Become a better writer in 24 hours? Heck yeah! Also some stuff about Salvation · 6:13am Aug 26th, 2016
Hey friends,
I'm going to beat the same drum I always beat -- if you want to be a better writer, you need to do three things:
1. Write (duh)
2. Get feedback on your writing
3. Adjust your writing based on the feedback
Repeat until you're happy with your writing.
That's it! Usually people with accounts here don't have any trouble with step 1 -- they're already writing their hearts out for a fandom they love. And they would adjust their writing (step 3) based on high-quality feedback, if only they could get it! So the sticky widget is that second point: getting feedback.
Now, there's a bunch of ways to get feedback on your writing. You could attend a workshop, or sign up for a writing seminar at your local community college, or just hope people give you comments on your story. But there's a better way.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the next pony minific round of The Writeoff is about to begin!
Stories of mine that started as Writeoff Minifics:
The Riddle of the Sphinx
The Adventuring Type
Babel
The Destruction of the Self
Love and Other Bandages
Reminiscent
And nine stories in my shorts collection, I'm Afraid of Changeling (and other short stories)
If you've ever wanted to dip your toes into the Writeoff, this is the round to do it. Pony minifics are 400-750 words, and you have 24 hours to write them based on whatever prompt gets announced in... 30 hours, it looks like.
The process is fairly easy. You go to the Writeoff website, create an account, and at 1200 UTC Saturday the prompt will appear on the website. Write a minific based on that prompt, submit it through the anonymous submission form, and in 24 hours you'll get a slate of 10 or so minifics by other authors. Read them and rank them, and if you're really cool write a quick review, letting the author know what you thought worked and didn't work. At that point in the process no one knows who wrote what fic, so you can say whatever you want (but please be polite).
I've been doing the Writeoff for almost two years now, and I think it's brought a level of creativity and discipline to my writing that I struggled with before. It teaches you to write on a deadline, under pressure, and to create stories that will appeal to your fellow authors. That's hard to beat.
So if becoming a better writer is something you've always wanted to do, and you've got some free time this Saturday, give it a shot.
So, Salvation?
Those of you who read Chris's blog over at One Man's Pony Ramblings already know that he's one of the more prolific and insightful reviewers in the fandom. He's reviewed a bunch of my stuff in the past, and he has always, always given me 4 out of 5 stars.
Now, that isn't bad. I'm happy with those stars. But it was always a little galling that even what I thought were my best stories didn't get his highest score. But, as far as I know, Chris doesn't accept bribes, so there was nothing I could do to extinguish this sense of inadequacy.
But! Lo and behold! This week Chris finally reviewed Salvation, my longest published story, and he gave it that elusive, long-sought 5 out of 5 stars. Seeing that made my day.
It also brought something to my attention: Salvation is currently sitting at 986 upvotes. That's a lot! It's also, you know, 14 shy of 1000.
Now, I'm not saying you should go run off right now to read Salvation and give it an upvote. That would shallow and petty of me. I'm just, you know, pointing out that it's a mere 14 upvotes shy of the 1000 club. Just sayin'.
That's all.
Just sayin'.
Congratulations on the review.
I keep considering trying something for those Writeoff competitions, but the timing never seems right for me to give it a go. Either that or I'm just a bit too drained from work to give it a shot when they come around.
What about the people who can't get past 1?
~Skeeter The Lurker
Jeez, with so many good writers, it's a little intimidating, but I'll give it a chance. Let's give our best efforts.
4172575 we have to start at step 0: deploy the ferret.
4172575
Deadlines seem to help for some reason.
4172576
Don't worry, we all started out somewhere. And really, getting feedback from good writers tends to be helpful, because they know what they're talking about. Part of the attraction of the writeoff is that so many talented people are involved, which raises the level of feedback.
Let it be known that I do :V
Damn, I didn't think Chris gave 5 star rating to anything anymore. The last time was July 18th, 2014. Salvation's definitely one of the best stories on Fimfiction, so you certainly deserve it. I'm still surprised that you actually got that rating out of him, so congrats on that.
Is my general, targetless antipathy towards reviewers categorical sour grapes? At least slightly, probably. Heh. But even with that I can congratulate you--if any story deserves it, it's that one.
Minific? Damn. I'll try but I've never been able to do that.
4172617
Helpful, but a last resort for some.
4172655
Not if they're self set.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Congratulations! uSea, Cloud Wander, Skywriter, The Descendant, and now you: that's everyone who's received a 5-star and at least a 4-star from Chris, so you're in pretty exclusive company, even among writers clearing the first hurdle.
4172617 4172737
That seems a bit unfair: just how much time does the ferret have?
4172707
No kidding. I would not be particularly surprised if this is the last 5 ever given. (I don't know the exact process for choosing Fandom Classics, but I wouldn't be surprised if the RCL clears out some of the high end: where I've seen the same story on both, it seems like the review hits OMPR first, often by a lot--several months or even over a year.)
I've never had a story get 1000 upvotes. :( I've only topped 700 on 4 or 5 occasions, and 800 just twice. And I don't have anything considered a fandom classic, so my stories always go in the mini reviews. The only star rating I ever got was back in the 6-star review days. Though I'd guess most of my stuff would sit down in the 3-star range anyway, maybe a couple of fours.
I'll add to your examples of stories that started out as minifics. Not counting my anthology, which contains exactly all the unaltered minifics, 18 of my published stories are lengthened/revised minific entries, 2 of my published stories are two minifics combined, there are 3 other minifics I took bits and pieces from to incorporate into a much longer (and as yet unpublished) story, and I have about 4 more minifics I might still attempt to lengthen. I don't do the write-off anymore for various reasons, but it was a good motivator to write, back when I needed one, and you could get some useful feedback on them.
I should probably start doing Write Offs again (not this time, 'cause busy. But sometime). Something happened irl that really threw me off balance, and I kinda totally retreated into myself. It's only in the past week or two that I've started writing stuff again
Anyway, I saw that review, and it was honestly a little thrilling to see something get 5 stars for the first time in forever, it seems. So congrats, man!
Pifff. Chris is only like the 4th most prolific ponyfic reviewer out there. Longest going, though.
4172848
I was going to mention that, as of writing this post, you and TD were splitting the top two spots in the feature box with FiM short stories written for the Writeoff... but this was a minific round, and I didn't want to distract new talent :(
Maybe next month.
4173725
Sorry to hear about the distractions, LD. I hope everything is working out for you. And yeah, we'd love to see you over in the Writeoff again.
Basically everything I've published in the last three years (except for a few stories written for other contests) has started in the Writeoffs. I also hold the dubious honor of having the only story on FIMFiction that started life as a medalist in an Original Fiction round. The place is amazing, and routinely churns out stories that go on to become Featurebox stars (and/or RCL features).
I'm sorry you missed last round, but on the other hand, it means that we're now neck-and-neck in the Original Fiction scoreboard, so I'm looking eagerly forward to the heavyweight match of the short-story round. I know you're gonna break your silver streak someday, but I'm gonna make you work for it.
And congratulations on the five-star review!
I would give salvation another upvote if possible. Maybe you can bribe Present Perfect or Knighty?
Top five fic i've read, hands down. You deserve the 5 stars.
4174048 Yeah, and I'm having an argument with a guy in the comments who is heavily implying (among other things) that shorter stories are worse. He's citing my average story length as proof that I'm a terrible author. Fun times. Your name came up!
Let this be a lesson to novice writers who believe that writing can only begin when you feel bulletproof and invincible. Pro tip: no matter how good you get, there will always, always be nagging doubts in the back of your head. The key is to push ahead, do your best work, and always be moving forward.
4172848
Definitive proof that life isn't fair. I can't recall ever reading a story of yours that I didn't like.
4176518 Well, I thank you for the vote of confidence. A fair amount of what I write is less popular tags/characters, so it's not exactly a surprise.
Wait seriously? How is all my dumb stupid porn north of 1k but this deep, fascinating story isn't?
Dang. If I could upvote it a few more times I would.
Oh well, at least it's a lot closer already than when you first posted this. Just a few more!
Congratulations!
I haven't really written much at all in the past years, somehow I still despite all the encouragement and good advice I have come across put myself under too much pressure and can often barely get out any words. That's definitely something that I should keep working on.