Drifting Away: Critiquing Sites (Part II)

This is Part II of a two-part series. Part I may be found here.

I also belong to a wonderful writing site called Scribophile. The difference between it and Critters is that Scribophile is all online. However, I’m finding that I don’t have the time to critique there either. I honestly don’t know where my time is going. Maybe I’m in a funk and need a righteous slap upside the head Gibbs-style.

Perhaps I’m lamenting because, unlike Critters, I actually get to know a lot of the people using Scribophile. Several have left the site because they have nothing left to offer, their writing is suffering due to the time sink referred to as the forums, or the drama llama keeps tap dancing on their face. Either way, online places often change in dynamic. I’m sure I put a wrench in someone’s panties when I joined. The unfamiliar works both ways.

Unluckily, most of them are on social media sites so I haven’t totally lost them.

Scribophile is simple to use. Like Critters, it’s a give then take atmosphere. It takes about three solid critiques to earn enough points to post your work. There’s limit on how lengthy it can be to make the playing field even. Plus, as a bonus, your very first work instantly goes in what they call the “Main Spotlight”. A free membership gives you two works posted at a time. Want to post a third? Delete one of the existing ones or get a premium membership (tax deduxtible, btw).

Still, with all the benefits, I haven’t posted anything in at least six months. In fact, I’ve let my premium membership lapse because I have nothing new to post. It’s not because I haven’t been writing, it’s because most of my work goes straight to the publisher. I’m in the process of using the critiques I have received to edit what I have before I delete the works. It’s not that I can’t afford the premium membership. My royalties would easily cover it. Like I said, I just don’t have the need.

While any critiquing site isn’t going to find everything that needs a tweak in your manuscript, it’s always a good idea to find a peer group. If you’re like me and can’t find something local, the internet is a good way to go. That way you can critique the kind of things that interest you. Local groups may not have that option.

I don’t plan on closing my account out at Scribophile. It has its uses. What I need to do is stop wasting time in the time sink areas and write. Someday I’ll have something that I feel needs an extra pair of eyes. My hope is that it will be my next pirate story.

Moreon that at a later time.

Drifting Away: Critiquing Sites (Part I)

I used to be involved in a critique site called Critters. It was one of two sites a writer friend of mine suggested when I decided I needed a fresh pair of eyes to glance over what I was writing. Finding a group of friends for a bit of quid-pro-quo isn’t as easy as one might think. Any writer who thinks they can pound the keys and not have someone check for errors, consistency of plot, or just overall crunchy goodness is kidding themselves.

The way Critters worked was you first had to critique works of other aspiring authors. Give to get as it were. You could do this one of two ways–have a few stories automatically sent to you or go to their site and pick something. You sent your comments back referencing the number assigned to the document. These stories ranged from short story size to over 10k monstrosities. When I first started, I was lucky to get that diamond in the rough story that I really thought had potential to be something. Most times, however, I wanted to gag.

Still, in a tactful and respectful way, I hope I helped these people in their quest for publication. I think it took me about six critiques, maybe less, to get a story in the queue. The more you did, the faster you got thrown in. Fair practice, I think.

The problem I had with the whole concept was this:

It’s email based and there is no effective way to toss in your comments because the story is in the body of the email. It’s all unformatted with no color variation so to differentiate your critique from the author’s verbage was difficult to say the least. Since it’s unformatted and sometimes has a whole bunch of “>>”before each line, printing it out to read it was a big waste of paper. I could literally hear lumberjacks cheering me every time I hit the ‘print’ button. I had to give it up. I didn’t want to search the site for something I enjoyed reading and the emails–Oh the emails!–really started making my skin crawl.

Don’t get me wrong. The critiques on the one piece I sent through their system were wonderful and a great benefit to the story. I probably have enough ‘credits’ to send something else through but I really don’t have anything of note to do that at this time.

Critters is a great system for those who like to be surprised at what they get to critique. Eclectic readers, if you will, like me. And just because you’re set up on the email program doesn’t mean you’re obligated to critique the stories you get. There’s always the website to pick something else. I also liked the site owner. They are very good at shouting out when you get a publication, and it’s a free critique service that takes donations to run. I highly suggest anyone that uses a site that runs on donations to give something, even if it’s only five dollars, to help it keep going.

Writing Communities: Time Sink or Valuable Asset?

Back when I decided to put on my serious cap and dive into getting paid for what I write instead of pounding the keys for naught, I asked a good friend where he was ‘honing his craft’ so I could get going. Finding a people critique your work beyond the OMG! YOU’RE AWESOME! is a hard road traveled. He recommended two places: Critters and Scribophile. I joined both.

Each had the same requirement. You had to give to get. Meaning, please critique your fellow writers and be respectful when doing it. That’s the nice way of saying don’t be a dick. Find a choice of words that say “gawd, this is tripe” that still encourages. It’s a hard skill to learn. It’s also hard for new writers or shy writers to dip their feet into. Best way to do it, in my opinion, is to read it from a reader’s perspective if you’re not the best at grammar nazi stomping. A story’s got to be appealing first and foremost. Most writers figure out sometimes the public in general isn’t looking for absolute brilliance. Shades of Grey anyone?

While I enjoyed both communities at the beginning, I began to see cracks in the Critters system. Great bunch of people to work with as a site. Unfortunately, all the critiques are via email with no formatting whatsoever. I had trouble getting my point across because I couldn’t change the color of my text or get down to certain passages. Forget pinpointing spell errors and the like. All I could do was an overall impression. Worse yet, they emailed three a week, and it became increasingly difficult to find that diamond in the rough. Remember, it’s impolite to tell someone “please stop as my brain is bleeding and I’m about to hemorrhage from this swill you offer as a story”. Plus, keeping up with the pace just to get into the queue was too much. If I fell behind, I’d lose my spot.

Critters was lost to me. Too much time in reading manuscripts that could be over 10K in my mail box taking away time I needed to write.

Scribophile, on the other hand, worked much different. The site is private so I don’t have to worry about it being considered ‘published’ by the houses I wanted to send work to. Plus I could choose what I wanted to critique. If the first paragraph gave me the willies, I walked away before I had a brain seizure or vomit attack. All I need to do is give a meaningful critique and earn five karma points to post something of mine. Unlike Critters and the monsters I could get, Scribophile suggest you keep your word count to around 3K. It’s a fair system. It works to about a 3 to 1 system for me. About three critiques before I had the karma to post. Depending on how you critique, it could be less. You’re a writer helping writers.

With Scribophile, the free membership gives you the opportunity to post up to two works at a time. Become a premium member and pay a small fee per year, you can post unlimited work. It also gives you the chance to skip the main spotlight and have a private spotlight. Since I’ve been there awhile, I’ve gained a following. This is great in many ways. People look for you to post something and will crit it because they dig your style. I also follow a lot of people for the same reason. The unique part about the private spotlight is I don’t worry too much about the word count. Why? Because only my favorites can critique it. Selfish? Not really.

Here’s why.

The Main Spotlight is where most of the works go. In order for another one to get into the spotlight, three critiques of whatever work must be done before it’s kicked out. You can also get in the spotlight by being a first time n00b or a prolific crit monster. Three and out. Period. My private spotlight yields six. Oh did I mention you gain more karma for going after what’s in a spotlight?

While Scribophile has Moderators, I don’t think they’re heavy-handed. Follow the guidelines of the site and don’t be a douche, you’ll be just fine.

Another advantage is you meet other writers, a good few who are published. In fact, if it wasn’t for Scribophile I wouldn’t have met Lila Shaw and been directed to Evernight Publishing.

Yes, she is responsible for my ascension into the world of naughty smut writing. And for that, I thank her.

Now, course, there are also cons to Scribophile. People tend to get their panties in a bunch over trivial things. You must be 18 or older to join. Sometimes the critiques are less than satisfactory, whether it’s because they’re karma humpers or they just have no idea that you’re looking for flaw not accolades. The forums, in particular, can be a huge time sink and unless you have hours to burn, avoid them. Most of the time people rehash the same “ADVERBS BAD!” “SHOW VS TELL” drivel over and over and…

*sigh*

It’s tiresome. Much like people picking apart ‘stereotypes’ in writing. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but most plot devices have been used in the writing world. It’s not what you’re writing about, it’s about how you write it.

I also find that talking about the erotic romance I write isn’t worth it either. There’s always that one pea in the pod that screams “Like, OMG, it’s like totally porn and gross and stuff. Like Ewwww!”. I’ve taken to using some of the private groups available for my jabberjawing on that. It’s less of a facepalm moment that way.

Still, Scrib would be the first site I would recommend to someone looking for constructive feedback on their draft manuscript. Just remember if it goes into the realm of “I can’t find anything…OMG FUCKING AWESOME!”, Scribophile has a handy dandy ‘bad critique’ button that, after review, turns it into a plain old comment. Why should your work leave the spotlight before its time because someone doesn’t have a clue.

And there are a lot of clueless people in the world.