Kane

I am a noob on this board. I first found it while googling some writer tips sites and at first glance thought I had found what I was looking for. I've posted a few stories, some complete, some not. I've noticed that a moderate amount of people have read my stories, however, I've recieved as little as 1 comment on some and perhaps 2 or 3 on others. If you read a story you must know wether you like it or hate it and I have welcomed comments from either side of the fence, as well as a critique of my work. I have made a strong effort to give more than I recieve, but noticed this doesnt take much of an effort at all.

This bothers me because I plan to earn my living by my pen and need all the practice and critique I can get. As of now, its quite frustrating to garner such little response from those who have read my stuff and I am beginning to wonder if my time is wasted posting here. Am I doing something wrong or is this a common occurance? I realize people have limited time, and even I dont critique every single thing I read, but if you see a piece of work that is lacking in critique could you at least consider offering your own?

daniela

Well as for your latest story having a lack of comments, you do realize it's a holiday don't you? And two to three comments isn't that bad for a new member. It takes time to build up a rep here. If you want more feedback than you have been receiving you need to give out dozens and dozens of your own in between each story you post. Those of us who wind up with more comments than we know what to do with usually get them because we have put a lot of time and effort into helping others. Or we have an awesome story idea that's just too good to resist.

A good critique for most of the writing on WF should take a lot of effort. I read a story several times before I comment and if someone says what I would have said in the meantime, I leave it at that (and if someone deletes the story before I get a chance obviously I can't reply). I try not to make half or more of my critique what someone else has already covered. When I do post a critique, most of the time I spend at least half an hour writing them (which is why I can't critique as often as I used to and if I only have time for one critique it goes to a person from the Unanswered list). If you did half of that, you might get more people replying to your work.

Some people are uncomfortable giving that level of critique and if you are not able to we will understand but you will have to accept the fact that you may not raise much above your current number of replies. "You get what you give" is one of the most important things for you to remember each time you post. The second thing to remember is the number of currently active users is probably much smaller than you would expect.

I am not the best writer or “editor” here, but if you are willing to leave your latest story up for the next week I'll try to have a go at critiquing it in a couple of days.

--DM--

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"When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable." - Mark Twain

Kane

thanks for the reply. I have definately given more 'critiques' than I have recieved. I have tried to make them useful, but in cases where I was unable I simply tried to show support. I am a fledgling writer myself and don't feel I am the best at critiquing others' work. However, I am working on becoming better in that respect.
I suppose I will keep doing what I've been doing and hope someone takes the time to reciprocate. Though I don't see how much I could say would be very constructive to the type of people qualified to critique writing with an accomplished eye. However, I welcome critiqueless opinions from ametuers as well and will reciprocate.

Queasy Dillo

I'll throw my two uninvited cents in here.

Remember, you don't have to be a registered user in order to read stories. You may be getting a high number of non-members reading your stuff--which means they may be too lazy to comment of just passing through. Also, despite the number of members, bear in mind that perhaps forty can be considered active. We have quite a few who registered, introduced themselves, posted one story, and split.

People will take a look if they find the title interesting. However, if I spot an interesting title, open the link, and find it to be poetry or sci-fi (just two examples) I probably won't critique. Why? I know next to nothing about either of those, so my opinions would be largely useless. Try putting genre in your title and see if that helps.

Also, how long are your posts? It's best to post small, digestible chunks for potential readers. While your story may be top-notch not many people here are willing to wade through ten or fifteen page blocks.

To this, I say keep in mind the turnover rate. Some of us come here and latch on with both fangs, some stick around until the new wears off and leaves. For that reason, I've generally stopped critiquing stuff from newbies--until they build up a good-sized post count (not counting Lounge and Word Game topics).

After I'd been here a while I found the same people critiquing my projects. In turn, I do likewise for them. Thus, I have a group of five or six I can usually count on for replies. I'm happy for criticism from anybody who takes time to post, but those are the ones I look for.

Just my opinion, though

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daniela

You don't have to know a lot about the more technical aspects of writing to give a good critique. Do you read a lot? Having someone go over your work as just a reader is helpful too. Tell someone how their work makes you feel, what parts you stumbled over and why, what parts you think are brilliant and why, how it is similar to other things you have read, how it is different... And the list goes on. Put all of those elements together in a coherent way and you would be offering up a writer something very valuable.

Don't underestimate your worth. It takes time to learn the other stuff and you will if you stick around. Well, that last part is not exactly true. You will have to be willing to do a lot of work on your own (reading and analyzing books, studying the grammar basics so you know when you should and should not break the rules, etc.).

Keep writing!

--DM--

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"When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable." - Mark Twain

Ilan Bouchard

Queasy and Daniela said it right. You don't become a best-seller overnight, likewise you can't expect to get everyone to post on your writings as soon as you join.

Also, the Viewed page doesn't count how many members, but how many times the page was loaded. This means you'd get one view just when you post it, and I'm sure you view it when you get a reply, and again after it's been posted. The View count doesn't really help; the author can be contributing 10 of those tallies alone. Not to mention, and perhaps I'm the only one, when I critique someone, I always return to see what else people have said, to see if the author has more questions for me, or if someone says something I just don't agree with, or whatever.
My point is, it could be those three people looking at your story multiple times that skew the View count.

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Hand

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