[Behave Yourself]

Seriously, guys. A lot of you (and I mean a lot) actually want critique on your fanfics or OWs, right? As in, you'd like people to go through your story and give it a proper critique?

Well, the critique on IF is massively inactive. It has a fantastic setup for a writing section (A lot of members, a lot of stories) but it isn't nearly as active as it should be, because a lot of you other members don't bother to critique enough. I myself have been attempting to critique one story a day suffering from lack of critique, as there are a lot of 'young, budding authors' on this forum.

You want critique, maybe dish it out, hm? I'm not whining or anything - I get plenty of critique on my stories on some other forums - this is just something that's been annoying me a lot.

So, guys. Step up a little, and start doing some critique. It doesn't necessarily have to be amazingly thorough, or sixteen pages long or whatever - it just has to have honest feedback and advice. You don't have the be the best editor ever, here. IF is lacking the amount of critique that it should have for a forum this size that has this many writers.

So, get to it, all you budding writers out there that want critique on your own works. Start givin' a bit back yourself.

You can find a helpful guide to critiquing here. (A pinned thread. Read those, too.)

The editors exist, yes, but this forum can easily service itself for critique, not merely rely on the editors - most of which spend a lot of time writing themselves, and are pretty busy people - to do it all. Critique on forums is generally a community thing - you don't need special staff to get it. And you shouldn't.

Editors, if they weren't busy people, should be doing critiques on their own, do. I'm sure there are some that have the time to give critique outside of requests. I realize the school year has begun and much of us are bogged down with work, but hell, it isn't amazingly hard or time-consuming to critique anything.

James

This post has been edited by LyriantheFirst: 16 September 2009 - 11:19 AM

[Go for Gin]

There's actually been a lot of discussion on this a few months back. Like, a lot. So you're a bit late for this. Can't imagine why you missed it.

Oh, right, because you were Permabanned.

[Behave Yourself]

There's actually been a lot of discussion on this a few months back. Like, a lot. So you're a bit late for this. Can't imagine why you missed it.

If people discussed it, they evidently didn't get much done, since there is still an issue.

James

This post has been edited by LyriantheFirst: 16 September 2009 - 02:01 PM

[Pixel]

Theres always going to be an issue. It'll never be fixed. We can only improve the posting of those who are here already, and try to stress that fact onto the new members who join. And you should have posted this in the pinned topic if you wanted to revive the conversation so badly.

[Behave Yourself]

This is perfectly fixable, Pixel, if some people would get off of their asses and start actually critiquing. If you don't have the time, then take some time off of your writing to critique other's works. It's called giving back to your community.

The only reason this wouldn't succeed is laziness. And if you're lazy, you won't get anywhere as a writer in the first place.

Giving critique is also one of those nice things that is useful to yourself as well as others, since you tend to notice problems in your writing much more if you're skilled at critique. (I'm not saying I'm especially good at critique myself, I'm saying that my ability to edit my own stories is much better now than it was before I began critiquing people).

To summarize:

1. If you have the time to write, you have the time to read and critique.
2. Don't be lazy.

Everyone on the forum easily has the time to critique other's projects at least once a week, and there isn't any reason any of you can't - including myself. No matter how little free time you have, you will always have a free fifteen minutes in your day to critique someone else's work. Fifteen minutes a week, even.

James

This post has been edited by LyriantheFirst: 16 September 2009 - 02:30 PM

[Go for Gin]

Don't know if you realize this, but you come across like you're pointing fingers. You seem to think you're the only one doing critique and that you really deserve critique and nobody else is pulling their weight, and then you curse at us and call us lazy and expect more critique.

Really, this has been going on for years. It's not going to change. Also, even though there is an editor's list now, nobody uses it. I make an honest effort to work on critiquing things that people directly ask me to. But people don't ask me.

Either way, I wouldn't now. Frankly, I'm too busy. I'm in college. I don't even write my own stuff. And when I do write, I work on (*gasp*) Legend of Zelda fanfiction. Stuff I'm not serious about. Stuff for fun. I'm sure other people are busy too. People who have a large fanbase like Ben are expected to work harder on their work. I think most people would rather have them updating than critiquing. Some people in college like me. Some people really want to work hard on their things. Some people won't critique fanfics, some people won't critique original writing. Some aren't interested in the quality of the stories they're supposed to critique. And some just don't want to do the two readings (one for enjoyment, one for nitpicking) that critique requires.

So if everyone was a fifteen-year-old with way too much time on their hands like you, that'd be great. We'd have a great system. But we don't all have your amazing critique ethics. Just like capitalism and socialism are good in theory but flawed in practice, so is a critique system.

Also,

Everyone on the forum easily has the time to critique other's projects at least once a week, and there isn't any reason any of you can't - including myself.

Your use of absolutes and generalizations needs improvement. No, not everyone has time. Not everyone has the ability. Do you want someone who is just a young, beginning writer to be telling you (since you're so experienced) how to improve?

Just food for thought.

[Spinner]

I've been shadowing this thread for a couple of days, and Andy made some good points.

Honestly, the WH's in the wrong form for the kind of activity that you think there should be. You seem to forget that this is a forum for writing on a fan site. The level of serious writers on here (as Andy stated), is relatively low. Fan Fiction's a majority here because of the site's focus. You want critiques? Go to BC. Go to SW. Go to a site where writing is the focus and make that claim. Because really, the majority of the people here are doing this for fun.

That said, I think all the points that can be made have been made. Closed.

Ben