Please! Stop Helping So Much!

People here are clearly way too generous.

Here’s my gripe. I’m on the last day of the initial 7-day free Premium trial, and already have significantly improved my writing—AND I HAVEN’T EVEN POSTED ANYTHING IN THE PREMIUM GROUP YET!!  I’ve only posted in the Basic group!

The basic group doesn’t award points for reviews, so I thought it perfectly reasonable NOT to expect any.  Within one day I’d gotten two detailed in-line reviews on 1,500 word story.  By the fifth day I’d received one more.  For those counting at home, that’s three people who went out of their way to help a complete stranger with his writing—for absolutely nothing! 

And not the vague, “Great story! Really liked it!” kind of feedback either.  No, these were specific, targeted, out-of-this-world helpful info-bits that if taken seriously will strengthen not only this story, but the rest of my craft . . . forever!! I have no idea how long it took them to do this, but I can imagine at least half an hour!

That’s ridiculous! (I know I’ve already exceeded Elmore Leonard’s quota of exclamation points, but it’s hard for me to express the extent of my incredulity any other way.)  I am blown away and forever grateful.

Initially, I hadn’t planned on doing anything with this story. It was one I pulled out of the dusty files, unpublished, and written god knows how many years ago.  I’d only posted it because when you join as a newbie the site encouraged you to post something.  So I did.  But now, with the feedback I’ve gotten, I plan on reworking it and then posting it to the Premium site.  And if I can improve it further . . . who knows? I might as well submit it someplace, right? 

Which brings me to the purpose of this post, which is: first, to express my sincere and enthusiastic appreciation; and second, to ask anyone else who might consider reviewing my story to NOT DO IT!  I’ve got more than enough feedback to work through.  Please wait until I rework the piece and re-post it to the Premium Group where you can be properly rewarded for the hard work of writing workshop.

Thanks again to those who have left me reviews (you know who you are).  You’ve shown me how it works around here.  I hope I can honor you by properly paying it forward one day.

Chris