Story and picture submissions to the Felarya group on dA

Please take a moment to look at the newly clarified rules. Thank you.

For the record, it's here.

Ooooohhhhhhh boy. I smell trouble.

Think about it: this is DeviantART we're talking about here. Quality control sparked enough drama here, and on DA it could end up being quite a magnitude larger.

That's not to say that I oppose the decision, I do believe it will improve the Felarya community in the long run, but I'm still going to be bracing for the inevitable backlash.

I'm sure some will think of censorship, but it isn't. If the mods were to censor works for other reasons that are not related to objective quality, then we would actually have a problem. I have nothing against these rules, because as long as we have some common sense we'll just try to improve our works so they're good enough for the group.

Now, when some censorship arises, then I'll be worried.

Ravishing idea, ol bean. I know it will stir unrest with the Deviantartoids, but we do indeed need a little quality standards. It's for the betterment of the community.

itsmeyouidiot wrote:

Ooooohhhhhhh boy. I smell trouble.

Think about it: this is DeviantART we're talking about here. Quality control sparked enough drama here, and on DA it could end up being quite a magnitude larger.

That's not to say that I oppose the decision, I do believe it will improve the Felarya community in the long run, but I'm still going to be bracing for the inevitable backlash.

To be fair, it doesn't stop people from writing whatever kind of Felarya story they want.

All it means is that the stories featured in the group, the public face of Felarya on Deviant Art... the thing most people will likely see before the wiki or even the forum... is at least somewhat of a decent representation of what Felarya is.

I'd rather have a couple people mildly frustrated at their story being denied, than have a new member, maybe even someone who would have been a great contributor, get scared off because they think Felarya is all about overpowered self-insert OC's and all the other bad stuff that pops up in some stories.

Either way, at least this has Karbo and Frenchsnack's backing. This is actually a pretty historic thing, considering how hesitant they have been in the past to set any standards. I don't expect them to be too harsh, or too restrictive, but honestly any standards are better than no standards ^^

I hope you'll remember to let people know why their work is rejected. O.o If you don't tell them they won't have a chance to get better.

Nyaha wrote:

I hope you'll remember to let people know why their work is rejected. O.o If you don't tell them they won't have a chance to get better.

I wouldn't worry too much.

Frenchsnack and Globfish don't strike me as the kind of people to go "REJECTED!" and just leave it at that. Explaining the reasoning behind the rejection is just common courtesy, and a form of critique too. This could actually help some people to improve their writing, and even the thought-process that goes into developing their stories.

Support this idea I read it as also taking effort into account - if a submitted piece of artwork isn't exactly the most beautiful thing ever but it's clear the artist has invested a lot of time and love into it I'd hope that it'd still be let through, even if just to get critique from a wider audience.

so far my stories have been rejected that I've tried to submit, I am not sure why at all and I would like to have someone explain to me please

It might even cause them to come to the forum for help. Just remind them its there :3

Solomon wrote:

so far my stories have been rejected that I've tried to submit, I am not sure why at all and I would like to have someone explain to me please

You haven't submitted any since Glob and I became mods, so I can't answer that yet. If you submit a story and we have to reject it, we'll tell you why, so as to help you improve.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

It might even cause them to come to the forum for help. Just remind them its there :3

Good point.

Solomon wrote:

so far my stories have been rejected that I've tried to submit, I am not sure why at all and I would like to have someone explain to me please

Solomon, Mr Nobody in his time as the story moderator gave you feedback on multiple occasions when he rejected your submissions.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

Solomon wrote:

so far my stories have been rejected that I've tried to submit, I am not sure why at all and I would like to have someone explain to me please

Solomon, Mr Nobody in his time as the story moderator gave you feedback on multiple occasions when he rejected your submissions.

well I tried in truth but I just couldn't see anything wrong with my work as I looked it over, my mom couldn't really either, plus a friend of mine told me MR'N's standers for writing are way to high. Not saying who told me but it just seemed and felt with him very difficult.

but with Glob and French I will try at least try to get things done right.

That is something that you must correct yourself. Have you taken Mr. Nobody's points into consideration and asked him for suggestions on how to improve what he thought he needed polish? Or what about AJ? He's pretty much the self-appointed fixit guy. Simply skimming over something isn't the way to make a community healthy, taking someone else's arguments into consideration and working with them is. Never assume something is perfect from the start, there's always room for improvement

yeah, you climb and eventually reach a plateau, but ahead of that plateau is another cliff to climb. you just need to get there.

someone will always see something that you can fix that you yourself cannot see, and its important for that person to help point the parts out specifically, because vaguely mentioning a particular concept to someone who needs to improve probably wont actually help them much.

writing is a very specific and difficult art.

it is indeed difficult Bael it is indeed

This is something I posted in the Guides To Improvement thread (https://felarya.forumotion.com/t3242-guides-to-improvement) that may be very helpful to you.

brothejr wrote:

While it would be great to get someone to edit your stuff and if you can get someone to do it, I suggest you do. However, if you can't get an editor here are some helpful editing suggestion that really work:

• Once you are finished writing (It doesn't matter if it's a story, term paper, essay, etc) walk away. Don't think about it, don't look at it, do something else to take your mind off of it.
  
• After a minimum of two hours, (Though a day or more is better.) go back and read through your writings on your computer screen. Look at how it flows, how it sounds, spelling and grammar errors. Are there places where it doesn't sound right to you. Places that didn't work out the way you wanted to?
  
• Once you've completely read through your writing and made the changes you wanted, walk away again. Try to give it at least a minimum of a day.
  
• After a day or so has passed, go back and read your writing again. Just like before, look for any problems including how it flows, characters, etc.
  
• Again give it some time, the more time the better, then come back and print the writing out. Make sure that it is double spaced. Also use a red pen as that will make your written corrections easier to read. Go some place where your computer is not, someplace comfortable. Sit down and read your writings again. Use the red pen to make any issues/corrections you want to make. Once you've done that, go back to your computer and make your corrections.
  
• (Optional) Another proven method above and beyond the steps I just suggested that really helps find problems in your writing is by reading it out loud. It may look and sound stupid, but it really works.

If you follow those steps above, you'll catch a lot of the problems in your writing. But make especially sure you put some time and distance between each editing session. You will find the more time that has past since you wrote it, the easier it is to find problems. (It's a mind/thought thing that can create blind spots and keep you from seeing your problems.)

Just some helpful self editing suggestions.

Also keep practicing. Keep writing. Take the suggestions people make as things to improve on and use in your future writings. This isn't a quick process, but if you keep at it and keep writing, sooner or later you can only get better from where you are now.

I personally write stories both to entertain people, but also to keep my skills fresh, show me my writing errors and habits, and to continually look for places of improvement while I work on a big project of mine that i haven't begun to write yet. (Lots and lots of research, outlines, backgrounds, thinking, etc.)

Even if my story is accepted, I'd still love to see some feedback from you guys

Don;t worry Azure. Critique is always welcome by my book.