The writing community on Twitch keeps growing. A category would make it more enticing for those of us who keep debating whether to start streaming.

For those watching this suggestion, we need to push this as hard and as much as Thor at Pirate Software pushed for the Game Development category.

Almost 3 years this suggestion has been up here, we have over 1000 votes for this and still no category for Creative Writing. What do we writers need to do to in order to get somebody to create the Category for us?

I've recently found this genre, and I agree, a common term would be very helpful.

During the month of November, there's been a noticeable increase in the number of writers streaming on Twitch. Right now they might mark their stream as playing a game called "Writers" or use a "Just Chatting" category.

As it is, the small but active and growing community of streams related to writing, books, literature etc. is scattered about without a category to improve discoverability.

I vote yes to this.

I'm totally for a full on writing category here -- as a writing streamer using the Writers game tag I know how hard it can be to get the best visibility even while doing everything right! Creatives and textual artists deserve a voice too <3

@annagorns: I'm with @katyafhs on this :)
Creative writing for me is:
Writing books (and series of books), short stories, scripts for plays/tv series/etc. Writing (short) stories and lore for (video)games, writing background stories for characters in (video)games/books/etc.

World building: not only imagine what the environment and cities look like, but also cultures, politics, civilizations, history, realistic settings or Full-blown high fantasy settings, what do people wear, what rituals do they have and so much more for books, video games, etc.

Character development: for authors this is not (so much) the visual art work, but instead the personality, the background information, what do they wear, quirks and habits, what do they like to eat and drink, what are their hobbies, which places do they like to visit, friends & families, foes, what are they scared of, what brings them joy, what dreams for the future do they have, etc.

For streaming I can imagine:
- writing sessions: especially during NaNoWriMo months this can be very interesting and inspirational. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month which has grown into an event with participants from all over the world) has 3 major event months: November (big international writing event), April, July (both smaller international writing events)). During NaNoWriMo November you are challenged to write 50,000 words from November 1 till November 30. In the streaming I can imagine you write for a specific amount of time (for example 30 minutes) and afterwards share how many words you've written and ask viewers how much they've written)
- talk about the world your book/game/etc plays in
- talk about your characters
- Discuss (perhaps with a co-host/speaker/whatever you want to call it) writing hurdles, writing process, for those who have (self) published books talk about the publishing process, etc.
- show maps you make
- talk about writing habits
- etc, etc.

Enjoy :)

@annagorns I'm a compulsive storyteller [I can't not write] so creative writing is more or less my raison d'etre. Making it pay rent is a bonus I am still aiming for.

@annagorns

My definition would be: Any sort of writing that puts higher emphasis on artistry, storytelling, and sentiment over technical precision and informative value.

Not that creative writing cannot have the latter two, but to me it's more about conveying sentiment and speaking to someone else's ideals, values, and emotions.

For example, I wouldn't consider a research paper or a technical manual creative writing, vs a novel or a memoir.

Replying to annagorns:
To me, creative writing is any new combination of words that didn't exist before (thus were newly created). This includes fiction (novel, short story), nonfiction (essay, speech, memoir, technical,grant proposals), poetry, even advertising copywriting. If it's words, and they're new, it's creative writing.

I agree with Sleepyheartss. Also, writing isn't a GAME, so putting it in the category of The Writing Game (or whatever that game is called) or 4thwords, doesn't cut it. It's NOT A GAME! We deserve to get the recognition as writers.
Also, as writers we can do a LOT on stream. We not only stream of us writing, but we can also talk about the world of our books, events, etc.

Streamers need a category for writing. We cant go under Art and Just Chatting forever! It is a craft and a talent that others want to learn! Please make it happen :)

there is another category for writing just there isnt as many. 4thewords is an actual writing game and i know at least one regular streamer works on all kinds of creative writing works. i have seen others from time to time aswell but i havent tried to count or anything.

Writing needs more attention. It's an art that people want to learn more

A writers area is a nice spot to have. True writing is not the most active sport. But many viewers love to sit back and relax too. It isn't all Animals in Pools and Gaming.
There is also a whole art side and writing is an art.

Let's be honest, we don't have a place on twitch. We are not hot tub streamers, we are not licking Mics, we are not bringing in tens of thousands of dollars per stream for twitch... They don't care about us.

We've already been able to have tags that would fit well enough. Missing a coordinated category means that writers are still going to be dispersed among many "well I guess I'll stream over here" - Just Chatting, "Writers" (indie game), "Let's do the Writing", etc.

Not that I won't use the tags to help find writers in general, but the category is necessary to show we have a place here on twitch. There's several hundred streaming writers on Twitch - we deserve a place.

Hi! Did everyone get the announcement that Thursday August 11 we will be able to define our own tags instead of just picking from a list?

It's not a category but I propose we all standardize on CreativeWriting as a tag and add it to our profiles on the 11th. We can of course add others to further describe what we do but having a single tag we agree on can help search for other writers.

Are you in?

I really wish Twitch would add a category. We'd grow so much faster! Overall, it'd be awesome.

There is a category on Twitch called “Writers.” It’s listed as an indie game and it doesn’t have a cute thumbnail, but it is there.

From what I’ve heard, Twitch is gauging interest in an officially designated Writing category by watching this particular “game.” If we get more and more people using it, maybe we’ll finally get what we’ve been asking for.