Zyn's Crit Tips - Part II - Reviewing Overhaul Works / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Zyn's Crit Tips - Part II - Reviewing Overhaul Works.

Zyn 26 Dec 2018 05:56

Big thanks to mayoculpa and Captain Kirby for reading this over in chat before this was posted! (I ended up moving the overview points to the top since both of you wanted that.)

General disclaimer: feel free to revamp and remix these tips for your own critique style!

This is Part II of a however-many-necessary series of essays I'm writing in the hopes of helping encourage more reviewing in the forums, and the site itself. We're a growing community, and reviewers are high in demand and low in supply!

As always, I hope this page will be helpful to those just starting to try reviewing, and to authors receiving reviews written using this page as a reference! Feel free to let me know if anything here needs improving or clarifying!

Part III will arrive… sometime this month, probably.

A Post-Christmas Miracle

Elenee FishTruck 26 Dec 2018 14:37

These guides are incredibly helpful for someone who likes critiquing drafts, and would like to critique more in the future. +1

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Mm Mm Good

Re: A Post-Christmas Miracle

Zyn 26 Dec 2018 20:26

Thanks for reading; I'm glad you've found these pages helpful!

If there are any additional topics you'd like to see discussed in these essays, feel free to let me know!

AquaBlack 02 Mar 2019 06:29

I'm really liking this series! I think a lot of this is useful for self-editing, too.

I have a minor quibble with the last example- I think it's best to avoid references to works outside of SCP (Even though we likely have many X-files fans here). I've gotten crit before that says it's too much like "Harry Potter," which isn't helpful since I haven't read the books in 10 years (And do not care to do so again). I think if a critter needs to draw a reference to another work, they should be specific to an episode/chapter/concept/etc so that the author understands what they mean.

Zyn 02 Mar 2019 08:12

I'm glad you like the series!

I've gotten crit before that says it's too much like "Harry Potter," which isn't helpful since I haven't read the books in 10 years (And do not care to do so again).

In that case, if you're not inclined to run a Google search to check the background, just ask the reviewer to specify which part seems too close to the existing media/franchise reference.

I think if a critter needs to draw a reference to another work, they should be specific to an episode/chapter/concept/etc so that the author understands what they mean.

I've tweaked the last example to follow this, since I agree with the statement. Does the revised version work better?

AquaBlack 02 Mar 2019 13:55

Yes, thanks! I appreciate it