nixie wrote:
[subject proudly borrowed from the Starship Troopers screenplay]
The following is not ‘official’ in any way. It merely reflects my
observations from participating in the forum.
Veterans: If you
have had a different experience or expectation, please comment!
Noobs: This should
serve as a basic introduction, and get you started.
When Do I Post? After you receive your confirmation e-mail from NYCM. (Not the auto-message from Submittable, but the one that comes directly from NYCM a few days later)
Where Do
I Post?
Creative Writing Corner is an open forum. This means that anyone on the internet can see what is here. When
posting links to stories, you are *strongly* advised to post in the forum for
your contest – which can only be accessed by those in your contest. What If I Posted in the Wrong Place? You can't delete posts - even your own. But you *can edit them. Visit your post, click "post options" in the top right corner, and select the "edit" option. You can then erase your text, replace it with a message that it was posted in error (sometimes, if you change the subject to "please delete - posted in error" the admins will take it down for you), or even add a link to your correct/preferred post. What Do I
Post?
Add a “New Topic” (this will start your very own thread - so be sure you do it from within your contest's forum, and not here in CWC) and in
the subject, include the Challenge #, Group/Heat number, and the Title of your
piece: Ch2 Gr17 My Title
In the body of your post, include the prompts, title, and
synopsis/logline
Link your
story.
- Pasting your story into a post means it will be here forever -
you can't delete the post.
- Sharing your story read-only from your google drive, onedrive,
or blog allows you to unshare, remove, or password-protect it later.
- Pasting the link without making it live (clickable) is
sufficient - but there are lots of stories to read, and the time it takes to
copy and paste that into a browser is enough to send some people on their way.
The easier you make it for people, the more people will respond :)
If you use Google, please note that if you are looking at your
story, you can’t just copy the address from your browser – it will point users
to their own google drive, or give a permissions error (depending on how you go
about it). Most reliable: look at your
google drive. See your story in the list
of files? Right-click it and choose the option to share a link (or whatever
they are calling it this week). Make
sure you chose “view” permissions – and use that link.
For additional info, check out JensPenDen's "How To Post Your Story To The Forum"!
Wait –
How Do I Link Stuff?
In the body of your post (for example, if you want the title of
your story to be a clickable link to your story):
Type your text “MY TITLE” - then highlight that text.
Click the 5th button on the toolbar (earth + links of chain)
In the box that comes up, leave the two drop-downs alone – you are
looking for the third box, the text-box with no drop-down! If you selected text before clicking the link button, that text appears in this box.
Replace “MY TITLE” with “myurl.com” (note that I did *not include http:// in that
– it will be added by that drop-down box just left of where you are
typing. If you include it here, your
link will be http://http://myurl.com and will not work) [step by step with images here]
Linking
In Your Signature
This one is a bit more challenging because you have to do it like
a programmer ;) Some people link
directly to their story in their signature, but it is probably preferable to
link to your forum post – that way folks also know where to leave you
feedback!!
To add a link to your signature:
- Click member control panel
- Click profile
- Scroll down til you see the box for your signature
- Follow the example below (Parentheses have been added in order to
ensure the text is displayed and not 'interpreted" and presented as an
actual link - replace them with square brackets. Replace the first blue text with your link. Replace the second blue text with the 'friendly' words you want to appear in your signature)
(URL=http://mylink.com) The text I want
you to see (/URL)
That says:
["this thing is a url"] "display this
text*["/end of the url stuffs"]
There is a limit to the number of characters in your signature. (150 characters max) If you have multiple entries in your signature and your edits don't seem to save - length is usually the issue. Try a link shortener like Tinyurl to cut the length of your links. How Do I
Get/Give Feedback?
Getting feedback: Post in
the forums, and review other peoples’ stories!
Giving Feedback: - “I liked
your story” is not really very helpful feedback.
While it is nice to hear, the point of feedback is to make us better
writers. So take a minute to talk about *why
you liked (or disliked!) a piece. What,
as a writer, struck you? Strong, defined
characters? Descriptions that made it easy to visualize? Dialog that felt so
real you thought you were standing there? Just as importantly, what didn’t work
for you, and why didn’t it? “I didn’t
like X” isn’t very helpful either – talk about why X didn’t hit you quite right, or what felt off about it.
- It is
customary to review the work of those who have reviewed yours. If you do not return feedback, you will find
that as time goes on people realize this and are less willing to invest in
critiquing your stories.
- Think
about what would help you as a writer – and start there. With a short time and tight word count, we
know everyone is rushed – a few minor typos or punctuation errors are going to
creep in. Are they worth commenting on?
If it is every sentence – maybe. But
if is it a handful – maybe that’s not the most constructive thing you can offer
your colleague.
It’s hard work to come up with real, Writer-y feedback. If you can’t think of any, it’s OK to say
so. That’s a statement in itself. Take a minute to explain what you felt was
right with the piece, in that event, so the author knows “what to do more of.” Don’t
have time? It’s OK to let it lie and come back another day. Most writers will
appreciate quality feedback over immediate response, so if you don’t have time
to do it well, it’s OK to wait until you do. If you are worried about it, you
can always pop a quick comment of “loved this – have more extensive feedback
but no time to type – back to you tomorrow!” Quality trumps instant
gratification.
SPOILERS Got something to say but don't want to ruin the fun for everyone else? You can use the "SPOILER" code to hide your text. here are the rules (As above, replace the () with square brackets): (SPOILER)The word "spoiler" should be in all caps. Hitting "enter" will end the 'hide". If you need a line break, use shift+enter. When you're done, end your spoiler by adding (/SPOILER) (Same text, but with square brackets):
********* As I step away from managing the Master List, I am adding this link, with instructions for making and maintaining a master list. As that task changes hand for any given contest, hopefully the info there will make it easier on each new person.
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