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promising reciprocal reviews - an open promise?

Printed From: NYC Midnight : Creative Writing & Screenwriting
Category: GENERAL DISCUSSION
Forum Name: Questions & Answers
Forum Description: Ask any questions you have regarding NYC Midnight competitions here. We will answer as quickly as possible.
URL: https://forums.nycmidnight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=18757
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 5:01am
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Topic: promising reciprocal reviews - an open promise?
Posted By: Talespinner
Subject: promising reciprocal reviews - an open promise?
Date Posted: 06 Aug 2018 at 6:40am
I hate making commitments I cannot honour. And I'm not sure that in the next round I can honour "All crits reciprocated."

Those of you who have been here a while...Let's say you write a great story (as surely you do) and it gets dozens of crits: everybody loves it, everybody crits it. Let's say you get x crits. 

How do you find the time and headspace to read all those x stories and do them all justice in reciprocal reviews? How much time do you plan for each read-and-review?



Replies:
Posted By: Collins50
Date Posted: 06 Aug 2018 at 6:49am
Go with the philosophy of give-get, but only IF you have the time. 

I have spent hours on here reading and reviewing, but I love it. For someone with time constraints, maybe just be upfront and say you will reciprocate when you can. I think that’s reasonable because you could spend so much time reading that you stop writing on your own projects.

You can always say you will do 5 or 10 return critiques when you post, I think the main thing is that you opened yourself up for criticism and after your initial 5 critiques, you don’t have to keep reading other peoples unless it works out for you. We all have busy lives, and I can understand! 

Also, you can vary your critiques to save time. Not all of them need to be detailed and in depth. It could just be your initial thoughts, questions, and advice. 

Once school starts, the second prompt will be harder for me to reciprocate as much! 


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Posted By: lisafox10800
Date Posted: 06 Aug 2018 at 10:30am
Originally posted by Talespinner Talespinner wrote:

I hate making commitments I cannot honour. And I'm not sure that in the next round I can honour "All crits reciprocated."

Those of you who have been here a while...Let's say you write a great story (as surely you do) and it gets dozens of crits: everybody loves it, everybody crits it. Let's say you get x crits. 

How do you find the time and headspace to read all those x stories and do them all justice in reciprocal reviews? How much time do you plan for each read-and-review?

The nice thing about having so much time in between rounds is that you can pace yourself. I'm just getting back to folks now who reviewed my piece a few weeks ago. But I'm just about caught up.

I tend to be pretty detailed in my reviews so it is time-consuming. If you chip away at returns it's not so overwhelming.


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lisafoxiswriting.com
My short story collection, Core Truths, is now available wherever books are sold.


Posted By: Talespinner
Date Posted: 06 Aug 2018 at 1:28pm
Many thanks, Collins 59 and lisafox10800, I had not realized these are not time bound commitments.

Pat


Posted By: stephenmatlock
Date Posted: 06 Aug 2018 at 11:59pm
You should do what you want to do. If you can't make it to reciprocating all reviews, that is OK. Really!

If you can't do it and there is a chance of misunderstanding, I'd clearly mark (or edit) your initial story to say "I might not get to responding to your critique or your story because I'm overwhelmed with other things" or something of that nature.

Personally, I don't mind knowing that someone can't get to my story even if I review theirs--I review theirs for my own interest, after all--and I even don't mind if they can't get to mine after they implicitly or explicitly promise to do so. Life often interrupts our plans, and that is fine with me.

Do what works for you. This should be fun for you, and not a task nor a work of drudgery.


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Pithy sayings are for the apt. For a longer message, you need a condo.



Posted By: Suave
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2018 at 8:26am
I would not worry too much about it.  Just bounce back now and then a read a story, does not matter if you do not get to them all.  It does give you practice at looking at things differently.


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https://shorturl.at/oFHX0" rel="nofollow - SP Butterflies and Bumblebees
https://shorturl.at/sxQU6" rel="nofollow - SS Drama/ A Touch of Humanity


Posted By: Bookworm33
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2018 at 9:06am
When I post my stories, I always state that I do most of my own reviewing on the weekends. If the weekend passes and I still have feedback to return, I try my best to get it done within a week of the posting. Sometimes I even hop on here during my lunch break to read a bit...it's a nice escape from work!

I've found it generally takes me around 30-35 minutes to critique a story and post my response. For what it's worth, I've never had "too many" critiques to return. We still have over a month before the next round...even if you only critique one story a day, you still have time for over 35 reviews!

One of my favorite sayings is "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Focus on one task at a time, and you'll be able to get everything done!


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SSC R1: https://bit.ly/36gf5JB" rel="nofollow - Hard Lessons


Posted By: Tim G
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2018 at 9:32am
I have always promised to reciprocate critiques, I consider this process works best when people give what they take.

This means I've been rather busy this round in Flash Fiction LOLLOLLOL. But I'm up to date!

It's a process I love and keeping up has been an absolute blast. Helping where I can, and just enjoying the hell out of the great writing and saying 'thanks' where I can't add anything.

It does take time, and if that time is time you don't have, simply don't make that promise. 

What I find is that, when on the front foot, reading stories at random will mean you get 1 in 3 or so returning the favour.
Reading ones with a high 'hit' counter means you get about 1 in 2 returns.
And reading ones where people say 'reviews will be reciprocated' means you get 2 in 3.
So... if you want to drive traffic, play the reciprocal game. And if you don't that's absolutely fine but be prepared to have less reads of yours in turn.


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Rhyming Story R2: https://shorturl.at/ozDEZ" rel="nofollow - Flying On Empty (Thriller)


Posted By: Talespinner
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2018 at 12:00pm
Originally posted by Bookworm33 Bookworm33 wrote:

When I post my stories, I always state that I do most of my own reviewing on the weekends. If the weekend passes and I still have feedback to return, I try my best to get it done within a week of the posting. Sometimes I even hop on here during my lunch break to read a bit...it's a nice escape from work!

I've found it generally takes me around 30-35 minutes to critique a story and post my response. For what it's worth, I've never had "too many" critiques to return. We still have over a month before the next round...even if you only critique one story a day, you still have time for over 35 reviews!

One of my favorite sayings is "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Focus on one task at a time, and you'll be able to get everything done!

Great.

At the last count I had four elephants!

Thanks, everyone, makes sense now.

See y'all in the next round, I hope...
Pat



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