It's Feedback Month Again!

[sungreen70.livejournal.com]

Attention newbies, old timers, and lurkers (yeah, I'm talking to YOU back there!) January is Feedback Month! It's time to get busy leaving feedback on all these great stories we've been enjoying so much. We all love to hear how our work is being received, so let's feed the authors. And just to make it interesting, you can win prizes (which we need help with! See below!) Read on!

During the month of January, we encourage each of you to explore the comm and check out the multitudes of amazing fiction that’s been posted here since the beginning, way back in 2005.  Everyone LOVES getting an unexpected comment on an older story, so dig deep! You’ll discover stories you didn’t know about and make a writer’s day by providing your feedback. You can read and comment on newer ones too. This is a great way to discover stories and authors.

 

There are a few ways you can find stories:

 

Tags:  On the left hand side of any page in the comm, you'll see the list of tags. There are tags for authors, characters, pairings, and multi-chaptered stories. Click on any tag to see related fics - for example, clicking on p: colin/ryan will bring up a list of Colin/Ryan fics. Not every fic is tagged, so be sure you also look through the archives:

 

Archives:  Click on "Archive" at the top of the screen in wl_fanfiction. That will bring up a calendar page. At the top, you can click on the year (2005-2008), then in each month click on any day to see fics posted on that day. You can also click on "View Subjects" at the top of each month for a list of the titles of posts for that month.

 

After you read the story, click on the “Add A Comment” link and post your feedback. Tell the author what you thought. Did you like the story? Why or why not? Let them know! As you read and leave feedback, keep a list of the stories you have commented on. Then, once a week, send a PM to  me, sungreen70   with the title and author of each story for which you have left feedback, along with the URL for the story. (To send a PM, go to the User Info page and click "send this user a message.")  I will tally up everyone’s entries and at the end of the month, the person who has left the most feedback comments will win.

We need more volunteers to write stories and/or create icons for the prize winners (you can participate in the contest AND write for a winner - if you win, you choose any of the other authors/artists for your prize). If you would like to volunteer as a potential author/icon artist, please comment below to let me know. At the end of the contest I will post a list of authors/artists for the winners to choose from.

If you volunteer as an author/artist, PLEASE be prepared to come through with a prize! You'll be given a reasonable amont of time to create it. There will be first, second, and third prizes, as follows:

 

 

1st Place: A story written just for you, featuring the pairing of your choice, by your choice of writers who have volunteered (list below), AND a personalized icon, again your choice of pairing/character, by your choice of icon artist (also listed below).

 

2nd Place: A story written just for you, featuring the pairing of your choice – you pick your author after the first place winner has picked theirs.

 

3rd Place: A personalized icon, again, your choice of icon artist, after the first place winner has picked.

 

The authors will make every effort to accommodate your specific requests for the story prizes. However, keep in mind that some people are not comfortable writing certain things. If you ask for a BDSM story and the author you selected is not comfortable writing that, for example, we may ask you to either compromise on the story content or choose another author. You may also decide to give the author free rein, and see what they come up with for you.

 

 

Guidelines For Leaving Feedback:

 

Feedback should be constructive. Whenever possible, tell the author what worked for you, and even what didn’t. The majority of writers appreciate criticism as long as it’s given respectfully. “I thought Colin was too weak in the scene where Greg confronts him. You’ve showed him as stronger up until then, so this seems out of character” is an example of constructive criticism. “Your Colin sucked” is an example of a flame, and will not be counted.

 

Feedback should be meaningful. You don’t have to write an in-depth analysis of every story (unless you want to, that’s cool), but please give some indication that you did read it. Not every comment can consist of much more than “This was very funny!” or “I was so happy that Ryan and Colin got together”, but if we see the same one or two word comment posted on every story, we’re going to think you’re not really reading and may disqualify some of your entries.

 

Authors will often reply to your feedback. While replying and getting into a discussion with the author is fine (and encouraged), for the purposes of the contest, each STORY you leave feedback for counts as one entry, regardless of how many meaningful comments you may have posted. If you post four comments on the same story, it still counts as one entry. The exception to this is for stories posted in separate chapters across multiple posts. Since these tend to be pretty substantial posts, we’ll count one feedback comment per post. For example, if you comment on each chapter of a story that is posted in 5 different chapters, that will count as 5 feedback comments.

 

The really fun part is getting feedback on your own stories! You’re welcome to reply to comments left for you, but comments on your own stories don’t count towards your contest entries.

 

The contest will be limited to stories posted on  wl_fanfiction. However, if you have posted a story elsewhere on an existing or defunct comm, or if you have a story you haven’t posted anywhere, we encourage you to post it to  wl_fanfiction so you can join in all the fun! So don't be shy... the more authors we have, the more great stories we all get to read!

Contest begins NOW and ends midnight January 31st your local time. Start reading, start commenting, and have fun! 

***PLEASE COMMENT BELOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO VOLUNTEER TO WRITE/CREATE A PRIZE*** You can volunteer to do a story, an icon, or both. Make sure you specify!