Quote by MissAdventure
When I read other people's work, I like to try and pick up on one thing to praise and one thing that could be improved. I also try to explain my reasoning. But, I am wary about being overly critical, since there is no way to tell what sort of feedback a writer wants here. In my writing group I know were all there for the same reasons, and none of us hold back in picking each other's work to pieces. Here there are different people with different agendas.

Quote by MissAdventure
Thanks for setting up the new groups. I'm looking forward to getting involved.

I'm a member of an online writing group elsewhere and I've got a couple of recommendations for guidelines which we might want to consider:

1. When posting a piece for critique, include the word count in the header of the post so readers can see at a glance how long the piece is. This is a really easy and useful bit of board etiquette.

2. Recommend a max word count for pieces of, say, 2,500 words. It's a lot to expect detailed feedback on a piece longer than that, so it might help keep members expectations realistic. Make it a guideline rather than a rule though; sometimes pieces don't lend themselves to being broken down.

3. My writing group works on a reciprocal principle. That is, if you post a piece for critiquing, you're expected to critique two other pieces. We work on a monthly basis, so each person can post once a month. It usually works to make sure no one's work ends up sitting on the board with no replies. The worst case scenario would be if everyone wanted to write, no one wanted to read, and all the posts sat there with no comments. Such a goodwill arrangement for writers to commit to critiquing other posts might be a good idea.

What do people think?

Quote by mikey1963
I would very much like to be added to this forum if possible please?

regards

Mike

Quote by Dreamcatcher

Quote by Lisa
We've just added a new critiquing forum to the site. It's a members only area and all of the critique groups are private. It's intended to be a place where writers can give and receive serious feedback and learn more about the art of writing.

Please let me know if you'd like to be added to any of the groups. Once your name has been included in your chosen groups, the new forum/s will show up each time you log in.

We look forward to seeing you there.

This was a good idea Lisa.. we appreciate how you always try to make things better in SS.. good mods.. good admin.. good site.. thank you for all you do here..

Quote by CKAcres
Great addition Lisa. I can use all of the help I can get.