• Member Since 10th Jun, 2014
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HapHazred


It's called garbage can, not garbage can't.

More Blog Posts163

Jan
6th
2016

How to Make HapHazred Feel Gud About Yer Story · 12:21am Jan 6th, 2016

Hey there! I've been in charge of the Submissions thread for the Goodfic Bin for a while now. I forget how long. It's been at least a few months. Anyhoo, because I've seen all manner of submissions (some good, some bad, some interesting, some not) it has come to my attention that I'm not actually half bad at getting a bit of a feel for whether I'm going to like a story solely based on how it is submitted and what it kind of looks like.

Obviously, I don't make my judgement then and there (because that'd be nonsense) and it's only on the rarest of occasions that I've actually rejected a submission based on the submission alone (typically having atrocious spelling will do that to you) but I have noticed a few things that get me more or less hyped for whatever story I'm looking at. This is true of all stories too, not just the ones in my Submissions folder.

In the spirit of providing some insight on what goes through my alcohol addled mind when I read story descriptions and see people talk about their story, I decided to share some of the things that tick me off or make me feel all warm and cuddly inside before reading.



1) Be cool, bro

Trufax: I can't help but notice a bit of a correlation between people who are kewl and halfway decent stories. Of course, I've seen uncool people produce good stuff and the opposite is true also, but there's a sweet spot of confidence and calmness that makes me go 'bugger my beer-bottles, that guy is kewl'.

-DO have faith in your story! I've often said that if you can't think of anything good to say about yourself, chances are I won't be able to either.
-DON'T say you're the second coming of Sir Terry Pratchett. You're probably not. Confidence is great an all, but you can have too much of a good thing.
-DO talk about some of the kewl stuff you do. Interesting and kewl people write interesting and kewl stories! Or at least, that's what people like me think. Indulge me! If you're really clever, you'll have convinced me of that someplace outside the submission, as to not clutter the place up with your feats of daring!
-DON'T go into detail about your obscure life history. It's not that I'm not interested, but, well, if you've not already convinced me you're kewl, I'd rather hear about the story, thanks. And it really does clutter the submissions thread a bit, which is only fine in moderation.

2) Be concise, but not boring

Once I've looked past pretty much the only thing that'll get a submission outright rejected (spelling and grammar) I start to look for the actual information about the story. In the submissions thread, I made it a requirement to talk a bit about what was going through your mind whilst writing the story. If I have to cherry-pick the relevant information out of a three page biography, I'm going to be less efficient at it. And a less efficient Hap is an unHappyHap.

This doesn't mean only include the information I ask for in bullet points. Just, y'know, don't waffle too much. I do like a little off-topic. Particularly when it makes me think how kewl you are.

3) Include sweet pictures!

Seriously. Colourful coverart is lovely. I'm a sucker for pretty colours, and very easily pleased. Just make sure it's not horrible.

4) I do actually need to know about the story

This is more because I've encountered one or two submissions that don't tell me much of anything about the story. I can get behind a bit of mystery, but if I've got no idea what I'm getting into before going in, I can't be excited about it. At least give me a preconception you can dash later on, but if there's nothing in the description and worse, you don't talk about the story in the submission at all, I won't just be lukewarm about the submission, I might also feel the need to reject it.

Thankfully I'm easily satisfied, and I only really need a small amount of information to gauge whether you know what you're on about. But the more pointlessly vague, the less interested the snooty scot.

5) Actually have a cool looking story

The majority of the time, the story speaks for itself. A quick glance at a story description can tell you a lot. Whether it's supposed to be funny, emulate the show, be dark, be an adventure, or whatever. Thing is, I do actually follow a link to every single story that comes up in the submissions thread... every single one. I don't read it, but I do glance at it. This is because I have to go to the story anyway to add it to the folders, but also to make sure you're not 'avin' me on when you said it was about dragons havin' a laugh when it was actually about rabbits.

When I go over there, I read the description, and look at the tags. If it looks like every bad trope everyone always rants about in threads, I'll be turned off. I may still put it in the pending review folder (because you'd have done everything else right, I hope) but I won't be excited about looking at it. I also check the rating. I don't tend to put too much stock in the red and green bar, but you can bet that when the red outnumbers the green, I'll think something is a bit fishy. And I look to see if there are any editors that were worked on the story. Or persons I might have already seen and dealt with.

I also look through the comments a lot. Seeing people's reactions can make me excited or not too.

All this contributes to an overall impression as to whether the story may or may not be cool. As with most things, I'm easily satisfied, but not so easily impressed. However, no amount of sweet-talking will help much if everything about your story promises me having a bad time.

Make yourself look good, and make your story look good. They go hand in hand. People with awesome stories look cool, and people who look cool often have some sweet stories too. And if I think you've got yourself a good story, I'll be excited to look at it.

(Pictured above, from left to right: an accurate representation of an un-excited Hap, and an equally accurate representation of a very excited Hap)

That's all from me today. I really must stress that for the most part, all this contributes to how stoked I'll be when looking at a story, not whether I'll accept it or not. I've sometimes been terribly surprised by stories, and I'm glad of that. But these are things that go through my head, and things I've noticed of myself. I'm pretty sure you'll find other blokes out there who work just like me. In fact, maybe the same thing goes through your head. Who knows? It's your bloody head.

Have a good one! Cheerio.

Comments ( 7 )

It's true people need to know how to pass their story as good, but quite honestly I have a confidence problem. Btw where can I see if I can submit my story and/or if I have already done so?

3666928 There's a submissions thread with clear instructions to follow, although I'm certain I've seen a story of yours crop up twice. A romance between Twilight and Crysalis, if I'm not much mistaken. I can't remember if you submitted that before or after we implemented the thread system.

If it's the same story, you might want to go over some of the stuff I said about it before, though. I remember having a very hard time with the first chapter of it in both instances.

3666944 To be honest that story was simply not my best one. I'll be honest it was writing practice. Which is why I went back and rewrote the whole intro. I'll check it out and I'll tell you.

3666961 I have written a fairly good fic. I mean my Friendship Lost fic. Imma submit it.

Curse my inability to adhere to rule 3, for I lack both talent and funds . .

(Either way, this actually helps if I decide to submit anything else.)

3667423 I have a hard time with rule 3 too, but it's weird how many people have awesome cover-art and opt not to show it off a bit...

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