Tips for Reviewing!Okay, so, it’s reviewing time! You might be completely comfortable with giving feedback, or you might be completely uncomfortable giving it, and either is all right! Reviewing isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but
anyone can do it!1. Your review is allowed to trend either positive or negative on average; it doesn’t have to be 100% neutral. However, you should put attention on what the piece does well
and what it can stand to improve. Both are valuable parts of feedback. This isn’t warm fuzzies, but it’s not “completely destroy everyone’s hopes and dreams” either.
2. Be more focused on the piece rather than the writer.
3. Be sure to take the piece on its own terms; figure out what it wants to be, read author comments, etc.
4. Pay attention to the themes and/or ideas of the piece, as well as how a given medium of choice communicates them!
5. Don’t be afraid to inject a few of your own personal responses/reactions to the piece! You have a way of looking at the word that’s distinct from anybody else’s, and that outside view is valuable! There’s no such thing as a 100% objective review.
YEAH, it's done. I've gotten everything, worked out who's gonna look at who, figured out what *I* wanted to submit, all in the span of a few hours! well... it's not that impressive... but in my defense I was starting my Jewish Indian Empire in Crusader Kings II. (I invaded Sweden!)
Anyway, here are our participants!
Moi (pronounced "moy") (
Moni)
Feeding Mr. ScaryGenre: Medieval Fantasyland
Word Count: 3,700
Comments/Notes: This is a story that's completely divorced from ... the rest of my crappy Neopets fanfiction, and the one that's probably most reflective of just my plain writing. pffft. sorry.
NT Story LinkThe Twillienator (
Twillie)
One Month Later (working title)
Genre:: Sci-fi
Word Count: 3,300
Comments/Notes:
Wrighton is a NTWF fic that takes place in a small, unassuming town. That is, until a week of strange puzzles, figures, and tunnels forces a select number of citizens to discover that the whole of Wrighton is actually descended from aliens, and it's up to them to defeat the entity that had crashlanded their ancestors on Earth all those millennia ago.
Google Doc Link to story! Hunty (autocorrected to 'Hungry') the Metal Goddess (
Huntress)
Shad and Saura: The Secret Belowdecks (NT series)Genre: Mystery, comedy, action-adventure
Word Count: 24,600
Comments/Notes:
Links to parts: Part 1 |
Part 2 |
Part 3 |
Part 4 |
Part 5 |
Part 6* |
Part 7 |
Part 8 |
Part 9 |
Part 10* The 15,000 word soft cap is met 400 words into Part 7; the author originally submitted this as being six parts with 14, 600 words. Reviewers are obligated to read parts 1-6, though they may read more if they wish.
A kiwi bird who is not afraid of Thorns (
Thorn)
This user has indicated that she wants to keep her story private! Readers will get a private link shortly!
Fraze City, Estonia (
Fraze)
UntitledGenre: Slice-of-life office-dramedy with gods
Word Count: 1084
Comments/Notes: ”It's kind of a pilot episode? I started with "Consulting firm of the gods" and then this happened. I'm vaguely thinking about ways to explore this setting more. In case it isn't clear from the story, the focus is more on the interviewer than the interviewee since that's the side that I'm more interested in exploring; although the idea of gods having twentysomething career-building struggles also appeals to me.”
Short story in the spoiler below:Narvet 9, The Listener, The One That Asks, To Whom All Must Come For An Interview, sat at their desk. The office was small and incomprehensibly vast, occupying seven dimensions. On the wall behind them was an elegantly carved window opening onto the void, nothingness filtering through the panes and throwing impossible patterns onto the soft carpet. To one side was a potted plant on a small table, its gently swaying tendrils occasionally blinking out of existence and reappearing clutching small insects. On the opposite wall was a mural depicting the entire universe, down to the subatomic level. On the fourth wall, across from the desk, was a door. It was towering and heavy, stretching far above the ceiling.
There was a knock.
"Come in," Narvet 9 said.
The door swung open silently. A skeletal hand with spindly, bony fingers pushed through. The being attached to the hand was very tall and gaunt and withered, but held its back straight as it walked into the room on hundreds of centipede-like legs.
"I'm here for my performance interview," the figure said.
"Of course, please have a seat." Narvet 9 extruded a tentacle in the direction of a chair on the opposite site of the desk. "Please state your name, pantheon, and domain or domains."
The figure sat on the profferred seat. "I am Om-Ye-Tou of the Hoa-Tou pantheon, worshipped in the southern continent and some regions of the western islands. My domains are fertility, the harvest, and starvation."
Narvet 9 nodded and reached down to open a drawer of infinite depth in their desk and pulled out the folder at the very back. Then they picked up a five-dimensional sheet of paper with a pre-printed form, and began to make notes. "And you're currently in your starvation aspect, I take it?"
Om-Ye-Tou nodded, faltering. "Y-yes. I was just blighting a crop and didn't have time to change into something more formal."
"That's quite all right, this gives me a better idea of how you work. How long have you been with this pantheon?"
"About one thousand years," Om-Ye-Tou answered before clarifying. "Solar revolutions. That's about... 0.003 standard epochs."
"I see, that makes you one of the younger members of this pantheon." Narvet 9 flipped through the folder. "You had your first performance interview... that would be 500 local years ago. For things you wanted to improve on, you listed responding to prayers in a timely manner, and maintaining a better balance between your domains of influence. Would you say you've improved in those areas since then?"
Om-Ye-Tou perked up. "Yes, I think I've made a lot of progress. After my first interview, you forwarded me some filing systems that other gods use to process prayers - I don't know if you remember that - and I looked through them and managed to make a method that really works for me. And I found that actually helped with the balance problem as well. Once I had a better handle on what the prayers were, I could see more clearly where I should give and where I should take, if you get what I mean."
Narvet 9 smiled. "It sounds like you've improved a lot, that's good to hear. Do you think there are things you still need to work on?"
Om-Ye-Tou fell silent for a while before answering. "I guess I want to find balance in a more... general way. Like, my personal balance, what kind of god do I want to be? Generous or tyrant? Stable or capricious? I haven't been able to decide."
Narvet 9 made a note before nodding. "Yes, a lot of younger gods struggle with finding that balance. I can send you the personal reflections of a few gods who've gone through the same struggle, if you would like to see how others have resolved it."
"I would appreciate that, thank you."
After flipping through the folder, Narvet 9 looked up. "It says here you had a romance with a mortal. Can you tell me more about that?"
Om-Ye-Tou glanced to the side briefly. "Y-yes, that was about 150 years ago. I sang in the wind blowing across the grain and she fell in love with me. I came to her in a sheaf of grain, and she became pregnant when she ate the bread baked from that grain. She died in childbirth, but she bore triplets. One has no face and speaks life into the soil. One has three faces and sings crops into bounty. The last has one face that glows with beauty, but drains life with their breath."
Narvet 9 flicked a tendril curiously. "Fertility, Harvest, and Starvation?"
"I suppose so, yes."
"Just be careful they don't set out on a journey to destroy and usurp you. That sort of thing tends to happen."
Om-Ye-Tou nodded. "Yes, I know. I've tried to get them all on an epic quest but I've had trouble organizing it." They paused. "I don't suppose you could send me some other gods' experiences on this, could you?"
Narvet 9 nodded. "Of course. Well, I have just one more question. Have you thought about plans for your future career? Have you thought about where you might want to go from here?"
"You mean other positions?" Om-Ye-Tou shifted in their chair. "Well..."
Narvet 9 put down the papers and made a calming gesture. "It's fine, you're young. The heads of your pantheon know that, and they don't expect you to stay with them for eternity."
Om-Ye-Tou relaxed. "Well, I have thought about branching out into some more creative domains like art or learning or science, jumping off from my fertility aspect. Fertility of the mind, you know?"
"Yes, I can see that. But there are a lot of gods in creativity domains. You may have a hard time finding a position, but with enough time and patience you should be able to find something."
"I see, thank you."
"Well, do you have any questions for me?"
Om-Ye-Tou was silent for a moment. "No, I don't think so."
Narvet 9 rose from their chair, and Om-Ye-Tou did the same. "Well then, thank you for coming in today. I'll send the documents you asked for. Please let the next god know they can come in."
"I will, and thank you."
Narvet 9 compiled the forms and papers and put them back into the filing drawer. "It's always the one at the very back," they grumbled, then checked the schedule. Only 537 more interviews before their next break.
The sixth month of the year (
June Scarlet)
Ink: As Black as InkGenre: Superhero
Word Count: N/A – Twelve-part comic
Link to NT comic series: Ink: As Black as Ink (petpage link)
And our resident reader, Gee El Queue the Calculus Queen (
Gelquie)!
Everyone will review 5 things (what those things are will be PMed to you). You have 6 weeks to do so.
Reviews must be sent to me by
Sunday, October 7th, 2018!