[Semi-OT] CritiqueCircle

[AtlanticFriend]

Originally Posted by Proneutron

How many of the "critics" are successfully published authors?

How many demanding readers are successfully published authors? And yet, it is they who have expectations about the books they buy, and who make such book a success or not.

I think the Critique Circle, which this thread made me discover, is a nice idea. I'll go there and offer some constructive advice.

[AtlanticFriend]

Lots of talented aspiring writers over there!

I've been trying to write two critiques a day, but there are dozens of stories waiting to be read. Not much SF though, so if any of youse gents want to try his hands at it, the science-fiction niche is wide open.

[aramis]

Originally Posted by AtlanticFriend

How many demanding readers are successfully published authors? And yet, it is they who have expectations about the books they buy, and who make such book a success or not.

I think the Critique Circle, which this thread made me discover, is a nice idea. I'll go there and offer some constructive advice.

The most demanding readers I know are not published as fiction authors. (I did layout for a non-profit and their newsletter for 3-4 years. The whole board were prolific and hypercritical readers. After the meetings, it often sounded like a book club, not a non-profit clinic/advocacy agency full of psych professionals.)

Note that almost all of them were published - most had post-grad degrees and some articles published in journals. But none of them for fiction

Technically, I've only been published as an editor and layout guy, not an author.

[AtlanticFriend]

I agree. If I tried to write and get published I'd want readers' opinions more than authors'. After all, it's readers who would decide if I'm good enough.

[Leitz]

There's a level of feedback you have to ignore. What "some editors" do or don't like is irrelevant. But having readers point out things that might have been in your mental picture but didn't make it into the written scene is very useful. I often ask if the characters and story were engaging. If a reader likes them then the reader is more likely to continue reading. If not, I need to fix that. Reader engagement is huge.

I find writing feedback helps my games. Once I started thinking about how the DM and other players built their mental image from what I wrote, I started writing game posts better. Not perfect, but hopefully more engaging. As a DM, it's fun to think about what information the players need to make in-character decisions and then provide that information in a descriptive way. For example, I ran a short game where several characters had sneaky skills, so I ensured the setting descriptions showed what type of hiding places there were and what sorts of lighting were in effect.

Most play by post gamers could write a scene for Critique Circle. With an engaging plot and interesting characters, you could write a decent story. Whether or not you do the work to hone your craft is up to you, but I enjoy the stories I've written over the years. The more I put into them the more I often get back.