Newgrounds wonderfully showcases the talents of musicians and artists. But it kind of leaves the wonderful art of writing out. I know it says that newgrounds doesn't support it, dispite the writing forums, but there is a rumor of a Writing Portal that may be created in the future. This is pretty much a petition that is meant to encourage the founders and administrators to make these rumors into fact. I hope you guys will support this and that we will soon see a Writing Portal Newgrounds.

If you have ever frequented Newgrounds within the last year, you would know that we've been asking for this for a couple years. You would also know that people are heavily divided, seeing as Newgrounds is filled with morons that could give a fuck about spelling, grammar, syntax, mechanics, prosody, or construction, much less literature. I think the Writing Forum is sufficient for posting work, and receiving criticism. The only advantage the Writing Portal has is that it might have a bigger draw for us writers. But then again, I'm not so sure that is an advantage.

At 12/16/12 11:19 AM, DeftAndEvil wrote: If you have ever frequented Newgrounds within the last year, you would know that we've been asking for this for a couple years. You would also know that people are heavily divided, seeing as Newgrounds is filled with morons that could give a fuck about spelling, grammar, syntax, mechanics, prosody, or construction, much less literature. I think the Writing Forum is sufficient for posting work, and receiving criticism. The only advantage the Writing Portal has is that it might have a bigger draw for us writers. But then again, I'm not so sure that is an advantage.

Exactly. I remember fighting for this when the forum first came out, and even before that. I honestly don't see a portal in the near future. I also agree that it might not be as advantageous as it may seem.

I just recently joined NG several years being a frequent visitor. So I just thought to myself, "Hell, why not join, hopefully I'll have some interesting conversations with some unique individuals and join in on some good banter."
I'm in total support of having a writing portal. I'm a Journalism major; so I like to write. I guess you could say I'm an "aspiring writer" but I feel so pretentious when I say such a thing. I'm in my early twenties, so I'm still trying to find my own literary voice. Anyways, I invite constructive criticism to anyone interested in reading what I will post in the forums and on my page.
With all that being said...
Lets fight the powers at be and get ourselves a writing portal.

At 12/22/12 09:07 PM, somethingtarnished wrote: ...

I wish we had more traffic (this is where a Lit Portal would be useful), but it seems like the Writing Forum will never expand; thus, no portal.

Anyway, here's something to get you thinking about voice:

At 12/22/12 09:07 PM, Deathcon7 wrote: Voice is a lie. I say that with a casual shrug and wave of the hand. Your voice is the way that you write. So long as you're not trying to sound like someone else, and you're writing uninhibited, you're using your voice. If you're talking about tone, that's something entirely different and will only develop as your story does. It's very close to theme in that sense. My advise is to get your head wrapped around the story. Discovery is nice, but big projects need equivalently sized planning.

The myth of voice cropped up somewhere; not sure where. I fell under its spell for a bit. Once you let it go, though, you'll notice you flow a lot better.

I would be happy either way. I think the lack of more exposure which a portal would lend leads people to believe we are hostile to outsiders (in general I don't think we are) . I can see the problems of good entries shining the through the doubtless mountains of crap submissions that would come, but sometimes I rather like dump-hopping.

A writing portal... this is Newgrounds. I don't see how a writing forum could be properly maintained due to certain individuals that apparently lacked a BRAIN to begin with. There would be a huge influx of stories about tasting semen, terrible Clock Crew killing fantasies, and "A SKELETON POPPED OUTs". It's better to leave the writing portal to DeviantArt or a site dedicated to writing of some kind.

At 12/27/12 03:18 PM, MaQuasi wrote: It's better to leave the writing portal to DeviantArt or a site dedicated to writing of some kind.

That would seem like a good idea if DeviantArt (and Fanfiction) weren't intellectual wastelands. I've only been on DeviantArt once, but the senseless poetic dribble and poorly developed excuses for prose have convinced me never to go back (same thing with Fanfiction). I'd rather read about a cock joke because at least there's a chance of laughter. You're right; there seems to be more regulation on those sites (since they are dedicated to writing, after all), but I would never go there if I were serious about writing (which I am, so I don't).

The NG Writing Forum is the place to be. Unfortunately, the immature (in every sense of the word: people who are young; people who are childish; people who have not developed the craft; people that make cock jokes 24/7) members of NG have driven my buddy Deathcon away. He was one smart dude.

Fortunately, people like mh, 4, starwars, Ekublai, and now tinytim (and myself) remain. I hope that list grows, but I doubt it ever will. Until it does, you will have to be satisfied with what we have. Also, until then, I'll be singing the same old fucking song.

Agree. Where I sign?

At 12/27/12 03:18 PM, MaQuasi wrote: A writing portal... this is Newgrounds. I don't see how a writing forum could be properly maintained due to certain individuals that apparently lacked a BRAIN to begin with.

yeah, but i mean, why not. i love writing, i especially love writing collabs, you get a story that you would have never expected. so a forum a little more dedicated might not be a bad idea... i mean, what are the ramifications anyways? you know, other than what you just said.

At 12/27/12 03:18 PM, MaQuasi wrote: A writing portal... this is Newgrounds. I don't see how a writing forum could be properly maintained due to certain individuals that apparently lacked a BRAIN to begin with. There would be a huge influx of stories about tasting semen, terrible Clock Crew killing fantasies, and "A SKELETON POPPED OUTs". It's better to leave the writing portal to DeviantArt or a site dedicated to writing of some kind.

Those entries will inevitable be blammed and/or left unscouted and deleted, whichever the case may be. Either way, they do not affect the overall quality of the portal. :)

I think Tom said a while ago that they're getting the Lit Portal ready, so they've probably got such a mechanism in place already. I can't wait! :)

Yes, I would greatly like this. The Newgrounds community though, are mostly artists and creative people in their own way. Unfortunately for us, writers, we are the minority. If this petition DOES go through, may I suggest a "Debate" section to be added within the Writing Portal?

Writers are the lowest part of the rock star ladder.

In fact we're the roadies of the arts, we're not meant to be aggrandised. Only our work and those who are in it.

Thanks for the support!

Since the TGF2 forum has been so quiet, maybe they could let writers use those free TGF2 downloads to promote their writing and TGF2 at the same time. It might be cool to see a program with features created by writers for writers. Never know, might see some cool interactive fiction or other text-based projects, more suitable for the game portal.

I think the program would be easy enough for writers to use. I had a pretty rough ebook that I threw in the dump last year, that couldn't have taken more hour to make. It didn't look pretty but the buttons turned the pages/frames. The pic's and text worked alright, as far as I can recall but I really didn't put much into it.

Some food for thought if nothing else, I guess. XD

I think it could work if there was a scouting method in place.

Thats a really good idea. I sent a pm to Tom Fulp with a copy/paste of your comment.

I'm glad ya like that. If they are actually considering a writing portal, I was thinking it could be a good way to allow some writer input on it, hands on and maybe lighten the load for a nonwriter who would have to implement it. Else they might have to just try and guess what kind of features a writer would like.

From what I remember of the program, it seems well suited to writers willing to edit their work, if nothing else. I didn't like the way it layered graphics with the alpha channel but for finished illustrations, I would think it would work well. I would guess that you'd want to at least put your own buttons to navigate from pages and back to tables of content, for larger works.

Another thing I was pondering is that one feature that a writing portal could possibly have that the others wouldn't, is being accessable to the blind and visually impaired, though I'm not sure how their software works, though I've seen them on some other forums and use text based game clients.

It seems like the audio was disabled on the free version.

Worst case, I guess it could be rated as a game. I'm a fan of some of the older and newer text based games as well. So that would be win-win for me. XD

Text is so under-rated these days.

I'm not real familiar with NG. For the past couple years, I've usually just stopped in from time to time and dropped stuff in the dump, tried out converted files or just tinkered with the portal settings. I also checked out some stuff other people do. Whatever happens, I hope ya guys come up with something to showcase the writing.

I'd sign for it. I've been visiting this site for years (new profile) and I've always wanted a writing portal. The blams and saves would take care of the portal just like all the other portals. If a user submitted a turd with awful grammar, diction and syntax, other users would automatically blam it at first glance.

Thank you for the support!!!!

The Writing Portal should be structured like the Art Portal.

Anyone can put out content, but to get onto the REAL portal you should have to be scouted by a higher ranked user. This way there won't be spam with no regards to grammar or spelling.

Your right! If the Portal would be established there would be little maintinence needed for it. The users would be great moderators because there are alot of writers on Newgrounds that are series!

I am 100% behind this. Vive le littérature!

Amen brother! Que el aumento de la resistencia!

That would be a cool thing.

Tom has stated that we will be getting a Writing Portal. The best way I can see it managed though is through a scout system like with the Art Portal and how the Audio Portal is managed now.

Awesome:) If it has been stated or said that it was under production, then I apologize that I missed it. This is just something im real excited about!

At 12/16/12 03:31 AM, TheInnerScience wrote: Newgrounds wonderfully showcases the talents of musicians and artists. But it kind of leaves the wonderful art of writing out. I know it says that newgrounds doesn't support it, dispite the writing forums, but there is a rumor of a Writing Portal that may be created in the future. This is pretty much a petition that is meant to encourage the founders and administrators to make these rumors into fact. I hope you guys will support this and that we will soon see a Writing Portal Newgrounds.

I support this petition 100%, words are the most influential part of being human. Without words to move us in such a way that we never thought possible or to provoke us to the point of utter frustration, we would be animals. Paintings can take your breath away and music can show us a soul but words can lead us to places the eye could never see.

It would deffenently be a change, but I think its worth it.

I agree with this idea, there are few places like this forum on the internet where you can post honest work and obtain honest results so it would be better if more people knew about this. While some people would just post random crap the ratings on those pieces would be terrible so only the good pieces would become featured. Ultimately I believe it would take some work to devise a system wherein the people with worse stories wouldn't be able to submit, but in the end it would be worth it.