Have you recently submitted a work without receiving a single comment, review, anything? Well I know how frustrating it can be, and here is my suggestion to you.

When you log in to fictionpress and excitedly go to the stats menu to look at the new poem/story you submitted to find it had not been given a single review, dont despair, get out there find something you may be interested in, and give it an honest review, if someone gives you a review, return the favor. If you have nothing to do, log in and read a couple pieces, if anything was good or given an honest effort show that author some respect and give them a review.

Well thats all the ranting I've got in me, I hope somebody reads this....

Also, I review a ton. I've submitted close to five hundred reviews, few of which are returned. In fact, I've reviewed you. I don't post a lot of work nor do I expect a lot back, I just try to help with critiques which is what I think fictionpress should be about. Helping people perfect their work.

Honestly, there are better places than fictionpress to post your work. Great poetry forums in which you can really get to know some people. If you're sick of not being noticed, perhaps look for one of those places.

x/Hell Phoenix/x

x/Hell Phoenix/x

The irony is, though, that the more helpful reviews you give on ficwad, the more rating points you get so that you can recommend stories you really enjoy--but I guess if you don't have an opinion on any stories, you wouldn't review or rate them anyway. Catch 22.

Sometimes, if no one reviews something on FP, it's because it's in the wrong category and being targeted at the wrong audience. Be grateful for the massive number of genres FP lets you choose from! Other sites have far fewer, and believe me, it can get pretty tricky to choose the right one.

~Bitter Irony

You are pretty much guaranteed three replies to your poetry (there are rules to follow to keep everyone getting those three replies though) but it's a really great community.

I'm not biased because I'm a mod. I really love the place. I still most stuff here but not as much as I used to.

if people are going to read someone elses work they should at lest respect the aither of the peace for there effort and reveiw another acordanly

(i thank anywhen who bother to read and review my work and would repay the favour

I don't care that they don't review back but don't guarantee something when you don't do it.

About 75% of the time I review what I read. The other 25% is basically stuff I read that I can't be bothered reviewing because it's too long and convoluted or just plain bad.

Oh yes. Do you frequent the PCC? If so what's your username over there?

I also still haunt around FP, it's hard to leave isn't it?

Ohhh yeah, I agree- it is very hard to leave.

Oh and I know this is an odd place to pop this but don't bother with xenobard over there. I can't say anything on that site officially cause of the modness but we're having difficulty dealing with him right now and to just leave it alone is best.

theory }

And, yeah, reviews can be really hard to put either way. You want to put meaningful critique that the person'll be happy with- but anyone like me has to stop before typing and go "Wait... will this hurt their feelings?" before they say anything. ^^; I dunno.

Does the whole "Just give thoughtful comments" thing actually work here? It's hard to tell... Maybe if you do it a lot or something. Most of my reviews are from luck of people stumbling on it.

Haha no.

I just give out flat out concrit and often get replies back from kiddies saying "You didn't like GET my poem, NEVER review me again, YOU'RE SO MEAN!!!!"

But hey, what can you do?

I'm not that mean, kiddies on here are too sensitive.

Telling you that you have a lot of cliched imagery and should look at reworking that doesn't consistute as mean.

Well, the worse place now, and it's not safe if FF.net the sister site of here. either arrogant, self-centered, snobbish, flamers, them first, or people that don't care about others feelings. It's not a very good site as of now. I am trying to dodge it. I don't even want a review, people like picking on me because I disagree with flames. There has been couple of others that has been dislike because of the same factor as I.

Yes, I noticed, I put a essay up about the way I am now it's called Destiny Of Doom, and it discusses how I went blind. I only gotten one stinking review, and that's from my friend on FF.net. Not impressing me so far. Well, I am new and that's only one chapter, true, but still.

A better site would be some site with more activitie and more friendly people depending on what you find and like. This is a very good site it just needs to stay clean and out of the major flame issue. I am am on storywrite.

Some people don't get reviewing very well, some don't quite get what a good review is. It's not a flame, and it's not anything that can hurt someone.

I gotten in the past.

You suck and you call this ** a piece of writing? You should die and go to hell. You don't need to write Damn stories. ** like yours don't deserve to be on this site. You can continue but we will continue to flame.

And I am like What the Hell, damn what did I do? Not much, but try to write a very good and respective story. So why the hell do you have to flame. This ** should not be allowed, not exceptable at all. It's damn immature, and isn't very respectful.

Maybe tell the writer if you don't like how and why. Suggest improvement, and how there styles can change. Gentle will do. Harsh and flames doesn't help. At flames most people overreact, and that's not great, or a way to make people improve or respect you. Straight congrats is okay only if that person's writing is that good. Saying it just to say it isn't good. instead tell them it was maybe good, but improvement could be made, and what and why and how to progress. Here is a good style. I will pretend I am reviewing

Well, this piece wasn't bad, but there definitely is room for improvement. I caught a couple of spelling mistakes. Scan over your work and maybe check up on those. You left out a letter on with and without h it's wit and that mean smart. Well, the characters seem cool, but Mabel needs to be less perfect. She seems like a Mary Sue to me. Well, or else great.

MLJ

Well, give constructive critticism like I did above, always works.

If you are flaming just to want revenge or yell at them because you dislike them, don't do it at all. If you want to flame because of a story quality, then stop calm yourself, then review gentlely. If you don't like there story because you don't like the genre or even the moral or theme, consider this, others might. Don't review and go read something else you like. No reason to flame. If you gave friendly critticisms last time and they won't listen, then don't review at all, probably need to find someone that will and don't spend your time flaming.

Here are a few examples of my reviews:

"First off, technical stuff. Punctuation, I would recommend that you punctuate the whole piece (you've only got a handful of commas and an ellipsis right now, which actually should be three dots).

It's very teen-angsty and as such, a little dull in it's language. You can write an angry poem, just make it interesting. The repetition of the first two lines, the "I know that I" is a little dull off the bat. Grab your readers with those lines, really pull them in (that's what they're there for).

It's also quite prosaic, devoid of imagery and a poetic voice. Vivid it up and try to make us see your individual situation, what quirks make this topic interesting."

OR

"I think, if you're going to use a smattering of commas that you should probably punctuate the whole piece. Otherwise it looks a little sloppy.

The rhyme scheme isn't bad, the "waits/contemplates" throws it off a little because of the odd syllable count but apart from that it flows well.

Lines five and six though feels convoluted. The "and"s and "commas" are all oddly placed. A comma should never be before an "and" unless it's part of an independent clause of the sentence that can be removed. I think it might work better as:

All the while, I know she waits

sitting, sleeping and contemplating

ways to ...

Otherwise, you've got an interesting little piece here."

OR

"First off I think you need to separate your parts a little more. Perhaps center the "i" as you center the title.

To be honest the "scribbles that were directions, once." that placement of once really irritates more than assists in the reading. It feels too cliched. Putting the "once" and that idea before the scribbles would flow a lot better.

Also the "and" in the "She understands and you wave her on until she fades from sight." feels like it's too simple, a "but" or another transitional word ie "yet" would work a lot better.

"pretty-girl patent-leather shoes" is too much description for what you've given us so far. I think you could get rid of one of them easily.

There also should be periods instead of comma's after the dialogue.

Otherwise it's not a bad little prose piece. A tighter structure perhaps would lend itself but otherwise you create a well contained story here."

I don't flame. I suggest.

Sadly, not everyone is telling the truth, so people sad they are helping and not flaming, but in reality they do. I sceen that a lot, so I am just a little suspicious.

I'm new to the site and the Faq/Help section never loads.

I just need to know how to submit poetry. I can upload documents and what not but how do i actually publish them?

Anybody?

Please help

I've noticed that this site has become very stagnant due to a lack of reviews. If anyone knows of a site that would be willing to accept a mediocre poet like myself (I'm not going to say I'm great, or perfect, I'm far from it.), I'd be happy to join. I posted eighteen poems on here at once, not a single one of them got a review.

Guess if you post everything at once, it's likely only some will get read, so have to split up the timings. As to reviews - I've learnt that well, it's like poems/stories are hard to find in the listing here. Imagine telling a famous movie company to not advertise - if no one knows about it, they won't go see it. It's hard, and these days we can't just sit in the dark write, and expect people to read it. It might be good, but it isn't until someone knows about it.

I hope you understand. This will happen anywhere.

so constructive criticism...that's not a bad thing but a good thing. I really can't give that, but I'm usually nice when i review....

GOING TO GO KILL THINGYS NOW :P

Just thought i'd put that out there, you know, i'll leave yall alone now. ^_^

Now about the whole review issue on FP... Yes, I agree--the site's very ho-hum. FNN is more active as far as reviews and story submissions go, but I've always assumed that's because fan-fiction attracts more people than original stories. Basically, as others have pointed out, some are too lazy to look at other people's stories and review. Due to a lack of views and reviews, I rarely upload stories/poems, and stick to my DevArt account, but I've been reviewing more as of late in an attempt to be more active here.

As far as leaving the complimentary or constructive reviews, I personally prefer to review with constructive criticism in mind. If someone can’t handle constructive criticism, then they probably have their defenses up and aren’t willing to take suggestions that way. Although, I’ve had trouble in the past where people seem to think that harsh criticism—or just flat criticism that’s a borderline flame—is constructive (this especially happens on Gaia =/). As a writer, a “I liked this. It’s good!” really doesn’t help me. If I read a story that I enjoy and don’t have constructive criticism, I at least sate WHY I liked reading it.

I also want to say something about comments like “I WANTED to like this, but I don’t.” ...A watcher of mine on DevArt gives me comments like that almost every time I post something, and I have to say that his comments do NOT help. In fact, they’re rather frustrating. Leaving a comment like that makes me feel as if I can never please his ‘high’ standards as a writer. But regardless of whether I get comments/reviews such as this, or “This is good [insert smiley face],” giving reasoning is a something to add in your review (for those who don’t want to make anyone feel bad and leave compliments instead).

~That’s all. ;)

Although there are stories with less reviews here, FP still has mass reviewed stories, so maybe we'll just have to keep trying. Like me for example, I've decided to instead work really ** one thing and redoing it a lot of times before I will post right now. I've just started and am still holding back on it, hoping it'll be better when I release it. I like the new beta-reader feature too, as I'll likely recruit a person or so more for this new story. It's becoming a really big project.

Have to agree with your comment - I had that before as well. What's with wanting to like it, but don't. I know where it comes from. It's like those people that says please before swearing. Polite and swearing... I try to leave proper constructive reviews often too, unless I'm just too tired. I try to point out what's wrong and if they accept great, and if not I can't do much about it either.

By the way, your profile pic - who's that of? That was another great addition here too. The upgrades are getting better. Yay!

Ah, yes! The beta feature! I just love that! I already have a few beta-readers outside of FP, so I haven't used it yet, but I've been asked already to beta someone's story.

And the profile picture... That's me :) I agree with you--the beta feature and avatars a great addictions!

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