WF 2021 Revamp: New Workshop Rules

I see. My paranoia at work. The problem I see sometimes is a reluctance to give complimentary feedback outweighing critique due to the competitive nature of artists as a whole. It's been discussed that simple, complimentary posts aren't substantive or useful but this forum software seems capable of integrating some form of public medium within a topic to give simple, positive feedback without it being simply a means of the commenter fishing for karma points.

Yeah. Registering here helped me develop a sense of the thickened skin needed for someone taking the craft seriously. If criticism is something they can't handle here, then publishing/publicising their end product by whatever means isn't going to work out all that well.

 

If that sort of feedback is found the be acceptable then great, I just always found that if I wrote stuff like that it'd be viewed as contrived and useless, given some of the fantastic, paragraph by paragraph feedback I've seen made by another member. I guess it depends upon how active and established one is in the community before feeling able to make compliments of such brevity. Then again, just articulating it in a way that demonstrates you've taken in the entire text shouldn't be too hard. I just don't have it in me to be grammatically dissecting writing when I have my own burdens of such a nature...I've just been too wary/paranoid of cynicism and the perception of my motives since registering, a mind-set I appear to have escaped now.

 

It's actually simple. I'd say don't overthink it. It's just this: If you don't like something, figure out why you don't like it, and tell the writer. If you do like something, figure out why you like it, and tell the writer.

Too often that middle step gets skipped!

You don't need to figure out how to fix anything, if you don't know how. Just pointing out where the problem lies is enough. In fact, it's good if the writer can figure out how to fix something their own way. What they need to hear from you is your reaction to what they wrote. There is often quite a gap between what they think they said and what the reader picks up.

 

OK. I guess I've been hogging space in the Lounge long enough.My writing-related New Year's resolution will be to participate in the Workshops ( as a reviewer - I never show unfinished work to anybody). I'm not sure I have anything to offer, but I'll give it a shot. Two issues:

It's hard to see how I would have anything useful to say about a story that's already been critiqued 24 times, so I not only need to read the story, but all 24 reviews so I'm not just repeating what's been said so far?

I can't (can't) read past SPAG errors to find the beauty of the prose. Should I just move on to another story, or point out some of the errors and suggest to the author that she/he resubmit the story after it's SPAGily corrected?

p.s. I assume that the Workshop threads that are locked are those submitted by authors who haven't completed their responsibilities?

 

This is just my take on it, but I usually don't even read the other critiques, I just say what's on my mind and if I repeat something, then that means the author knows that there is a consensus among the readers.
EDIT: That said, I do try to read the authors comments, to see if they've made any changes to their story in the comment section.

Again, just my take on it, but I would definitely notify the author of SPAG errors, that can be really helpful!

 

That's what I call a New Year's resolution! Glad to hear it, and welcome back

Whatever feel right. No one is obligated to critique a piece they're not comfortable with, be it SPaGs or other things. Just move on then, plenty of others to hear your voice

I can only speak for myself, but I don't read the prior critiques. I don't even glance at them. It's as valuable to the author to hear that lots of critiquers have the same issue than it is to hear something new.

I haven't been around long enough, but I assume so, that and some where the author maybe has requested that they get locked.

 

This! If only one person has a problem it might just be them. However, if several people have the same problem, then the author should know.

The trick to avoid is commenting on what another critique-giver has said—which is more likely to happen if you read through all the other critiques. Your dialogue is with the author, not with the other folks who have contributed critiques.

 

It's good (for the forum) to choose pieces that haven't received very many critiques. This doesn't mean they are bad writers. It often means they posted their work at the same time as others whose work has a more appealing title or subject. Nothing more disheartening for a writer (even worse than getting negative critiques) than just being ignored.

Obviously, if something is SO bad that you can't think of a single thing to say, by all means, move on. But it's good to check the less traveled paths! Maybe critique the less popular genres, etc.

 

BTW - has this already been changed, or is it changing in 2021?

 

Good, good. Make sure you don't break anything...

 

I've heard this idea expressed thusly (and I rather like it):

If one person tells you you're a horse's ass, ignore it. If two people tell you, you might want to think about it. If three people tell you you're a horse's ass, get yourself a saddle.
​

 

Late to the party but I'm definitely happy to see this change!

One of the many reasons why I've never posted anything is because I had to keep score of my "CC" (Critique Credit: for a classy business woman on the go, like me U_U) and I was constantly overthinking what passage I ought to submit for review. I couldn't find a whole lot of new posts and I'm not going to invest time reading something I have zero interest in and faking a critique just to score points.

Like with anything fun, there will always be others that try and ruin it, but I do believe this sort of knocks down a rather tall wall of intimidation for others looking to join.

 

Have you turned it off and turned it back on?

 

Yes, this is the language of troubleshooting, along with :

"That's exciting."

When something went entirely wrong in awesome ways.

 

Glad to see I'm not zombie-posting. I appreciate the effort to try different things to benefit the forum.
One thing I want to address is the 'my critique isn't worthy/don't know what to say' issue for new members.
If the poster asks a specific question, address it first if you can.
If you can't think of something, consider this:
The inherent question in all posts, conscious or not, is, 'Did you get it?'
Any writer wants to know if a reader understood or 'saw' the image/thought being conveyed.
"Here's what I got out of it," is a critique any reader can do their first time, even if they didn't like it (or the genre).
Many times, "Here's what I didn't get," will follow (or lead).

 

It is my impression, I could be wrong, but the number of one or two line "critiques" has increased as of late. It could just be a phase, but the old rule of 2 weeks membership let people see what's going on in the Workshop, and post something a bit more in-depth.

Not that I'm advocating going back to that. How should we, as members, address that? I would hate to think that the mods are having to spend their time policing this all the time.