ds_workshop | Sep. 4th, 2005

ds_workshop Guidelines for Story Critique

Many thanks to

sg_workshop for allowing us to snag part of their name and several of their guidelines.

Guidelines for Crit-ees:

1) Stories are to be submitted by their author.

2) Stories have to have already been betaed and posted somewhere public at some time. (If you've been having trouble finding a beta reader, you might want to try posting a request for beta at

ds_writers or

ds_noticeboard.)

3) The community will review one story each week. When it's your turn on the hot seat, you can choose which one of your stories you would like to have critiqued and post a link to it, along with any particular questions you might have for critiquers (i.e. "What did you think of Dief in this story?"). All posts will be moderated, just so we don't end up with people posting out of turn.

4) Once your story is up for critique, you may participate in the discussion by responding to comments if you like. However, like anyone else who participates in the discussion, please be courteous and civil, and please remember that everyone's opinion is equally valid.

Guidelines for Critiquers:

1) Anybody can (and is encouraged to) comment with a critique. We'd like to see the opinions of people who write and read fic as well as the opinions of people who read but don't write.

2) There's no right or wrong way to enjoy a story, which means all opinions are valid. Comment about characterisation, if that's what interests you most. Go through each sentence with a grammar nazi's fine-toothed comb. Pick out canon details the writer got wrong, or right. The more examples you can take from the story itself, the better. The more canon you can cite to back up your points, the better. But if all you have the time and energy to do is type up a couple of the most obvious things you liked and didn't like, that's cool too. As long as it's potentially useful, bring it.

3) But that said, flames and snark for the sake of snark will be deleted, at the discretion of that week's moderator. Be blunt, but keep it helpful--this comm is about the story in question, not a forum for witticisms or manifestos.

4) We also ask that commenters avoid making any comments about the author of the story or their motivations for writing the story; again, the focus is the story itself, so comments about the author are irrelevant.

5) And finally, please avoid basing your critique solely on pairing or genre. Graphic D/s scenarios involving Thatcher and Turnbull might not be your cup of tea, but if you decide to enter a discussion about a story featuring those things, the management hopes that you'll have something more to contribute than just "Ewww, dude. So wrong."

Guidelines for Moderators:

1) We'd like to get a different volunteer each week to moderate the discussion--or at least rotate the responsibility among a few different people.

2) At the end of each week, we freeze all the threads on the post--if people want to continue discussions in their own journals, that's okay, but the moderator's responsibilty at the comm ends at the end of the week.

3) Once discussion closes, the moderator makes a second seperate post summing up what was talked about that week.