Some questions, use of contact form and more.

I’ve been getting my website to look just as I want, pretty happy. using the Zerif Lite theme as of right now.
So basically I just got a few questions on what I should do regarding my idea. I want to basically give people the option to send stories to me for me to review and then post on one of my pages, if I like it. I’m assuming I could do this using a contact form, like I was thinking it would it would be no different maybe I could just remove the email requirement or something like that. What do you think?
I eventually want to possibly make a forum board when my website gets a bit bigger but I think a basic contact form for this idea will do. I also had questions about building a subscriber list, like I want people to be able to subscribe and get email notifications when I post a new blog.. Does this require for people to be able to make a profile on my website. Like do I need that function or is that not needed? I am gonna watch some youtube video’s on making a subscriber list so I might find what I’m looking for there. But I figured I’d ask here as well. I felt I had something else to ask but I just can’t remember it at this point haha. but hope this was the right place to ask about this, appreciate any responses. ??