JOIN US FOR THE CON CRIT PROJECT ! VOLUNTEERS WANTED AND NEEDED !

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

Hello hd_writers! I'm Julie, aka slytherincesss, and I am one of the new mods for our community. We have a ton of really exciting projects being planned behind the scenes, one of which I want to briefly talk with you about today.

Constructive criticism, or con crit as it's known as, is one of the most controversial writing topics out there. There isn't a writer out there who can't benefit from con crit; however, genuine con crit is rare. More often we have readers squee over our stories and tell us the stories are fabulous and wonderful and ribbons and lollipops yay! Have you ever wondered, though, who did not like your fic and why not? There's a variety of reasons people don't leave con crit. They may feel it will fall on deaf ears. They may be afraid to be seen as a "flamer" (we'll get into the differences between a flame and genuine con crit). More often than not, though, many people simply don't know how to give constructive criticism, therefore they shy away from doing it.

We'd like to do some tutorials on what con crit is and how to give it effectively.

Now, the fun part!

I am directly soliciting works of fan fiction from YOU ALL, that you would not mind having beta read/con critted for posting in our community as an example of constructive criticism. I have a few guidelines surrounding the kind of fic I'm looking for. It can be either an unpublished or published work. It cannot be for any of the fests currently going on, due to the anonymity factor. So don't send us your hd_holidays or mini_fest fics or anything like that. I'm looking for the fic to be 5000 words or less, give or take a few. There needs to be enough words to really get into the meat of the fic, but as LJ limits posts to 10,000 words, there needs to be enough room to post the con crit along with the fic.. One shots are fine. Any number of chapters from a chaptered fic are fine, as long as they're no more than 5000 words all together. If submitting from a chaptered fic, I would prefer the first chapter be sent, so the fic is in context to us as readers. It's hard to crit chapter 14 out of 45 with no context, if you get what I mean. ETA: Just to clarify, if you have a fic you'd liked critiqued, but it's longer than 5000 words, we're willing to at least look at the first 5000 words if you'd like to submit them.

For purposes of this exercise, I am willing to accept any pairing(s) and any rating. Hey, you want to send me Squid/Grawp/Firenze, go right ahead! H/D is preferred, but if you only happen to have a fic of another pairing that fits the above criteria, we will accept it for purposes of learning and growing as writers. Yes, this includes het, threesomes, incest, whatever, too. Anything goes.

If you're game, please e-mail the fic you choose to slytherincess[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject header HD_Writers Con Crit Exercise.

Please be assured that should your fic be chosen as one to be con-critted, we would of course show you the con crit prior to posting it to the community. We don't want anyone to feel blindsided! And if at any point you change your mind and do not want your work(s) posted, we will respect that as well.

In the event that we receive no submissions, I will con crit my own very first fan fic, which I wrote back in 2003-2004. I recently re-read it and, haha, yeah . . . it needs some serious con crit! Think of it as Mystery Science Theater 3000 ;)

Questions? Concerns? We're still working out the details on this activity and your feedback and input is invaluable. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have.

Thanks!