Young Writers Society

Okay, so you’ve been a member for three days now and you’ve posted your first story/poem. Now you’re waiting for all those critiques to come flooding in, telling you how great your piece of work is.

Reality check! Critiques will probably be slow at first, even after you’ve been on the site for a few months, and they’re hardly going to tell you how good your work is. Here’s a list of things you can do to get yourself some critiques.

1. Review other people’s work- This doesn’t mean not reading it and then telling them how great it is. Really read it and give the best review you can. As you get to be a better writer (and if you stay on the site, you will), it will get easier to give better critiques. But always try your hardest.

2. Don’t post really long things- Anything over a few thousand words will make the reader lose interest and stop reading. Try to keep things under 2000 words.

3. Always double check your work and put it through a spell check- You don’t want a critique telling you how bad your spelling is, and not getting to the actual plot/characters or description.

4. Be friendly- When giving reviews, don’t say ‘this piece absolutely sucked. Stop writing.’ Be nice and mature when critiquing.

5. Be active- Make yourself known. Review lots, and in different genres. Enter contests and create them. Welcome new members and post in all different forums.

There are five things. If you take note of them and apply them, you should be getting in-depth critiques in no time!

Very good tips! The funny thing is, three out of the five I have in my own "Before you Post" thread, and I don't think many people read that before they post. ^_~

Hopefully people will read this and follow what you say! Also, you can PM instructors, SPEW, and CCF to get critiques! But people shouldn't rely on that.

And also, when people critique, thank them. This might seem like kind of a conceited thing for me to say, but the majority of people who critique put a lot of time and effort into writing them- as much or more as they would writing fiction themselves.

So, yeah- thank a critiquer! It'll make them happier and want to come back and critique you more. ^_^ And who knows- you might just make a friend. We don't bite (usually), and we like to get involved with stories...you know, see them change from first draft to final?

Just my two cents.

Totally agree with Sam here--I always do my best to thank all my editors, especially those who consistenly critique certain stories. Giving out internet cookies and lots of hugs seems to work well, too!