I'm a former assistant editor with advice about how to write novels, comic books and graphic novels. Most of my content applies to fiction-writing in general, but I also provide articles specifically about superhero stories.

Hello.  I’m still dealing with major technical issues on my end that will keep me from adding new moderators.  I’ll let you guys know when I have resolved these issues; I expect it will take us a week or two.

1. We’ve resolved most of the technical issues about volunteer moderators and we will begin inducting them on Friday.   The volunteer mods will have enhanced HTML access and comment-editing powers from the very beginning.  We’re still working on providing access to our comment search-engine.
2. I will be leaving within a week or so.  I hope it’s been as fun and rewarding for you as it has been for me.

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Our overriding goal is to provide a friendly and professional meeting place for aspiring authors.  Please keep that in mind!

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Hello.  SN strives to provide high-quality writing advice that is as accessible to 15 year-olds as 50 year-olds.  With that in mind, we have some restrictions on what can be posted here. 

1.  Political opinions, particularly propaganda.

Please remove political content unless it relates directly to writing and/or superheroes.  For example, a question about how to write a story with political themes is acceptable.  A message about why you should vote for candidate X or believe Y is not. This isn’t a political debate site.

2. Fan-fiction.
Many publishers get surly when other people use their material. This site generates money.  I don’t want a publisher to assert that it deserves a piece of our budget! (Moderators, please remove this material and refer the author to a fan-fiction site instead).  

3.  R-Rated sexual content.
Sexual content tends to scare away other authors even more readily than other mature elements.  Anything more graphic or creepy than a James Bond movie is probably not a great fit for this website– for one thing, about half of our guests are younger than 18 and many of the rest are teachers.  (Moderators, please remove this material and refer the author to DeviantArt, SheezyArt or Daniel).  

4.  Fetish and/or pornographic material.
Our moderators will encourage these authors to consider DeviantArt, SheezyArt or psychiatric assistance instead.  (Moderators, if you’re not sure whether something counts as a fetish story, please place it in the moderation-pending queue and I will resolve it.  Thanks!)

5.  Anything that suggests that the author needs urgent psychiatric assistance.
From time to time, commenters may say that they’re feeling suicidal.  Whether they’re serious or not, we’re not qualified to help.  So our moderators will tell the author to seek professional assistance (calling 911 or the local equivalent is a great place to start) and then place the comment in the moderation queue.  Exception:  it is acceptable for an author to ask about how psychiatric situations and other wellness issues will affect a writing career.

6. Blatant self-promotion.
If an author posts a comment that includes a link to his site without providing any useful information, these links will be deleted.  If you’d like to use our website to market yourself, you have to contribute something intelligent first.  In particular, please make sure to demonstrate that you’ve actually read some of the comments.  Hit-and-run self-promoters are not welcome here.

7. Creepy or potentially dangerous personal information.
Moderators, please delete any information that would creep out a lot of other people. In addition, I’d like to make sure that we keep teens and pre-teens from giving out too much personal information (phone numbers, addresses, etc). Information posted online is visible to EVERYBODY, including hundreds of thousands of people you definitely wouldn’t want on your doorstep.

Thanks, guys! I apologize if you were really hoping to post adult material here rather than on DeviantArt or SheezyArt, but you’ll find more receptive reviewers there.