posted
Ok, the first time I started reading this forum I noticed mention of "WOTF" quarterly crit groups. To this day I am still not sure how it works, how to submit, what gets submitted, and anything else about it.
If anyone would like to fill me in, for my personal doh moment, I would appreciate it.
Also, this would be a good topic for anyone else who would like to know more about it.
posted
Go to "Hatrack Groups" on the main page and click on which WOTF quarter you are interested in. You then request to participate. The entries are critiqued through emails. Nothing specific is posted in this forum.
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posted
Hmm, I thought about waiting for someone who has been a lot longer than me to respond but since I am the first here I will start. You may get some repeated responses and some that will explain things more throughly.
Some of the first posts in the WotF groups may explain what you are missing. To answer both of you, you get a critique by E-mailing the story to the person who is willing to crit it. Crit short for critique. On hatrack you only post the first 13 lines of a story or novel. There is a forum for short stories and another one for novels. Sometimes a person may post a very short excerpt they are having problems with but that is usually 13 lines or less also.
If you are still confused wait for one of the people who can explain things better. There are hatrackers who do a better job of that.
posted
I know all about submitting to WOTF there's to know, I was just unsure whether or not WOTF stories get critiqued on HT (as it appeared not to be common practice).
posted
@foste I think the big thing is they don't want the judges knowing who wrote what. As long as your not putting the story up for the public to see you should be fine.
Here its just people emailing back and forth no different than if you have a live workshop where you live at looking at each others stories. Even on the WOTF forums a few people have asked about crit groups and some of the responses were to check out sites like hatrack and critters and other online workshops.
posted
If you want to post your first thirteen of your WotF story in the Fragments section, you can. Just make sure you don't say it's for WotF and don't post it with the official title that you're going to submit with.
As far as the WotF critique group, they're great. Each quarter we usually end up with two groups out of the one big one. For your first draft, you send it to everyone in your half of the group. For the second draft, you send to everyone in the other group. This way, you always have fresh eyes on the piece.
At the top of the posting for the crit group, there are dates, self-imposed deadlines that we try to follow. But if you can't make it, no one is going to stop you from sending it out for crit whenever you get it done. In fact, having it staggered sort of helps with the workload. So if the dates seem hard, don't sweat it too much.
And of course, plan on critiquing everyone else's stuff in return. That's where people finishing in a staggered manner sort of helps. But the feedback you'll get here is excellent. It also gives a wide range so you can get a clearer picture of how people are perceiving your piece. I highly recommend it.
posted
The groups were started by those who are trying to enter every quarter until they win. Generally, one is started every quarter. They will post a thread for those who are in for that quarter, with the dates they are shooting for to have a first draft by. It doesn't seem to ever work out like it's planned, but you can usually get a 1st and 2nd draft critique if you get in early enough. People will tell you when they are ready to critique and when they are ready to be critiqued. Nothing to it.
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posted
HT obviously refers to "Ha Track," which was Orson Scott Card's little in-joke in providing a "laugh track" to his Alvin Maker series.
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