General Art Regarding the State of the Writing Forum

[Ganondork]

Hey there guys! With my recent increase in activity on the forums, I couldn’t help but notice that the Writing forum isn’t receiving as much attention as it used to. It’s difficult to see one of my favorite forums on the site to be so disjointed and generally ignored. This particular forum is filled with stories that have very few replies. Why this is, I don’t have the faintest clue, but I will also assume responsibility for it. I am very much guilty of simply posting my work on the forum, then not branching out and reading any stories. For this, I apologize. However, words can’t bring activity back to the forum; but actions will.

So what are we going to do? I personally will try to read more stories, and comment on them, and I ask that people also join me and do precisely this. I will reach out to people who I think can make meaningful contributions to the stories, and help encourage new writers. That’s the most important part of this; many older writers have a following already, but newer writers don’t have anyone. It shouldn’t be solely up to them to ask people to read their work; it should be us, as a community, to reach out and give their stories a chance. Who knows, you might make a friend along the way.

Does this mean that new writers shouldn’t branch out to other writers? Absolutely not. Just because you are new doesn’t mean that you are exempt from trying to branch out; it’s a two-way street. That’s essential to the idea of a community; you become part of the Dungeon Gaming Network family once you submit your piece to the Writing forum. Due to this, you should also give other writer’s pieces a chance, just as they should give yours a shot.

Because of all of this, I’m proposing a new policy: comment on a story, and they comment on yours. The idea is very simple, and stated in the title; when you comment on someone’s story, the writer should then give your piece a chance. This can be the start of a friendship, as well as help keep the Writing forum active. It will bring us all together as a community if we are all commenting on each other’s stories.

So what should the substance of the comment be? That brings up my second proposal: give a compliment, give a critique. Too often I see people just saying things like, “Great chapter, can’t wait for more!” But it hardly helps the writer other than by stroking their ego. While we as writers do enjoy being complimented, it should be our primary desire to improve, and critique is the best way to help point a writer – new to the art or not – in the right direction. I’m not asking for you to give paragraphs of critique, but rather to give a nitpick; something simple like telling them that their piece could do better with more details, less dialogue, or any other thing that comes to mind when you read their writing.

I know it will take a bit of time before this really helps the Writing forum gain more activity, but each step we take will be great in the long run. This is all about being more open to new writers, as well as helping each other improve – we are a community after all! By working together to improve each other’s pieces, we encourage new writers, more stories, and more enjoyment overall. These small ideas can create friendships, as well as teach you a bit more about writing; it’s a win-win no matter how you look at it.

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this, and I hope that this helps my favorite forum get some more activity!

 

[Raindrop14]

I fully support this, thank you for posting this, you're awesome. :yes:

 

[Cfrock]

That brings up my second proposal: give a compliment, give a critique.

Compliment: This is a good idea and would really help this section of the forum out.

Critique: Shut down the semi-colon breeding program you've got going on.

Playful joking aside, this is a good idea. A lot of websites dedicated to writing (such as Figment) use this same basic policy to encourage discussion, feedback, and community amongst its members. There's no reason why it shouldn't work here too.

I don't often come into this sub-forum so I feel a little cheeky suggesting this, but another potential way to encourage activity here would be to revive the Writing Contest and promote it to the members here. It could encourage new writers to get writing and well as giving everyone a short sample of their work. The forum could even nominate specific writers to enter to make sure everyone has a go.

I don't know why Garo hasn't done a Writing Contest since July, I assume he's just been too busy to organise another, but maybe its time someone else was brought on to share the responsibility. It'd make sure the Contest was held even when Garo himself didn't have time for it.

 

[Ganondork]

Compliment: This is a good idea and would really help this section of the forum out.

Critique: Shut down the semi-colon breeding program you've got going on.

I lol'd

I don't know why Garo hasn't done a Writing Contest since July, I assume he's just been too busy to organise another, but maybe its time someone else was brought on to share the responsibility. It'd make sure the Contest was held even when Garo himself didn't have time for it.

A lack of participation. A Link In Time was the only one to regularly submit work to it. When it gets revamped, it'd get a bit of activity, then go back to being dead. The same thing happened when I was in charge of it in 2012.

 

[Shadsie]

Long ago, I used to be on an online sci-fi and fantasy writing group sponsored by a publisher. (Del Rey, I believe). It was... over 10 years ago, I'm not sure they're still in operation (the workshop... the publisher is still with us unless I missed something in publishing news). This free online forum/workshop had a ticker on it that counted your reviews of other stories. You were allowed one story-post upon signing up. After that, you had to give three reviews to three different stories by different people before you were allowed to post one of your own. It was a good system that kept people from just posting their own junk and running. You could expect at least a few reviews because it was a give and take system. I have wondered if other forums and fanfiction groups could benefit from something like it.

However, I don't know how well that kind of system would go over in a place as informal as this one. Most of the people here are fanfiction writers, not people trying to polish their self-created worlds for possible publication. I know that I'm pretty guilty of "posting and running" here. I tend to find just what I want to read on other fanfiction sites, for instance, when I want to read fanwork (through the use of their tags and filters). Also, I've found that Zelda Dungeon is host to the "sign-up" genre of fanfiction to a degree greater than what is typically found/allowed at other places. I dislike that form of story intensely. I am not in favor of banning it, because it would be hypocritical of me to do so, as I used to do stuff like that when I was younger on other fan boards and sites. (I once drew a rather hideous fan comic based in the universe of the Trigun anime that was a multiple Mary Sue of myself and my friends at a fanboard, based on a roleplay we had). That's actually why I hate the "genre" - My experiences with it have me seeing it as so much ego-stroking and inside-joking between little groups of people when I'd rather read about canon characters, or, in the case of original stories, created characters, not a bunch of loose self-inserts and friend-inserts. --- Anyway, seeing the abundance of "Sign Ups!" here makes me shy away from doing as much reading in this forum as I otherwise would. I see those "sign-up fics" as better suited for the Rolelplay section.

 

[Doc]

Also, I've found that Zelda Dungeon is host to the "sign-up" genre of fanfiction to a degree greater than what is typically found/allowed at other places. I dislike that form of story intensely. I am not in favor of banning it, because it would be hypocritical of me to do so, as I used to do stuff like that when I was younger on other fan boards and sites. (I once drew a rather hideous fan comic based in the universe of the Trigun anime that was a multiple Mary Sue of myself and my friends at a fanboard, based on a roleplay we had). That's actually why I hate the "genre" - My experiences with it have me seeing it as so much ego-stroking and inside-joking between little groups of people when I'd rather read about canon characters, or, in the case of original stories, created characters, not a bunch of loose self-inserts and friend-inserts. --- Anyway, seeing the abundance of "Sign Ups!" here makes me shy away from doing as much reading in this forum as I otherwise would. I see those "sign-up fics" as better suited for the Rolelplay section.

I have actually seen far less of these types of stories in a while. I did start here with a SU story, but that was because I didn't have much of a story to go by nor was I an experienced writer (not to say I am now, but I have improved). I don't believe they are a burden or necessarily make stories bad, they help us as readers become more immersed in the story quicker. Perhaps, yes there are times when SUs make more of an inside joke riddled story but regardless you shouldn't ignore them because of this possibility.

I understand that this isn't a site for those who aspire to be writers, I certainly never intend to be published, but those who are in this part of the forum must have some enjoyment of writing and want to get their stories told, to express them in any way possible. That is why I like the new policy that is starting to (sorta) take effect. Because this section has been dead for a while now, and this will allow experienced writers like yourself, Shadsie, to help others with their writing. This way we don't see great writers be on top forever and then newbies just remain the worst writers on here.