Most of you who know me know that i am passionate about dA lit and i would like to encourage those who are interested to pursue their ambitions to become published writers.

It’s my opinion that many more dA writers than we think have work that is publishable (please don’t mistake publishable with good, i’m not saying anything is good or bad or whatever and i don’t want to debate this) and from my own experience dA writers can give each other what is needed to take our writing forward.

I’m not going to beat around the bush here (hurrah for clichés!) but had it not been for =PoeticWar i would never, in a million years, have sent my work to a publishers. He gave me, as a writer, exactly what i needed; he encouraged me and gave me confidence. He did this by telling me where i was good and where i was shit, he wouldn’t let me be self deprecating and he wouldn’t let me be egotistical. His critiques of my work have always been honest, straightforward and and, some word i can’t think of right now, but, he justified every comment to me, had a reason for his feedback, told me how i could improve and why he’d made his suggestions.

With this in mind =realising brings together writers, who want to be published, for critique and support.

:: =imperfect

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Hiho,

Each of you gave me a link to the piece of your writing that you’d like to see in print and i've finally got my act (and enough people) together to start round two of the critiques. Some of you know each other and each other’s writing, some of you don’t, so i’ve tried to link people to writers i don’t think you’re overly familiar with (this hasn’t been easy, dA being as incestuous as it is) but i don’t think you will have commented on the piece i’ve given you.

Ok, this is the deal, i would like you to go to the piece you have been allocated (below) and read it (duh!), now keeping in mind that i expect the pieces you’ve all suggested to be pretty polished, i don’t want you to read the piece with your critic's hat on per se. Unless there are glaringly obvious grammar / spelling issues, forget them. I’d like you to read the piece as if you were reading it in a literary magazine; as if it was an already published piece and I’d like you to comment on these specific things:

1) Did you _really_ read this piece or did you read the opening and skim read the rest?

If you _really_ read the whole thing, why did you? (and because i told you to isn’t a good enough answer!).

If you skim read, why?

2) Do you have any suggestions on how the piece can be improved? Be specific here with your reasons; forget your own preferred style and likes and think about what would really polish the piece. Remember, the person you're critiqing has an ego, else they wouldn't have submitted here (and hey, this isn't a bad thing - all writers need one) so be as frank and direct as you can be.

3) Will this piece _ever_ be published? I want you to be 100% honest here, i’m not asking you if the piece is good, and you’re not saying if it is good, you are saying if it is publishable and marketable. If you think the people you know would want to read it, would pay to read it.

4) Familiarise yourselves with the publications in these two links:

for poetry : [link]
for prose : [link]

and, if you can, suggest a publication that you think may be suitable for the piece you have been tasked to critique. If you suggest somewhere that isn't included in the lists please, please let me know so i can add them

5) Work with the person you are critiquing and use the person who is critiquing you to really get as much from this task as possible and improve the piece. It should be an open discussion. Try to treat the person critiquing you as a editor.


Now, i am pretty certain that not all the feedback you’ll get from this will be nice, because there are some bloody harsh critics in this group. But frank and honest feedback is what’s needed for writers to learn and grow. That being said, be careful with your tone and keep in mind part of this is to encourage those who want to be published to develop their dA writing into publishable literature.

Ponder this, good writing isn’t subjective at all, taste is.

If, for whatever reason, you don’t want to be part in this just let me know and i’ll critique the ones who drop out

Task

Prose:
~poppyluke to critique [link]
*kaujot to critique [link]
~crazylady to critique [link]
^MinorKey to critique [link]
*mindmasher to critique [link]
=braakdown to critique [link]

Poetry:
`darkcrescendo to critique [link]
~treefingerer to critique [link]
~zeratul547 to critique [link]
=somedrunkblackspoon to critique [link]
=PoeticWar to critique [link]
=imperfect to critique [link]


What next?
When you've given your advice please comment to this journal. Once you've done this you can request another piece to be looked at.

Once all critiques are in i'll ask for your feedback on the project and it'll start all over again!

If you have any questions or are unsure about anything please drop a note to my =imperfect account.

don't forget!
If you read a piece that you think is pretty bloody amazing, recommend it for a DD by noting your suggestion to ^ndifference for poetry and ^MinorKey for prose. with a short description, and/or suggest it for the next issue of *suture!

I have no idea if this will work, if it does, i envisage people starting to use the lit mag reviews and submit their writing for publishing. That should then start to create a resource as people tell us about their experiences.

>>=imperfect

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Hey woman, what the bloody hell is this?