To the men who write here
I want your story, told the way you'd tell it. This site exists because honest communication between men still matters, and somebody should hear what we really think, how we think and why.
I won't edit your words
No one here will fix your grammar, smooth your phrasing or correct your spelling. How you write is part of who you are. If it's your story, it runs the way you wrote it, or it doesn't run at all.
Language
Raw is good, as long as it fits the venue. If cursing is how you talk because of where you come from, how you were raised or the life you've lived, write it that way. What doesn't belong is language used for its own sake: shock with no story under it.
Hard subjects
If your story is about suicide, self-harm or wanting to die, I want to read it. Those are the stories men most need to hear. Just don't describe how. That detail can put a man who's struggling at risk, and leaving it out takes nothing from your story. If it's there, I'll send the piece back so you can take it out.
What I won't publish
- Politics. Parties, candidates, elections and movements have their own platforms. If your story involves a system like the courts or the military, tell what happened to you, not which side is right.
- Religion as a cause. Your faith, or your loss of it, can come up as part of your life. Preaching, promoting or attacking a belief cannot.
- Anything that isn't yours. Your own life, your own words. No AI, no borrowed stories.
- Attacks on people. Don't name or identify a private person to expose or get back at them.
If you write in another language
Your piece is translated so more men can read it, and your original is always published alongside it. Your version is the real one.
It stays yours
You keep the rights to your story. You can ask me to take it down at any time. Once a piece has gone out in the Sunday Edition, those emails can't be called back, but it comes off the site right away.
Nobody here is paid, including the writers. That's on purpose. I want men writing because they have something to say, not because there's a check in it. If you take the time to write something from the heart and put it out there, I'm good with that. That's what this place is for.
The Publisher
Before you write
- You're 18 or older.
- It's your own story, in your own words.
- Pick a pen name. Your email stays private.
- Leave out details that could identify you: your street, your employer, anything only you would know.
- Text only. No photos, audio or attachments.
- Any language is welcome.
How it's labeled
Pieces with rough language are tagged Explicit so readers can choose. Your words don't change. Only the label does.
Four ways to write
A full story
As long as it needs to be. Most run between 500 and 2,000 words, but there's no rule.
100 words
A whole story in a hundred words or fewer. Harder than it sounds, and often hits harder too.
An answer
Answer the Question of the Week. The best answers run in the Sunday Edition.
Invent one
A product that doesn't exist but should, plus the real version a man can do today. The best run in the monthly Catalog.
Start with a question
Pick one that hits close and start writing. You don't have to answer it exactly. It's just a way in.
Work and Money
What did your first real paycheck teach you?
What does your job cost you that nobody sees?
Fathers and Family
What's the best advice your father never gave you?
What do you want your kids to know that you haven't told them?
Love and Marriage
When did you know it was over?
What does the woman in your life not understand about you?
Friendship
Who would you call at 3 a.m., and when did you last call him?
Which friend did you lose, and why?
Mind and Emotions
When in your life have you felt most alone?
What do you carry that nobody knows about?
Growing Up and Growing Old
When did you first feel like a man?
How would you like to be remembered?
What happens next
- 01
You send it
You'll get an email confirming it arrived.
- 02
I read it
Every piece is read by a person. Not a filter, not a machine.
- 03
You hear back
Published as written, sent back with the reason so you can change it yourself, or declined with the rule it crossed.
What to write about
Pick the one subject your story fits best. If it fits none of them, that's what Open Mic is for.
Work and Career
Jobs, bosses, ambition, getting fired, what work means to who you are.
Business and Success
Building something, risk, failure, competition, what "making it" really means.
Money
Earning, spending, debt, providing, what money does to a man's sense of worth.
Sex and Intimacy
Desire, performance, insecurity, what men want and won't say out loud.
Love and Dating
Attraction, pursuit, rejection, what men look for and why.
Marriage, Divorce and Breakups
Commitment, staying, leaving, being left, starting over.
Women
What men notice, admire, fear and misunderstand about women.
Fatherhood and Family
Being a dad, your own father, sons and daughters, family duty.
Friendship and Brotherhood
Male friendship, losing friends, loyalty, who men actually confide in.
Masculinity and Identity
What being a man means to you, what you've carried, what you've rejected.
Mind and Emotions
Loneliness, anger, fear, depression, pride.
Body and Health
Fitness, appearance, aging bodies, health scares, vanity you won't admit.
Playtime
Sports, cars, bikes, games, hunting, fishing, music: what keeps a man sane.
Risk, Danger and Service
Military, first responders, fights, dangerous work, what danger does to a man.
Growing Up
Boyhood, school, the moment you felt like a man, what shaped you.
Purpose and Meaning
What you're living for, what drives you, what you'd sacrifice for.
Society and Culture
How life is for men where you live: customs, expectations, generations.
Home and Everyday Life
Domestic life, cooking, chores, routine, the unglamorous parts.
Aging and Legacy
Getting older, mortality, what you'll leave behind.
Regrets and Lessons
Mistakes, apologies never made, what you'd tell your younger self.
Open Mic
Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else.
Ready?
Write it real.
It takes a pen name, an email and your story.