Forums » Writing Workshop » Read Thread

After some discussion in the CYS Discord, I decided this could be something worthwhile to try on a beta level.

How does it work?

On a purely voluntary basis, I will work to match developing writers with experienced writers in a mentor/mentee relationship. The mentor will be a primary source of feedback for story and writing questions during the beta trial. Ideally, the mentee will already have, or begin working on, a story project. On a time frame that works for both parties, the mentee will share an excerpt from their project in the WW and the mentor will provide feedback.

This is not intended to be a system where the mentor assigns prompts or tasks for the mentee (though if you both want to do that, go ahead, by all means) but rather a system where a developing writer can get reliable feedback on a regular basis while writing their story. Hopefully, this continual feedback will help the writer incorporate new techniques and skills into their project instead of having to wait until they complete the story to get reviews.

However, the overall structure and expectations of the mentor/mentee (NOT MASTER AND SLAVE, MARA!) relationship, should be up to the individual teams. Everyone should remember, this is a hobby site, so real life matters will always take precedence over any time schedules here. Be understanding.

What do you get for participating?

Mentors get the nice warm feeling of being a good and useful person. Mentees get to learn things.

I can't promise any points, but I'm sure your just overlords will recognize community contributions.

What else should I know?

If you're a mentee, and you consistently ignore virtually all the feedback your mentor is giving you, then it's time to rethink the relationship. The mentor may be better off assisting someone else, and the mentee may get a better experience with a different mentor. Just be respectful.

How do I participate?

If you want to participate as a mentee, post in this thread. Feel free to make mentor requests. But please note that EndMaster and [M]izal will not be participating in the beta program.

There is no hard bar for being a mentee.

Potential mentors can either post their willingness here or PM me. I will do my best to match you with a mentee that you will thrive with. However, I will not match a mentee with someone who I am not convinced will provide consistently reliable feedback.

Good mentors will be longtime site contributors, featured story authors, site members who have otherwise exhibited strong writing or review skills, and @Gower - yes, he gets his own category if he wants to participate.

A non-exclusive list of people who I feel would make good mentors: @Camelon ; @Bill_Ingersoll ; @Ogre11 ; @Will11 ; @Cricket ; @Romulus ; @Chris113022 ; @BerkaZerka (I know you're busy) ; @Killa_Robot ; @enterpride

But what about the bragging rights!?

Infinite Story is hosting a contest with an Easter deadline. It would be neat to see how different participants in this beta program improve over the course of the next two months or so.

I suggest all mentors limit themselves to 1-2 mentees. I will mentor one person during the trial run.

I know that I am not the brightest star or something like that. But If someone wants a mentor, that helps with. work building creativity and how to incorporate humour to their stories I am free for helping in all of that. However, my grammar is atrocious, so i can't help on that regard.

As big of a sucker as I am for such flattery, I'll have to put a hard no on this. It's only eleven days into the year, and already unforeseen shit is coming up that isn't going to go away any time soon, and this sort of commitment is not one that I can make.

Hope things clear up and run smoother for you, Cricket.

I think this is theoretically a nice idea. I'd be happy to participate but I don't have much free time these days, as long as someone doesn't mind waiting a day or two from time to time for a reply I'm game :)

Hey, Will, I was nervous to join because I am also busy. Perhaps we can make up the team that is busy with real life? I would understand if your feedback is delayed, mine would be too. 

I am not sure how you wanted to run this, so let me know what would work best for you. Ideally, we could start by familiarizing ourselves with some of each other's writing. Then maybe I can send you something I have written in the last week every Friday (unless something comes up) so that you can give feedback on Sunday. That would allow us to discuss over the week while I am writing new material with what I have learned? 

If you want to see what my writing is starting like, I do have a relatively large body of work that was published last year. My most recent story is here:

http://chooseyourstory.com/story/Merlin_0x3a__Origins.aspx

I also have a WIP I can send you a link to, but that isn't likely to be finished in a few months. This WIP is like 40,000 words currently and is not half way done. It will be easier for me to start a new project for the resurrection contest as Bucky suggested. I was not originally going to enter, but it would be good practice.

Hey Shadow, your output looks impressive and prolific and given our similarity in age it might be more co-writing than mentor-mentee :D The Friday-Sunday thing sounds good, I work on the weekend but I'll try to deliver feedback by then. I'll have a look at your most recent story and other stories over the next week or so, the WIP sounds good too :D

Thanks Will! Either way, I would appreciate any feedback you can provide! If you are busy and miss a week or want to change things up to match your schedule better, just let me know! I saw you had a featured story, so I'll read that over the next week or so as well. 

We can work on that WIP, or I did end up making a story for the "resurrection" contest. Both would be good games to work on over the next few months. I'm looking forward to this. Thank you for your time!

I will start reading through your stories once I have time, pm me anything that you particularly want me to look over (drafts or completed stories, ideally in word or prose format) and I will run through it as soon as I can :D Hopefully I'll have some useful things to contribute! :D

I'd love to be a student/mentee. I think this is a really good idea and I'm looking forward to this!

3iguy matched with Bucky.

One potential mentor in the fold yet.

Sounds fun. :) I think I could take on one mentee for the next couple of months.

I guess I'll sign up for mentee. I do want to improve so this could prove benifical, but keep in mind I'm probably going to be the least skilled person who posts in this thread. Just something to keep in mind. 

Actually, since this is about improving, your current skill level shouldn't matter. The goal of the mentor is to make you better, regardless of starting skill level.

MicroPen matched with Camelon.

This an interesting idea but I don't think I can be online often enough to do it. I wouldn't mind helping out a newbie, but maybe later if this is still going and after I have time to get out a longer story for an example.

My parents are just so stupid about my laptop, I could be writing 10 pages a day but they think it's "healthier" to sit in a room full of noisy idiots or watching something made for stupid people on the TV that they're not even watching anyway because they're busy being noisy idiots.

I would love to get some more feedback on my story, "Recursion Theory". However, I'd need a mentor that would be willing to play through the game as updates came out, as a lot of the experience comes from the coding and graphics. These updates would be large but slow (a month or two in between). 

Preferably, they would be someone who likes the concept of time travel / 'Groundhog Day' type stories, and is interested in exploring through different choices to see what new results arise (completionist playstyle). They should also like the idea of reading through a well-developed plot that that, though extremely interactive, may have an overall linear direction.

Ideally, I would also like someone that likes the characterization of the protagonist, since the narration will be influenced by his perspective. He values being empathetic and a good listener. He tries his best to be patient, but sometimes he'll lose his patience and have sudden angry outbursts (which he's usually quick to apologize for). He doesn't take life too seriously, and can sometimes be mischevious. In serious situations, he can be quite introspective. 

I don't really need any more feedback on chapters one and two, except general thoughts, but chapter three should be out soon. If anyone is interested and wants to read through the first one or two pages to see if my writing style is a match for them, they can find it here: http://chooseyourstory.com/story/recursion-theory- . (I've been told that my story starts off slow and picks up suspense as it goes on, so don't be alarmed if nothing dramatic seems to be happening right away. I'm planning to fix this later.)

Reader82 matched with Bill_Ingersoll.

Ehhh I volunteer to be a mentor (obviously contingent on whether I pass your standards).  I'm mostly good at immersive writing and creative ideas, and I can do a fair bit of proofreading on the side.  My weakness is story planning (noted by inconsistencies in my stories), but I still think I make a pretty good candidate.  Plus, I'm fairly available.

I guess I'll sign up for this as a mentee. I need some kind of outside motivation to actually get some writing done, and having reliable feedback would be extremely helpful for me.

Megumeme matched with TheChef.

I would like to sign up as a mentee. I think my main problem is finishing the storygames I begin. Often, I’ll get carried away with new ideas but would either lack the motivation or the time to finish them. Also, there are times where I would keeping re-writing and deleting the same thing because I think that what I wrote was not good enough.

As for my schedule, I cannot say that I would be online too often, especially when school starts in a week (I’m currently in high school). As far as I know, I would still be able to be somewhat active on this site except when exam week comes around or homework starts piling up. The rate of my progress would be rather irregular, because there are days when I suddenly feel inspired and other days when I just cannot bring myself to stare at the computer for any longer.

Mystic_Warrior matched with Killa_Robot.

Nobody wants me as a mentee or as a mentor. lol, I will have to monitor myself.