Sorry if this question has already been asked, or if I'm asking at the wrong place, but so far I couldn't find the answer anywhere on the site (maybe I didn't look hard enough). My question is: how long should be the text posted in the workshop? I wanted to share the beginning of my novel, which so far consists of prologue and chapter 1, but it already has 14347 words and I'm not even done working on it. I wanted to post the entirety since I wanted others to critique the way I structure the story, my pacing, etc. I'm fully aware that the longer the post the fewer people are gonna read it and I'm fine with that. But I wouldn't like to break the forum's rules by posting something too long. I could also spread the text into a few parts, but I feel like that might undermine the story and I wouldn't like to make too many threads. Thanks in advance!
I think you can post it in the workshop. But are you sure you don't want a beta reader for something this long? Maybe post a chapter in the workshop so people get a sense of your writing then post it into collaboration for private collaboration. I've seen a few people do that.
Man you are too humble. It's never dumb to ask questions you don't know. It's dumb if you pretended to know. But again, I "think" it's fine. I've seen some long workshop posts before, more than 5k at least. So you should be fine to post it. Just try and be specific what you are looking for and people may help you. But extensive works like this, you'll need a private collaboration to get the most out of it. Though, based on how you critiqued my work, I'll try and give a good crack at it if you did post it on the workshop.
Thanks, in the end, I decided to post a small portion of my work. I already started writing a few other critiques, but it's a bit hypocritical to keep on reviewing others without posting your own work. Now, if anyone finds my critiques too harsh, they can always return the favor by saying my work is awful . What kept me from posting is that as a writer, I like relaying on using "planting and payoff" so much, that I thought if I were to put any scene in the workshop without context, it could be very confusing.
Critique is a writer's work. Arguably, it all arches back to critique - of the human condition (which is words in heads). But even if novels sometimes do other things, critique stands on its own merits - it's a genre in its own right. It's not transactional (I like your story, do you like mine) - especially at the level where millions of people read a newspaper column and think "I'm glad I read that, rather than going to see the play"
Lol I hope this isn't true, because I've only posted one piece in the workshop and I've probably done 60 or 70 critiques so far. I'm just not writing anything these days, I seem to be in a period for absorbing and learning. I'm reading a lot of books about writing, watching a lot of videos on it, and doing a lot of critiques. It helps the critiquer at least as much as the critiqu-ee. I've learned a lot from giving critique, in the sense that 'nobody learns as much as the teacher'. You have to really get your ducks in a row so to speak, and it helps you learn to really think about what works and what doesn't in stories. Plus of course it's easier to see what isn't working in somebody else's work than in your own.
To answer your actual question, you can post as much or as little as you think necessary. The general suggestion is to keep it below 2,000 words, because beyond that it gets so big most people will just roll their eyes and scroll on past it—the old roll-n-scroll. But if you think you have a larger chunk that needs to all be taken as a whole then by all means, post it that way. But you're taking a big chance that nobody will bother to read it. So it's a balancing act.
In my experience, Workshop for critique. So this is basically fault finding. Collaboration for a more invested understanding of your work. A mixture of feel and thought feedback. Beta reading - well rare as hens teeth! Maybe not so much can be learned about the thought but you get a great sense of what people feel about your work. Regarding length of post. If you can hook the reader early on, maybe you could post something over a few k. It’s usually quality not quantity that counts. A great author can sum up in a few sentences what mere mortals take a page, pages or even a chapter. if someone is willing to critique a lengthy piece in the workshop, that conveys a lot of commitment on their part. Just my experience.
