I've got a novel Im working on in the horror genre and I'm five chapters into it. I'd like to post the first chapter to see what kind of response i'd get from it and also to get some helpful critique, but I have some reservations... It's something I would like to get published if it doesn't completely suck, haha. Its going to be a long novel, probably four or five hundred pages.... would posting the first chapter completely hamper my chances of getting it published? Also, the first chapter is almost 5,000 words.... is that too much to post in the workshop? I'd like to post the whole chapter if I can so that anyone who reads it will understand the scene..... but if it's too much, it's too much. Just let me know. Would anybody be interested in reading something that long in the workshop? I look forward to hearing your feedback....Thanks.
There's a sticky thread about this issue. Right at the top of the General Writing board, actually. There you may find the answers you seek.
I know, I read the sticky thread. I guess I was just being redundant so I appologize for that. What about the next question though. Would anyone read or critique something that long in the workshop? Anyways.... thanks for your response.
5,000 words might be a bit too much for one post, but you could try breaking it up into separate posts. If you'll notice in most of the review threads, people like to go line by line, and critique by quoting the piece and adding comments and corrections along the way. It can get a bit time-consuming, so breaking your chapter into several different posts will help to keep things organized.
I'll be honest and say that if it's interesting I'd probably read the whole 5k. If not then... well, you know. As far as critique, Banshees has got it right; I know I'm not going to critique 5k words unless it was just fantabulous and there were hardly any corrections/suggestions I would make.
I generally won't read anything in the Writing Workshop if it's over about 2,000 words, and I won't critique anything over 1,000 words. There's only so much time in the day, and critiquing a long piece takes a long time. Novice writers generally repeat the same mistakes many times, so critiquing a short piece gets the point across. If a novice has produced a really good work, I'll happily read all of it and, rather than give a line-by-line critique, I'll just give a short paragraph telling the writer how much I liked the story and wishing him/her luck. That, of course, won't be useful to the writer other than as a morale booster, but if the writing is really that good, it might be all they need.
Thats a good point... I'll try posting the first 1500 to 2000 words and see what the resonse is. If people want to read more, I'll put more out there. If that were the case, would I add that to the end of the thread or start a new post with it?
I'm pretty sure it says somewhere in the rules or Workshop rules thread that you post at the end, don't start a new thread.
I understand that for sure. I wouldn't expect anyone to fix all of my errors in such a long piece. Thanks everyone for your help on this
Ya, your right. I see that now. I was just wondering because I've seen a few stories in the workshop that have been re-posted in new threads.... Anyways, thanks
As minstrel said, not many people will go through the trouble of reading any piece of that length in the workshop and even less will take the trouble of reviewing it thoroughly. This is the kind of job people get paid to do. If you break it in smaller pieces you will get line by line comments and corrections and probably even grammatical reviews, which you won't get by posting 5K words.
A short excerpt is sufficient for critiquers to get a good sense of your writing strengths and weaknesses. If they see that you take their recommendations seriously, even if you ultimately decide not to implement many of them, they will be more inclined to invest more effort in helping you. Also, it certainly doesn't hurt for you to reciprocate, and put some effort into critiquing their work. In short, first form a working relationship. Then you can probably expand the size of your excerpt somewhat.
