Welcome to The Writers Pad

We are a virtual community of writers who meet on-line to discuss our writing. Since it is the introverted nature of a writer to venture inward, we are faceless, formless and everything but mindless. Think of us as a graduate-level writers workshop that enjoys spending time discussing ideas, works-in-progress and offering advise and suggestion concerning the demanding, time-consuming, occasionally-persnickety walls that all writers face. Welcome, and guide them (as if language is your hand)
to a destination - our imaginary room filled with creative opportunities.

The Writers Pad is a forum for works-in-progress. This site is designed for unpublished writing, and writing, which is all writing, in stages of revision. New writing should be seen, read and savored (and, of course, critiqued, nurtured, and improved upon). Our posted critiques are text-based and extensive. We always begin with discussing the writing at hand, then offer suggestions for improvement. Warning! We've been known, to veer off the path into conversations about the writing life, the difference between free-verse poetry and poetic prose, the uses and misuses of structure and rhyme, publishing, and a dozen other writing-related things.

So welcome!

We also offer professional editing services for those who have taken their work to the final stages and need polishing before submission.

Considering applying for membership?

Please be sure to read our member guidelines! The guidelines explain how to apply, what membership means, what the requirements and perks of membership are, and a variety of other exciting and not-so-exciting things about who we are, what we do, and what it takes to be a new member.

Why institute member guidelines? This is more than a website, and probably different from most of the online writing sites you've encountered. Simply-put, we're a community, and we're proud of that.
We're a group of committed writers who spend a good deal of time here, read each others' writing, and who grow from exposure to each other's work and ideas. So, in hopes of avoiding misunderstandings and miscommunication, in typical writer fashion, we've written something to help everyone understand where we're coming from. Please do read the guidelines before you decide that you love us or hate us.
Click on the links to tour the site.