When I first started writing, more than ten years ago, there was only one person interested in my tales: an email friend who writes fan fiction. She supported me wholeheartedly and was always happy to read my stories. She still is. In return, I very much enjoy her novels, the best kind of Star Trek fan fiction.
In 2003 I stumbled over forums and joined Runboard, a small forum provider with excellent service. Runboard lets you sign up as global member so you can visit all public forums there. I made good use of that, and ended up on a huge writing board. The members there taught me a lot about writing, agents and publishers. In 2006 I founded my own writing board, Mystical Adventures. The big writing forum, however, no longer exists.
Mystical Adventures focuses on speculative fiction, mostly fantasy and science fiction. It’s a fairly small one, as boards go, but we’re doing fun projects once in a while. Right now, we’re running a little challenge writing a piece with a fixed title (“The Disillusioned Mage”). Feel free to join in!
Are you using forums? Do they help you with your writing? And oh, that castle is a real one in Germany. If you figure out where it is, you’ll get a virtual squee and hug.
Mystical Adventures is a great place to go. I just play with writing but I’ve received excellent feedback and feel that my writing has improved with just the few challenges I’ve joined in. It’s the only writing forum I’m on but it inspired me to get some things on paper!
Thank you, Marissa. On the board I do try to help people have fun writing. It’s so good to know it worked for you!