Book Club + Writing Group Forum

I've been mulling over the idea of an online book club and an online writing group for a while now. Currently, there's no real space for either of these things on Mibba, so I've been looking at other forums (like forumotion). But I think it would be pretty great if we could get a book club forum and a writing group forum (or one that would allow for both).

These forums would function in the same way that the RP forums work:

Book club: You'd gather a group of set members and each month (or week, or whatever time period you all set) you'd choose a novel to read and the discuss. Then, you'd do the same for the next month - always staying within that one thread for each group. You would edit the first post and title to reflect which book your group is discussing and leave a link that shows where a new discussion starts.

Writing group: Like the book club, you'd gather a set of members and create your own permament thread. In the thread you could spend a day (or week, or whatever period of time you choose) to work on one member's story. You can use your turn to receive feedback from all the members, to get advice on troubled spots, to brainstorm...whatever. And whenever the group moves on to a new story, the first post could be edited to reflect that and there would be a link to where the new discussion starts.

For either of these to work, the groups would have to be fairly small - maybe ten or so members - and people would have to be sure not to over-extend themselves (join more groups than they have time to fully participate in). Perhaps there could be a rule stating that no member could be the creator of more than one of each type of group (book club and writing group), and of course each group could monitor their own members and decide if any one member isn't pulling their weight. And if any group disbands or grows stagnant, members would be required to report the thread for deletion (so we don't clog up the forum with out of use thread).

What do you guys think? Would anyone be interested in taking part in any of this?

I love the idea of a book club. That would be so cool! :3

I think it's an awesome idea! I just have a really stupid question though: the "novels" for the book clubs, would they be real books or stories or Mibba? I'm sorry if that sounds like a ridiculous question X'D

My only concern is editing the first post. I mean, after some time, Mibba members (with the exception of admins) can't edit their original posts. Would the creator of the group have to PM an admin at some point and time to keep editing the first post? :3

For the book clubs, I was thinking published novels. I think being able to do a Mibba story would be nice too but it's probably not something every Mibba author would be comfortable with.

I don't know if it's possible to alter the editing limit for specific forums on Mibba, but if not, then the group could either PM an admin to edit it for them or report the thread and add what they want added to the thread in the "reason for reporting" section.

Dexterous Monkey:

For the book clubs, I was thinking published novels. I think being able to do a Mibba story would be nice too but it's probably not something every Mibba author would be comfortable with.

I don't know if it's possible to alter the editing limit for specific forums on Mibba, but if not, then the group could either PM an admin to edit it for them or report the thread and add what they want added to the thread in the "reason for reporting" section.

Would the author of the book club be able to decide though, whether they wanted to review Mibba stories or actual novels? And of course, I think if they were to do a Mibba story, the book club author would have to have permission from the author of whoever's story is being read.

Okay, that's what I was wondering :3

This sounds like an awesome idea.

Wasn't there a thread that was sort of like a book club in the Books forum? I think Kurtni started it/was really involved with it, and it was a list of books you'd try to read in a set amount of time?

acorna's not there:

This sounds like an awesome idea.

Wasn't there a thread that was sort of like a book club in the Books forum? I think Kurtni started it/was really involved with it, and it was a list of books you'd try to read in a set amount of time?

I looked for it under Kurtni's threads but couldn't find it (possibly it was someone else who created the thread), but yeah, I know which one you're talking about it.

I think the difference is that it was more of a "here's a list of books, read as much of them as you can within the period of time" but I don't remember there being any actual discussion or exchange of opinions and ideas on the books being read, which is what this would be. It would be more like an actually book club where each group can "meet" and discuss at length the book they've read and share ideas on it.

I really like the idea of both- especially the writing groups.

Both of those are things I would soooo use more than I should.

I love the concept of the writing group (I don't read enough to participate in any book groups ), but I could see people trying to milk the group to their story's advantage without providing that same thought-out feedback for other members' stories, if that makes any sense. Like I feel that there would need to be specific guidelines as to determining whose story gets discussed first, how much time is devoted to each story, etc.

i saw sparks:

I love the concept of the writing group (I don't read enough to participate in any book groups ), but I could see people trying to milk the group to their story's advantage without providing that same thought-out feedback for other members' stories, if that makes any sense. Like I feel that there would need to be specific guidelines as to determining whose story gets discussed first, how much time is devoted to each story, etc.

That would all be something that each individual group has to decide for themselves.

Like the RP forums and the threads there, this will be more of just a place to host your group, but each individual group will have to monitor themselves as far as participation and those kind of decisions go. So everyone picks their own group - you and your group would decide who's in and who's not - and if you notice that there's someone who isn't pulling their weight, then you would be able to decide if that person can stay in the group or if they will be dismissed from it.

So would this be set up like the forum for the Mibba Magazine, and you know how we've got the threads like Important; Planning; Working; Tumblr Blog etc, it would be like that but with Book Club; Writing Group and then in each of those it would have the small groups and their threads yeah?

Because I think it's a pretty good idea, and that you'll be able to pick and choose who is in your group and if someone's not pulling their weight you can kinda do something about it. (For the writing group). And the Book Club one sounds pretty neat too. :)

I love the idea of a book club, I would definitely join! :)