New and Confused

The name is Tears and I guess you can tell I'm new.

I noticed there are rules and guidelines. Would anyone like to tell me some of them?
1) What are the points for?
2) Reviews?
3) What's a badge?
4) Posting: Is this site only for short stories? Am I allowed to post chapters to a novel?
If there's anything else I need to know, please tell me!

A little about myself:
I drink way too much espresso, love the color green, enjoy marco flower photography, have two kittens (Coco - 4 months & Tessa - 8 months), the "normal" weather here consists of rain and more rain, I can't tell if I enjoy being a online student, have a weird fascination about angels, I love the classics, and yeah, a bunch more stuff...

Oh, one novel that made me cry was As You Wish by Jackson Pearce. You should have seen me! I also enjoyed reading Fallen by Lauren Kate & The Percy Jackson Series. - Saw the movie.

I watch Big Time Rush on Nick & Masterpice Theater on Sundays.

So, yep. That's me for now. Would appriecate the help on everything.

- Tears

Hi, I'm new too, so probably not the best person in the world to ask about this, but I'll help however I can. The points are for the comments you write with regards to reviewing other people's work - and writing hellos to new members under the 'Welcome Mat' as I 've just found out! I think they're pretty much for anywhere where you write stuff (I believe that extends to written pieces of work you post up as well).

If you review a piece of work - short story, fiction, poem, etc, - then you are more likely to have your work reviewed by others. That's why reviewing is important here - as I've found out over the past seven days of having joined, everyone helps everyone out, and that way, we all benefit!

To see what you can post on YWS - go up above to where it says Read/Write, and just click on it. You'll see that there are many different types of poetry, story, and even non-fiction articles that can be reviewed here.

Sorry that I cannot answer Q's about badges - but obviously it takes some time to get one!


Nice to get to know you Tears, and if you have any issues, feel free to PM me and I'll see what I can do.

Welcome TearsofAgony! Let me fill you in on some of the YWS stuff you asked about - though Navita did a pretty great job for being as new as she is.

1) Points are recieved just as Navita explained. Though, I'm fairly sure you only recieve points from reviewing if your review is above 250 words (the minimum for a post of a literary work to be considered a helpful review), but I'm not sure on that. Points can be used to create new topics (especially Storybooks, I know those require points to post) and for anything in Advanced Critiques (full manuscripts of novels)

2) Reviews are helpful comments on another writers work posted here on YWS. Believe it or not, the best ones aren't the ones that say "oh my god, this is awesome!". Writers on YWS enjoy that constructive criticism, and want other writers to help them improve. Grammer, plot, characters, and descriptions are major categories that are focused on in reviews.

As Navita said, the more you review the more other people will review your work. We love to help each other.

3) Badges are out new incentive program. You can recieve them for 1001 posts, storybooking, reviewing I and II, and greeter. They are given to people who have been nominated by their peers for excellence in storybooking, reviewing, and greeting new members. The 1001 posts badge is automatically given for any member who has made 1001 posts.

4) Of course you can post novels in progress! In fact, we have just created Novel subforums in the literary forums to make it easier for posting novels. The process isn't completely done, but it will be soon. You can post short stories, chapters to novels (and full novels in Advanced Critiques), poetry, scripts, and even art & photography.

Something you should know as well: As this is a writing site, we don't use chatspeak on the site. Meaning, we dnt tlk lyke dis. Since we are all writers here, we like to practice good grammer. Also, using all caps in any circumstance is rarely a good idea around here.

I don't know what else there really is to need to know... But if you have any more questions, feel free to ask me!

-Lauren-

P.S. I love green as well! Aww kitties! Classics
P.S.S. Welcome to YWS!!!

Hi, Tears! I'm Hannah! Welcome to YWS, and feel free to PM me if you find you have any other questions, but it seems like the answers to the ones you had have been pretty solid! ^_^

Which of your cats is that in your avatar? Also, I admire that you like espresso. I love the smell of coffee and everything, but I hate that it's so bitter. And then, even coffee drinkers find espresso too bitter, so you must be magical! Haha!

Also, did you mean macro flower photography? I love the way flowers look when you focus on them with a camera. Somehow they always seem brighter than when you look at them with your own eyes, which is a real shame.

Anyways, I hope you're enjoying YWS so far!

-Hannah-

Hey Tears! I'm Sealegs. Rain and more rain sounds terrible. It rained here today and was cloudy and it bummed me out. I have two cats as well. Their names are Sheba and Bastet. I used to try to be creative with names, obviously. I also love photography, but I'm not very good at it. Also, I have a strange fear of angels. In a non-religious way. Not that I don't like religion...just...you know. Anyways.

Everyone seemed to answer your questions. If you need anything just PM me! I look forward to seeing your work!

- S.