RTW forum registration and membership are for adults aged 18 and over. No publication credits or academic qualifications are required.
A generous community takes practice. RTW is a place to make work and help one another keep making it.
- Begin with kindness. Ask for clarification before assuming the worst. People arrive with different experiences, abilities, and ways of expressing themselves.
- Respect privacy and ownership. Ask before recording, taking screenshots, quoting private conversations, or sharing another writer’s manuscript or critique. Private access is not permission to redistribute.
- Make room for others. No harassment, threats, spam, or unsolicited promotion. Discuss difficult material with care and a useful content note. Moderators can help when context needs more attention.
- Offer useful critique. Follow the writer’s request, be specific about your experience of the work, and leave the writer in charge of what serves it. Academy and Workshop participation has its own expectations.
- Check the audience. Welcome to RTW is public. Most conversations are private to welcomed members. The Workshop is a separate restricted circle. Image URLs and linked documents have their own permissions.
- Ask for help. Flag a post for moderator attention when a public reply would make matters worse. You can request a human membership review without explaining personal circumstances publicly.
Membership begins with a short introduction and agreement to these expectations. We are looking for a willingness to participate with care. We do not select people by publication history, education, writing skill, identity, or how confidently they introduce themselves.
Automated checks may help with complete, straightforward requests. Uncertainty goes to people; there are no automatic rejections. Moderators can grant or revoke community access, explain decisions privately, and reconsider a request. No verification process guarantees good behavior, so care continues after someone joins.
Ask permission before redistributing another person’s writing or critique, including putting it into an AI service. Receiving a critique is not permission to reuse the writer’s work.