I never have anything I'm proud enough of to enter.

@ Tirzah, I have seen your name around these parts for some time.  Surely you have something you're proud enough to enter or revise.  Have you done the Strongest Start contest before?  I always find it a learning experience as it teaches me more about how to engage my reader better and better. At least I hope it does.

@ JE, I can see the advantage of a smaller writer's community.  Though I'm a bit of a social butterfly so I'm ok in a big or small pond.   

Hi Kris, that's probably true that things will pick up as we get closer to the deadline.  Though personally I really like that I've been able to submit my 3 chapters early and to benefit from the feedback of my fellow writers before the judging begins.  Good look with your submission.  You're right to get more interactive.

I'm one of those antisocial types too, mostly because my business takes all the time in the world. (a restaurant) I've been here since 2008, on and off, I don't speak english that well so I posted the first three chapters of my book Twilight inc. a while ago and based on the comments I received began to work on it outside of NBW through direct email with some other writers.

In my humble opinion I felt sometimes like I was pulled through many different points of view about the story through reviews and comments that I began to lose sight of what I wanted to do and instead began to write to please. My feeling... I hope It's not endemic.

So, I ended up changing the name of the story and self publishing it. www.guardiansinc.com  but I always checked back at NBW and even sent the completed manuscript to a couple of community writers for a more, let's say  "personal critique" before publishing.

I still think that posting the beginning of the manuscript, the first 3-4 chapters is a great thing, but then, once you get a feel of how things are going and whom can be an objective reviewer (I don't mean favorable I mean objective criticism but taking into account where i want to go! My story got ripped to pieces many times over! ) you can try to develop a more close relationship with those writers and become like a little club within the community.

Of course, it all begins by posting so its a step all writers should take.

About the SS competition I will post the first three chapters of the second book and see what happens!

Cheers!

TirzahLaughs wrote:

Nope ...nothing I think is good enough.  I have some with potential down the road but nothing I'd feel good about entering.  That and my longer pieces aren't on topics that usually win (dark humor).  I am writing a thriller this year but it needs a lot of work. It's two or three years away from this contest.

Tirz, I never think my work is good enough to end up on a best sellers list, but I enter this contest every year because I love competition and the feedback is very helpful. It's not always about winning. Not that it wouldn't be truly awesome. LOLOLOL I entered two this year - a horror (I know! I know-so not me!) and my Fairy YA.

Enter Plum, just for the hell of it. It's such a fun read.

Hi f m, yes I would definitely enter the three chapters as three separate entries.  Because people will want to give you feedback on individual chapters for the contest.  Not one huge group of three chapters.  To review three full chapters requires a TON of reading by the reviewer, and you probably wouldn't get many reviews.  Those are my thoughts.

You might want to contact Sol, who runs NBW, to help you do this.  If you do it on your own -- I think you'd have to read an review lots of other writing.  But since you've already do that to post the 3 in 1, Sol might be able to resolve it.

*** REVISE.  Okay, I just checked your entry.  At least the three chapters are short.  Again, you could ask Sol for his advice.
Here's his email:   snasisi@thenextbigwriter.com

Last edited by worldbeat99 (06-09-2012 23:04:39)