Writing Stack Exchange is a question-and-answer site for authors, editors, technical writers, reviewers, bloggers, journalists, and professional and aspiring writers of all types. If you are new to the Stack Exchange network, you might want to check out our short tour.
If you have questions about writing techniques, style, usability/readability, planning and organizing, research techniques, publishing, and related topics, your questions are welcome here. Questions about grammar and requests to proofread or critique your work will be closed.
This is not a web forum. The difference can be subtle, but here's the short version: a forum is for posing questions that are intended to spark discussions, whereas Stack Exchange is for asking specific questions that can be answered definitively and clearly. Forums are awesome, and we love them! But this is a place for focused questions and answers. So while "what should I write" is a fine question for a forum, it won't attract clear, definitive answers here and so does not fit our format.
Questions on these topics are welcome here:
- Non-fiction, technical, scholarly, journalistic, or professional blog writing, including the presentation of examples, charts, and diagrams.
- Writing fiction, poetry, scripts, or song lyrics.
- General copywriting, style, and organization.
- Questions asking for help expressing a concept or an idea, within limits. (See this meta post for more information.)
- The publishing and editing process itself.
- Questions about specialized writing tools.
On the other hand, these kinds of questions aren't allowed here:
- Proofreading requests.
- Requests to critique your work or rephrase something. However, please do feel free to use your own writing as examples in on-topic questions.
- Questions asking what to write about, or broadly asking how to write a particular kind of email, letter, memo, or other correspondence (more about this here). We're looking to avoid questions where the intent is to generate ideas. Please note that certain types of questions asking "how do I express this idea" are on-topic.
- The strictly interpreted correctness of English grammar or syntax rules. Please ask those on English Language & Usage instead.
- Questions seeking to interpret or analyze an existing work (except when applied to a real-world writing project). Please ask those on Literature instead.
- Finding a professional to write for you, be it an agent, etc., or specific, localized shopping recommendations.
While the limits of art might include all sorts of topics, themes, and means of expression, the limits of Stack Exchange are stricter. Please do not include expletives or offensive content as part of your question, even if such is part of your writing.
For more help, see "What types of questions should I avoid asking?"
Please look around to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to ask and answer your own question.
If your question is not specifically on-topic for Writing, it might be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may commit to or propose a new site at Area 51, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.