Entering the Writing Arena

[ChibiShannon]

At first glance, it seems clunky and unreadable. Maybe they'll work out the kinks over time. rolleyes

[Marcus Evans]

I judge them like that. Grammar, spelling, and formatting are all very important parts of writing. And they're simple, especially formatting. There is no excuse but laziness for having utterly unreadable garbage. Laziness scores 2 at the most. I've given a couple 2s out because there have been a few stories which are actually pretty good once you get past the block of misspelled text and abused/neglected commas/capitals/periods/etc. Most of the time, they just suck, though.

And since y'all are doing it, my test entry, luls, Glass City.

Just don't tell me the pacing is crap or that it looks rushed; I know the first already, and I'm also the one who rushed it.

[Jahoclave]

Hemlock Key

I'm starting to wonder if this arena isn't going to end up like the others. With groups getting together to destroy other entries...eh.

It happens in the avatar arena as is, and the art arena usually has enough horror in it to make my cringe away. While, yes, I've posted something, I'm waiting to gauge how literate the users of this arena will be.

Well I'd be more worried about groups getting together to promote bad writing and encouraging people to think that they don't have a lot of work to do.

Also, some links as to what people should look for.

The Writing Forums All Encompassing Sticky.

A Posting Guide. Pay attention to the formatting guide.

And for promotional purposes, a story of mine from four years ago..

And I tend to agree with Selk, if this was one of those judged olympic events I'd be forced to take away at least three stars on most stories just for the technical side of the piece.

[selket16]

And I agree that it's nice to not need the gold or win to enter, I think that will also keep some people from entering, not sure if it's the good ones or the bad ones though.

But it would be nice if they'd get removed after a while

[selket16]

When I vote, I randomly read what gaia puts in front of me. I only read to the end of the story if it follows grammar and spelling rules; I understand some mistakes, but most of these entries were written by people who appear to not know English.

I also look for original subject matter and/or ideas. By this I mean if you're putting in the 1,900th vampire story or Naruto fanfic, I'm looking for new elements that make the characters your own, not the carbon copy of your favorite author's with different names.

Your description is good too. I tend to scroll down to the description to see if I think I'll enjoy the subject matter...bad spelling here and I won't even read the story.

I tend to leave lots of lengthy comments about what can be done to make the story better, but many of them get deleted by entrants who cannot take critizism or think their story is perfect as is. No story is perfect as is, I correct novels that I read.

Also font size, if your font is too small or an odd color, I won't bother reading it.

Anyhoo, I have had stories published and if you want your story critiqued and are not afraid of brutal honesty, pm me the link to it and I'll read it.

Sakura

I had a story in there for a while but eventually removed it. I can put up another if people are interested.

[PrincessNeko]

pirula

So, with the art & writing areas there are not 'winners' or prizes. Since there is nothing to compete for, I think you won't see the same things happen in writing that happen in the Avatar arena. The writing arena is more about sharing your writing, getting feedback, and finding other writers on Gaia that you like.


As for publicizing, you can start with friends or just put a link in your profile/sig for people to follow.
I am sure there will be people in this forum who are willing to offer advice and critique.

THANKS!

I think at this point, that is the best way to try to keep the contest clean and civilized.

I'm completely for it. smile

[pirula]

So, with the art & writing areas there are not 'winners' or prizes. Since there is nothing to compete for, I think you won't see the same things happen in writing that happen in the Avatar arena. The writing arena is more about sharing your writing, getting feedback, and finding other writers on Gaia that you like.


As for publicizing, you can start with friends or just put a link in your profile/sig for people to follow.
I am sure there will be people in this forum who are willing to offer advice and critique.

[Commander Oblivious]

I'm hoping it'll be literate, but with the abundance of s**t in the arena, I'm not expecting much.

[Hemlock Key]

I'm starting to wonder if this arena isn't going to end up like the others. With groups getting together to destroy other entries...eh.

It happens in the avatar arena as is, and the art arena usually has enough horror in it to make my cringe away. While, yes, I've posted something, I'm waiting to gauge how literate the users of this arena will be.

[Marcus Evans]

But if you're not getting anything at all, even "omgz!rox" and "you sux!" start looking good; pulse of the people, at the very least.

[Commander Oblivious]

HAI MARCUS


I don't promote, because I only want solid critiques, not "OMG ths is amzing" fifty times. One good, helpful critique is worth a hundred ego inflators.

[Marcus Evans]

Hell, I just go there every so often and judge a long string of them, usually just with stars, though, since the majority are bad enough that I don't feel like wasting my time explaining everything they did wrong.

And the last time I left solid crit, someone gave me a low score on my test entry "to see how I like it."

But, in any case, I look for proper knowledge of formatting, good pacing, good spelling and grammar, and some kind of interesting idea that can draw me in. Not necessarily a solid hook in the narrative or dialog, just something that makes me think "huh, that might be interesting to see..." and makes me not-bored.

As for entering, after I got a total of two ratings, the 1 I mentioned and earlier and one that I assume was a 5, and then nothing else, I don't think I really feel like doing it anymore. I mean, the story was something short on detail and too-quickly paced that I churned out in 20 minutes purely for entry, but I've seen bad entries with 50+ ratings and a dozen actual comments. Figure I'm not pandering enough, or I need to self-promote, which I don't really want to.

HI LT

[Darklinkthevampire]

I posted a story, Demon siege, but im wondering, someone told me i could win gold if enough people read, liked, and gave my story a good rating, is that true?

[Commander Oblivious]

I did spend some time reading through it when it first came out, but soon got irritated because I couldn't sift through pages of titles and summaries at a time.

I will do my best to critique the stories and poems that are posted in this forum, though. It's nice to have a second home- the WF got kinda repetitive.

[PrincessNeko]

So...who is going to be entering? How do you know it's ready?

Who is going to be around specifically to judge the writers? What are you looking for?

Also, I have a hard time imagining that people will actually take the time out to read all of the entries, unless there's some exorbitantly short limit placed on all submissions as people's attention spans are short.