Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Ready For Market -- October

This is topic Ready For Market -- October in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

The Ready for Market Challenge is for stories that have been workshopped and need that final bit of polish to make 'em shine out from the others in the slush pile.

If you're planning to participate, please post "I'm in" in this thread.

Then, please post the first 13 of your ready-for-market story in the challenge thread, which is here:
http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum7/HTML/000084.html

The detailed rules are here:
http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/005010.html

Previous challenges, so you can see how it works, are here:
http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum7/HTML/000071.html (August)
http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum7/HTML/000079.html (September)

Except we're changing the scoring system as follows:

1-3 -- not yet ready for market, needs substantial work
4-6 -- might be ready for market, needs a little work
7-9 -- wow! ready for market!

Attributes we score are as before, i.e.

First 13

Story overall

Story characteristics:

1 character development
2 plot
3 satisfactory ending
4 milieu
5 willing suspension of disbelief
6 unique/never been done before
7 writing style
8 dialogue
9 action
10 understandable ("I get it")

Enjoy!
Pat

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

"Bump," said Zac.

Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :

Am I in? Sure, I'll be in. I'm sure I got something around here.

A note to other potential participants. This is a spot for harsh comments. Selling a story to a venue that receives 300 to 600 entries a publication is not easy. If you relly want to know what an unbaised reader thinks, this is the place to submit it.

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

Um, let's please not characterise RFM as a place for harsh comments, snapper--we do want to encourage participation, right? (That aside, your post is spot-on, thanks.)

Comments will be based on the expectation that the story is, in the author's mind, ready for market, but I see no reason to make them 'harsh', as in, deliberately discouraging, stern or unpleasant.

Certainly, there will be less likelihood of someone saying a story is 'great' in order to encourage, when really it sucks--but hopefully they'll still say something like "It's not ready for market yet, because the characters need development," rather than, "It sucks."

To sum it up in a sentence, I'd describe RFM as an opportunity to offer a story you've workshopped for review against some simple criteria, in exchange for the delight of reading other people's stuff and spending a minimum of time on a short grading and commentary of at least one of the stories.

Cheers--and welcome, snapper,
Pat

[This message has been edited by TaleSpinner (edited October 02, 2008).]

Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :

I'll be participating, although I may only get to a single story.

I also agree with Talespinner. Critiques should simply be honest, no more no less. I don't believe any of us are in fact editors of major publications, so all we are offering is our own opinion and best constructive (and at least in my case) encouraging and helpful criticism.

Edit: I also heartilly approve of the new scoring system. :-)

[This message has been edited by Merlion-Emrys (edited October 02, 2008).]

Posted by alliedfive (Member # 7811) on :

I am in again. I also think the scoring system is a little easier to understand this way.

Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :

My term 'harsh' was harsh. I meant if you would like a critque that isn't sugar coated.

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

Well, takers so far are:

snapper
Merlion-Emrys
alliedfive
skadder
TaleSpinner

Welcome, all. And I'm pleased the revised scoring system meets with y'all's approval.

Yes, snapper, 'not sugar-coated' is a better way of putting it. Indeed, when you described your own crits as 'harsh' I thought you were being a little harsh on yourself :-)

Cheers,
Pat

Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :

does anyone else think im a little short on my first 13? or am I just seeing things?

Posted by Tiergan (Member # 7852) on :

quote:
does anyone else think im a little short on my first 13? or am I just seeing things?

Nope, your entry is 13 lines. Probably looks shorter because a couple of the lines carry over to the next by only one word. A good way to "cheat" is only 1 space after periods. It sounds like it wouldnt help, but sometimes just an extra space in a sentence can cause you to have another entire line, limiting the usable words.

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

"does anyone else think im a little short on my first 13? or am I just seeing things? "

I think you're a couple of lines short, Merlion. At least, when I paste your text, excluding title and so on which don't count towards the 13 lines, into a posting box using Windows IE 6, there are a couple of lines spare.

I'd suggest adding a couple of lines and trusting that Kathleen won't mind editing it down again if we're wrong.

Cheers,
Pat

Posted by alliedfive (Member # 7811) on :

As far as the "harsh" critiques, I didn't find the RFM crits any more harsh than others. Also, I don't come here to get my ego stroked. Aren't we all here to improve?

Posted by AWSullivan (Member # 8059) on :

I'm in.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

quote:
does anyone else think im a little short on my first 13? or am I just seeing things?

You had exactly 13 lines the first time. As edited, it comes out to 15 lines, with one of them only having one word in it.

I tend to let 14 lines pass, because of the Firefox problem, so maybe I'll let this go because the one-word line word could almost fit on the previous line.

But don't push it, okay?

Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :

No pushing involved. It just looked short to me, but my eyes are not the greatest in the world, and with different word proccessors, browsers etc plus things like one word lines and multi line sentences, I just wanted a second opinion.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Well, you can always get the 13-line template and check the reply box to see if the template fits properly. That should give you a more accurate idea, I think.

Posted by skadder (Member # 6757) on :

quote:
A good way to "cheat" is only 1 space after periods. It sounds like it wouldnt help, but sometimes just an extra space in a sentence can cause you to have another entire line, limiting the usable words.

You should have only one space after a period--this is accepted manuscript format currently.

[This message has been edited by skadder (edited October 05, 2008).]

Posted by kathyton (Member # 7780) on :

I'm in and have, in fact, already posted. Just under the wire.

Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :

Okay TS,

Where's yours? We are waiting on you so post it already.

Posted by AWSullivan (Member # 8059) on :

Story sent to those who requested it.

~Anthony