HI Mand245 !!

Thanks for your considered response.

I agree with a lot of what you say.

In future, I will put the less controversial or 'difficult' pieces here. May be that's why even the good readers on WW failed to respond to it. If I put a regular post here, about anything, I'll get an instant response. But I paid the full subs to get(and give) feedback. So, when I put a really important piece, no one was reading it. And that was my first upload here. So, you can imagine how angry I was. And as I said before, I had given feedback to others. And my tutor is a middle class woman. And she wasn't shocked or discomfited by the language!

The main thing is I did get a lot of great feedback about that piece in recent weeks, especially from my university tutor. So, I don't feel so bad !! I am not interested in writing polite, conservative, anodyne fiction or non-fiction.

But in future, I will not put works like that here. I don't want to demoralise myself by the absence of responses.

Mand, it's good to have you here. And thanks again for the response.

Best wishes
'Cruise'

Hi there

Many things in writing, as in life, boil down to experience in the end... Don't worry, I'm not about to lecture you but elementary errors can be avoided. For example:

1) ALWAYS prioritise your writing.
2) KEEP your passion under control and allocate to most important pieces - that takes years of experience !
3) DECIDE how important each piece of writing is ie if it is a major piece of work to count towards your degree, give it the time it deserves. So, if an important piece has a deadline 3 months from now, plan a stratedgy to complete first draft within 2 months, then LEAVE it for at least a week & distract yourself with other things. Then, go back to it and start editing and double checking for technical/editorial problems. Attention to detail often saves the day and leaving things till the last minute can lead to costly errors.
Some of my published work is from years ago, and 2 computers ago. I'll contact The Times, Daily Teleg & Mail on Sunday to see if I can access their archives as I only have hard copies from that time. If I can access work from my days with the nationals then I may well upload one or two pieces.
Have a great weekend.
Mozza

Apropos the relative paucity of non-fiction activity on the site, the genre has had a chequered history. For a while travel writing flourished modestly and the once blazing (?) fire of memoirs still flickers. The puzzle to me is that journalism has not been a busy area. Given that there’s money to be made (and a searchable directory of newspapers and magazines on the site) it’s surprising that there is such little activity.

However, there is a new flurry of interest in the general non-fiction group. If the ‘fact’ faction gathers under that banner then there will be a good chance of creating a healthy interchange. If this strategy works then maybe there will be a natural drift towards the specialist non-fiction groups.

Richard.

I did comment on a few other members' work here. But the interesting thing is that I am yet to get any feedback on my own posting. I am very discouraged by it. There are some members on WW who love getting feedback from others. But they won't return the favour. Shame.

I see that it is currently uploaded in Novel Writers II group. These are the group members you should be swapping feedback with, rather than with members' work uploaded in the Archive since some people leave their work in the atchive rather than upload it in a group because they are simply showcasing it rather than after a critique, Or simply too shy to join in at that point. It usually takes a few weeks or months to get to know fellow WWmembers, depending on how active you are in the group. The best way of getting to know your fellow group members is via reciprocal critting.


- NaomiM

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Members can also move around groups until they find one they're comfortable in.

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I've left some feedback on it.

Hello Richard.

Good to hear from you and your post is noted. However, I would suggest that not everything written in the quality national press is the creation of journalists, for which I have no qualifications. My older features were all written in my capacity as a Mother, for which I was highly qualified.
Non-fiction is a huge domain yet, given that there is a forum for non-fiction, I was very surprised to learn that it was of little interest to most site users.
Certainly, my 4 years as the Manager of the local district theatre was one long learning curve, and the weekly press deadlines were often fun but could be the cause of great pressure when limited to having only 24 hours in the day....
Now I am more likely to be called upon to write professional reports, or to help students with their dissertations, yet my great interest remains investigative reporting. The difficulty with that is that the investigations are often of a sensitive nature and, when research evidence has the possibility to impact on the lives of many thousands of people, caution is the most sensible criterion to employ.
Mozza

Hi there.
To be honest I think you would get a better reaction if you posted this in a group.
People post here generally to showcase, as Naomi has mentioned. If you want to get in to some hard core critting - you need to join a group. And make sure it's an active one - some are very, very quiet.
To be fair, some of us who use this site don't use it for reading and being read at all. I rarely do the former and have never done the later.
The former is not my bag, and I'm always on a fecking dreadful dead line and way behind with my own work to give the time it deserves. Others I'm sure will be more generous.
As for the content. It really will not bother anyone here. Trust me. That's not the reason.
HB x

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It may also be worth mooching on over to the chatty forums and getting to know the members iyswim. They are very active. A lot of us natter on every day, and there are loads of lurkers. It's human nature, I think, to want to get to 'know' a person before you engage with their work.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, it will allow you to explain what sort of work you do, what sort of feedback you're after, and for you to get a feel of what we do.
HB x

Thanks for that response.

"It may also be worth mooching on over to the chatty forums and getting to know the members iyswim."

What does 'iyswim' in that sentence mean?

What does 'iyswim' in that sentence mean?

"if you see what I mean"...

Private Members and the Lounge are where the most hanging out and chat goes on - the former for writing-related stuff, the latter for everything else. Hope to see you there.

Emme

Thanks for explaining that Emma.

I might see you there then !