Because a story was madly invading my mind so I had to get my ass out of bed and type away. Who knew, a little smidgen of a thought could expand into a (potential?) sweeeet story!!! I have a plot-ish and characters with personality! So far, my hour's worth of 2000 words is looking pretty good for a smidgen of an idea - there's no plot holes...yet.

Let's see if I can successfully write 5000 well edited words by the end of this month.

Sorry...being the verbose cat that I am again.

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Yes! I wish to participate in this challenge! Bring it on! (woot! participant #2!)

Wow, two thousand words...my idea is currently...less than a page hand written in huge writing. Which would be...not much. I'll type it up soon and expand on it, but I was busy uploading some poetry (because I got in one of my SUPER RARE! poetry moods when I was in the middle of writing my little story).

Eh...see, one of the reasons I try to force myself away from too much poetry is that sometimes, a single poem can satisfy an urge that might have equated into a good three pages of my stories. And when you don't have much time, giving up three pages for something completely unrelated is not a very good idea. Heh, for a novelist wannabe, I really haven't gotten myself into the swing of typing novels too well :D

Well, that will all change! I swear! Betaing stuff just makes me more inspired to go and work on my own stories!

'Cept...I wrote them in a word vomit mode, so I've practically got to rewrite all my first chapter of Phoenix.... And then I have to write the second chapter, and figure out a way to edit my Palphor's Crystal....

Ahhhhhhhh, the work of writing. All this, and I'm not even going into my real world work...godawful amounts of bs from my damned stupid teachers- can't they SEE I don't CARE?! Eh...well, I have ditched four papers. And three tests...and five poems and a couple quizzes. Well, the poems I'm looking forward to. Eh...maybe.

Walcott is a very good poet. As is Mary Oliver.

....You know, if I'm going to talk this much, maybe I should do multiple posts so we look super popular or something.... XD <too lazy>

Eh...are there any people out there who have that much more free time than the rest of us?

I have the start of a story(aka two paragraphs) and no idea where it is going as of yet. I am hoping to get it flushed out a bit when I go home for sprong break at the end of the week. Till then I have too much other work to do. :(

Hopefully I will be able to write a bit better of an intro(but i guess it wont be an intro anymore then) sometime later this week.

Cotton, if you review and chat about everyone else's work, then you will earn the right to have the three of us critique one of your already posted stories.

Review guidelines to follow! This is a real crit, so we're gonna have to give decent reviews. Hopefully, I won't have to shamelessly rip off anything from the Review game... I think I'm creative enough to come up with a template, but suggestions are welcome!

Em... you wouldn't happen to have some detailed review guidelines hiding inside your pocket, would you?

As of now, I'm probably going to browse some other guidelines and choose what I think is most important to note, then we're probably going to choose two or three each to comment on, and the comments should have a total of say... ten constructive sentences on any of the topics. If you choose to comment on four or more aspects, you can, but you write more than ten sentences to do so.

Suggestions on that are welcome...

Um yeah I don't have any suggestions for rules. I'll think on it. I should really be packing right now.

YAY for procrastination!!

Okay, here are the guidelines. Suggestions are welcome.

All reviews for the stories here must follow these guidelines.

Please choose two or three of these and write a review with a total of ten constructive sentences- that is, ten sentences that clearly describe your reaction to any of these topics. If you choose to talk about more than three of these characteristics, then you should write a little more. Since doing more is your decision, you may write as much or as little as you choose after fulfilling the ten sentence requirement.

No flames please. Constructive criticism is fine, but do not be rude or abusive. It is also best to sprinkle praise in with your comments, so keep that in mind.

Summary: Is the listed summary of this story interesting and exciting? A summary on this site is a 250 character blurb that has to catch a reader as they skim down a page of stories- does it do this well? Describe your reaction and offer any advice you might have. If it's good, say why you think this. Is the summary an accurate representation of the story so far?

Beginning: A good rule of thumb is that every story should begin with a "hook" of some sort to get the reader interested. Does this story do this? Explain why or why not.

Plot and Conflict: Is the plot engaging and believable? Are your questions answered as you go along? How does dialog and other aspects of the writing propel the story forward? Can you see any conflict in the story? Conflict can be either inner-conflict or outer-conflict:

Inner-conflict: When different values, wishes and desires are at war within the character's own mind. These can be, for example: greed, duty, fear, lust, revenge and love. Outer-conflict: When the longings/needs of different characters clash together.

Setting: Is the setting well described? Are all of the senses engaged? Do the characters interact with the setting?

Characters: Are they engaging? How are they described? Do you feel any sympathy for them, or at least some sort of connection? Does the author give you enough details and information about them? Is the dialog convincing and does everyone stay in character? At the same time, are the characters dynamic and does anyone (particularly the protagonist) change or grow over the course of the story? Is this change believable?

Style: This is essentially a combination of word choice and tone. Is the author's style distinct and noticeable, and does it contribute to the story? Does the author maintain this style throughout the piece? Feel free to comment on the language or any specific parts of speech and their effect on the delivery of the narrative (are the verbs/ nouns/ adjectives/ etc. clear and descriptive, or overly ornate, etc.), or any effect spelling and grammar have on the whole piece. How does the point of view contribute or detract from the piece? Is it used effectively? Does the author "show not tell" the different aspects of the plot, characters, setting, etc?

Moral/Theme: Is there a moral or at least a theme to the story? Do you notice any possible symbolism that makes the story deeper or could be used to do so, and is this symbolism appropriate? What does it seem that the author is trying to say with this story?

Other: Describe your overall impression, wrap up the review, or make note of any extra details or things that aren't covered in these guidelines.

How you fulfill these requirements is entirely up to you: make notes on specific quotes, ramble, whatever. As long as you detail your opinions on at least two different aspects and fill the sentence requirement, you can do what you want. I'll say it again, though, no flaming. If you really only have criticism, then try to be kind about it.

I'm thinking we should all be done by Monday. Is that okay for you Lime?

Yes. Monday would be good for me. TY!

10 sentences seem to be a bit much. I'm not sure if I can do 10, but I will try! =)

Hm... I guess a paragraph about one of these is a lot, but the ten sentences isn't that bad. Whenever you do depth at the review game, you have to write at least eight sentences....

I guess it would be kinder to change it to more than three in ten sentences, but it should be okay. 5000 words is a lot of material, so as the theory goes, a sentence for every fifty words seems like a good depth review. Plus, I think once we start writing the reviews, the critique will flow a little.

Course, if the piece is substantially less than five thousand words, it would be understandable if the review was too. We'll see what happens, I guess.

WHOA! i totally read that wrong..i thought you meant 10 sentences for each category...lol. 10 sentences total isn't bad at all. lol. heh. whups...*points at her inability to read properly* i blame that...

:D I know how you feel. I'm dyslexic all the time. Ten sentences a category would be suicide... plus, fp has cut off quite a few reviews that I've done, and they always insert typos... we would never make it...

Okay, so I think both me and Lime sorta had other things to do and never finished / posted our stories. Personally, I never finished, so that's why it is nowhere to be seen. I'm pretty sure Lime had some issues in the real world that she had to deal with. Yin didn't submit anything either, but she did join a week before the end of march... and she does have other things to do as well....

But we all tried, and that's what counts! Yeah, that's lame, I know. But yeah... please come back, everyone! By which I mean... all three of you plus our awesome drago! Oh, we need to make a nickname for her, too. Did Frac already do the honors?

I live on!!! and i promise to write something for the end of this month. Along with all the other crap I have to do.

Uh...I totally have to rewrite my story (er, chapter) 'cause I had Frac take a look at it and it turned out to be almost unpostable...hopefully, I'll have time in mid-May after the spring semester ends to revise (and complete) the chapter...

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