If I have a novella of almost 80 pages Word times new roman size 12 and I wanna get some feedback on it,what to do???
You can post a particularly troublesome extract up in the novels forum, but we discourage long posts there. Short of that, you can try and find some generous soul to take a look at it for you, but its a big ask.
Yeah, like Banzai said, long extracts from novels are discouraged. Perhaps if you have a few particular sections that you feel need critiquing, you could post those
The purpose of critiques in the Review Room forum is to help the author find what writing habits might be worth some touch up, so the author can go through the opus and improve his own work. For that, it's best to post excerpts from where you are having the greatest difficulty. Also, by having the author review other people's work, the author's own reviewing skills are sharpened, so he can examine his own work more effectively. The downside, of course, is that finding more structural shortcomings such as uneven plot development is next to impossible. But ferreting those out is much more reading-intensive anyway than you can reasonably expect of people who are not paid, full-time editors.
the main problem with posting your entire work is that you lose the ability to sell 'first rights' to most, if not all publishers... and since it can be read online for free, who's going to want to buy it? so, as noted above, just post the opening page and with that, we can offer you some feedback on what needs work, if it's not up to submission minimums yet... that said, why write a novella, when it's virtually impossible to find a publisher who'd take it on?... unless it's for the YA market, that is... but even then, at only about 20,000 words, it's probably too short even for that... love and hugs, maia
thnx guys for your replies, ok, so if i need to know if my plot works well, can i, like, send a summary of the thing mentioning how I went from this to that to that...etc? or is it better if I just take pieces of the thing and put it together in one page? like a trailer or so... the thing is it is too long, and I am not sure which parts excatly to post for review... is what i said above a good idea??
You could try that. You could also try posting the first chapter or so on these forums, and mention in your post that you'd like a beta reader if anybody likes the look of it so far and wants to see more.
Okay, I'll post Chapter one only in a separate thread. But let me talk about it briefly, It's a story about a guy (Well, actually its me ) having a strange dream before he wakes up to the strangest day for him, he also starts picking up some clues that can lead him to solve the mystery of this strage day, and at the end he solves the mystery and finds out a very unexpected and surprising event followed by another one that ends the story itself... Okay, if you want my opinion about my story I'd give it 3-3.5/5 I can say its a bit cliched and i have to admitt that it was all written for one purpose: to introduce the final event, which I know not much people would be even interested in it. However that wasn't much what i had in mind when i wrote it, actually this is my first complete story and i was very curious to get feedback about my style in writting and the way the plot works...etc more than the story itself...
Just as a future reference, make sure to post all chapters in the same thread Some people have made new threads for each new chapter and it can clutter the forums. I look forward to seeing the first chapter.
cdrw... yes, it does... if you hope to find a paying magazine/journal venue to take it on, posting it online will use up its 'first rights' which is all most of them will buy... aside from the rights angle, think of it from their pov... why would they pay you good money to print it in a publication they sell, if it's available on the net for anyone to read for free?
So can't we post it here, get some reviews, then delete the thread so that we can send our work for publication?
No. You can't "unpublish" something. Search engines can pick it up, for one thing. If it's on a publically accessible web site, it is considered "spoiled" by most publishers in terms of first publication rates.
So this site allows people to view the writing in the critique section when not logged in? Because if it's a private critique forum (meaning just anybody can't walk on and see it), first online print rights are still intact for most online magazines. This might be different for other publishers.
most online publishers don't pay for the material, so they're not so picky... most print publishers do, so they are...
As the Forum Rules (have you read them?) state in the section cryptically labelled Posting Stories and Poems: Now, keep in mind that no one is likely to go through a full 80 pages worth of novella to review it. So you are well advised to select an excerpt that illustrates enough of your writing style to comment on. The excerpt need not be a single contiguous piece. The opening paragraphs are important for grabbing readers' attention, and you may have other passages where you feel something is missing. Choose well, and you will be rewarded with more focused, useful critques. The Novel subforum is a good choice for excerpts from a large piece like a novella, where the reviews will be based on scattered excerpts. See? There was no need to shout.
I can't acutally state whether or not >51% online publishers do not pay, but I know plenty do, since I've sold stories to them. Your prejudice against my chosen medium wounds me . I do see your point...hmm. Sounds like a case for the suggestion section.
Guests should not be able to view post contents in the Review Room. However, if a bug develops that allows posts to be viewed there, please notify Daniel, the site owner. But anyone can get an account and browse the Review Room. It's not closed enough to be "safe" from ruining first publication status, not to mention outright theft of copyrighted material. The best advice is if it's a piece you plan to publish, only post as large an excerpt as will get you the help you need. A dose of reality here - if you're posting with a "show and tell" mentality that seeks praise so you build the confidence for submitting to publishers, you're shooting off your own kneecaps. Anything you seriously plan to publish should be kept mostly under wraps until you are ready to hand it over to a publisher. But don't let it stop you from posting short practice pieces and "for the fun of it" stories. Those can only help you build upon your skills and help you expand.
I don't know if I'd want more help on my 'for fun' pieces than I do on pieces I acutally want published... Meh. Whatever. I'm sorry I'm bringing this off-topic. Anyway, here's a list of some general rights: http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/rights.html And this has a whole list of 'em: http://www.writing-world.com/rights/index.shtml See what you can find out about reprints, Mythist, and good luck!
