When are you most likely to read a story in the Showcase forum?

[Twook00]

I'm curious about what catches your attention in the Showcase forum? As a newcomer, I'd like to learn a bit more about which stories attract readers and why. Is it the title, number of comments, number of views, the author, or do you just read them all as you have time? And when you've read a story, when are you most likely to comment? If the story is good or bad, or if it has potential? When are you least likely to comment?

For myself, I find that number of comments usually gets me to read the story. I myself have not started commenting yet simply because I want to observe first, but I think I would be most likely to do so for stories that keep my attention through to the end. Is that the norm?

 

[Ankari]

I read as many stories as I can. I do it for two reasons. The first: I selfishly wish to enhance my own skill. I liken the process of critiquing other works as taking an ax to the stonewheel. The more I practice at critiquing works, the more I'll be able to catch those same mistakes in my work.

Secondly, I want to support every author, as often as I can, on these forums. I have grown to love this site. It is the first site I visit in the day and the last site I log off at night. Every member here has proven to be respectful, intelligent people with the same great goal.

On that note, here are some pointers I have to capturing people's attention:

1. Put a decent title on your submission. This is the first thing that people will discern when they visit the showroom.

2. Do not submit more than 2,000 words. Anything else will require too much time from the reader. When I see a behemoth of a submission I evaluate how much time I have before I have to do something else. Usually that translates into "I better put this off until later."

3. Ask a set of questions that you want feedback on. Give the readers a guideline of what you're looking for.

4. Respect all feedback. Do not argue, but discuss.

5. Respond to feedback. It will enage other readers to wonder what's going on in this story that has garnered so much attention.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Foremost for me is the time consideration. If there are several posts of text to work through then I'm not likely to have time to work through that much.
Titles & writer skill level has nothing to do with it. I try to help wherever possible but I can't devote hours at a time to one persons 20 page post.
A piece at a time is best.

 

[JonSnow]

This is all good info to know before I use it in the future...don't make it too long, and ask questions to the readers to guide them in what sort of feedback you want. Even though it wasn't my question, I am glad for all the replies.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Also, in terms if brevity: Even the live critique groups I'm associated with don't allow submissions over 1500 words per week. The reasoning is simple.... 7 members x 1500 words each. Too many words would take away from the quality if the critique or take time from other members. I see no difference here.

 

[Steerpike]

I kind of got out of the habit of critiquing in online forums, though I do it occasionally still. I need to get back into it a bit more. The main thing is length. If the authors submission for critique takes up more than one post (i.e. they ran over the character limit in the first one and had to go to two or more posts) I'm less likely to critique it. I also won't critique for anyone I've seen arguing with critiquers.

Lastly, if the beginning is just really bad, or fails to capture my interest, I typically don't offer critique (except to note that point).

 

[Twook00]

I can definitely see how length would be an issue. I've done little critiquing so I don't think I've realized just how long it takes. Does this mean that scenes themselves are best when 1500 words or less? Or that a post is? Now that I think about it, most of the books I read may have long chapters, but these are almost always made up of short scene sequences.

Arguing over critiques is something I don't understand. If anything, I WANT people to tell me what they don't like or don't quite get about the story. That's what makes these things so useful.

 

[Steerpike]

I think the scene in the final work should be as short or long as necessary to accomplish the goal the author has for that scene. I've read plenty of books with long scenes, and I don't mind them. If you have a very long scene for critique, break it up into smaller portions and offer those one at a time for feedback. The feedback on the first portion may well give you insight into the latter portions.

 

[Devor]

I'm most likely to visit the showcase when I see some familiar names posting, either as their own story or in the critiques. Even when a story is good it takes a lot of time to read it and critique, and there's other problems with the process besides. Making the Showcase work for you is a challenge, and I'd rather not get involved unless I think the poster is stepping up to that challenge.

 

[Bear]

I try to read as much as I can when I have the time. I figure if I post some of my work in the showcase then it's only fair that I check out other writers work. I try to leave a comment when I can if I feel it's relevant. Sometimes I don't read through the whole thing. Sometimes it's tough if I don't know what is going on in the post.

 

[Lorna]

Thanks for posting this Twook00. As a newish member beginning to use the showcase I was wondering the same thing. Following Ankari's post I think I've been making the mistake of posting too much.

I've started using the showcase admittedly because I'd like to get feedback on my own work as well as helping others. I'm hoping reading what other people are writing and looking at their styles will help me learn more about writing fantasy- I'm quite new to the genre. I find it interesting reading other people's responses. At present I'm not much of a critic but I feel capable of writing how a piece makes me feel and guessing how it might be improved. Reading other people's textual analyses such as Ankari's has been a big help.

At present I'm trying to look at as much as I can on the showcase so I see a good variety. I think I'd only be put off if I saw somebody posting repeatedly with spelling or grammatical mistakes after being given advice.