Please read/critique my short story!?
Hi! Any comments/help/advice for this would be thankful! It's for a class I'm taking and it was just 2-4 pieces of fiction. How are my characters? Are they too flat? Complex, enough? Things like that. Thanks! https://docs.google.com/document/d/177o3G2RHDHKS2H92Yt1WDcFVuwgxo2BkheHfucXJf7s/edit
What's the best website to have my story critiqued by other writers in my genre?
There are two big obstacles to getting a professional writer to critique your writing:Most professional writers only get paid when people pay them for their writing. Every word (for example, of a critique) that they write without getting paid is the opposite of doing their job.(To put it another way: Imagine other professions placed in your sentence. What’s the best way to have my yard design idea critiqued by a professional landscaper for free? What’s the best way to have my complete dental checkup from a dentist for free? What’s the best way to have my divorce separation agreement reviewed by a professional family law attorney for free? What’s the best way to find out what’s wrong with my old pickup truck from a professional mechanic for free?)Professional writers need to protect themselves from being accused of stealing the ideas of others, which means limiting one’s exposure to the unpublished work of other writers.(To put it another way: What happens if you show your story to a professional writer, and a few years from now they publish a novel that has a lot of similarities to it? They might not even remember ever meeting you, or ever seeing your story, but you’ll certainly feel like you’ve been stolen from, and you’d be entirely in your rights to start some kind of legal action to try and prove that’s what happened.)There are probably any number of places where you can get writing critique from creative people like yourself for free. Hopefully other folks will have answers along those lines!EDIT: Since answering this question, its title was changed. Originally, it asked about critique from professional writers.
What are some online sites for writing critique groups?
Yes. First we'll talk about sites where you can post your work and have people you know do edits on it. But you will have to personally send them an invite for your current work, and they'll have to join the site to do edits. Best to keep the document under 3,000 words for easy edits.Draft. Write Better. Draftin.com shows a "diff" between what you wrote and what edits were made by your critter. I use this one regularly. Love it.Penflip - collaborative writing and version control PenFlip.com Collaborative edits, like DraftinIf you want to write stories or books, a great community for edits is Scribophile. They have a Freemium model, where you need to do about 5 edits of others work to earn enough credits to get your work edited. Although first post is free. And you have to join groups and do edits to others work, to have anyone care enough to edit your work. The Premium version is maybe $60/year and gives you more critiques. You get better at writing when you crit others work. I love Scribophile. It has the best editing tools. Some groups on the site are more active and stronger than others.Scribophile ScriboPhile.comLegendFire This forum has a thread called SHREDDER for short excerpts up to 200 words, with strong but gentle critiques.Critique Circle Online Writing Workshop to exchange critiquesCritters Writers Workshop Critters Rules. Mostly for Sci Fi, Fantasy and Horror.But what if you are not ready for serious critiques? What if you just want to share and talk about your stories? For that, there’s Wattpad - Stories You'll Love It’s well funded and been around over a decade, so it’s not going to close anytime soon. The site has tons of content to browse and comment on. But it is targeted more towards teens who want to express themselves than it is to adults who are trying to hone their skills. There are some comments about specifics of the writing that need improvement, but such feedback is pretty tame and general. Use the site to build a following and find a community to play in.
Is this a good paragraph PLEASE CRITIQUE?
It wasn't bad, but it could use some improving here and there. The first part of this paragraph is very choppy. You use a ton of short sentences, which theoretically is good since you're trying to make a fast paced, tense narrative. However, it read choppily and haltingly, almost as if you were just listing what happened instead of writing a story. The second thing I noticed was that you go from an action packed scene to one where the character is describing her looks. Don't do that in the same paragraph. Description slows the story down, so I would really avoid doing that during a scene like the one you're writing... save that for a slower part of the story :) I liked your description of the lightning, ballerinas of electricity, it really painted a visual picture for me. However, I didn't feel as if the description of being electricuted was accurate. Seeing as this is first person, and seeing as someone who is struck by lightning most likely becomes immediately unconscious after being struck, I wouldn't go into the detail that she felt, like the shaking and the rolling of the eyes... most likely she's not going to be aware of that. Probably all that she's going to feel is pain. Also, there's a bit of a content error here... why would she be struck by lightning when she's next to a house? Houses have grounding stakes built into them for such a purpose... unless, of course, she attracted the lightning to herself...interesting Other than that, it was okay. keep working on it, read it out loud to yourself to see how it sounds. It'll get there, it just takes editing and editing and more editing :) It is my personal opinion that writers should not be called writers, but editors :) I hope I could help, Good luck and happy writing And I would really appreciate your (Or anyone else's :)) help with my story. Thanks :) http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
Writers: how do you handle criticism of your work?
How I handle criticism of my work depends on the situation.Did I ask my critique partners for feedback on an early draft of my work? In that case, I’m going to respond to all criticism with gratitude. This doesn’t mean I have to make every change that every critique partner gives, but it does mean I need to consider it thoughtfully.Is the criticism from my agent or editor? In this case, I’d better listen up. If I absolutely disagree with the criticism, I can refuse to make the suggested changes, but I’d better be ready to explain why. In most situations, the agent or editor has identified a real problem, and I need to figure out how to address it.Is the criticism from reviewers and readers? Once a book is published, it’s done. I can’t make any more changes. Really, reviews are readers, not writers. Many authors are advised not to pay attention to reviews at all, although I think few actually follow this advice. If multiple reviewers keep pointing out the same problems, or if the criticism really resonates with you, it’s smart to think about how to improve future books, but otherwise, it’s best to just forget about it.Is the criticism from someone else? Once when I was doing a library event, a man took one look at my cover and declared my book to be a ripoff of some recent horror movie. Even though my book came out before that movie. Even though my book and the movie had nothing in common another than a young male protagonist and supernatural elements. Sometimes people just like to be negative. Ignore them.Of course, negative feedback always stings. Sometimes, I need to complain (in private) to a writer friend who understands what it’s like. Sometimes I need to read negative reviews of other books to remind myself that literary taste is subjective. Sometimes I just need to take a break to relax and be kind to myself. I give more tips on the dos and don’ts of responding to rejection on my site for novelists.
Where can I post my writings (short stories, poetry, etc.) online for other people to read and critique? I have a website/"blog," but I can't get much traffic to it .
There are so many options to enjoy reading and writing!My personal favorites are Commaful, Wattpad and Archive of Our Own, but here are my pros and cons of all of them. All of these are free.CommafulGorgeous visuals and layouts. The stories really come to life in a different way and looks incredibleBest chat system and feed of the fanfiction and writing sites - strong fan community engagementStill really new and very small library of works compared to other sites, but as a result easier to grow early audiences if it’s your first time postingArchive Of Our Own (AO3)Huge library of stories, usually higher quality worksmostly fanfictionIncredibly detailed searching systemCan be a bit intimidating to use if you’re new to fanfictionWattpadI’m personally a huge Wattpad fan for original fiction. I think it’s the best place to post longer form novels.Search function is very clunky. Hard to find works that I like in fanfiction in particularHuge potential audience and pretty sizable libraryFanfiction.netA bit easier to use than AO3, huge library of workspretty much all fanfictionbasic messaging system that AO3 doesn’t haveMediuman amazing place to share more thought piece related works. political ideas, tech ideas etc.HUGE audience and library, if your work goes viral, it really goes viralTumblrNot just for fanfiction and writing; it’s a great way to get connected with the entire fandom. You’ll find memes, fan art, and fanfictionGreat place to promote fanfiction and get readersVery tight communities around any fandom you can think ofQuotevSadly, these days, Quotev doesn’t get as much use for writing. Still quite popular for quizzes, roleplaying, and other thingsGreat chat systemI’d recommend trying out all of these and see which ones you like.From the posting side, I recommend Commaful for shorter works and AO3 for longer and more advanced works.