I am in need of some advice. I intend to be a published author; but before I start on my novel I have decided to practice with some more short stories - really hone my writing. You guys have already given me some great advice, so I decided to use your workshop to do this; Post my practice stories and receive input on how to improve. I have two problems. 1: I like to write fairly long short stories compared to what I've seen - my last story was over 6,000 words - and I am looking for a good place to publish the story outright, giving it a permanent home. I am not sure the workshop is what I'm looking for in that regard, but I'm (as I said) not sure. 2: To even begin I need to critique two stories. This is a problem for me because I'm likely one of the lower level writers here, and I really don't feel like I could provide too much in that regards to much of what I've read. It would at least take me some time... So to summarize my questions: With the limited experience I have, I'm not sure who I might be able to critique. Where might I find newer writers like me, or at least what qualifies as meaningful critique? (Does praise count? ) And secondly, would your workshop even be the avenue I'm looking for? I want critique, but also a place to publish the whole, finished product eventually. Thank you!
Don't worry about not feeling like you can give much of a crit - even just commenting on what you liked and didn't like is helpful. Though there are some threads floating around about how to give good critiques, so you might want to give them a read. Here and here. Really, though, once you start doing it you get a feel for it. There's an article on constructive critique over here that might be useful also. If it helps, I've been writing for like fifteen years and it takes me a long time to figure out how to critique something, too So, the workshop isn't a place 'publish' things per se. Since it's invisible to logged-out people you can seek real publication for things posted there. But if you don't have any interest in that, sure, the workshop is a fine place for things to live. I just wouldn't think of it as publication because the assumption is that if you post something to the workshop you're open to listening to critique and changing it, whereas published work is ... y'know, finished. You don't have to of course, but getting feedback and improving is the point of the thing. Since that's your goal, it's fine! The length thing might be an issue for you, admittedly. Most workshop entries are shorter, so you need to be prepared to not get a lot of attention. You could always ask people individually to give things a look, if they write in a similar genre to you, and if you critique a lot I'm sure that'll help
If you just want to put work out there and aren't worried about the money side, I'd say either put it on a blog, or put it on kindle as perma free (or use pronoun or D2D to put it all over the place perma free) In the meantime if you want crit then the workshop is the place being mindful of the twenty posts/two weeks and two for one requirements
As @izzybot says, give whatever critique you can. One of the things about critiquing, though, is that it's more use to the critiquer than the critiqued; you'll learn more about writing when you identify what somebody else has got wrong (better avoid THAT then!) or right (God, I wish I could write like that!) than by being told the same thing, no matter how qualified the person telling you is.
I'll concur with what the others have said. 1) Our Workshop is not meant for any kind of publishing. Its primary purpose is to enable members to improve their writing by giving and receiving critiques. "publish the story outright, giving it a permanent home" is not what it is for, but "practice with some more short stories - really hone my writing" is. If your goal is to improve your writing, the Workshop is perfect for you. If you then want to self-publish your stories after fine-tuning them, a blog or similar would be a better environment to do so. Also, 6000 words might be a bit long for the Workshop. There is no actual limit to how long stories you can post, but keep in mind that the longer the item you post is, the fewer critiques it is going to get (because critiquing takes time, so longer stories = more time). One suggestion is to either identify an excerpt of the story that represents your writing really well (so that the critique you get on it can easily be applied to the rest of your writing), or a part that you struggled with. Generally, items posted in the workshop tend to be shorter than 2000 (but again, there is no set limit). 2) We don't expect anyone that joins the forum to be an award-winning critic. The important part is that you do your best (note that comments like "I liked it!" do not count as critique). When you read through a story, try to take note of moments where you feel that something didn't make sense, or the writing was poor and you got pulled out of the story, etc. Also, if you can't come up with anything to comment on for the first story you read, go to a second story and see if there is anything you can contribute there, and continue until you find something you can help with. It is usually a good idea not to read the critique that other members have posted for the items you want to critique yourself. It is better to not get influenced by them, but rather only post your own thoughts. (You can always read the critiques after you've posted your own, or those for stories you do not want to critique yourself, to get an idea of how it can be done, of course.) Good luck!
