Most writers are part of plenty of writing groups, either forums, Facebook groups, or writing communities. If you’re uber creative and love giving and getting feedback, and you’re on  tight budget, where do you go?

Plus, where do you go that honors your love of your faith?

Here’s a list of places online that I follow, or used to follow before LegendFiction appeared and changed my life. So you know where I’m coming from, I’m a cradle-Catholic passionate about my faith, with a hunger to seek out and celebrate truth wherever it is found, no matter who says it or when. Fiction should not be evangelistic, but faith-inspired – at least if you’re writing for wide audiences.

MythicScribes

One of my longest running favorite forums, MythicScribes has a truly incredible space with hundreds of adults and teens sharing their ideas, brainstorming together, and worldbuilding up the wazoo. They blog regularly, and are a hubbub of activity. Just simply scanning and reading their fantasy and worldbuilding threads will light you up with ideas. It’s very well structured and easy to dig through nested threads.

They have a moral code of being respectful, which goes a very long way. But there’s no central sense of what makes good or functional fiction. They are united around creativity, not creativity in service to exploring the truth of the human condition, and nurturing drama and fun around our reactions.

Membership: Free | Visit website

Realm Makers

A free Facebook group, this is a super popular and active space where Christians of all kinds share what they’re working on. Since it’s a Facebook group, posts are constant, and commenting is really easy to read through. It’s great to explore profiles and make friends. They host summits and challenges, and are personally passionate about keeping revealed truth, God and first-world west morality top of mind.

A downside is their moral approach is one of fear of contamination from other sources. Most members that I see are looking to ‘get it right’ and create ‘content that is true to Scripture’. This creates an undercurrent of suspicion, fear, and verse slinging. Stories created for and by this community may tend to be insular, and not have wider appeal.

Membership: Free (with Facebook ads)

Catholic Writers Guild

I’m not a member of the Guild, but have watched them from the outside for the last decade. They are one of the few landmarks that have grown into a constellation of services for Catholic authors. They host annual in-person summits with stellar authors, and are beginning online events too. I’m told they have an internal news system, plenty of writing groups, a blog, and hundreds of veteran Catholic authors who dedicate themselves and their talent to each other.

As a Guild, they’re a walled garden, and until you join, no one really has a sense of what goes on inside. I’ve not spend a long time exploring or studying what the experience is like. Their authors are committed to plenty of fiction writing and supporting each other. The titles and kinds of stories that they publish seem mostly written for our Catholic tribe in the first world west.

Membership: $50 per year | Visit Website

LegendFiction

This community is the one I founded, taking the best elements from all of these, and my own interests in ludicrously dramatic fun. Like CWG, it’s a private community behind a paywall, to ensure that all members are committed to our approach and each other. Our community is structured to create plenty of different threads for story feedback, worldbuilding, networking, and live chats. We host writing contests and quests to create ways to publish our authors. We host several podcasts and YouTube shows to chat with authors and our mentors. Our mentors are college grads and professional tutors who sell gigs and workshops to help authors get better at writing. We host an annual online convention that’s free to all.

Our focus is on creating fun content crafted for wide audiences. Informed by our faith, we focus on great fiction first that avoids being preachy. For us, great fiction and deep faith is important to us, which is why we’re the community for modern Catholic and Orthodox authors. We see ourselves as being faith-inspired. And we see ourselves as modern, embracing the tools, themes, and trending topics of our current world. Most importantly, we aren’t insular with our outlooks, but celebrate truth (and fun) wherever it’s found.

Our admin team (all legendary volunteers) work hard to share news of what we’re up to on social media. We’re trying to give away a ton of free fun and value to authors everywhere on our blog, podcasts, YouTube, and social profiles. New members can give us a trial any time to see what we’re like.

This year, we are launching our LegendMakers Academy, workshops and learning journeys from our mentors handcrafted to help you grow and thrive as an author. More on that soon!

Membership: $5 per month / 30 per year

Comment your favorite writing communities! Are you a member of any in this post? What do you like/dislike about them?