I was planning on posting my writings in the Writing Workshop for critiquing, until I read in the publishing forum that literary agents don't easily accept to get stories that have already been published on the Internet published "for real". My problem now is that I really like the dedication and detail with which people critique other people's work on this forum and I don't have many people around me who are able to give me feedback about my work, so I would like to be able to put my writings on this forum to have it reviewed and then be able to delete the thread so that my work won't be here forever (thus lowering my chances to get it published). I understand that even if I publish it on here and delete it, it will be considered published by the agents still, but I suppose the agents are more willing to take the risk to market it if it's been taken off than if it stays here for everyone to see forever. The "edit" button of member's posts disappear after a while, I have noticed, so I have no idea of how I'll erase my story or delete the thread afterwards. Is it even possible to do that (if it isn't, I'm suggesting it, hence why I'm posting it in this sub-forum)? Can somebody explain me how I can? It's important, because I don't think I'll dare to ever post my work here unless I have the certainty that I will be able to erase it and take it off afterwards. Thanks for your help!
Deleting wont help, once it's published, it can be found on the internet even after deletion. This is why I only ever put up practice pieces that have a specific issue I need to work on, never anything I actually want to publish. Also, the whole point of the workshop is that everyone learns from the critique. So once you put it up, it's on the understanding it will remain there for others to read. You're also supposed to post the re-write in the comments, rather than fixing the original post, again so others can learn from seeing before and after.
What @jazzabel tells you is correct. You need to think of your writing as a skill, not just "this one story right here". A carpenter is not his cabinets; a carpenter is a person capable of making cabinets. Use practice work, modified work, write short pieces expressly for the purpose of practice and post those. Too many people sit to their very first story with the idea of "this will be the thing I publish, my magnum opus" without ever practicing on other pieces first. This makes little sense to me. David Beckham did not step out onto his very first football pitch and suddenly become David Beckham. There were hundreds of pitches before he ever became famous. Now, as to why we do not delete threads in the Workshop: The critiques that are written by members are as much their work as your OP is your work. If we delete your thread then all the critiques that were written go with it. Those critiques count toward those members as their proof that they have satisfied their requirements in order to post their own work in the Workshop. And, as Jazzabel has already made note, deleting the thread is not any good in the eyes of a publisher anyway. This holds true for this or any other website on the internet.
