RP Haven Community

[CtrlAltDestroy]

The Book Club is a feature I've been meaning to add to RP Haven for quite a while, ever since starting my Creative Writing class. I was planning to add it to the new forum, but since that's taking too long, I'll go ahead and start it out now.

Here's the premise for the book club:

Fact: Reading inspires writing.
Fact: Reading inspires more reading.
Fact: Having people comment on your works inspires writing.

Therefore, if we as a community read more, we will become more interested in and more inspired about writing and RPing and things we like to do here.

This was the basis behind the Month of Words bonus challenge, which failed to work. I am trying it again, this time by encouraging you to read shorter, more well-written stories.

In this forum, I will post short stories. They will pretty much always be 4000 words or less. The idea will be for other people to comment on them and discuss various aspects of them.

But wait, you say. Why can't I just do this on the fiction board?

Well, this forum is supposed to be different from the fiction board in a few ways:

- It will only consist of already completed, self-contained short stories. No chapters of larger stories and no ongoing stories will be allowed. When you get a spare moment, just sit back and read one of 'em without having to worry about backstory or anything.
- Stories will be pretty short, almost always 4000 words or less. They will be posted as the first post of each thread.
- Rather than just rating or reviewing the story, try to discuss the story from the eye of a writer. Discuss various parts of the story - theme, symbolism, mood, and other various mechanics used by the author. Did they work well? Your first reply to a thread in this board should be meaningful and at least 100 words. (Basically, this is just to prevent the "I really liked this" posts... Really, pretend you're a critic talking directly to the author and try to tell them what parts were awesome and what parts could be improved.)
- Stories not by you are allowed to be posted here, as long as proper credit is given.

To start out, I'll only allow myself to post new threads, but after a week or so, I'll open it up to others.

I hope this turns out to be a fun and enlightening activity for aspiring writers like us. Please try to make this work, as I really think it would really do this community good if it did.

[CtrlAltDestroy]

The Book Club is a feature I've been meaning to add to RP Haven for quite a while, ever since starting my Creative Writing class. I was planning to add it to the new forum, but since that's taking too long, I'll go ahead and start it out now.

Here's the premise for the book club:

Fact: Reading inspires writing.
Fact: Reading inspires more reading.
Fact: Having people comment on your works inspires writing.

Therefore, if we as a community read more, we will become more interested in and more inspired about writing and RPing and things we like to do here.

This was the basis behind the Month of Words bonus challenge, which failed to work. I am trying it again, this time by encouraging you to read shorter, more well-written stories.

In this forum, I will post short stories. They will pretty much always be 4000 words or less. The idea will be for other people to comment on them and discuss various aspects of them.

But wait, you say. Why can't I just do this on the fiction board?

Well, this forum is supposed to be different from the fiction board in a few ways:

- It will only consist of already completed, self-contained short stories. No chapters of larger stories and no ongoing stories will be allowed. When you get a spare moment, just sit back and read one of 'em without having to worry about backstory or anything.
- Stories will be pretty short, almost always 4000 words or less. They will be posted as the first post of each thread.
- Rather than just rating or reviewing the story, try to discuss the story from the eye of a writer. Discuss various parts of the story - theme, symbolism, mood, and other various mechanics used by the author. Did they work well? Your first reply to a thread in this board should be meaningful and at least 100 words. (Basically, this is just to prevent the "I really liked this" posts... Really, pretend you're a critic talking directly to the author and try to tell them what parts were awesome and what parts could be improved.)
- Stories not by you are allowed to be posted here, as long as proper credit is given.

To start out, I'll only allow myself to post new threads, but after a week or so, I'll open it up to others.

I hope this turns out to be a fun and enlightening activity for aspiring writers like us. Please try to make this work, as I really think it would really do this community good if it did.

[Mavrickindigo]

I'm currently taking a literary criticism theory class and the professor stresses that we look at the text itself, not what the writer intended to put in it. That is because subconsciously the writer might have done things that he or she was not aware of. For example Robert Frost wrote a poem where he had the same line written twice in a row. When asked why he did that, he said "I don't know, it just sounded good."

Anyway the point I think I'm trying to make here I guess is that when reviewing a work, I don't think the author is very important, its the reader. Because that's how writers do things, they write for readers. If they write for themselves, then they don't really have. Sure we can write about what we think the writer intended, but its no good if the reader hates it. How will that help the writer?

It is an interesting idea for a board so we'll see how it works and such. Sounds cool to try.

[MythGuyDK]

[Ricky]

[Ricky]

[Trauma Advocate]

So... are there any plans to make this thing public?

[Trauma Advocate]

So... are there any plans to make this thing public?

[CtrlAltDestroy]

Yeah, go ahead. I kinda forgot about it.

[CtrlAltDestroy]

Yeah, go ahead. I kinda forgot about it.

[Alex]