Apologies if this has already been suggested before, but I would love to see a section that specifically allows newbie writers to post their work for critique. As a novice myself I feel as though I need to explain to readers that I am new and inexperienced, so not to expect much. Readers would automatically be aware of this before reading any of the work put there. Would make posting work far less daunting for most newbs too.
Well, we've all been there and posted something for critique for the first time No need to be nervous. If you just say at the start of your post that you're new to this, and maybe tell us which kind of critique you'd like to have (i.e. structure, characterisation, not so much SPaGs,..) I'm sure it'll work fine. On the risk to reiterate: you know that you have to critique two other works before posting one work of your own?
Thanks @Lifeline Yep, I've critiqued two and also posted my own on here but just thought it would be great to have a specific section to post in just so everyone knows that all the posters in there are new to writing.
You'll see that many people put notes at the top of the post for crit. "First time posting, be gentle" or whatever. It'll be okay Like @Lifeline said, we've all been there. Don't worry.
I think this is a really good idea. CritiqueCircle has a specific area for newbies, outside of its genre areas, with the expectation that critique will still be constructive but that blunter/harsher critics will be careful how they phrase things. As far as I can see, it works well.
I was a member of a photography forum where this was tried - what happened was that hardly anyone but newbies frequented the section and those posting got hardly any worthwhile crit, except from a few stalwarts who had a drive on unanswered posts everynow and then
I would probably never check such a section. After all, what counts as a "newbie"? New to the site? New to writing? New to the English language (I know we have several members with first languages other than English, and I'm not dissing them at all). Aside from qualifying as a newbie, I'm not sure what help they'd get that they couldn't get elsewhere. If I'm in the mood to critique, I usually go straight to the horror or flash sections, since those are the ones I feel most comfortable writing in and feel that I have the most to offer in terms of advice. I'm never going to touch the Romance section because it's not my thing and, apart from SPAG, I don't think I could contribute. However, if there was a newbie section, we'd have true crime, followed by romance, followed by SF, followed by some sort of gender-swapped fan-fiction, followed by.... And that's not dumping on any of those categories, I just wouldn't want to spend my time wading through the selections looking for someone to help out. If I see a horror flash that starts with "Hey, I just passed my workshop requirements, let me know what you think of this" I'll do exactly that and help a new member along. My 2yen.
Good points @Iain Aschendale. A single Newbie section would run the risk of becoming an area which has to be waded through, and thus ignored. Perhaps a better solution would be to add a thread title prefix to indicate that the user would like their work to be critiqued as a new writer, new to English, new to forum etc. That way these posts could still be within the usual workshop forums, but could be specified by the OP as newbie posts.
I would not like a specific chapter, the 'paddle pool area' for the spineless types. Instead, send them to the high board - here at the WF - is best philosophy to date, I believe in writing, and @Wreybies agrees with me in spirit last time we/or I exchanged a birthday message to myself. A nursery would attract unsavoury characters in the critiquing. Sympathetic/patronising on the surface waters, yet actually evil and corrupting behind the pointy spectacles. I am reminded of a lady who uses saliva in her recipes, and lentils drip from her hair, missionary woman of our nightmares. These people shall not dominate proceedings, we shall overcome. I don't mean @jannert, btw
I'm with @Iain Aschendale on this one. Having a separate section for "newbie writers" would both give us a big mess of all kinds of story types, genres, etc., and it would probably have a lower rate of critiques than the normal workshop (with most viewers being other "newbies"). In my opinion, there should be no reason to treat a Workshop thread posted a by a bestselling writer any different from one posted by someone who started writing a week ago. The prefix idea from @mashers would probably work better (a prefix being like "Suggestion" in the title of this thread), although it could still turn people away (e.g. "A thread posted by a newbie? Probably full of SPaG errors and typical beginner's mistakes, I'll go read something better."). In the end I still think the best solution is simply to write a normal thread and explain whatever needs to be explained at the top of the thread (or even after the story/excerpt/etc.). That way it is the author of the thread that has control of what he says, and we don't need to have any vague definitions of "newbie" to decide who gets to have the prefix or not.
