Write_Good: a safe haven for concrit

This post will be folded into the FAQ eventually.

I thought I had set tag management so that members could tag their own work, but I hadn't. That has been fixed now.

Every new post should have at least one of the following tags on it:

* fanfiction
* original fiction
* request
* discussion


Fiction posts should also have the following tags:

* length
o short: under 1000 words (including drabbles, comment fic)
o medium: 1000 - 10,000 words (including short stories, scenes from larger works)
o long: 10,000+ words (novellas, big bang stories)

* pairing
o f/f
o f/m
o m/m
o none
o other

I've added "pairing: other" as a catch-all for my convenience in case someone does not tag their own work. If your work contains a pairing that you don't feel is described by the above list (due to number of characters, gender identity, etc.) you're welcome to add a tag for it, or use "pairing: other"

I would prefer not to use author tags, as this is not a pleasure-reading community, and I'd like to keep the tag list to a manageable length. You're welcome to link to other works posted here or elsewhere if you want to invite people to compare works against each other, place them within a larger universe, etc.

I'd also prefer not to add fandom/character tags to entries. I can see where it would be useful to be able to look at past critiques, but if you really want to delve into a discussion of how to write Character A, I think that's best done within your fandom.

Authors are welcome to add genre tags, but I won't be policing it except to keep an eye on the tag list for misspellings or repetitions.

Questions/concerns/suggestions welcome as always, in comments or by private message to healingmirth

Depending on what quantity of traffic and interest we get, I will probably make broad discussion posts from time to time. This is the first of those!

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While everyone is welcome (and encouraged!) to post longer stories, let's start small.

Feel free to bring up anything you want in comments

Where do you set your thresholds for exposition or character description if you are just writing a single scene?

In fanfiction in particular, where much of the audience is familiar with the characters and their appearances, authors may tend to omit details (or overuse others) that might leave a general audience confused, but you can certainly write a complete scene of original fiction where the readers come in knowing nothing about the characters.

(in trying to think of an example this piece of original fiction by misslucyjane was the first thing that came to mind.)

Title: Five Times Rodney was Silent
fandom or original fic: Stargate: Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Rodney McKay, team, gen
Rating: G
Word Count: 750
Author's note: Something I wrote for sg1_five_things a few months back. Spoilers for the final season of Atlantis

( Five Times Rodney was Silent )

What do you depend on when you write? I'm sure we all do our fair share of googleing, but are there websites (or, gasp! books?) that you go back to again and again for the mechanics of putting a story together?


Just to get the ball rolling:

Grammar Girl - Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules.

Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com are my go-to word-checking places, for no reason other than habit - I was subscribed to their Word of the Day list for a long, long time. (Today's word is bumptious.)

little_details - An already-impressive back-catalog of questions answered, and literally thousands of members willing to contribute their diverse expertise and interests to making your story more accurate. A fantastic resource for when you just can't find the answer you need. (I am willing to admit that I don't write anything nearly as ambitious as the things that most of the people there seem to be researching for. It's fascinating to read, anyway.)