Help home > I need help with the forum or Facebook group

I need help with the forum or Facebook group

Where’s the forum?

It’s at talk.writershq.co.uk

To access it, you’ll need to be logged into the website. Click COMMUNITY to go to the forums. If you don’t have a site login, get your free membership here.

How do I change my username?

  1. Click on your name on the top right of the screen
  2. Go to account settings
  3. Click ‘change display name’
  4. Then click ‘edit your password and account details’
  5. Change your display name and save
  6. Log out and log in again
  7. You’re you again. Phew.

How do I change my profile picture

  1. Click your name in the top right corner of the screen
  2. Click “My account”
  3. Hover over the circular picture next to your username and click when you see “Profile photo”
  4. Click “Choose single file” and upload the pic you want
  5. Click “Continue” and make any adjustments
  6. Click “Save” and you’re done
  7. Lookin’ good

How do I make a post on the forum?

  1. Click on the forum section you want to post in.
  2. Click the black box that says “Start new topic”
  3. Give your post a title so people know what it’s about
  4. Write your post in the box.
  5. Click “Submit topic”
  6. You’re done!

How do I reply to a thread on the forum?

Click “Reply to this topic” – it’s a black box at the top of the thread. It will take you to a reply field. Type your reply then click “Submit reply”

OR! 

Scroll to the bottom and write your reply in the speech bubble next to your profile picture, then click “Submit reply”

 If you want to reply to a particular WHQer, you can tag them in your reply by typing @ plus their username. For example, to tag Poppy you’d type @PoppyWHQ and she’ll get a notification to tell her about your reply. 

How do I quote someone on the forum?

If you want to quote another WHQer in your reply, highlight the text you want to quote and you should see a “Quote selection” bubble pop up. Click “Quote selection” and it will automatically paste the quote into your reply. The WHQer you quoted will get a notification about your reply. 

How do I message someone on the forum?

Click on the profile picture of the WHQer you want to send a message to.

You’ll be taken to their profile where you can click the orange “Message” button and compose your message.

Click “Send” when you’re ready to send!

What do I do if I don’t like something someone else has posted?

Please do report a post if it goes against our guidelinesor is otherwise horrible or uncalled for. 

Click the three dots in the top right of the post, then when the list of options appears, click “report”

You can add a message or simply click “Submit report” if it’s obvious what’s wrong with the post. Submitting a report will alert our forum moderators and they’ll take a look as soon as possible. 

If, on the other hand, you disagree with something someone has posted but it’s not against the guidelines, respectful disagreement is encouraged.

Can I share my story/book/course?

We get it, you have a book/blog/course that you want to share with our community. High five for you – genuinely, we are here to celebrate your writing accolades and achievements. But if you’ve joined the forum just to use us for advertising, please note that we will likely delete your post cos that’s not what we’re here for. There are plenty of other places to promote your work. This place is about community. Soz.

There are regular threads specifically for sharing your writing wins, publications and achievements so keep your eyes peeled for those. 

If you’re itching to let us know about a book deal or competition win that came about because of WHQ, drop us an email on hello@writershq.co.uk or @ us on Twitter because we love to hear it!

How do I make a buddy group?

  1. Click on ‘Buddy Groups’ up by ‘Forum’ under the orange bar. This will take you to the main buddy group page.
  2. Click on the ‘Start a Buddy Group’ big black button in the top right. This will bring up a pop-up page.
  3. Enter the name for your group. Try to keep it obvious. For example, one of the existing groups is called “The First Draft – Feb to May 2021′, so maybe “Plotstormers – Apr to Jun 2021” or something similar.
  4. Choose whether you want your group to be ‘open or closed’.
  5. Write a description of what your group is for. 

When you’ve made your buddy group, the first thing you want to do is invite your buddies!

There should be another big black button towards the top right called ‘Invite Members’ on your new buddy group page. If it’s not there, click on ‘Members’ from the ‘Manage Club’ options on the right hand side. This will bring up another pop-up where you can type the usernames into a box. You don’t need to put @ before them and you can do more than one at a time before you press the ‘send invitations’ orange button. You can add more members at any time, so don’t worry! 

The next thing to do is set up specific topics, so for example if your buddy group is for people taking Plotstormers, you might want an area to post 4 point plans, 7 point plans and 16 point plans. To do this:

  1. Go to ‘Manage Club’ and scroll down the drop-down menu. Click on ‘Topics’ and create a new one called something like ‘Novels’. Think of a Topic as just being a folder for a set of threads.
  2.  Under your new topic, you can then create sub-topics (confusingly also called Topics) which are your normal post threads