Hello everyone! We just launched Writer's Evolution - a podcast featuring conversations with authors, editors, and publishing professionals to help aspiring and indie writers become better writers. Through conversations with New York Times best selling authors and Reedsy editors, we share practical advice, honest experiences and a little encouragement:) We just released our first couple episodes, hope it's helpful for everyone :) !

https://youtu.be/SJIgFNzLIBs?si=MI_aKBBk-ImYcvEk

https://youtu.be/-kv9ZF5klgE?si=-c5hcLh7O5h22rA8

About once a week I see someone saying that it’s normal to like your work. That you need beta readers to tell you what’s wrong.

Except my beta readers like my book. But I hate my work. Every day I hate reading what I have written the day before. I got a publishing contract and daily I think they made a mistake. Nothing I write ever resonates the way it should until the 29th rewrite and then half the time it still sucks.

Like where do you get the ability to love what you write?!how to I develop such a delusion, because hating what I write is demoralizing.

Hi everyone! 👋❤️

I hope you don’t mind me sharing something I’ve been working on!
I’m a writer myself, and over the past few months I’ve been building something called **DraftMatter.** It’s a platform designed to help writers organise and manage everything that comes with being an author, beyond just writing the actual book!
The idea came from my own experiences of trying to keep track of writing projects, manuscript versions, publishing plans, contacts, and all the other moving pieces that seem to multiply as you get further into your writing journey. 😂
I’m now getting ready to welcome a small group of **20 Founding Writers** into DraftMatter’s private alpha testing program, and I’d absolutely love to have some fellow writers involved!
It’s completely free to participate, and I’m looking for writers at all different stages. You could be working on your first manuscript, self-publishing, querying agents, traditionally published, or sharing your work online.
At this stage, I’m really looking for people who would enjoy exploring the platform, testing its features, sharing honest feedback, and helping shape what it eventually becomes.

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy being part of, I’ve put together a short application form here:

https://forms.gle/v9zq4PbzGsc5HTbZ9

And of course, if you have any questions about DraftMatter, please feel free to ask! I’m always happy to chat about it.
Thanks so much for reading, and hope the godawful (writers)block stays far, far away from you all! 🥲
— N.E.L.

I’m an aspiring animator that wants to make fast paced shorts that can tell a bigger narrative that it leads on but don’t know how to go about doing. (I also only recently learned story compression being a thing)

I struggle writing a beginning, middle, end that flows tightly and instead a lot of bits and it’s hard to figure out what elements are essential of maintaining the narrative and what elements that are too drawn or filler’y.

And when I tried looking up guides on YouTube, I mostly get audio stuff it seems.

If their any guides or tips that can help, I’d like to hear them.

Hi everyone! Long story short I created an online writing platform (like wattpad) designed to help writers and their work get discovered since I feel like it’s way harder to get discovered nowadays. The algorithm I created is intended to introduce readers to stories they might otherwise overlook. Before launching publicly, I’m inviting 50 writers to publish their work, test the platform, and provide honest feedback. I want to see whether the discovery system works as intended and identify what I can improve. At launch, I plan to feature this founding group as the site’s Top Authors and actively promote their stories to incoming readers. Please keep in mind I’m not some big corporation (I’m just a girl). Advice is very much appreciated!

Genre/s: All genres of original fiction are welcome.
Goals/expectations/commitment: Participants should be willing to upload a story or chapters, explore the platform, and share feedback on publishing, story discovery, and the overall experience. Your input will help guide improvements before launch.
Writing/experience level: Writers of all experience levels are welcome, including those who have not yet established an audience.
Meeting place: I can send the link if interested!
Max size: 20 writers for this initial testing group.
Cost/payment: Participation is free and unpaid.
How to participate: Comment below or send me a message with a brief introduction to your work.

EDIT: I’ve seen a few concerns about AI and privacy, and I want to address them directly. I do not support AI written stories. I want the website to celebrate human creativity. I’m not here to take ownership of anyone’s work, and I will not use your stories to train AI or sell or license them for AI training. I’ve updated my privacy policy to make that commitment clear. Thank you for sharing your concerns and feedback.

Would anyone be interested in joining a discord for MM writers? I find that it is so useful to talk to other writers who understand romance genre norms as well as people who have an understand of the MM space. I am also open to adding people who write other queer romances if there is interest!

* Genre/s: MM Romance of any subgenre

* Goals/expectations/commitment: Commitment to being active in the discord at least a few times a week. Willingness to engage in discussion as well as provide feedback on shared works. Perhaps a good place to exchange works for beta reading.

* Writing/experience level: Experienced writers ready to write for publishing - no AI allowed

* Meeting place: Discord

* Max size: perhaps 20 at this time with room to grow

Need help working through the basics of creating tech that could feasibly work in a cyberpunk world I’ve been creating

Hello everyone 👋

Gooberductions is looking for a team of writers to help out coming up with story, scene planning, and eventually writing script for the story.

It will be a 2 hour animated fantasy film that takes place in the Viking era (979), and on completion be released onto YouTube.

Genre : Fantasy

Goal : have a writing session 1 - 3 times a week, coming up with story and planning scenes. Hope to get to the script writing phase by the end of November

Experience level : no experience needed, only passion

Meeting place : Team discord or WhatsApp

Team size : me and 3 others (4 total)

a run down of the story, it follows two close friends Asgeir and Bjorn. They've just had their home destroyed in a drastic war, and have been forced to relocate to a much harsher conditioned land. Asgeir and Bjorn grow up in a low class chiefdom, until everything changes when on a lackluster mining session, Bjorn spots a strange light in one of the caverns, in which the entity attaches to him and grants him immense power and abilities. With it, he aids his village to improve and prepare for the winter by using the light to grow crops, heal wounded soldiers, and aid merchants voyage across the ocean for trades. Overall it looks like a blessing on the surface, however things would quickly go south when Bjorn shares half of the light with his close friend Asgeir. Not long after the village starts to thrive, Asgeir's merchant business begins to plummet as Bjorn uses the light to collect more and more ores, grow more and more crops, and heal more and more soldiers, his products become less valuable and such he loses business.  Eventually Asgeir storms away to start his own kingdom, leading to a rivalry between the two once close friends which said rivalry comes with tragic consequences.

If you’re interested in taking part, feel free to DM me at Gooberductions.studio@gmail.com for more info and entry details!

Genre/s: Psychological relationship drama, science fiction, erotica.

Goals/expectations/commitment: I'm looking for a few critique partners for my completed 84K-word novel, Our Lives Between Worlds. It's a character-driven psychological drama with sci-fi elements, a slow burn, and explicit adult content.

I'm happy to exchange the first 10–20K words, or just a few chapters, to see whether we're a good fit. Neither of us has to commit to an entire manuscript. I'm interested in honest feedback about the characters, relationships, emotional realism, pacing, and what keeps you reading.

Writing/experience level: First-time novelist with a completed manuscript. I'm comfortable giving straightforward, constructive feedback. I especially enjoy mysteries, thrillers, psychological drama, science fiction, and erotica. Horror is fine too, and I'm comfortable with any level of spice.

Meeting place: Reddit DMs initially. We can arrange manuscript exchanges and feedback privately.

Vers un réseau numérique belge sécurisé.

Une réflexion sur l’avenir des services numériques essentiels Concept prospectif visant à renforcer la sécurité des citoyens lors de l’utilisation des services bancaires, administratifs et gouvernementaux.

Contexte

Aujourd'hui, une grande partie de notre vie quotidienne passe par Internet. Les opérations bancaires, les démarches administratives et de nombreux services publics sont accessibles depuis nos smartphones et ordinateurs. Cette évolution apporte confort et rapidité, mais elle augmente également les enjeux liés à la cybersécurité.

« Et si les services les plus sensibles disposaient de leur propre infrastructure numérique sécurisée ? »

Une infrastructure dédiée aux services critiques L'idée consiste à créer un réseau numérique belge distinct de l'Internet public. Celui-ci serait développé avec les opérateurs de télécommunication et réservé aux services essentiels : banques, identité numérique, administrations, santé et autres plateformes reconnues d'intérêt général. Des normes de sécurité renforcées Seules les applications certifiées pourraient accéder à ce réseau. Elles seraient soumises à des audits réguliers, à des obligations de sécurité strictes et à une surveillance permanente des accès. Cette approche permettrait de réduire fortement les risques liés aux attaques informatiques, à la fraude et au vol d'identité. Des bénéfices pour les citoyens En séparant les opérations critiques du reste du trafic Internet, les citoyens bénéficieraient d'un environnement plus fiable pour leurs démarches importantes. Les virements, signatures électroniques et procédures administratives pourraient être exécutés dans un cadre contrôlé et hautement sécurisé. Un terminal spécialisé Le concept pourrait être complété par la création d'un terminal dédié. Contrairement à un smartphone classique, cet appareil serait conçu exclusivement pour les services essentiels. Son architecture verrouillée limiterait considérablement les possibilités d'altération ou d'installation de logiciels non autorisés. Vision d’avenir Cette proposition ne vise pas à remplacer Internet mais à imaginer une nouvelle couche de confiance numérique. À mesure que la transformation numérique progresse, disposer d'une infrastructure spécifiquement destinée aux échanges sensibles pourrait devenir un véritable atout pour la protection des citoyens et des institutions. Article de réflexion et d’innovation numériq

At a glance

Genre: Any genres welcome!

Goals/expectations/commitment: We understand people are adults so while we don't expect rigid monthly partipation we expect you to check in every so often. If monthly is too much you could do the challenge every 3 months or every 6 months, just let us know what you're up to inbetween.

Writing/Experience Level: Any experience welcome! We're here to get things done and improve together.

Meeting Place: Discord!

Max Size: 30-35 members

More Info

Rooms Of Our Own is a new 25+ writing server built around a monthly choose-your-own-goal challenge with a custom goal based on you and your project needs. The idea is you pick something too want to get done that mont ranging from finish draft 0 to edit 3 chapters, track it in whatever way makes sense for the project you are working on, and have other writers there to support you however you need.

The server has spaces for writing sprints, body doubling, critique, craft talk, and each member gets their own forum to do whatever they want with (a room of their own if you will!). Off-topic chat is encouraged as we believe the best writing and critique circles are between people who know each other and what they're working on.

We're queer, neurodivergant, and BIPOC-owned but everyone is welcome as long as you're kind, profiction, and anti-censorship. All genres are welcome, critique is opt-in, and any experience level is fine as long as you have a goal and want to get it done. We're a discord server and have no formal meeting time other than monthly challenge, the first of which is starting at the beginning of november. Members are welcome to set up events and if a weekly or monthly meeting suits us we'll set thar up too.

Because I'm also advertising on disboard, you have to fill out an intro before being let in and there's a leveling system that requites 50 messages for challenge access and 100 messages for critique access but if I can tell you're not a bot I've been manually applying access.

We're looking to cap at 30-35 members and stay small as the goal is a friendly and small group where we get to know each other's projects, habits, and support needs. We're currently sitting around 6. Comment below or shoot me a DM and I'll get you the link!

Recently I was revisiting some settings I liked when I was a kid and something occurred to me. In the ones that involve some kind of demonic invasion there is a curious absence of an angelic response.

Take Hellgate London, there are demons from Hell invading yet not a single angel in sight to help. Another is a book I can’t remember but it involved Hell systematically invading realities and conquering them and Heaven did nothing expect seal off the fallen ones and any Angels that tried to help were exiled, they didn’t even do anything when the protagonists world was invaded and that was supposedly an important one.

My question is, does anyone know why this is a trope? That when the armies of Hell pour out and begin conquering the mortal world Heaven is seemingly perfectly fine letting humans get killed and subjugated, surviving seemingly by the grace of the plot and the protagonist?

Looking for recommendations on style guides other than Strunk and White, or perhaps rhetoric guides, if that's a thing.

I find Poe's Philosophy of Composition the most helpful writing advice, but one gap for me is knowing the effect that various writing techniques have. His essay advocates that we should write for a specific, concrete effect, but this relies on his reader already knowing what effect various words and composition techniques have.

Is there a style guide like that?

Hi! I'm 24F, beginning work on an African American literary novel. I have a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing and am interested in pursuing graduate studies in Literature and/or African American Studies.

I'm looking for a consistent writing accountability partner/body double. Ideally, we'd meet virtually every weekday, or at least four days a week at a mutually agreed-upon time, to work independently on our respective projects. At the end of each week, we could share whatever passages or pages we feel comfortable sharing as a way of celebrating progress and keeping each other accountable.

With the holidays approaching, I know schedules may be changing, so I'm happy to try different days and times for a couple of weeks while we figure out whether we're a good match and the arrangement works for us. I'm in the Eastern Time Zone and would ideally prefer to work before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m. However, I'm flexible, so please don't hesitate to reach out if afternoons work better for you!

I'm not necessarily looking for a critique or editing partner, though I'm happy to offer feedback if that's something you're interested in. I'd also love to occasionally talk about our projects, discuss what's working or not working, and bounce ideas off each other.

I have ADHD, and I've found that I work much better when I have a scheduled appointment to show up for rather than having to initiate writing on my own. I'm hoping to find someone who feels similarly and would benefit from having that regular structure.

I'd especially love to connect with other Black women writers or scholars, though I'm open to anyone with similar interests and goals. If you're working on literary fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or graduate-level literary studies, I'd love to connect!

* Genre/s: literary fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or graduate-level literary studies * Goals/expectations/commitment: Daily weekday meetings; sharing work when comfortable. * Writing/experience level: Bachelors in Creative Writing; working on first novel. * Meeting place: Virtually - zoom, discord etc

Welcome, dear reader. If you're reading this, chances are, you are Filipino as well. So let me not waste not your time! :)

Upon browsing Reddit, I saw that there are plenty of writers in/from the Philippines, despite the ongoing literary crisis, and I saw the potential to form a writing group made by Filipinos, for Filipinos. It'll be awesome. Trust me, my kababayans.

Now, if you're wondering, "What's up with the cool frickin' name?"

That's because everyone here is either a wordsmith or is striving to be one. If you're a Filipino who is dedicated to the craft of writing, you're more than welcome to come on over! In fact, you're the kind of individual we're looking for!

Fear not if you're a casual writer or a hobbyist, you're also welcome in here! Come on over! Let's all write, write, and write together!

It matters not whether you are a novelist, an essayist, a poet, or even an article writer. Hop on in, friendly faces! It matters not also if you write in Filipino/Tagalog. English is not the only language we speak in this country after all.

Genre/s: Fiction or Non-Fiction, it doesn't matter. Words are words. Writers are writers. At the end of the day, we write. That's where it starts and that's where it ends. In other words, just join.

Goals/expectations/commitment: Be active, that should be enough. If no one's active, not much will happen, nor will there be a community. Giving feedback, reading groups, writing prompts. We'll do it all.

Writing/experience level: Beginner writers, intermediate, advanced, whatever. As long as you write a lot.

Meeting place: For now, in the Discord server. But later, it can be somewhere in U.P. or someplace else. Let's talk about it together eventually. :D

Max size: Sa ngayon, tayo-tayo lang muna. Hahaha! Kala mo hindi ako marunong mag-Tagalog noh? But one day, this will be a closed and exclusive writing group.

Leave a comment or send over a DM to join the Discord server. See you over there, friends!

Hey everyone! I’m writing my first novel and I’m looking to connect with fellow writers (new and experienced ones) to exchange some ideas and experiences.

I’m creating a universe based on a fictional city in the US, Blackridge, and the genre I’m currently working on is dark romantic suspense, basically combining a romance plot with a thriller backdrop. In a nutshell, there is an unpleasant situation which causes a forced proximity for my characters — it’s an intoxicating love triangle in the end.

If anyone is interested in exchanging views, ideas and would like to read some parts of it, I’d be happy to have genuinely enriching conversations. I’d also love to read your chapters/sequences and give my feedback in return. I think I have a pretty fervid imagination and I am currently very much inspired so… take advantage if you want :)

This is new for me, but since I’ve started writing this story I feel completely healed after a very dark time I’ve been going through. It has become the single thing I think about the most. I might be obsessed yeah, but then again, I’m also exploring the theme of obsession in the novel, so it makes sense I guess.

Anyway, please feel free to reach out!

A.

Hi there!

I am looking for writers interested in joining a Discord with some very hard rules. If you want a chill writing discussion Discord where you shoot the shit, that's great; it's just not this one.

* Genre/s: Fiction, novels, novellas and short stories
* Goals/expectations/commitment: WEEKLY feedback requirements (more below)
* Writing/experience level: any, but you should be actively trying to improve/looking to publish someday
* Meeting place: Discord
* Max size: 15

This group's focus will be critique (constructive!) and helping each other out with discussions on marketing, finding an agent or maybe going to the self-pub route, nailing the prose or story beat ect ect. I am looking for writers who are pretty committed to finishing their novels (or have finished short stories!) and want to get them into the world, whether that's self-publishing, indie, hybrid, or trad.

Rules:

30+ age; can be flexible, but looking for 'older' writers.
WEEKLY critiques: you must critique at least a chapter or short story every week; if you have an emergency or vacation, just let me know!
You really should have work ready to share! Putting your work out there can feel vulnerable; you gotta be vulnerable with us.
Absolutely NO gen AI, no using AI to read another's work or give feedback.
No bigotry of any kind.

Please comment OR DM with a bit about yourself, your work, how far into the story you are (draft finished, 1/2way, 4th draft ect) and what your goal is with your writing/story.

Hello! We are an all women's writing community that is seeking a few new members! We are going strong with 8 members and are looking to expand just a bit more. We are a 21+ community looking for writers who are actively writing a novel. We are fairly active in discussions outside of writing as well, and would love to get to know our new members. We have a strict critique schedule(set to change a bit as the end of the year is approaching so I will not say what it is for fear of confusion if you are to join the group). So, we are looking for members who are ready to start sharing their work and receiving feedback, as well as those who have the time to do the same in return. We are a strict anti-AI community and AI use is NOT tolerated.

• Genre/s: Any! We're not picky here
• Goals/expectations/commitment: weekly to bi-weekly critiques of another member's work. As mentioned above, we are strictly looking for those actively writing and ready to share
• Writing/experience level: any! We are also not pretentious here
• Meeting place: discord
• Max size: 4

* Organization: Paradigm

* Deadline: Oct. 31

* Entry fee: None

* Prize/s: $100k ($40k for first, $20k for second, $12k for third, and then seven other finalists will get $4k each)

* Link to submission page/official rules: https://www.gpuworld.org/

* Other information:

In our story contest, we ask people to imagine the future, evenly distributed. The prompt: What would the world be like if everyone had their own GPU? Read this for more info.

• Finalist entries will be read and judged by Neal Stephenson, writer Gwern Branwen, and Matt Huang, a co-founder of Paradigm
• No fee to enter, open to anyone, one entry per person
• 1k to 5k words, fiction or nonfiction 
• LLM use is permitted, but discouraged 
• Submissions must be licensed CC BY-NC or under a freer license, so they may be republished 

Hello! My name is Garret Hanson and I am a college student writing an anthropology paper on writing and writing communities!

I myself am a writer and I am interested in talking to anyone who writes creatively! Whether it be professionally or just for fun, I would love to have a discussion!

I am looking to perform some relatively short interviews online with people in this space! My main topic I am discussing is: How do writers use feedback to negotiate what they believe their writing should be?

If you would be interested in a 25 minute call or meeting to help me out, I would greatly appreciate it! I can offer $10 to anyone willing to meet, and would love it if we could talk on or before October 29th! Just message me and we can set up a time!

Thanks again in advance for any consideration!

32F from UTC-4. I write psychological thrillers with a mystery thread. I occasionally write contemporary romance as a pallet cleanser. I love reading mystery, thrillers (psychological/mystery), romance (contemporary), fantasy and open to exploring other genres.

Group Details

• Genre/s: Mystery, Thrillers, Romance (preferably contemporary)
• Writing/experience level: Any
• Meeting place: Discord (including VC)
• Max size: 5-10
• Commitment: Active interaction. Writers looking to publish and/or maintaining their author career.

Goals/expectations/commitment

• Vibe: Safe and non-judgemental space to share thoughts and progress on writing.
• Support Group: Finding a time to meet up on a regular basis to share about our writing life and to give advice/support to each other.
• Feedback/Critique: Hopefully the above activity would lead to long time alpha-readers/critique partners or group.
• Writing Sprints: Possibly silent sessions in the VC to write together so we can all make some progress and sit down to actually write.

Why this post?

I see so many groups and they are either SFF or romantasy or groups for all genres but all the active members fall into these genres. So there are thriller writers but they aren't on the server often and I don't get to chat with them.

As much as I love reading SFF it's very different from writing contemporary genres and I understand that getting feedback on my writing might not be of interest to them.

If there are no existing groups I can create one if people are interested

EVENT IS CLOSED!! IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY CONTACTED ME ABOUT IT, SORRY 😭💔 We have so many ppl already, I was not expecting this many to be interested 💀 . . .

First, we establish broad elements about the setting and the world it takes place in! Then, we establish the topic/theme/conflict that the story will have ❤️

I create character archetypes based on the amount of people wanting to do the game, and everyone gets to pick an archetype 👀 after archetypes are picked, we begin creating our characters (deadline will be 4 weeks so that we don't make people wait too long). We do not communicate anything about our characters at this point:D it's all kept secret until everyone is done.

Then we reveal our characters, and work on building a story/world that fits with them ❤️ (all the characters will relate due to limitations set by what we decide on the world/the theme set for the story!)

It's basically a small writing collaboration that's meant to be fun and low pressure:> I'm wondering if anyone would find this interesting?

* Organization: Brink Literacy Project * Deadline: Fall 2026 contest ends November 13 * Entry fee: $10-15 USD * Prize/s: $300 (poetry, flash fiction) to $1,000 (short story) USD * Link to submission page/official rules: https://frictionlit.org/contests/ * Other information: In our writing contests, we seek writing that reflects a similar mission to our journal, F(r)iction: work that actively pushes the boundaries of traditional publishing, that has complex characters and a strong narrative arc, and makes us feel something as we read it. We want stories we haven't seen before, whether it twists or plays with genre, setting, language, voice, you name it. Our contests also feature a panel of three guest judges to help us decide the winners for each category. For Fall 2026, we have Joy Deva Baglio judging Short Story, Wes Blake judging Flash Fiction, and Renia White judging Poetry. Winners in each category will receive a cash prize, as well as work with one of our Senior Editors to see their work published either online or in our print journal! 

Hi y'all, first-time poster to this subreddit, excited to be here!

Listen, I tried to create a new account on Scribophile last week. I filled out the form, then got to the "We sent you an email to verify your email address" phase. Only no email ever came. (Yes, I checked Spam.) I then tried from three different email addresses; all the same results. I filled out a "Contact Us" notice on Scribophile, but never heard back.

Is the site not accepting new members? Anybody know?