One thing I miss from the old site is re-posting chapters to publish to the larger community. I have noticed some author's deleting their old stories and reentering them to achieve this.
Is there a way to republish I'm not aware of?
Can we have a return of this functionality?
Another issue. I was looking for a search feature in the forum to see if anyone posted on this topic. Search feature would be quite helpful.
Recently, I realized that it's easy to fall into the viscous whirlpool of review corrections.
This happens when based on one reviewer you correct an error, and then a different reviewer tags the correction and suggest you return to the original. I'm planning on printing to pdf all of a chapter's Xline reviews. Combine the pdfs in one file. Then I'll have a place where I can track the changes. Anyone know of an easier way?
In a related issue, how should we inform reviewers what are personal writing style rules are? I've placed them in the novel description, but I'm not sure they're being read. I'm thinking a sticky should be placed on a writing style post in our book review section to keep it on top. Each author to their own preference, or should we be consistent?
Has anyone had to break apart and create new chapters out of their old one? I'd like to know the best way to do that, if you don't mind.
So lets say you have 7 completed chapters and you wanted to break in half 3 of them. After ending up with an extra 3 from the separation, you don't want them numbered out of order, so do you just list them as chapter 2.5, chapter 5.5, and say chapter 7.5? Or is it something like chapter 2v1? I'm guessing after you decide to break a chapter in half you would use the edit function to round out the existing chapter then pay points for the new other chapter? Something like that?
The method I've adopted from others on NBW is to add a letter. So CH 1A, 1B and so on.
I'm going to need to consider doing that maybe for a few of my chapters. I've got probably the longest chapters you will review and that's mainly because I'm heavy on Milieu writing which is sort of one of the main cylinders that make the engine go in heroic fantasy.
When you get to that WTH? moment on my chapters and find out its 10k words in length. I assure you, I never try to just fill the chapter for the sake of length. Nevertheless, if you are pressed for time, I will consider it fair to post on my turn that you've reviewed half the chapter then you can post on my next turn the review of the other half, if you'd like. I'll be the only frog in this well. The rest of you have chapters that are fairly close in length to each other.
Before this group, I think we were conditioned to limit the chapter length between 1 to 2 points for NBW reviewers. That seems to be the sweet spot to attract new reviews.
I think ten authors is all I can reasonably keep track of in my mind. So I'd limit the member list to ten.
Completed a review of CH 1 of CJ's Raven's Curse
Completed a review of Chapter 14 of Cobber's SOV
I want to get feedback on a style issue that others have mentioned in the reviews. Should personal names be given to throwaway characters? Some people think that such charactes should only be referred to generically. I have trouble using this and that technician, guy and gal, and such. It's downright boring. Using a name adds color to an otherwise drab section.
Book one.
There are a few reviewers who have made it through all the chapters of Book one. I think Jube has. Way to go!
While I'm at it I'll post the most frequently dropped criticisms and my replies to avoid rehashing old conversations.
1. POV changes:
Yes ,there are frequent POV changes even within chapters. It's intentional. They should all be separated by ellipsises. I mainly use 1POV for main characters and close 3POV for others.
2. Single Main character:
There are many main characters. Jenny, Taikei, and Tanessa are the most frequent. I am showing historical forces in my storyverse and not retelling a character's rendition.
3. Internal dialogue and Italics
I avoid using italics altogether in 1POV and only use it in close 3POV when the character uses "I" or me.
4. Slow build
The storyverse is fairly complicated so I have to cover a good deal of context. This results in a slow build with the beginning chapters.
I think thought tags are like dialogue tags. Use the minimum amount to keep the reader orientated to who is speaking or thinking. Typically, with 1POV you can get away with dropping the italics and thought tags. This seems to follow the amount of interior dialogue in the story. Large amounts dictate dropping italics to avoid distraction. The one caveat I saw in a proofreading blog is that whenever your thoughts contain "I" or "me" while writing 3POV it should be in italics. This signals the reader that you didn't make a POV slip.
What I would love is the ability to give some of my points to reviewers that I most want to hang on to. I don't mind if some of my readers drop off. Usually the ones that drop off have become disinterested in my story and aren't really providing great reviews anymore. I have, however, received tremendous feedback from a couple of my regular reviewers, but can't reciprocate equally because their writing is so much better than mine.
This leads me to another suggestion for points. Adding stars to rate reviewers to receive bonuses for a particular work.
A common gripe I hear and I've said a few times myself is the lack of reviewer endurance.
As the chapters go past the double digits, reviews fall off dramatically.
Reciprocal review groups seems to close and open like the latest downtown restaurants.
A solution I propose is to add a loyalty bonus for each chapter reviewed in a story. Somewhere between 5-10% of the total chapter points should do the trick.
Noticed some reviewers were disorientated to the setting. So, I added some setting context to chapter one. Does it help?
Noticed some reviewers were disorientated to the setting. So, I added some setting context to chapter one. Does it help?
Finished book one as far as timeline is concerned. Will add more content as inspiration arrives.
Starting book two chapters.
I have some fresh reviewers, feels like a fragrant spring breeze to my writing sails.
Due to the changes, I'll have to purge some of the old reviews that have become irrelevant .
Thanks for all the positive feedback.
Taking the pulse of our group in regard to full novel reviews. I thought there was a group for committing to trade full novel reviews. It seems to have dissappeared. Have trades occurred in our group?
Anyone interested in the idea? Understandably, it's a commitment not to be entered into lightly. No one wants to review a work they find boring or covers uncomfortable subject areas. So, one ground rule if this is to be developed is to be thick skinned. Personal preferences vary so it is to be expected that offers might be rejected.
I am also willing to go partials. Commit to reviewing ten of my chapters, I'll commit to reviewing ten of yours. This is contingent upon that were interested in each others work.
If you are using Office 2013, there's an app in Word called ProWriting aid that I find quite useful. There are a variety of reports to choose so you spend less time waiting to get the feeback you want.
I could be accused of abusing the POV shifts in my Krudges novel. I think my first chapter exceed three. I'm a glutton for providing multi perspectives. The general feedback has been quite varied. So if you exclude the POV purists, the reaction has been postive.
I aim to keep it sequential in the general locale or setting. I think a lot depends on the chapter/section theme glue. If its's weak, the reader will come away confused. Somewhere I read a style rule, that if you are going to do multi character and varied POV types, you should aim to place your main character(s) in 1POV as much as possible. With that approach the reader will be drawn into empathy with the main character(s).
The hard call I find is how many reader hints to include in the transitions. Very similar to the problem of how many dialogue tags to include.
I created a group for my novel Krudges, but I'm wondering if iI should post my novel info here. Conventions are still being estalished in the new site, so I wanted to run this by everyone before I step on any toes.
It appears that all postings were given a minimum back date of November 12th. So it cannot be ascertained how active content is prior to this date. Makes it difficult to review.
Looking around the site, I see shelves are in the single digits. This indicates to me that members do not have a good idea what shelving implies. I'm not sure myself. It's nondescript, it can mean as low as a facebook like to as high as definitely placing on my bookshelf. I wish there was more of a continum from mild interest to definite follower of every posting. Maybe we should have a five tiered shelf. Isn't that how most of us arrange our bookcases? We place the most frequented books on the top shlef and in front of the others.
I spent an hour trying to edit a chapter on my IPad mini and gave up. It took me five minutes to do the same task on my desktop. Google chrome had the same issue as Safari. I think the problems are, the interfaces being mouse friendly but difficult for touch interface, screen lockup, and scroll hijinks.
I empathize with your dilemma. If my reviews were organized by work and author, I'd have a clue. Your solution is a novel remedy. It would be helpful to have the story default to the last chapter you review.
Hi Michelle...
I do believe that Read > Groups Content link can be tweaked to work. The problem is not enough of us know about it yet (I didn't even find that until I noticed Sol mention it in the forums).
I am on Sol's back with screenshots and mockups too.
I think the easiest tweak on the Read > Groups Content page would be to allow view toggle like you do with files on Windows. So you could switch between icons or details.
Love how you're being proactive. Since new members get a point bonus, I would add that as a search feature also.
I have seen in other critique groups agreements between writers to read and a review a novel in its entirety. I figure this topic can be a place to establish our guidelines and make our requests.
