I have a bad habit. A terrible habit. One that a lot of people share. I'll be perusing the fiction boards and I'll see a story that's good, but has a few flaws. And sometimes, I'll kick myself into action and post, but I always feel bad posting about the flaws. Especially if the work is mostly good. It seems like nitpicking. And I know from experience having random people critique your stuff always stings a little.
But praise alone can't help a writer grow. The paper I learned the most from was the one I got a D on. That's what taught me how to write in college, and similarly a bit of nitpicking or sometimes even complaining can help an author learn a lot about writing.
Of course most writers hunt out commentary, scarce as it may be. Hunting down a proof reader can help a lot. But it's hard to approach random people for proofing, and it's still only one voice. As a writer lots of voices are always useful to get a feel for your audience.
Thus some of us have kicked around an idea we hope will get constructive critiques to the people that could use them the most, our newest and greenest writers. Not that we don't need critiques as well. Everyone can use a bit of constructive criticism. But with this we hope to advance the library as a whole, so we can all work together to improve our respective styles.
Thus I present:
The New Writers Contest!I'm sure you're now wondering how a writing contest can help you with your writing. Well that's because, in addition to deciding who wins the contest, the judges will be doing a full critique of each fic submitted. This critique will be PMed to each contestant, so no matter what you'll get some useful feedback. You don't need to worry about your work sitting there with no visible readers. At least, not here.
Of course this is a contest. And no contest is complete without a prize. The person who wins this little challenge will receive Spechul Membah .
Now firstly we have to give the new writers a fair chance. So sadly those who have won a Weekly Writing Challenge in the past are not eligible. In addition, these are busy times, and while we aren't looking for terribly long works, we don't want people to feel rushed either. So the dead line will be February 1st.
Lastly we don't want to leave people with no sense of direction. On the other hand we don't want to overly limit writers too.
Robert A Heinlein once said there were only three stories. 'Boy meets Girl,' 'The Little Tailor' and 'A Man Learns a Lesson.' A person could, by using variants of these, create every story ever. For example, girl meets girl, or a man doesn't learn a lesson.
Thus the two topics to help you along:
?Two friends meet?and
?A Touhou Learns a Lesson.?In addition feel free to tweak the topics slightly. For example ?Two friends part? is a legitimate topic as well. These are more to give you ideas then a solid rule for judging..
We look forward to your entries. Whether you enter just because you can, or to finally drag a real critique out of the board, we're happy to be able to read your work and help you become better writers. Because skilled writers benefit all of us.
