Would it not be prudent to rename the "Novel" forum as "Novel Excerpts" since posting a whole novel is so discouraged? That is all.
Excerpts are encouraged over complete pieces anyway in the Writing Workshop anyway. Obviously, that isn't practical for pieces that are already very short, like kost poems or songs, but it probably would be more sensible to emphasize it for short stories. By the time anyone has a chance to post there, they will have had every opportunity to read all about how to use the Writing Workshop anyway. If they haven't by then, they surely won't be deterred by a single word in a forum title.
Perhaps it could be at least put to a public vote, like when the survey came around? I would have put it on that, only I answered that survey, like, the day I joined. THREE AGAINST ONE. </outburst>
These are all suggestions for Daniel to consider. He will take all the opinions into account and make a decision.
if anything is added, instead of tacking the word 'excerpts' to every single section, which seems a bit silly to me, as if everyone here needs to be treated as second-graders, why not just add 'BRIEF EXCERPTS ONLY' [in bold and all-caps] to the workshop description at the top of that section?
Well, in the Novel description, it is somewhat written like that: We discourage posting entire novels, but if you'd like our thoughts, you can post excerpts or a few chapters. But I guess it can be all caps or it can be where it stand. This can be applied to the Movie Scripts too, I suppose.
Thank you, my good man. While that may be "tack-ing" it on, headings in all capitals can be "tack-y". And I didn't suggest it for every section. Just for the novel section. If someone does a short one-shot of a few hundred words (or even up to one and a half thousand or so), why would they just post an excerpt? That's ridiculous.
Not at all. An initial excerpt of a couple hundred words my be plenty to expose writing habits that need to be addressed. The longer thge excerpt, the greater the commitment required to critique it, and the more likely your piece is to be passed over. Unless what you are posting is really short (say under 500 words), you really should consider selecting an excerpt to post instead, at least initially.
there's nothing 'tacky' about putting merely the most important 3 words of site instructions in bold all-caps... and it does apply to all sections in the workshop... it's not ridiculous, since if they hope to have it published, what would be ridiculous is to post the whole thing and scotch its chances to be sold, by making it available to be read for free...
I only call it ridiculous since I wouldn't even consider having anything under around 2000 words published anyway. Other people might, but I wouldn't; anything shorter than that is a little too short, except perhaps for a vignette-style piece.
