- Joined
- Apr 4, 2009
- Messages
- 1,164
- Reaction score
- 15
Teens Writing For Teens (v2)
- Thread starter It's-Magic!
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2009
- Messages
- 4,088
- Reaction score
- 724
- Age
- 32
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2009
- Messages
- 1,164
- Reaction score
- 15
my name on WP is bexmagic. I'll PM you the synop to put it on yourself if you want. I'm down on the Novel page as Rebecca.
I'm so tired of all the one-line reviews on YWS - the "Ur so gud! Rite moar!" reviews which proliferate on the literature forums. Firstly they're irritating to the eyes, secondly they're posted solely to enable the reviewer to post their own work, and thirdly they make it difficult for the voices of sanity to be heard. Why would anyone listen to my criticism over the gushing of fourteen thousand misspelling fangirls?
Phew. Okay, I'm done.
Para - I didn't know you hung out on YWS. I need to crit there more. I applied to be an instructor once and was told to wait a month and apply again. But since I didn't crit a lot during that month, I never reapplied. Oh, and I agree.
I strongly believe that this system in general (not only its specific use in YWS) is broken. Requiring people to post X reviews before they can post their own work invites them to scribble out X snippets of mindless praise. Criticism is scary - compliments are uncontroversial. Thinking is time-consuming - praise can be generic. Flattering someone's work encourages them to flatter your own work. And on and on.
That's why YWS has a reviewing culture of surface, uncritical praise.
What attracted you to being an instructor? I don't see the appeal of these types of positions. You start off just reviewing for fun and you end up with all these obligations and duties.
*shrugs* I like reviewing and I didn't really want to advertise myself as an instructor (like posting in "Will Review for Food") without actually being one. I only go on YWS like once a week at the moment though. I like AW so much better.
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2009
- Messages
- 6,889
- Reaction score
- 896
Para- I know. I've been on YWS for two years and nowadays it seems like a lot of people don't understand how to critique anything. But there are still a lot of good reviewers around. One-liner critiques get on my nerve. As a writer, I would prefer someone give me the run-down on everything they liked or disliked. I want them to point out grammar and such. And if they do say they like it, at least tell me in detail what you like.
Some (not all) of the reviewers on YWS are not your quality critiquers but because I've been on the site for a long long time. I've grown used to the system. But that's just me.
Some (not all) of the reviewers on YWS are not your quality critiquers but because I've been on the site for a long long time. I've grown used to the system. But that's just me.
You don't need to be anything other than a regular member to start a thread in Will Review for Food. Instructors are in the minority there, I think.
(Mine is the bitter voice of one who's tried these nefarious forum leadership positions before, and found them to be a one-way ticket to a particular kind of hell.)
There are definitely some good reviewers around. I just feel like they're totally outnumbered at the moment, and authors have no incentive to listen to them, and this whole problem is so easy to solve.
I'll stop bitching now.
Ely- In shadow, when you say fallen. Do you mean Fallen Angels?
Critiquing someone's work takes a lot of practice before you are good. But their are so many benefits to it. You start spotting out errors/mistakes which helps you when you need to start editing! But I kind of suck at critiques lol.
Critiquing someone's work takes a lot of practice before you are good. But their are so many benefits to it. You start spotting out errors/mistakes which helps you when you need to start editing! But I kind of suck at critiques lol.
That's absolutely true, and I remember how intimidating it is to start critiquing when you feel like you don't know anything. I joined my first critique group 7 years ago and I still felt scared when I first started critiquing in SYW.
Everything is just practice, is all. Reading and writing and reviewing are all parts of one scarily complicated whole.
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2009
- Messages
- 6,889
- Reaction score
- 896
MacAllister
Tired and worried.
El Jefe
Administrator
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
VPX
Super Member
Registered
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 22,039
- Reaction score
- 10,839
- Location
- Out on a limb
- Website
- macallisterstone.com
Welcome back, everyone - we're retiring some of the very, very long-running threads and opening a new chapter. The thousands of posts tend to get pretty intensive for anyone on a slow connection, and can make the forums hang instead of loading.
Don't worry. We promise nothing bad is going to happen to the old thread. We aren't euthanizing them, or recycling your posts into soylent green for the databases, or anything like that. It's going to spend the rest of its days at a lovely retirement farm for well-loved threads.
Since the TWFTs had blown past 50k posts in the original thread, you were on The List.
Cheers! And if I may be of any further service, please feel free to call on me.
Don't worry. We promise nothing bad is going to happen to the old thread. We aren't euthanizing them, or recycling your posts into soylent green for the databases, or anything like that. It's going to spend the rest of its days at a lovely retirement farm for well-loved threads.
Since the TWFTs had blown past 50k posts in the original thread, you were on The List.
Cheers! And if I may be of any further service, please feel free to call on me.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2009
- Messages
- 4,088
- Reaction score
- 724
- Age
- 32
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2009
- Messages
- 6,889
- Reaction score
- 896
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2009
- Messages
- 6,889
- Reaction score
- 896
- Status