I would love to, though I'm not sure an LJ is the best format for it. Something like a bulletin board might work better, but an LJ would be good to get things rolling and see if people are interested.

There is an community for this already: torchwood_meta. Recently they've been concentrating on discussing the episodes, but I assume they'll be going back to doing hard-core analysis of fics again soon.

Though a separate community for just works in the Torchwood fandom would be interesting as well.

I think some kind of forum for fic-writers would be a great idea. Just somewhere where we could bounce ideas off each other, discuss how we approach our fics and ask each other for tips and hints. It's hard to get constructive criticism on most fanfics because the people who like it tend to comment and those who don't generally don't bother.

I'm new to the fandom, and all of my current betas are Tolkien folk. They're exceptional at keeping me on track with characterizations and Middle-earth canon, but none of 'em are Torchwood folk. I'd love to have a place to hash out the issues in my TW fic.

(granted, the TW fic of which I speak is a whopping one WIP, but still...)

As a relatively new writer to the fandom, I have been looking for something like this - a place to say "Hey I thought about x - is that just stupid" or to ask things like "how old do we really think Jack is?" (before the 2000 years under Cardiff in his magic coat thing).

I don't write, is all.



*feels bad*
*pats you*
*walks off*

not hating! (lol, you didn't give me much of a choice)

but generally the smaller comms like coffee already serve this purpose.

also, she said very quietly, as a vet of much bigger fandoms, having "writers communities" is a great way to start some of the most ultimate wank around. tw is such a friendly fandom, but there already IS a bit of tension brewing between a number of very popular authors, and putting them all in the same place? yeesh.

lol, but that said, if you start it, i'll show up.

Another one of my fandoms has an intermittent online chat for writers. We chat for a couple of hours on IRC and trade fic problems, talk about the weather, trade stories to beta, etc. We announce when and where it is, and then we all log onto our IRC clients and play in the sandbox together.

I think it's a great idea but more than that, this is an "if you build it they will come" situation. If at least one other person is interested (and clearly you're beyond that threshold already) then go ahead and start it. Announce it and I can almost promise others will show up. I started a comm for Torchwood fans to exchange recipes in some kind of story format and, although it's small and slow, I got over 20 members within a week. So go for it, sez I.

If you don't want to use LJ, there's always proboards or whatever it's called now. Is that still around and available? I know it takes maintaining but might be worth it.

Sounds like a good idea. http://invisionfree.com/ might be a good place for it, you know. You can set up endless boards for different topics where people can start threads.
I'd definitely be interested.

There isn;t a ticky box for "no, it seems like a good idea, but i'm a lurky reader who can never quite be arsed to write"

I would join. I love writing meta about writing, it's much more satisfying than actually writing.

I'm a long time fanfic writer but only recently started writing TW fics... I would definitley enjoy a place like that!!

This is a perfect idea. I'm in the middle of a Torchwood/Veronica Mars crossover and having a place to see if there's anyone else that knows both shows and would be willing to let me bounce ideas off of them would be great.

I filled in the beta/editor type answer, as that's what I've done more in this fandom, so far. However, I'm also a writer, and have a number of works in the smelter, as it were, so I might be interested on that level, as well.

If you're going to do this on LJ, I'd suggest considering a closed or moderated community, just to reduce the chances of trollery and to increase the sense of security and trust amongst the participants. However, that's largely due to my experience (as lurker and/or participant) in some of the, er, wankier fandoms, shall we say? In other words, please feel free to ignore me. :)

Catherine

I would love to participate in something like this...I use writing TW fic as a relaxer from the novel I'm working on. I've got about 4 TW fics in the works right now and am currently blocked on all of them (including my novel - which has no relation to TW) due to a lack of confidence in my writing abilities. A place to discuss writing style, ideas, etc would be wonderful!

I think this is a good idea. As a German who lives in England and has written in English I especially think it is a good idea. At the minute I haven't time to write as I have four kids, two of whom are under 2.
I would like very much a place where I could talk about English Slang and common expressions. My husband was raised in the USA but didn't learn much English until he was 6 so he isn't any help in this.

Yay, good idea, but moderate it to prune the garden of delights that we all create it at that, into something worth referencing. Set up some general areas to play within to direct it and that'll work well.
I can't just leave it there.

Character v.personality.
Dialogue v. description.
Conflict.
150 word length.
Partworks longer than 4000.
Humour.
Kink.
AU.

May I suggest we avoid crossovers as a topic, that's a snake in a bag if ever I saw one...

I may also be wrong about this.

If by "regular" you mean has written one, has one on beta and will likely write more? Yeah. I'm in.

I would love a community like this because I've just started writing TW and I'm a little unsure of the characterizations. Some feedback from people who know better would help. A lot.

I like the idea!

I'm *always* looking to improve my writing, I know I'm pretty decent but I also know I can always improve. Unfortunately, I get very little feedback on what stuff I do post (which isn't all of my massive output, usually just the stuff I'm really jazzed about or actually FINISH, which is my weak point...)

I actually have an invisionfree forum that's a writer's workshop that kinda died...I wouldn't mind revamping it, I think I could rename it but it would still work if I couldn't cuz it's called "Writer's Workshop" :D I had like...ten people and no one posted but me.

I'm not any of those options in the poll, but I would love a place like this. I'm just starting out in the writing aspect of TW though I've followed the show from the beginning.

Maybe you could partner/associate with torchwood_meta? It could possibly garner both this new comm/board/etc and the meta comm more publicity

Just to ask - this will be all characters/ships bashing free, won't it? I know Gwen isn't popular with certain segments of the fandom but if someone wants advice on writing her they won't be told to use Tosh instead or something equally weird, I hope.

No, I'm just kidding, you're not dumb. But that one simply insisted I click it, dunno why. Just my nature, I suppose. *scolds self* Bad me, bad girl.

It would definitely have been handy to have had such a community when I was fact-checking for my last couple of fics. Go for it, why not?