TOTW Reviewer...

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Do you'all think it would be alright if we advertised a little, and perhaps enlisted volunteers to review "the tales" each week? Personally I believe the reviews to be most helpful for all the writers. Good review or bad there's always something to be learned from the opinions of others.

I for one will volunteer to go recruiting, draw something up, and then submit it to Molls/Hesus for consideration.

Perhaps a different reviewer each week....

[Juvenal]

I'm for anything that will increase interest in Tale of the Week.

It is such a good format for both casual readers and writers.

Good luck with your advertising Mega.

[Kip]

Agreed with Juvenal. The section deserves more attention than it gets (I discovered it myself just 2 weeks ago). Plus, some nice constructive criticism or praise will only encourage increased participation.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Kay.............................

[webMaster412160]

Go for it.

"Yes we can."

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Kay I started the process. Made initial inquiries here...http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=316909 and had a couple volunteers just from that.

I'll go ahead and petition for adds in the Silver Shield and other publications if they carry them. I don't think volunteers need to be experienced because the task is mostly interpretation, feeling, and perception. You can never tell from where some small diamond of wisdom may emerge. "from the mouths of babes"...yo. Now if there is a healthy response to this perhaps place the reviewers somewhere other than the story thread it self so the reviews and chatter would not disrupt the flow of things. A link to the stories, then the reviewers and audiences could tear things up.

So in review....

1. If there is a healthily response of volunteers to review the story's would it be best for them to set up shop somewhere else other than the story thread?

2. As I said it is my opinion that anyone could seize the reviewer mantle. Kay how we doing so far then...Molls/Hesus?

[y2day]

Nice idea Mega, I'm always up to read and post my opinion. Also send me something for the Silver Shield and I will make sure it finds its way into our next edition.

[Kip]

Happy to see your idea taking shape, Mega T.! Thanks for helping us out, y2day!

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Sounds great! I'm all for it.

Could we/have we ever done something for it in ES/CQ? I really like the way that Juvenal sumarizes his favorite entries each time; could we incorporate something like that?

[Kip]

Juvenal's little snippets are awesome. I've been lucky enough to had my stories reviewed by him twice now, and he provides really, really nice feedback and encouragement.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Oops; hit quote instead of edit.

[Juvenal]

Sounds great! I'm all for it.

Could we/have we ever done something for it in ES/CQ? I really like the way that Juvenal sumarizes his favorite entries each time; could we incorporate something like that?

The Eagle Standard already has Tale of the Week coverage from [user]Theodotos I[/user] in the form of a round-up of the month's winners.

Critic's Quill doesn't cover TotW at present to avoid clashing with Eagle Standard, but also because its publication schedule doesn't synchronise with TotW voting.

I'm very pleased people like my attempts at reviews here. Reviewing is a tricky art because it is hard to create a balanced result, giving both the good points and the shortcomings their correct emphasis.

What I would really like to see is more discussion of the stories here in the TotW threads themselves.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

I'm very pleased people like my attempts at reviews here. Reviewing is a tricky art because it is hard to create a balanced result, giving both the good points and the shortcomings their correct emphasis.

What I would really like to see is more discussion of the stories here in the TotW threads themselves.

The reviews done by you and other regulars here are always extremely insightful. Thank you so much for taking the time to do them.
{shameless butter up, shameless butter up...} When you say that do you mean in the story thread itself or perhaps one of the common area threads.

I really like the idea of discussing reviews in the voting thread but I have a feeling if proper time was dedicated to that, that it would throw the weekly posting schedule out of whack.I guess what I mean to say is how about a thread dedicated to this...

.TOTW Reviewers Thread Then the stories once posted can be review/dissected at leisure without being a distraction to the other forum activities..... & ................................................Molls!!!!....Hesus!!!! Echo..Echo..Echo

[Juvenal]

When you say that do you mean in the story thread itself or perhaps one of the common area threads.
...how about a thread dedicated to this... .TOTW Reviewers Thread

Yes, either the voting thread or a dedicated review thread, it clearly can't be the submission thread since we are not supposed to read submissions before the thread closes.

Still, if we don't put reviews in the voting thread, then there won't be any meaningful posts there at all.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

The quandary with voting thread is the time constraint. Can there be a true commitment to that. The caretakers are frenetic folks with many weekly goals to accomplish.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Here is a template. Rt click copy and paste thru-out the land....Spread the word, spread the word....

Mega....
If you get a chance could you stop by Tale of the Week and cast a couple of votes? {each voter is alloted two votes} you can find it here, http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=317372 and the poll won't close til....say Sunday afternoon. I know your busy, so if you don't get round to it no worries...

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Kay, we had a nibble....next stop site publications I guess...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Transmitted direct From the Study of Jean=A=Luc- on the USS Enterprize....









Quote:
Did somebody order a TotW review?
Quote:
Can't believe this. Finally I decide to write it and TWC crashes for an entire afternoon and the better part of evening. Don't know if this is what you had in mind but by banging my finger tips against the keyboard I have managed to produce a body of text that closely resembles a review of the last TotW's submissions.

I'm open to both praise and criticism. So without further ado:


This week's TotW is loosely based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, more specifically the Third Age and Gondor's defensive war against the forces of Mordor. However the epic deeds, valiant heroes and shining glory that we might expect from such a story basis are mostly absent from this week's five submissions. Instead we are treated to themes of failure, aloneness, tension, foolishness and despondency with a few sprinkles of hope and camaraderie on the surface of this dark chocolate story cake.

The first two submissions by Mega Tortas and Ariovistus Maximus are simialar as both deal with present or foreboding failure. The unrealized ambitions of late adulthood versus the foolishness and naivette of youth. In their own way each protagonist is doomed. While Mega's story is more visceral, more explicit in its portrayal of physical and emotional pain, Ariovistus uses a subtler approach with an almost child-like character "playing" out in the woods but whose impending fate, signaled by the intensifying rain fall, and the realizations that will come with it are no less tragic. Both stories seem out of place in Middle-Earth, uncharacteristic of such a high fantasy setting but therein lies the appeal.

The middle tale, as I shall call it, by Nazgul Killer is an E.A. Poe-esque poetic prose featuring such gothic elements as cold ominous weather, anxiety, loud foreboding heartbeats, monstrous visages, confusion of the senses and a (para)normal deus ex machina, all contributing to a sense of surrealness whether it's realistically justified or not. Due to its composition and style the middle tale more resembles a story that men of Gondor might tell their children or each other, around a campfire at night than a realistic recounting of an event giving it that "a play within the play" or rather fiction within fiction effect even though there is no "play" within which this one is actually set.

Leaving the middle tale and coming up on the other side we reach the final pair by Saint Nicholas and Astaroth old bean. These two works are very similar in their title and basic premise yet stand in contrast to one another. Saint Nicholas shows us that valiant men may still die inglorious deaths, that not every last stand is a heroic one and that true heroes are indeed mortal people unprotected by such things as "plot armour" or divine intervention. The hope of men may yet be swept away by tragedy. Astaroth old bean provides us with an optimistic mirror image of strengthened resolve and rising hope in face of deadly danger. The proud spirit of man that overcomes any hardship just as David slays Goliath. This last entry is closest to Middle Earth's typical epic theme and it ends this week's submissions on a positive note. Whatever our personal reality may be these two stories remind us that the proverbial coin of life indeed has two sides.

[molls]

Oi! I think it's time I contacted that man. What was the paper where the old TotW Reviews were posted in? ES?

Edit:

Ok wow, I should've spend a bit more time with this thread...
So, restructuring this forum for more Reviews is no problem - Just give me your thoughts about how it should look like.

Simple method: One Sticky for reviewing & discussing all the stories by request or volunteers.

Advanced step: Creating a subforum where we:
- either put the normal TotW threads in (as this one) , so the normal thread space under the stickies can be used for reviews, each with its own Thread!
- or put the reviews with own threads into the subforum

?

Now about the puplication thing, I have no idea.
Is theo still doing these round up things?
Or is the Silver Shield more promising? Should we exchange the round up TotW style from Theo with reviews from this forum?

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

I'll touch base with Silver Shield, do you have a specific cover letter you wonna use?

[molls]

read my edit-