1 Topic by mikira (edited by mikira 2015-02-28 04:08:26)

Topic: Reciprocation

I know I should have looked to see if there was a thread about this subject already, but it's getting late so I decided to start my own thread. I'm like that. Okay what are everyone's thoughts about reciprocation?

The reason I'm asking is because I usually like to reciprocate when I get a review from someone, but I don't have much time right now and I want to finish writing my novel before I put my editors hat on and start concentrating on editing and reviewing. So I don't want anyone to worry that I'm not doing any reviews right now. I promise that I will once I get my novel finished.

Full disclosure I have enough credits from the last time I was a member on tNBW to post most of my novel. And I signed up for a yearly membership. I'm just letting everyone know, so everyone who reads this will understand what I'm planning on doing, so there's no misunderstandings.

Quote Post 1

Re: Reciprocation

Reciprocation is a courtesy that most of us afford those who review us. It must be nice to have enough points to post a whole novel. You've put your situation up front, but I think a lot of folks won't give you more than 3 chapters if there's not some reciprocation. I have so many folks marked to read that I can't get to them all. I try to give at least one review in return and then more as I can get to it.

Quote Post 2

Re: Reciprocation

I agree with Janet. Unless you recip, you probably won't get sustained reviews. Aside from writing, most of us are probably reading ten other people's work. It requires a lot of time. Although I don't love everything I read (who does?), reading other people's work makes me a better writer, as do their critiques. I work hard to sustain the most helpful reviewers (I usually read more than I'm read), but have to let the rest drop off.

The sustained feedback I've received has greatly improved my writing as I go along. I don't see myself going back to writing an entire draft with little or no feedback. Simple suggestions from good reviewers have resulted in major new character arcs or plot changes mid-stream that I wouldn't otherwise have thought of.

Quote Post 3

Re: Reciprocation

Janet Taylor-Perry wrote:

Reciprocation is a courtesy that most of us afford those who review us. It must be nice to have enough points to post a whole novel. You've put your situation up front, but I think a lot of folks won't give you more than 3 chapters if there's not some reciprocation. I have so many folks marked to read that I can't get to them all. I try to give at least one review in return and then more as I can get to it.

It's a luxury and a curse all at the same time. I'd never ask Sol to take them back so I can completely start over, because I had worked hard to earn those points with good solid reviews. For a while all I had done was review and not post anything new when I was on the site before.

In fact I was like you I had so many people marked to give a review to that I couldn't keep up.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply and advice. It gives me a lot to think about to help me find ways to juggle everything I have to juggle right now.

Quote Post 4

Re: Reciprocation

Norm d'Plume wrote:

I agree with Janet. Unless you recip, you probably won't get sustained reviews.

This is what I'm most afraid of happening, even if my reviewers start to fall in love with the story I wrote.

Norm d'Plume wrote:

Aside from writing, most of us are probably reading ten other people's work. It requires a lot of time. Although I don't love everything I read (who does?), reading other people's work makes me a better writer, as do their critiques. I work hard to sustain the most helpful reviewers (I usually read more than I'm read), but have to let the rest drop off.

Yes, this is what happens on this site that we are reading and reviewing more then posting new stuff. And this site has always been in my humble opinion the best site I ever found to workshop a novel to help people become better writers. I adore Sol for creating tNBW.

I also remember how bad I felt when I would give a person a review and then never get a reciprocating review in return. And I don't anyone to feel upset that I didn't give them a review. In fact I had started feeling bad when I got behind in reciprocating on my reviews.

Norm d'Plume wrote:

The sustained feedback I've received has greatly improved my writing as I go along. I don't see myself going back to writing an entire draft with little or no feedback. Simple suggestions from good reviewers have resulted in major new character arcs or plot changes mid-stream that I wouldn't otherwise have thought of.

Yes it does help in doing this too. However I have a bout 10% of this novel left to finish writing the first draft and I have it broken into 61 completed chapters so far (Most likely that will change when it's fully ready to be published) so yes I want to workshop this novel to find out if there are different plot changes I should implement, but it's going to take a while to do that. In fact I figure it's going to take more time to workshop the entire novel then it will be for me to finish writing it.

That leave my main dilemma, and that's how to figure out a way to not get too far behind on reciprocating reviews.

My first thought is to only have the first three chapters up for review until I get finished writing the first draft of the novel. And to maybe give a time frame in my reply to when I will have time to give the reviewer a review of something they wrote and maybe even ask them what they'd like me to review for them. Does that sound feasible?

Quote Post 5