Looking for someone to bounce ideas off of

[Mitchified]

The title of the post says it all. I'm looking for someone that I can send short stories and my novels to read through and give me honest feedback on the material. In return, I'd be more than willing to do the same for that person. I've found that I always do my best work when I'm tossing random ideas back and forth with someone working in the same genre. I mostly focus on dark humor/horror hybrid stories, and I'll be the first to admit that my writing style is...different. I can be a bit long-winded and ramble off-topic if it amuses me. So consider yourself warned. Maybe we can even get a little writing group going here. Yeah, I could always simply post the material here and get feedback, but the problem with doing it that way is that a lot of snippets would be taken out of context and make zero sense to the reader. I might be wrong on this, but this forum seems like it was intended for critiquing finished or near-finished works and hammering out basic ideas as opposed to the details.

[deadpunk]

Maybe we can even get a little writing group going here. Yeah, I could always simply post the material here and get feedback, but the problem with doing it that way is that a lot of snippets would be taken out of context and make zero sense to the reader. I might be wrong on this, but this forum seems like it was intended for critiquing finished or near-finished works and hammering out basic ideas as opposed to the details. We had a writing group here at one time. We used to do fiction challenges and spend nights overpopulating the chatroom bouncing ideas off each other. Some of my best stories were fleshed out it the old loom chatroom Unfortunately, people come and go and things always fall apart for one reason or another (a bruised ego usually starts it) and then it comes back for a short period, etc etc etc You're correct in the assumptions of this forum, though. This used to be the forum where that went on constantly. We had a huge community of writers that took critiques, offered ideas, shared links and resources... It was awesome. Then... I don't know. It started to feel like everyone was trying to be 'the number one author' and stories became jealously guarded secrets, no one could be bothered to help anyone out. It was all pretty stupid (sad to say I readily participated in much of the flaming that brought the fiction forum to a halt). I'd be more than happy to bounce ideas around. Sharing stories (although I don't have the type of time to sit and read a novel lol) would be great. Who knows, maybe others would start coming back around

[Wyldwraith]

Dunno how many times I gotta suggest this, Go to Rise of the Dead! It's a self-contained zombie fiction community, with forums designated for stories set by time since start of the zombie phenomena in your stories. Ie: Night of the Living Dead forum deals mainly with stories that follow Romero-rules-consistent stories that focus on the beginning of the dead rising up to a couple weeks or so into the outbreak. 3 weeks + to a couple months or so is covered by the Dawn of the Dead forum, with 3-12 months covered by the Day of the Dead forum, and then 1 year+ is covered by the Land of the Dead forum. THEN, if your story DOES NOT conform to the Romero-centric "rules" for zombies, there is the Worlds of the Dead forum for all other stories. ALL of these forums see medium to medium-high traffic, despite overall membership remaining a core of a couple dozen commenting lurker non-writers and 10-14 of us regular writers, who often a) collaborate to do multi-authored stories, and b) are always available to do in-depth critiques of the work of anyone who wants such. Rise of the Dead/Bobturkee has stood the test of time, and is a great little writing community I'm PROUD to be a part of. We've weeded out all the tools, so the people there are all very cool and devoted fans of all that is zombiedom. At least give Rise a try. If it doesn't meet your needs (which I SERIOUSLY DOUBT) you've lost nothing but a little time. If it does, problem solved, plus you've found several new Deadheads to socialize with. Honestly, I feel it's your best option. The Planning Threads see a lot of activity and are ALL ABOUT exactly the sort of thing you're asking about. I won't lie though, some of the better/more dedicated writers are either in poor health like me, or have heavy real-life commitments, so 18-hour turnaround time on weekdays is not uncommon, but the rate often picks up speed a great deal come evening EST time. Lastly, the site owner is a College Professor. Doesn't try to interfere in the goings-on unless people ask and certainly doesn't censor story activity. (BTW, the site also has forums for the posting of non-zombie works in the Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Historical and TEOTWAKI. If you're wondering, T.E.O.T.W.A.K.I = The End Of The World As we Know It. Which is where the site owner focuses most of his limited time unless someone needs something. Something to consider anyways.... Edit/Note: BTW, about the Time Since Beginning of Zombie Rising-related forums. It's perfectly ok for your story to (for example) start on Night 2 since the Dead began to rise, and then continue in scope/time frame months of even years into the time since the Dead began to rise. The forum you begin the story in is only determined by where in the "Outbreak Timeline" the beginning of your story is set. If your story foreshadows things to come by the 2nd day your characters discover the dead are rising, it's perfectly fine if your story then (for whatever reason) "fast forwards" until when we catch up with your protagonists again its been years since the Dead rose, it would be perfectly fine for your story to be in the NotLD Forum.

[Mitchified]

I had stumbled upon Rise of the Dead during my interweb travels, but since I had long ago punted the Romero Rules (RR) out of my zombie-based writing I kept on walking (typing?). I haven't heard of Worlds of the Dead, though, so I'll definitely check it out. It would still be nice to get something going on this site, though. Since a lot of the short stories that I write will be submitted to it, it would all be self-contained and that would be, as we say on the streets, nifty.