Shelving System Breakdown · 12:55am May 27th, 2015
Ok, those of you who follow me or the authors of the stories I've sorted might have noticed my new shelving system. I'll be breaking it down here.
9.5-10 (black bolt): This shelf is where the stories that have wowed me in some way or other reside. The grammar has to be good enough that I don't notice mistakes (not the highest threshold), the premise has to be attention grabbing, and, most important of all, I have to find the story emotionally compelling, or so hilarious I'm still laughing even as I reread it multiple times (looking at you, Mighty Warrior of Epicness). Since I am a touchy, but not a feely, person, this is something of a challenge.
7-9 (green check): This is the Goodfic section. These are the stories I can objectively say are "good," but for some reason or other they don't leave as much of an impression as the nine-point-fivers.
5-6.5 (yellow bookmark): These are the stories that have an interesting premise, but are held back by poor execution. Clumsy prose, poor characterization, rough pacing, basically all the problems that can be fixed by the author becoming more skilled. However, they are saved from the lowest shelf by a really interesting premise or plot which would make the story worth continuing.
1-4.5(red X): These stories are the ones that can not or should not be salvaged. The biggest thing that will get your story on this list is a poor premise, followed closely by a good premise that wastes its potential. This shelf will always be the sparsest since I only rate stories I've read, and I read for fun. As such, if your story sucks, I probably won't even pick it up long enough to confirm that it is in fact, bad, and then put it on this list.
Favorites: If your story has my favorite, it means I like it regardless of the shelf I happen to put it on. At this point, all black bolts have been Favorited without exception, along with many of the green checks and some of the yellow bookmarks. I do have stories here that have been placed on the Green shelf that I personally did not enjoy, but can still see the quality.
As for what I look for, here is the outline I use in my reviews:
Architect's Reviews
Story,
Story hook:
Concept
Premise (the idea):
Plot (the story):
Execution
Characters (are they consistent?):
Pacing (is it too fast/slow, or just right?):
Polish (Grammar, spelling, sentence structure, paragraph formatting, etc.):
Conclusion:
Rating:
Note that a premise (the idea that makes you want to write a story) is not a plot (the narrative that ties the story together).
If I'm following your story and I find the next chapter to be a big enough change in quality, it is possible for a story to jump a rank up or down.
Below are two examples of how something can go wrong, even in a good story:
Guessing Games, or, How Many Changelings Fit In A Breadbox?
This story had everything going for it: An intriguing premise, gripping plot, interesting characters, decent pacing, all that good stuff. However, it made one critical error in the polish section: the text saying who had just spoken was on a different double spaced line than the spoken words themselves. This made it extremely difficult to tell who was saying what, especially once more than two characters were talking, and I found myself unable to make it past the third chapter out of frustration. This sucks, because without that tick the story would probably be an 8.5 at least.
Your Human and You
This story is another great one that falls short in only one way: it's pacing, in particular the pacing of the romance between Max and Twilight. The author dragged the tension out between those two for at least 10, probably 15 or more chapters past when it should have been resolved, each time the fact that he was teasing his audience becoming more and more blatant. That is only thing keeping this story out of the black bolts, and it might still make it in at some point in the future.
Hope this clears everything up. If you have a question, just let me know.
ok then