Constructive Criticism Anonymous (original) (raw)

Welcome to Concstructive Criticism Anonymous! This is a brand new comm for soliciting and providing honest feedback on fandom and original works.

Since we are brand new, a lot of the kinks are in the process of being ironed out; please bear with me as I make changes. If you have suggestions on making the comm work better, do get in touch: by email, PM, or by leaving a comment on a Mod Post.

Official Business
Guide to Giving and Receiving Constructive Criticism.
Community Rules & Regulations"

Would you like to post your work here to be reviewed? First and foremost, take a look at the work that's already been posted, and offer your feedback! To make this comm work, people need to review. That's what we're here for, right? Even if it's not your fandom, you can give your general opinions.

Posting Your Work
At the moment, this comm is set up to receive works posted as comments to a main post.
FANFICTION goes here.
ORIGINAL FICTION goes here.

All stories posted to this comm must be rated no higher than an R. All adult-rated fic should go on our sister comm, concrit_anon18.

Still here! Things are slow, but we'll get plugging. Perhaps some more promo is in order...

Anyway, first things first:

Posting to this community is now open to everyone! If you'd like to post a work directly to the comm (either here or at concrit_anon18), you can now do so! Posting is moderated, but I'll just be looking to see that everything is set up correctly, adhering to guidelines, etc. before approving stories through.

I'll be changing the rules and comm info etc. to reflect the new changes over the next couple of days, but in the meantime, here are instructions for posting to the comm:

Make a new post to the community. (Choose "post to this community" from the gray bar at the top of your window.)
For the SUBJECT of your post, please include this info: FANDOM (or ORIGINAL WORK), TITLE, RATING.
Please include this HEADER with your work (writers of original fiction may eliminate the "characters/pairing" line if desired):
Please place your work (regardless of length) behind a LJ CUT.

Any questions? Get in touch!

As for new works posted to the site:

Original Works:
Untitled Poem (G).

Greetings, everyone! It was seven days ago that I created this comm, and so far I am VERY pleased with the traffic we've gotten. It's hard to get a project like this rolling, so my thanks to everyone who has participated so far! I'm also delighted with the quality of the critiques that have been left. THANK YOU especially to everyone who's offered their opinion on a work posted here!

This is the community's first WEEKLY ROUND-UP post. If you're not tracking the story posts or checking back on them regularly, this will be your way to keep up with what's new in the community. (If you're not receiving the Weekly Round-Up in your inbox and would like to, join or watch the comm.)

Want to see more traffic on the comm? Waiting for someone from your fandom to come along and review your work? Grab a Banner Code and lend a hand with site promotion! If you want to pimp the comm to a specific fandom and would like a banner for that purpose, let me know, and I'll whip one up. (And stop on by this comment and let me know if I should add your fandom to the comm's interests!)

Changes to Site Policy:
*All adult-rated works should now be posted on our new sister comm, concrit_anon18.

* In a few days, I will be opening up posting access to allow (some) authors to post their works directly to the site, rather than as a comment to one of the main posts. Before I do that, I wanted to solicit some opinions. Some items to consider:

The main reason I'm considering the change is to more easily accommodate longer works. In order to save the flists of people watching the comm, I would like to place a word limit on which stories may be posted this way: say, limited to stories over 3,000 words. Thoughts?
At least in the beginning, I would moderate posting to the community (meaning I would have to approve a post before it shows up on the comm). Up in the air: should I limit posting to members? Pros/cons?
You cannot create new posts anonymously. Authors who wanted to preserve their identity would have a couple options: to post using a sock account or to email their story to me and let me post it for them. Are there any other options?

Now on to the works!

( New to the FANFICTION post Collapse )

( New to the ORIGINAL FICTION post Collapse )

( New to CONCRIT_ANON18 Collapse )

Happy Writing! :D

Ok, so I've had to delete a story posted to the "R and under" thread because it was borderline adults-only rated, and it made me feel all awful and fascist and censorship-y. (I am so distraught, I am now making up words!)

The problem I had with making an adults-only members-locked post on this journal was that you cannot comment anonymously on a locked entry, and who enjoys anonymity more than smut writers? (Says the mod who has never published an adult story under her own username...)

So, rather than keep adult content in a locked entry, I have created a separate comm that is set to contain "explicit adult content": concrit_anon18. It will operate under the same rules and general principles as this site, I'll have links to it here, but LJ will be responsible for making sure that everybody who particpates there is of an age to do so. Cool?

This means that I will be opening up membership to this comm; you'll no longer need moderator approval to join. So if you received one of those irritating "tell me how old you are" messages and haven't responded yet, you needn't bother! Just click "join" again and you'll be able to do so without my interference. (If you received one of those messages and made the necessary changes to your profile, thank you so much for your cooperation! I'm sorry to make you jump through hoops unnecessarily.) Membership to the 18+ comm will also be unmoderated.

Announcements that apply to both comms will be made here.

I'll be slowly changing settings/rules/regs/etc. to reflect this new change, but bear with me in the meantime! As always, your thoughts and opinions are welcome; feel free to leave them here, PM me, or send an email to concrit.anon.mods@gmail.com.

As of now, this comm is going live and accepting fic! I'm still interested in making this place as useful and user-friendly as possible, so I welcome any and all feedback you'd like to provide.

For the moment, this post is going to serve as a hub for the comm: you can navigate the rest of the posts from here.

I am the Queen of TL;DR, and therefore there are a lot of words on this site. You don't have to read them all to post and participate, but know that you're subject to the rules whether you've glanced at them or not, so go on, give 'em a try! I believe that creative, thinking people will differ in opinion and that they can do so respectfully without devolving into chaos and name-calling. I'm not interested in mini-modding every disagreement. However, anytime you allow anonymous commenting, you have to be prepared for wank. I AM PREPARED. WANK WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

/end scary mod voice

How We Operate
A Guide to Constructive Criticism: Giving and Receiving.
Comm Rules and Regulations.

There are three separate posts for posting fic: one for fanfic, one for original fiction, and one for any story (original or fandom-oriented) above an R rating. Those fics are posted at their own separate comm.

Post Your Stories!
The FANFICTION Post.
The ORIGINAL FICTION Post.
ALL ADULT/NC-17 RATED STORIES should be posted at our sister comm, concrit_anon18.

Constructive Criticism ("concrit") is feedback given for the purpose of helping an author improve their work. Concrit respects the author's integrity as a writer: it assumes that they are passionate about their work, that they take it seriously, and that they are interested in improving their craft. This won't be true for every writer: after all, most of us are just doing this for fun! But for the purposes of this community, please approach your reviews with those assumptions in mind.

( Tips for Giving and Receiving Concrit Collapse )

A note on Membership:
Membership is completely optional, and not required to read and/or post to the comm.

( General Guidelines and Rules for Authors and Reviewers Collapse )

Enforcement of the rules is entirely at the mod's discretion. Response to actions deemed to be in violation of comm rules include (but are not limited to): freezing and deleting of comments, (temporary) disabling of anonymous commenting, (temporary) logging of IP addresses, bannination, gentle reminders, stern looks, virtual wrist slaps, and voodoo curses. In short: DON'T MESS!

A Note on Karma:
If this comm is going to work, people are going to have to READ AND REVIEW. Since anonymity is allowed, I have no way of checking who's doing what, but please help maintain the balance! If there are stories up without reviews, please give them a go before adding yours to the stack.

This post is for fanfiction: that is, stories based on other published works, such as movies, books, and television programs.

This post is for stories rated no higher than an R rating. If your story should be rated Adult/NC-17 due to graphic descriptions of sex and/or violence, it must go in the Members-Only post designated for stories of that rating. Authors are expected to use their Best Judgment, but if you're uncertain PM me and I'll let you know where your story belongs.

( Instructions for Posting Fanfic Collapse )

REVIEWERS: To keep everything together and make it easier to read, please ONLY reply to the final comment of the story.

TL;DR: Follow the rules of the comm. Be constructive and balanced in your criticism. Report violations to the mod. Don't take concrit personally. Have a nice day. :D

This post is for original fiction: that is, stories involving characters and plots invented by the author and not based on other works.

( Instructions for Posting Original Fiction Collapse )

REVIEWERS: To keep everything together and make it easier to read, please ONLY reply to the final comment of the story.

TL;DR: Follow the rules of the comm. Be constructive and balanced in your criticism. Report violations to the mod. Don't take concrit personally. Have a nice day. :D

Constructive criticism: as precious to a writer as gold, and yet as rare as hen's teeth! There could be many reasons why commenters fear to offer this sort of feedback on the stories they read: uncertainty that the criticism will be appreciated by the writer; fear that the writer will be angered that someone dare question their artistic vision; or just plain old shyness!

Likewise, writers might be equally hesitant to seek an in-depth critique of their work: what if their writing really needs as much work as they fear?

Well, this comm is going to attempt to address some of those issues, by giving writers and reviewers the opportunity to share their work and their feedback anonymously.

Pitfalls? You bet! ( Let's try to iron them out!Collapse )

Anonymous commenting is on, IP logging and comment screening are turned off; feel free to offer your honest opinions. (And practice your constructive criticizing style!) Anonymity is optional; you may post logged-in if you prefer. Usual rules of internet decorum (no flaming, be constructive) apply.