Posting longer short stories

How about posting it in three parts? Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3? 8500 words requires a lot of dedication and some of the problems (grammar, word choice and even narrative progression) can be spotted much earlier and one doesn't need to go through the whole piece in order to spot such a trend. If your story is a joy to read, dividing it in parts won't hurt whatsoever.

HD Simplicityy said:

I just "finished" the third revision of a fantasy short story and I'm wondering if I can post the whole thing in critique or if I should only post part of it. Ideally I'm interested in a full blown critique of it, focusing on grammar, word choice, narrative progression and structure, theme and character. Sharing it with at least one person on Discord, but I'm also considering here as its the only writing forum I'm currently on. Its over 8500 words at the top of 35 double spaced pages. If you saw my recent post on advice for ending a short story nicely, this is the one I'm referring to.

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This is really a SYW question, rather than Basic Writing.

SYW guidelines (check the stickies!) suggest only posting one to two thousand (ish) words. That's generally enough for critiquers to spot habitual grammar/punctuation issues, as well as to give feedback on other aspect, like tension and flow. It takes a good chunk of time to do a thorough critique, and it's not reasonable to expect folks to crit a full 8500 words. Also, if you haven't already, jump in there and do some crits for other people.

You could post your opening with a note that you are also looking for beta readers for the whole thing. Anyone who is interested after critting the excerpt could then simply PM you.

All the best,
Riv

Curlz said:

How about posting it in three parts? Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3? 8500 words requires a lot of dedication and some of the problems (grammar, word choice and even narrative progression) can be spotted much earlier and one doesn't need to go through the whole piece in order to spot such a trend. If your story is a joy to read, dividing it in parts won't hurt whatsoever.

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OP, if you go this route, I would strongly suggest not posting three parts all at once. Get feedback on part one and see if there need to be changes/edits in part two before posting. No one wants to flag the same issues over and over again.

Often, after giving time for feedback on an opening, people will post their next section in the same thread. The takeaway from both of these methods is to start with the opening, and move forward only after receiving crit on it.

All the best,
Riv

HD Simplicityy said:

I just "finished" the third revision of a fantasy short story and I'm wondering if I can post the whole thing in critique or if I should only post part of it. Ideally I'm interested in a full blown critique of it, focusing on grammar, word choice, narrative progression and structure, theme and character. Sharing it with at least one person on Discord, but I'm also considering here as its the only writing forum I'm currently on. Its over 8500 words at the top of 35 double spaced pages. If you saw my recent post on advice for ending a short story nicely, this is the one I'm referring to.

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Easy answers lie in the Share Your Work Stickies.

But the posts in this thread suggesting that you post a chunk of your story in SYW are correct.

The idea is to post a portion, and apply what you learn to the work.