z

Young Writers Society


How Helpful is YWS??



User avatar
100 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 6717
Reviews: 100
Sat Sep 04, 2010 6:39 pm
Hecate says...



While it's true that people don't always follow the advice that reviewers give them, you have to remember that that's up to them. I mean, the people on here do their job and review. After that, all you have to do is apply what yoú've learned to your own work.

As for people not following your work? Well, if someone asked you to PM them when the next chapter came out, then surely you could if you knew that this person would give you a helpful review.

YWS can only do so much, you can't leave it all up to the site, come on, you have to do some work of your own too, no?

Nate wrote:Apparently it's helped you quite a bit:

September 4, 2009: topic48203.html#p597115
September 1, 2010: post758948.html#p758948


And wow Nate, I don't know what you're trying to say, but it did seem kind of harsh to me :/
  





User avatar
63 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 314
Reviews: 63
Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:46 pm
iheartbooks says...



Here I am, being the person who leaves hardly anything critical, so isn't really helping. I just think it's kind of funny how somebody writes their opinion on something, and then a whole bunch of people go into "Defense" mode =]

WritingWords:
I totally agree with you on lots of those points. I do "follow" a lot of people (okay, only, like, three. But still!) and I don't get any notices when new works come out. All that happens is that I can have an easy way to check their portfolio.

And that's all I'm really going to say... lol, I know, this must be the most helpful review out there!

Well, can't wait to get out there and read more stuff, because that's what I do in my life, read, read, read!

-iheartbooks♥
"As the hungry are deprived of food, I am deprived of sympathy for those who deprive me of my sanity." ~Anonymous
  





User avatar
425 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 11417
Reviews: 425
Sat Sep 04, 2010 8:33 pm
Nate says...



stelagineva wrote:
Nate wrote:Apparently it's helped you quite a bit:

September 4, 2009: topic48203.html#p597115
September 1, 2010: post758948.html#p758948


And wow Nate, I don't know what you're trying to say, but it did seem kind of harsh to me :/


Is it harsh because I didn't include a smilie, or because you didn't understand the point? There's almost no language in there other than referencing two links, so any harshness you see in it is merely something you invented. You could just as easily read into it humor, wit, stupidity, lack of grace, etc. As there is only a bare minimum of language, whatever emotions read into it are invented.

But the point is this: clearly, WritingWords has improved. Whether YWS has had anything to do with it is hard to say, but the point is that she has improved.



Now, more generally, I think there is a difference of perception among many here. Some say that YWS clearly does help, while others are more ambiguous on that score. We all use the same site, so why the difference?

Evi brought up a good point that explains this difference: you will only get so much out of YWS as what you put into it. There seems to be a growing perception particularly among many youth that there is some kind of quick and easy way to get where you want to go. While such a perception has always existed among youth, it's become more pronounced in recent years due to the ubiquity of smart-phones, the Internet, and misc. gadgets.

For example, just ten years ago, if you wanted to go from one city to another, you got out a map and plotted a course. In case you got lost, you carried a map in your car or you found a gas station (where you either asked for directions or bought a map). And if you were going to a friend's house, they had to diligently explain what turns you needed to make along with the approximate length between turns.

But nowadays, you have Mapquest, Google Maps, GPS navigation, etc. for going from one place to another. It's now so simple and easy to go from place to place that people naturally assume that's how it's always been. And that's what's happening in every facet of life. Need something to be done faster and easier for you? There's an app for that.

Problem is, there isn't always an app for that. Want to become a better writer? Sorry, but if you are expecting, as it seems like a few here do, an application that suddenly makes that easy for you, then you are expecting the impossible. It doesn't matter what features YWS adds or what YWS changes; if you want to be a better writer, then that is entirely up to you.

Many here have already acknowledged that, and that's very heartening. But a few still seem to think that becoming a better writer can be an easy, painless process made better if only YWS did this or that. That is, some believe the task of becoming a better writer isn't up to you, it's up to YWS. That's ridiculous, and I hope it comes off sounding ridiculous.

Look, as others have mentioned, if you want to be a better writer, then YWS represents a goldmine of opportunity for you. But just like mining for gold isn't easy, the process of becoming a better writer isn't easy. You have to be prepared to actually do stuff, you have to be prepared that there isn't an app for that, and most of all you have to be prepared to engage in critical thinking. More than that, you've got to be prepared to do this for years.

Could YWS be better? Of course, but not in the way you're thinking. All YWS can do is provide the location and facilitate communication between people of radically different cultures, religions, and ages. The rest, the actual part of becoming a better writer, is entirely up to you. Continuing to pretend that there is an app for that only does you a disservice.

Fortunately, the more you put into this site, the more you will get out of it. But if you're expecting a shortcut, or expecting that somehow you will be transformed through the magic of computer applications, then you will never become a better writer.
  





User avatar
206 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 1171
Reviews: 206
Sat Sep 04, 2010 9:20 pm
LadyPurple says...



Bolt wrote: In the end, YWS can not do all the work for you. it is not the job of YWS to tell you what to do, it is not supposed to write a book for you. It is supposed to be a way to learn some tips. If you have reviews that point out the same things, every time, then you learn to work on that. Lots of writers, hell all writers before the age of the computer, got to be where they are without any help. YWS is an aid, just like any other site on the internet.

Nicely said Bolt. I've learned how to punctuate, spell better, also my grammar is better. Some of the people in my classes don't do well in those categories. I've learned that by reading stuff they write sometimes. My friend who I've invited to join YWS recently sent me home with her story to fix it up. I was appalled by the errors on it but I helped her anyway. I'm happy I learned all this from YWS.
You're new? Great seas! Why haven't you gone to the Buddy System yet?



You're dealing with writers. The words "normal" and "usual occurrence" do not compute.
~Rosey Unicorn
  








If I seem to wander, if I seem to stray, remember that true stories seldom take the straightest way.
— Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind