I’ve written about critique here before, and in my opinion find it invaluable to a writer who cannot help but become blind to his own writing. I’ve asked for help and suggestions here and on MetaxuCafe on one of my latest stories, and appreciated the response because it does point out flaws as well as giving the writer a different perspective of the story as seen by a multitude of readers.
One of the weblogs that offered free critique to its readers that I had linked to here, Honest Critiques, has since been deleted as a link. Honestly (no pun intended), I had sent in a story of my own and never even received acknowledgement of it much less mention at the site. More importantly, in following the weblog for a few months I see no reviews or "honest critique" but the majority of posts are of the I’m busy, I’m not feeling well, I’m leaving on a trip, I’ve just gotten back, yadda, yadda, yadda, so my suspicions were aroused and I cannot vouch for this site by linking to it.
However, a spinoff from Miss Snark, Literary Agent’s Crapometer in which she had offered critiqueing of novel starts, query letters, synopsisi (!), is now a weblog called Increasing Your Productivity (name wisely changed from the original Crapometer due to reader request) that I have linked to here in my Special Places category. I would highly recommend it both for sending in your material as well as for simply reading through the presented work and the comments by readers as it seems to be a highly professional group of commenters and weblog owner who all give good advice in a proper suggestorial (!) manner to help rather than rag out hopeful writers.
Check it out. If you don’t have a writers group to depend upon for feedback, this is the next best thing.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Thanks for the tip. I hadn’t realized that the Crapometer had changed its name.
Synopses?
}:)
Curses! Sad to say, the end of last year was a bit of a write-off in terms of keeping up with submissions to the blog. Mea culpa.
Honest Critiques is rather a quixotic enterprise at the best of times; it offers, sporadically I know, a measure of free advice that I hope can be of some slight help. I do not derive any income from the site, unless you count Google AdSense revenue accruing at a rate of about five cents a day. On those terms, which are the only I would feel comfortable with in any case, I try to provide a little more tender loving care than I can provide in my day job; but I’m not going to turn it into a night job and run it like clockwork.
I’m sorry I have caused you to feel injured, however.
Thank you for responding, Torgo, and I apologize for bringing the problems out like this. I’m sure that with your background in writing and editing that you understand not only the paranoia from working with online scams, but the deeper-seated fear of abuse that disillusioned writers soon experience in the big bad world of publishing. Beneath every thick skin lies a fragile ego. Your critiques were and will be a valuable asset because of your knowledge; here’s hoping you will find more time to continue!