Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Where have you been, you wandering gobdaw?

Not sure if gobdaw is a real word. Seem to remember it from Kilcock in the seventies.

I've been submerged in critique-website land for the last while. I've all but given up on Youwriteon.com
The mechanics of the site are good but the quality of the reviews is so hit and miss that. after a while, I wasn't able to discern good advice from bad. This may be down to the fact that there are not a huge number of active users, certainly not enough to have a decent clump of reviewers from your own genre.
Authonomy was an interesting experiment. Turns out it is mostly fun but does little to improve one'e writing as it is not set-up to provide good, qualified critique. I had hundreds of one-line critiques that varied from 'perfect' to 'bin it' - neither very helpful. The site is a time-suck too, taking every spare hour to keep up with the race to the editors table( even though the forums are great craic). So I ditched that.
I'm now a new member of litopia.com, where you cannot become a working member until you have posted 250 comments on the forum. After that you ascend, freemason-like, to the next echelon and I have no idea what will happen there(I have bought my apron though).

I'll keep you updated and maybe do a general piece on all the critiquing sites at a later date.

I've continued to work on my children's stories "The Flesh-eating Diplomat from Outer Space" etc but I am losing the will to live with these. I've gone from euphora to deep depression looking at them - so I've stopped looing at them.

I will have to polish them up, though, as I'm travelling to the York Writers' Festival in April and I need something for the one-to-ones with agents that happen there.

Later
M.

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