Topic: Reintroducing Myself

Hello everyone! My name is Neil Lakeman and I was a member here a few years ago. I wrote Life on The Road which... yeah that one wasn't very good. I then vanished due to falling some rather difficult times we need not get in to and thus wasn't able to afford the membership fee. But I remembered that I was actually getting good feedback here and that there were a lot of talented writers here (seriously I legit read an entire book in one day due to be obsessed with it) and have decided that since I do plan on sending my current story off to publishers someday I should get feedback from a source I trust so, here I am. I truly missed this place

Re: Reintroducing Myself

Hi, Neil, and welcome back. I can't remember the years you were here, but the important thing is you've come back. Glad to have you. We do have talented writers here, so let's get this party started. I look forward to reading your work again. I'll send you a connection reqquest.

Happy trails,
MJ

Re: Reintroducing Myself

Hi, Neil. Welcome back. Please have a look at an article I posted in this forum (pinned near or at the top) with important tips for getting the most number of reviews you can on this site. Unfortunately, one of the most important recommendations is not to post huge chapters. I suggested about 2500 words as a reasonable upper limit. I'm afraid yours is 6000 words.

The reason that's a problem is that you're asking people to give a lot of their time to review one person's work, someone with whom they don't have a long-term reviewing relationship. Everyone here is trying to keep up with many of their "regulars" in trading reviews. This piece is the equivalent of what most people would post as three chapters. I have these monsters too, but I post mine in 2-3 parts, e.g., chapters 1,2,3 online correspond to one chapter in my manuscript.

It's not your fault for not realizing/remembering that after years away, but it will greatly limit the number of reviews you can expect for this for the moment. Even if you get some reviews, they're unlikely to be as thorough as they might be if the chapter was much shorter. Some of us often do very detailed reviews of chapters, but it's often (though not always) with our long-term reviewers, and even then, it's rarely that long.

You can leave the one you have up to see how much useful feedback you can get for it, but I suggest gathering more points and then start reposting it in smaller parts. Anyone inclined to read your long version will probably be even more inclined to read something shorter (i.e., part of a chapter) to start and give more detailed feedback.

Fortunately, the site now makes it much easier to gather points more quickly. Generally, you need to review (roughly) 3 words of other people's work to post 1 word of your own (those are just average numbers). Until recently it was 5 to 1. Since you will almost certainly want more than 3 reciprocal reviewers over the long run reviewing your work, all you have to do is review the work of roughly 3 people to post one piece of your own (assuming the works, e.g., chapters, are all roughly the same size). In no time, you should have enough points to never have to worry about points again.

I'm sorry to see you got burned by this. FYI, I do volunteer user support here (I'm one of the other writers), so feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. If you want the largest number of eyeballs on your questions, feel free to post them in this forum. Someone in a different time zone may answer it before I even see it. I'll send you a connection request so we can communicate privately whenever you like.

Dirk