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Community Information

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User:con_crit (2181916)
constructive criticism
for better fan fiction
(no userpics)
Name:con_crit
About:The intent of this community is to provide a place for fanfic authors to go when they want a thoughtful review of their work.

Reviewer guidelines:
  1. If you are willing to review one or more stories, please make a new post. Provide the following information:
    • what sort of stories you're willing to review: "I'd like to review something from HP or Tolkien."

    • how many stories you're willing to review: "Up to three stories."

    • your time constraints (if relevant): "I won't be able to review them until this weekend."

    • anything about your personal tastes may be relevant: "No Harry/Snape, RPF or Lego-mances please!"

    • anything about your fandom experience that's relevant: "I'm very familiar with Tolkien book canon and I've read the Silmarillion."

  2. When you've collected links for the stories that you're going to review, mark the thread as closed with a reply or an edit to the original post: "That's all I can review for now."

  3. You're responsible for responding politely to all requests by authors until you "close" your thread. If an author requests a review and you don't want to do it, give them a reason: "I'm sorry, but I don't know the characters in your fandom and het fics don't do anything for me." After you've closed your thread, you aren't required to respond to more requests.

  4. Let the authors know when they can expect to get your review. If you run into delays, let them know. Waiting is hard. Knowing how long you'll have to wait makes it easier.

  5. Make an effort to give a good reviews. Tell the author your opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of the story. Be as objective as possible. **I'd like to find/develop a questionnaire for reviewers. Any suggestions?**

  6. There are lots of places on LJ to be snarky and venomous. This isn't one of them. Reviewers who browbeat authors or use reviews as an excuse to show off their clever MST techniques will be banned.


Author guidelines:
  1. Stories should be spell-checked and beta'ed (if at all possible) before submitting them for review.

  2. Please post a link to the story (in your journal or on a website) not the story itself.

  3. Respect the reviewers' stated limits and preferences.

  4. Unless otherwise requested, your review will be posted publicly.

  5. Every story has weaknesses, and good constructive criticism will address them. It doesn't mean that you suck. Please don't pout.

  6. Even if you have a good story, the reviewer may not like the style or the genre. Don't feel like your expected to totally change your style based on one unflattering review.

  7. The sweetest possible revenge for a harsh review is to take everything that the reviewer said, get every bit of good out of it that you can possibly get, and then write a snarky thank you to them in the acknowledgements of your best-selling novel. Getting your friends to stick up for you is not sweet revenge -- it's wank.

  8. Acknowledge the review. Even if you hate it, it still represents time and effort put forth by the reviewer to help you.

  9. If you'd like for the reviewer to post his or her review somewhere (like at ff.net), ask. The worst they can do is say no.


Posting Guidelines:

New posts should be: a) reviewers who want stories, b) completed reviews or c) meta (discussion of the guidelines or ways to improve the community.) Off topic posts, may be removed without warning. Bickering and flame wars may also be removed without notice (sorry f_w).

Moderator:

[info]con_crit was created by [info]sagralisse, who would like to do something positive for a change. She is intolerant of passive-aggressive whiny behavior, elitism, cliques, and power trips. Otherwise she's open for suggestions and offers to help with modding, guidelines, home page design, etc.

Shameless begging:

The moderator is hopeless when it comes to networking, so please pimp this community to your friends! We could use more reviewers and more stories to revew! Please? ::shiny eyes::

Resources/Links:

Hardcore Critique Advice by Amy Sterling Casil
How To Deal With Critiquing by Rich Hamper
Forward Motion's rules for giving and receiving critique.
[info]writer_girls -- a support/con-crit community for original fiction.
[info]fanficrants -- thanks for the inspiration!

Something to remember: We all say we want concrit, but sometimes what we really want to hear is, "My only criticism is that there is no criticism." The real test of our relative wankiness lies in our ability to get past that and say to ourselves, "Okay, this hurt my feelings, but is there anything from this criticism that I can learn and grow from as a writer?" - [info]smo
Interests:3: constructive criticism, fan fiction, fanfic
Maintainers:1: sagralisse
Members:151: 88l71, _akenokoru, _aphelion_, _bowles_, a_shade_of_gray, aggressiveducks, agnosticmantis, apoplexia, aqua_orangutan, arby_m, artistique1, ashilleong, asphyxi, atlantian_magic, autumnkokoro, babel, bacchic_dragon, baron_waste, beanside, beccastareyes, benched, bonelesspuppy, broadwaynut728, buffyvh, bybartle_by, calico321, camwyn, cassandralupos, celebrindae, chaed, cherryblosmgirl, chibisophia, chrystalline, clearobscurity, clownhauler, cmwfic, cosmorific, courseofhistory, crickets_lj, deadshrimpblues, dejla, deoridhe, deverien, dreamcatcher, dreamingreader, dustlullaby, eatsyourface, eiviiaru, eljuno, erewyn, exp630kila, eyebrowofdoom, fakia, finmagik, friendhamster, fujurpreux, gairid, genus_draco, ghostinthemist, gqsammy, greenie_cgv, icequeenaranxta, infinityblade, irrhapsodi, janegraddell, jerico_cacaw, joiedecombat, jurhael, kajouka, kelles, ketsugami, lady_phenyx, lassarina, lee_scribbles, lingzer0, liwy, lizardlaugh, llamachan, loopily, maramala, marici, mbeancntr, mdalia, mel__atalante, melospiza, micchi, miladyhawke, mirasaui, mireia_antonina, missey3455, mistyraven, mr_badattitude, nildro, outcaste, perf3ct_trag3dy, pluginxbaby, rayluxyacht, rebbe, rhapsodyofabyss, riverdoe, ronniekins77, rosetintworld, sagralisse, sanoken, scarflover, seito_no_senshi, selene_moon, serinatia, shizuka_na_uta, silverwerecat, sir_hellsing, skibalovesya, skripka, snowballjane, soera, spitting_games_, squirrama, stariceling, stormshaman, sw_fangirl, swatch_dogs, tangledwood, teigeki_calesa, teramay, the_methotaku, the_sweet, the_vsa, therealmoth, thewaughnman, tikatu, timberrick, troubleinchina, turkish_dlight, tweeasfuck, twistedklown, tyciol, uselesstrees, waterhobbit, winterfox, wolfman09, xiphugus, zeddish, zeelee_penguin
Watched by:105: 88l71, _akenokoru, _aphelion_, _bowles_, a_shade_of_gray, agnosticmantis, apoplexia, aqua_orangutan, arby_m, artistique1, aruru, ashilleong, asphyxi, babel, baron_waste, beccastareyes, bonelesspuppy, buffyvh, bybartle_by, calico321, camwyn, celebrindae, chaed, chrystalline, clearobscurity, clownhauler, cosmorific, crickets_lj, deadshrimpblues, deoridhe, dreamcatcher, dustlullaby, eatsyourface, eiviiaru, erewyn, evablue, exp630kila, eyebrowofdoom, fakia, friendhamster, genus_draco, ghostinthemist, gqsammy, greenie_cgv, icequeenaranxta, irrhapsodi, janegraddell, jerico_cacaw, jurhael, kajouka, lady_phenyx, lady_suzuran, lassarina, lee_scribbles, liwy, llamachan, loopily, mdalia, melospiza, micchi, miladyhawke, mirasaui, mireia_antonina, missey3455, mr_badattitude, perf3ct_trag3dy, pluginxbaby, rayluxyacht, rebbe, riverdoe, ronniekins77, rosetintworld, rpffan, sagralisse, sanoken, scarflover, seito_no_senshi, selene_moon, serinatia, shizuka_na_uta, silverwerecat, sir_hellsing, snowballjane, spitting_games_, squirrama, stariceling, stormshaman, sw_fangirl, sweet_iced_tea, tangledwood, teigeki_calesa, teramay, the_methotaku, the_sweet, the_vsa, therealmoth, thewaughnman, timberrick, troubleinchina, turkish_dlight, tweeasfuck, waterhobbit, xiphugus, zeddish, zeelee_penguin
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