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lisafox10800
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 18 Jul 2016 Location: NJ Status: Offline Points: 9440 |
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Agree with you 100%!
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lisafoxiswriting.com
My short story collection, Core Truths, is now available wherever books are sold. |
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stephenmatlock
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Location: Seattle Status: Offline Points: 10422 |
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This is very interesting -- My take is that by the time I get to the final form and I submit it, the things that should be fixed can't be, such as grammar/typos/plot holes/etc., so I personally try to avoid picking on those except if I can phrase it as "this didn't work for me." During the beta process I'll point those out, but once it's final, it feels like I'm spending time on the small stuff. But if I see a protagonist take up a crowbar in self defense and then hit his assailant with a 2x4, I'm going to want to point that out as "I was a bit confused when Jerry picked up the crowbar and then hit Tom with a 2x4. Did you drop a sentence where he switched weapons?" That seems to be more positive than "Did you know you have a ginormous error here when Jerry's weapon changes magically?" (This is something I did in one of my novels, and only an eagle-eyed reviewer saw it--it was in the final proof!) |
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Pithy sayings are for the apt. For a longer message, you need a condo.
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tcFlash
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 14 Aug 2014 Location: Michigan Status: Offline Points: 4844 |
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First of all, was the time between submission and results longer this time than ever before? It was eight and a half weeks. I don't remember it being that long, but I might be mistaken. That would lend itself to burning people out.
I encourage those who have been around for a while to continue offering high quality reviews and critiques, even if you offer fewer. People read those and learn how it's done. They may begin by mimicking your style and form. That's fine, as long as they go on to develop their own. I think I'm in favor of breaking the forum up. I may not have thought that through enough, but it seems reasonable at this point. High numbers of participants and too long a waiting period between submission and results is bound to be a killer. Add that to the old-timers being completely swamped with newcomers and you can include old-timer burnout to the issues. It's a growth thing. We need some good ideas for handling growth.
Edited by tcFlash - 19 Mar 2017 at 3:29am |
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tcFlash
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 14 Aug 2014 Location: Michigan Status: Offline Points: 4844 |
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Another question I have, which I'm not sure how to go about answering, is this. Can we somehow compare participation over the years to see if it is falling off? Or, is participation still relatively high and we are being more efficient because of the Master List?
I do know that this year I considered how much reviewing I was doing early on and I knew I could not keep that up for 8 1/2 weeks. I have other writing projects I am working on besides NYCM. A shorter period between submission and results would be nice, but it would require more judges. As far as I am concerned, there are some people right here in the forums who would be outstanding judges, probably as good or better than the ones we now have. That is not a negative criticism of the current judges, but it is high and deserved praise for some people with tremendous insight.
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michelecacano
NYC Midnight Newbie Joined: 16 Feb 2014 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 82 |
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Yes, I agree with you. Higher quality critiques are useful, both to the writer being reviewed and anyone else reading those reviews. After finding that amazing Master List, I found it much easier to read and review works, myself (not that I've made much time for it... Soery!). |
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tcFlash
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 14 Aug 2014 Location: Michigan Status: Offline Points: 4844 |
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Stephen, I agree with you that when I finally submit, I am doing so, knowing that I have issues. But the deadline rules the day. I do go easy on some grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors. I'm looking for a great story. If I have the choice of improving my storyline or improving the grammatical part of my story, I'll opt for working on the plot and characters.
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tcFlash
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 14 Aug 2014 Location: Michigan Status: Offline Points: 4844 |
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Also, we lost some old-timers who were extremely active in the past. I felt that in a big way this time. I've been around for four years, but I am not in the same league with the people I am referring to. But, it may be time for others to step up and fill the void.
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tcFlash
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 14 Aug 2014 Location: Michigan Status: Offline Points: 4844 |
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Here's my pat on suave's back....Great job. Thank you for making this year's SSC as enjoyable as it has been. Now, regarding the maintenance of the ML in the future, would two, smaller forums with an ML of their own be more effective and encourage participation? Edited by tcFlash - 19 Mar 2017 at 3:59am |
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patsy
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 28 Aug 2011 Location: Ohio, USA Status: Offline Points: 4709 |
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I'll admit I've been bad this year. I did read back reviews but very few seek outs. I did more in flash. perhaps it was the length that burned me out faster, or just too much going on! But I have done less this round :(
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nixie
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 01 Aug 2015 Location: Seattle, WA Status: Offline Points: 9048 |
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I think, in the general scheme of things, the forums are tough to search and posts accumulate quickly. The "most-recently-touched-post-to-the-front" logic makes it easy to miss posts, and the more random subject lines are, the harder it is to sort them in any meaningful way. I can totally understand how 'fewer things in one place' would make that easier to wade through. But that annoyance is the origin of the Master List. I don't know that 'separate forums" would be that much different, at this point, as long as someone picks up the ML task (I am "in" for FFC - if you see my Nixie nose, there will be a Master List - so kiss up to Suave to keep doing one for SSC ;) ). Splitting into two forums *would create extra steps for those who, for example, skim the ML to find other groups that wrote in their genre, etc. Thoughts?
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