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by Steve Rogers 4/18/2015, 4:34 pmI had two ideas that go hand in hand with each other.
1) So I've noticed that a lot of people (myself included) have a lot of trouble with beginnings. Beginnings are always the hardest part of anything (in my opinion, at least) but they're the most crucial part of the story. We recently had a published author come and speak at our school. She told us that in the real world, publishers/editors will only read the first page of your work. They'll only turn the page and continue if they think it's worth the read.
My idea is this: I'd like to create a subsection in the "Stories Section" where people submit only the first page/couple of paragraphs of their work along with a poll that has the options "turn page" and "don't turn page".
2) My other idea is a lot more general. I think we should have a subsection in the Stories Section devoted for the sole purpose of workshopping. People submit their writing to this section for people to read and critique. The major difference between this and the regular story section, is that the responses have to meet specific criteria. For example, each response would need to talk about (or mention) four things:
Gems: What you liked, favorite lines and moments.
Rough Patches: Things/lines/moments that you liked but still need a little bit of work.
Coal: Things that you don't like. Thinks that feel out of place and need a lot of work or should be removed entirely.
Errors: Spelling and grammatical errors. Also includes plot holes and continuity errors.
The goal of this section is to tell the author what needs to be fixed, but shouldn't tell the author how to fix them (ideas are welcome, but it's generally better if the author figures out how to do it themselves. That's also why the "gems" section is there, so they get a better idea of what works.)
This would generally be for people who have serious writing that they want critiqued. It will be a lot more helpful for them than the generic "It's good. Keep going!" comments you typically get in the stories section. This section would be especially helpful with school assignments.
1) So I've noticed that a lot of people (myself included) have a lot of trouble with beginnings. Beginnings are always the hardest part of anything (in my opinion, at least) but they're the most crucial part of the story. We recently had a published author come and speak at our school. She told us that in the real world, publishers/editors will only read the first page of your work. They'll only turn the page and continue if they think it's worth the read.
My idea is this: I'd like to create a subsection in the "Stories Section" where people submit only the first page/couple of paragraphs of their work along with a poll that has the options "turn page" and "don't turn page".
2) My other idea is a lot more general. I think we should have a subsection in the Stories Section devoted for the sole purpose of workshopping. People submit their writing to this section for people to read and critique. The major difference between this and the regular story section, is that the responses have to meet specific criteria. For example, each response would need to talk about (or mention) four things:
Gems: What you liked, favorite lines and moments.
Rough Patches: Things/lines/moments that you liked but still need a little bit of work.
Coal: Things that you don't like. Thinks that feel out of place and need a lot of work or should be removed entirely.
Errors: Spelling and grammatical errors. Also includes plot holes and continuity errors.
The goal of this section is to tell the author what needs to be fixed, but shouldn't tell the author how to fix them (ideas are welcome, but it's generally better if the author figures out how to do it themselves. That's also why the "gems" section is there, so they get a better idea of what works.)
This would generally be for people who have serious writing that they want critiqued. It will be a lot more helpful for them than the generic "It's good. Keep going!" comments you typically get in the stories section. This section would be especially helpful with school assignments.
