Forums and Literary Portals, or the Web as a Place for Writing Initiatives

The following paper will discuss selected literary forums and portals as environments in which users can attain, develop and perfect creative writing skills. They will also be examined as spaces enabling the introduction of innovative literary concepts that would be impossible or difficult to put into practice off-line or before the advent of computer networks. Due to these qualities, a description of such forums and portals could balance out the perception of the Internet as a medium promoting profanity and graphomania. The paper will describe the functioning of literary portals, which can be seen to initiate and promote creative writing on the Internet not merely by constituting hubs for on-line literary activity but mostly through various activities stimulating and encouraging literary production. Examples of such online activities will be provided, and demonstrated to encourage writing activity. They include relay writing, literary slam, and other practices providing non-material, non-financial gratification to writers. Finally, the paper will examine some problematic issues in the functioning of such literary environments.