessarily the best.

I do like the rule that critique requests get posted to their own board, but find it a bit confusing that advertising your work instead goes to a thread. Personally I think that kind of defeats the purpose of advertising your work since it buries it in a pre-existing topic where it may not be found (or could be ignored). Instead I would like to see all posts for stories (either to promote your work or to solicit critique) to go to a separate sub-board. Requests for critique can be differentiated by adding a [Critique] tag (or similar) to the post title.

It would also be good if the wording was made more clear. For instance, rule #3 implies that it is for advertising posts, but it is also in force for promoting yourself personally as an author.

_Resources for writers; New writers, start here_
Mostly here I just think someone should go through and check for dead links inside the posts referenced in addition to the possibility that we should consider writing completely new posts. This would also be an opportunity for people on here to suggest topics they would like to see covered that are not already. There may also be topics in there that should be updated to some degree. In effect these merely need to be reviewed, though I suspect the majority of them are fine and still apply.

_The Official FurAffinity Writer List & FA Writer's Directory_
To be completely honest, I think we only need one of these. Personally I like the approach of the first better, however the second does have the advantage of being more complete and up to date (in fact it last updated just last week).

_Recommended Reading_
This is a great thread, but I'd like to see a new one start up. It would be nice if there was some way we could organize having a new thread for this every year with some sort of archive thread that links to the threads for different years. My hope is that doing this would both encourage people to recommend stories more frequently and also make sure that newly recommended stories have a better chance at exposure.


So there are my main wishes for this page. I'm actually really interested to see what other's want since most of my "wants" are pretty administrative in nature, so I'm going to go over there and cross my fingers that this thread doesn't immediately die.


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## Gnarl (Nov 22, 2014)

Hey it sounds like a good thing! I volunteer to help mod this, but I doubt that they would want me as a mod, besides they are not looking for mods right now. 
As far as the resource section, I would think that it should include a bunch of links to where to find information on not just proper use of language but also some of the format issues that exist for the sites that accept and publish works. For example if you put a story done in Word on Kindle, you should use the .doc and not the .docx as the latter will couse their program to blow your scentences to pieces. It will cause miss alignments and spacing issues. Also kindle converter does not like it when you quote other languages. Though most of the stuff people will put out there will be on FA, DA, and others and not be charged for, there are some sights that will allow you to get compensated every time more than 10% of a story is read. 
We should have a list of what sites do what and how much (%) they pay. We should also have links to the copyright site and maybe a brief tutorial to help use them. 
I currently hold the copyrights on seven books so if someone needs help, they can PM me. The cost to copyright a work is $35.00 USD and it is a good idea that if you want to have illustrations, include them in the manuscript you submit and they will also be a part of the copyright. When it come to getting a copyright on art, I recommend that you put four works to a page and make them into a manuscript form and copyright that, this way all the works are officially covered. 
that is just some of the things that should have links as well as many publishers have recommendation pages that can be linked. 
Would this help?


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## SkyeLansing (Nov 22, 2014)

For the formatting stuff that is a good idea, though there are a lot more programs than Word.

As far as paying venues and such, that sounds something more for the Furry Writer's Guild and their page about Paying Markets. I just tend to feel like this board should be more focused on helping people improve their writing and perhaps general information about what it takes to get published. For actual detailed information on the business side it might be better to send them to the writer's guild.

Of course an alternative would be to have a separate post to compile that sort of information so it doesn't get mixed in with the actual learning to write side.


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## Gnarl (Nov 23, 2014)

SkyeLansing said:


> For the formatting stuff that is a good idea, though there are a lot more programs than Word.
> 
> As far as paying venues and such, that sounds something more for the Furry Writer's Guild and their page about Paying Markets. I just tend to feel like this board should be more focused on helping people improve their writing and perhaps general information about what it takes to get published. For actual detailed information on the business side it might be better to send them to the writer's guild.
> 
> Of course an alternative would be to have a separate post to compile that sort of information so it doesn't get mixed in with the actual learning to write side.



True, but not every one qualifies for the guild. they have been selective on who they let in. Even though I have several books out there and have earned thousands from the sales, I do not qualify as I am self published. Like a lot of authors I have chosen not to sell my books to a publisher and settle for a meager percentage. So not everyone has access to the guild. 
And those who have not yet published are totally out in the cold.


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## SkyeLansing (Nov 23, 2014)

They may be selective in who they let into the guild but the information they post isn't restricted. As far as I can tell membership to the guild is only a indicator that someone has been actively published in some sort of non-self published venue, so painting it as a matter of access is rather disingenuous. For example, anyone can click on that list of paying venues in my last post and use it. Realistically the only special thing guild members can do is vote on the Coyotl Awards. Otherwise everything is freely available to both members and non-members.

Now that said, if you think this sort of information is important to have on here then there is an easy enough solution. Someone just needs to put that information together in a post (which is pretty much how all the other informative posts got done).


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## Gnarl (Nov 23, 2014)

Good information there, not much use to me though as I do not write any form of erotica or noir. but maybe the sofawolf I will have to check out. 
When I get some time I will try to put a list of publishers who take other types of stories, if I can find some. I admit I have not been fond of regular publishers as I do not want someone else to try and control what I write. So in affect I guess that I stand corrected on that point.


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## SkyeLansing (Nov 23, 2014)

I was thinking and realized you are correct about one thing. There isn't any self-publishing information on here really at all, so perhaps that is one area where information can be updated. It is quite new (I would say it started to take off sometime mid-2010) and still very fluid so anything on that will have to be very general though.


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## Gnarl (Nov 24, 2014)

The self publishing comes with a warning: there are pirates out there disguised as bloggers!


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## Maugryph (Nov 25, 2014)

yikes! I will keep that in mind


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## Gnarl (Nov 25, 2014)

If you are thinking of self publishing, get a real copyright! It is only $35.00 USD. here is the link:  http://www.copyright.gov/eco/


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