The Fic Exchange
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Post: 46353835_1 created on Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:31 pmPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:31 pm
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 img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/novadestin/gaiathreads/announcements.png[/img  As fanfiction authors, we all know how hard it can be to come across readers who will give proper feedback and be honest in their reviews about what they thought of our stories. This thread is meant to be a place where people who genuinely want to improve themselves as writers can come to ask for constructive criticism while helping others at the same time. We work on a basis of equal trade. This means that if you want to receive concrit, you're going to have to give some in return - basically, someone will critique your story if you critique theirs. You might find some people here who are willing to offer you criticism for nothing in return, but bear in mind that they are the exceptions rather than the rule. Please don't abuse their generosity. On a practical level, this means that you'll be submitting the information about your stories to this thread (using the form found below) and specifying what you're willing to read in return (fandoms, genres, etc.). After your story's accepted, you'll be free to contact the other authors who are also participating and see if they want to exchange fics with you. The following post contains a list of all the active authors of this thread you can contact in order to start an exchange, as well as the names of those who have been blacklisted and should therefore be avoided. By active, we mean that they have shown an interest in participating at least once during the past two months. Inactive users will simply be removed from the list and will have to resubmit their information if they want to join again. Now, in order to guarantee that you'll receive proper concrit, we have a certification system. Those who have proven themselves to be good critics (by being quick to review, making good points in their comments, and being all around helpful) will be added to our list of certified reviewers. As a user of this thread you'll be able to ask for concrit from any other user, but these certified reviewers will be the only ones who we'll be able to say with 100% certainty will do a good job. In order to manage if someone should gain certification over regular membership - or conversely, if they should be banned for not following the rules of the thread - we ask that participants fill out a brief survey after receiving their concrit. Don't worry, you won't have to criticize the criticism, we're just interested in knowing if you were pleased with the results or not. Lastly, please remember that this is an exchange and that simply posting your story and moving on will probably not get you many reviewers. In fact, if members do not post at least a couple times a month they will be removed from the thread listing. Just the same as it pays to stay active in the fanfiction community, it pays to stay active here. We do not condone people who think they can get something for nothing. Show you're interested in getting reviews and you will get them, simple.  To get things started simply submit your stories using the form below. If you want to submit more than one fanfic, you may do so by filling out a form for each fic. However, bear in mind that when you start an exchange, it will be fic for fic. Meaning: each person involved in the exchange is only obligated to comment on one story (unless you trade multiple fics at a time of course). [b]Title and Link:[/b] [b]Fandom:[/b] [b]Summary:[/b] [b]Genre:[/b] [b]Length and Status:[/b] [b]Rating and Warning:[/b] [b]Main Characters and Pairings:[/b] [b]Notes on any aspects you're interested in receiving feedback on and/or anything else you feel is pertinent:[/b] [b]Brief excerpt from the story:[/b] [b]What I will read in return:[/b] Now here's the hard part: make sure you give good concrit. One-line reviews saying that a story was great or some-such thing are not considered constructive criticism, and neither are reviews that attack an author personally or do nothing but insult a story without offering justification or suggestions on how to improve. Those types of reviews are not allowed here but we understand that some people don't always know what to include so here are a few things you should keep in mind when composing a review: - Always try to point out something you liked about the story: it's just as important for an author to know their strong points as well as their weak ones. - When you point out something you disliked or thought could have been better, try to offer some suggestion on how to improve it: never say something is bad without explaining why. This is the most important thing about giving a good review because ultimately criticism doesn't exist to let us know if we're good or bad writers, but to help us improve by pointing out what areas we need to work on. - Be as honest as possible in your review: remember that the review is about their story and nothing else. Don't make petty remarks just because someone said something you didn't like in regards to your own story. It is guaranteed that you won't always like what others have to say about your work but that should never affect how you review something. Here's a list of aspects you might want to analyze in your review. You don't have to talk about all of them - think of them as a starting point if you don't quite know what to talk about in your critique: - how original is the plot of the story and how solid is it? - how IC (in character) or OOC (out of character) are the canon characters? - how well-rounded and realistic are the author's original characters? - were there a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes? - did you like the writing style? Finally, to make sure everyone understands what kind of critiques we're trying to promote in this thread, here's an example: Quote: I liked how you portrayed the canon characters. It felt like watching a missing scene from the original show, because of how typical they were acting. As for the story itself, I thought that while the general premise has potential, the way the plot is developing could definitely be improved. The opening situation is overdone and can be found in pretty much every fic that focuses on this theme - you should try to add your own little twist to it to make it more interesting - and as for what happens from that point on, it gets pretty predictable after a while and I didn't think it took into account all aspects of the world you're working on - try to avoid taking an easy way out of a situation and really ponder the possible consequences of the characters' actions. Another thing I nothiced is that you tend to shift from a first-person to third-person narrative pretty often. Keep your point of view consistent. And try not to insert your own comments in the middle of the story - it's disruptive. Grammar-wise, there were few mistakes. I could only find a few long-winded sentences in the first three paragraphs that could probably be cut up into smaller bits to make them more impacting and less ambiguous. Overall, I think it's a story that has the potential to shine if you put in the time and effort to polish it up and smooth the rough edges. Once you've accepted to criticize a story, you'll have a limit of seven days to do so. After that, if you've failed to review a story, the exchange will be considered void and you'll be blacklisted. We won't care about excuses - don't commit to something you know you won't be able to do in the first place. (If the story is particularly long however, this deadline can be extended.)  After those seven days are up, regardless of how the exchange went, we would like for the participants to each fill out the following form to let us know what they thought of the experience and to help us keep a record of how true people are being to the idea of this thread. Please send a PM to The Fic Exchange with the following: [b]Name:[/b] [b]Reviewer's name:[/b] [b]Was the exchange successful?[/b] [b]How helpful was the review?[/b] [b]How would you classify the reviewer's general attitude (was it too harsh, were things explained clearly, do you feel you were flamed rather than critiqued, etc.)?[/b] [b]How did you like the experience?[/b] By sending us this form you will help us determine how we will distribute "certification points". These points are an arbitrary way for us to determine who will become a certified member. Each owner assigns points differently (one might give a 2 for a good review while another might give a 3) and there is no 'official' number one must reach beforehand, it is simply up to whoever is updating at the time to decide who gets certified (if we think you have enough points to be moved up then we will promote you). Just do your best and leave all this up to us! We hope you'll find this thread useful and that it will allow you to improve your skills as a writer. We would also like to reinforce one last time that this is NOT a place where you can go to in order to promote your fic or receive blind praise - quite the contrary, actually. If you have any questions or suggestions about the way this thread works, feel free to post them here, or contact us via our mule The Fic Exchange. |
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