Frequently Asked Questions

We believe writers of all races, sexualities, genders, and backgrounds can be published authors.

That said, StoryForge was created specifically for writers of works like novels, poems, plays, screenplays, short stories, autobiographies, and self-help books without footnotes.

You might be looking to start a story for the first time or have been doing this for years. StoryForge is for authors of all experience leves.

It is not intended for academic publications, scientific publications, peer-reviewed publications, or anything with footnotes and an audience who will be evaluating the underlying content for accuracy.

Fan fiction is welcomed but will likely not be eligible for publishing.

We have a more lengthy explanation of our stance found here but we are opposed to the use of generative AI when it comes to creating written or visual content. StoryForge prefers to celebrate human creativity when it comes to story writing.

Other widespread writing platforms simply give you a place to publish your work and promote it based on the money you pay. Or platforms like Critique Circle and Scribophile exist to get writers feedback for their work. Think of us as an alternative to Critique Circle or an alternative to Campfire.

We’re ultimately interested in getting authors published — we make the writing / rewriting / publication process more fun than any other option. And with StoryForge, you don’t have to pay to play 😆

StoryForge is always free to use. We have will have subscription options for those looking to speed up their writing journey, as well as fun customizations you can make to your library or pet.

But no matter how you choose to use StoryForge, we will never paywall you from our key features.

As the author, you will always keep all rights to your work. For content published on our platform, StoryForge gets a limited license to do things like promote your story or share it on our social media. (This is commonly known as “Universal Rights.”) But we’ll never share your story without crediting you, and we’ll never sell your work or share the rights with anyone else.

Yes, you really can get published through StoryForge. There are two paths that you can take — the first is to level up your work until you feel it’s ready for a traditional publisher. You can take what you’ve done and submit it to a publishing house.

The second path is to level your work in StoryForge until it’s Legendary — then we’ll publish and distribute your work for you! The final details and design are still being worked on but we’re hoping to unveil it to the public in 2026.

Legendary manuscripts are stories that have been revised, shared, and edited by a wide network of StoryForge users. Manuscripts earn the title of Legendary when their reputation progress bar is fully completed. StoryForge authors always know exactly where they are in their journey toward Legendary status and publication. Legendary works also unlock the right to be published and distributed by StoryForge.

More details will be available coming soon.

We have some really cool ideas around this that we should hopefully be unveiling before the end of 2025. Does the idea of getting paid to read sound appealing? If so, stay tuned…

Fairly often actually! We tend to push small fixes and minor updates on an almost weekly basis. More major updates are less frequent but our development team is always working. You can read about all our updates on our Updates page.

Right now, we are on a bit of a freeze, though, for good reason! We are getting ready to unleash an entirely new and updated platform! For more details, click here!

Unlike other writing websites and writing platforms, we don’t limit you to a certain amount of things you can be writing or make you pay for the option to write more. We just ask that you aren’t excessive with things, like making each chapter its own story.

Did you know that Apple and Google take a fairly hefty chunk of any transaction done through an app? We’re a small company that isn’t backed by billionaire investors. Every purchase means a lot to us and we can’t afford to give up any more of any transaction than we absolutely have to. Hopefully, once we have the appropriate funds, we can make an app version as well.

Well, that’s going to depend on what agreements you have with who and where you published your work originally. We aren’t lawyers so you’ll have to determine if adding it to our platform is going to violate any other agreements you have.

We do! Technically, we’ve had two podcasts. The first was dedicated to our journey as a small business that has ended.

The second, Publishers Behaving Badly, is centered around news and events happening in the writing and publishing world.

You can learn more about them and find them on your preferred listening platform here.

Like was mentioned above, we’re a small company that runs pretty lean so any amount of revenue for us is huge. We’re not crazy about them either which is why we’ve stuck them in places that are out of the way enough to never disrupt the writing process or the reading experience. If you do have an ad blocker that is actually able to block them, we ask that you at least whitelist the ad theater since you’re only there for a handful of seconds most days.

Heck yes, we have merch. If you’re looking for gear, check out our Redbubble shop!

If you’re more interested in writing resources or a Draft the Cat plushie, check out our online store.

We also have an agreement with our friends at ScribeForge that will give StoryForge users a discount. You have to be a StoryForge member to access it within the platform, though.

Settle down there, Ash Ketchum! Including items that can only be found through purchasing Quill packs, we have around 500 as we get toward the end of 2025. There are also over 100 pets and backgrounds as well! Not all pieces are around year-round so make sure to watch out for seasonal items!

If you click the ? in the upper right of the writing website, you’ll see various options for getting help.

We recommend checking out this YouTube playlist that we have. A lot of more common questions can be answered by one of the shorts. If you’re not able to find an answer there, you can ask in our Discord channel or by emailing help@storyforge.com

You are but we ask that you make sure that your content warnings are added and correct.

If you’re not familiar with trigger warnings, we suggest you read this blog. It’s important that people not accidentally subject themselves to something that they don’t want to experience. If you don’t add content warnings, people may do it for you.

Circles are like little mini writing communities inside of our writing community. Typically they’re going to have some kind of theme to them and you can request to join as many as you want. An admin from the circle will have to approve your entry most times so if it disappears after you request to join, don’t worry. It will return once your application is approved.

Quills or Quill Coins are our writing platform currency. You can earn them through various tasks and challenges or buy them in packs. These are what you use to purchase new pieces for your library or new pets and backgrounds. You can also use them to create additional new Circles or change your cover art.

If you’ve got your eye on something in the store and just can’t wait, head to this page. There are Quill packs of all sizes and prices. You can only purchase the Stupidly Good Deal and Still Kind of A Stupid Deal once each though. All other packs comes with an aesthetic piece that can only be attained through purchasing packs. There are furniture pieces and avatars.

This is to help out our readers. Sometimes a reader is in the mood for a short story, sometimes they’re ready for an epic. With this tag, they have a better idea of finding the right story for them.

Not at this time. We’ve already added the main genres that we think people will need. If there’s something that you really feel like we need to add, please email us at help@storyforge.com.

However, we may not add every genre that is suggested to us.

There are two ways that you can leave feedback. The first is at the end of what you’ve read like most other writing websites. The second is a bit more unique.

You can highlight a word, sentence, or paragraph and a prompt will appear to let you leave feedback specifically for that section of text. The author will see it attached to that text so they’ll know exactly what you’re reacting to. So if you really love a specific sentence or moment, make sure to leave feedback on it!

This is a randomly generated list of things you can do each day to earn some Quills. If you complete all your tasks, you get a bonus too!

Not at this time but is something we plan to figure out in the near future. Right now it was more important to us to get the writing and reading interfaces correct.

Currently, we offer one free cover art per story provided via Pexels. If you want to change that image later, it will be at a cost of 40 Quills.