Here are the official critiquing guidelines:
- Please use a screen name instead of "Anonymous". Using a screen name does not require that you have a Blogger account, or any other account. Simply choose the "Name/URL" option for signing in, and type whatever screen name you'd like to use. The URL part isn't necessary.
- While it's fine to comment on whether or not the logline worked for you, the main thrust of your critique should focus on the actual writing.
- As always, a mixture of tact and honesty is the best approach.
- Hundreds of critiques will be flooding my inbox, and I won't be able to police them (unless I stop the rest of life for the next four days). If you see something that is VERY SNARKY, please let me know. (By "very snarky", I mean "completely inappropriate". This does not include comments on your own work that may have hurt your feelings because they've pointed out some flaws. I will not delete legitimate critique.)
- IMPORTANT: Please DO NOT CRITIQUE during the auction (Tuesday, December 2, 11 am to 11 pm EST). I have encouraged the agents to subscribe to the comments of the posts they're bidding on, and they don't need to be bombarded with critiques while they're trying to win something. THANK YOU FOR ABIDING BY THIS.
- ENTRANTS: Please critique a minimum of 5 of the entries. Also, please refrain from commenting on the comments on your own work. For one thing, most people will not return to a comment box they've already left a critique in. For another, it's not a good idea to try to justify/explain/defend your work to those who are critiquing. Read quietly, sift through, keep what's golden and reject what doesn't work for you.
This is so exciting! Thanks once again for this incredible contest. So glad to be a part of it!
ReplyDeleteNot part of it -- not ready! -- but so excited to see what happens for these authors. So many tight and compelling loglines (!) and so many stories that are reeling me in with the very first lines. Yay for these entries! Thanks for this contest. Hope to be part of it one day.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed a misspelling but I think it is too late to correct?
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Will the four editors/authors offering feedback use their names when doing so?
ReplyDeletecaroleeb -- You can email me your corrections.
ReplyDeleteMcKenna -- Yes, they will be using their names. :)
I'm hearing that some people's comments aren't showing up. Is that because of the all the traffic the contest is getting? Are you hearing this too?
ReplyDeleteSue, it's one of Blogger's annoying quirks -- sometimes it randomly eats comments. >.<
ReplyDeleteBest thing to do whilst critting is to swipe your comments into textedit or something as a backup. Then, if something doesn't show up, you'll have your crit and can re-enter the comment.
In the guidelines for the submissions, I'm pretty sure it stated that we couldn't include anything in the 250 words except the text-- meaning no chapter headings, etc. So I didn't. A number of the crits mention they wish they had a sense of the time period--which is the actual chapter heading for the first chapter.
ReplyDeleteI'm also pretty sure my submission has to stay as it stands, but just in case, I'm wondering if the date heading can be added if it doesn't go over the word count. Just have to ask.
Testing testing
ReplyDelete