Hi all!

When I started out writing, I was at pains to find someone who could read my work and give me consistent feedback. Family sorta doesn't count, and friends were always too busy and not that into fantasy and stuff.

So I surfed the net for writing groups etc and basically came across 'Critique Circle' I don't know whether any of you know it. You join, critique other people's storys (they post chapters, short stories, poems etc every week) and then you get credits. With those credits you can submit your own work which then is critiqued in return.

I have find it so useful and so inspiring. Sometimes, once in a blue moon, you get dud critiques and it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but the pros definitely outweigh any minor cons.

If you want your work read and want constructive feedback, cos there are some awesome critiquers who genuinley help so much, then this is the place!

www.critiquecircle.com

signing up is totally free, or you can pay a small fee to be a premium member and get extra features and things that are slightly better than the standard - especially if you have a novel you want read quickly.

Hope this helps!! Any questions feel free to ask.

I certainly agree with you about the importance of feedback. An honest appraisal of your work is crucial if you want to make progress. Mind you, it must be really nerve wracking waiting for the comments to come in after your first submission.

It looks like a great site, though.

-Paul

Yeh it is nerve wracking - i get a bout of nervousness whenever I know my story is up for review and then it doubles when I'm told I have recieved a critique. But then it slides away as soon as you realise you have great stuff that can help you.

CC is very handy (shorthand for Critiquecircle). I've been there for close to 2 years, and would highly recommend it especially for beginning writers. Of all the different sites I've seen, the system is by far the best and most user-efficient.
In case you don't know about it yet, a very handy function is to ask for predominatly Inline critiques. Then, after the period, clicking on your story you'll see a box with the list of all your crits and also an option that allows you to bring up all of your critiques on one page. So, instead of having to read through every different critique, you can get to see them all at once.
Speeds up revisions a lot.

My username there is Davidbeer, and I'm there most days. Anyone who comes to the site new and needs a hand, you're more than welcome to drop me a mail and I can see if I can help you out.

There's also Critters: www.critters.org
and it does work for a lot of people, but I'm not keen on the system myself.

Would rather recommend Liberty Hally: www.libertyhallwriters.org. It's mostly for shorts, but I know several writers who are there, or used to be, and quite a few of them have been making some very good sales and critical progress since then.
They also use various triggers to help writers get writing.

There's also OWW, http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/, a paid workshop unfortunately, but again highly recommended for Fantasy and SF writers.
some good news in this regard, writer Joshua Palmatier is holding a competition where participants can win memberships for free in OWW.
Details here:
http://jpsorrow.livejournal.com/127997.html

Finally, there's Codex: www.codexwriters.com
This one, though, is for neo-pros; in other words, writers who've been writing long enough and succesfully enough to no longer be newbies, but are not quite at pro level yet, at least not consistently. Mind you, a few of the people there do have succesful book sales behind them.

For newbies (however you want to define that, whether in writing terms or success rates), I'd recommend CC, Liberty Hall first and consider one term in OWW.

Down the road, when you get some progress going, Codex is a great place to take you to the next level.

It depends on what you're after, and whether it's for shorts or novels you want to focus on, but all those places work for various people.

Wow, I wasn't aware of any of this, I've been writing on sites like Everything2. I'm really looking forward to trying this out.

I used Critters for a while, but I just couldn't work with the system that regularly. I will take a look at these other sites now that you've mentioned them. I'm always looking for ways to improve my skills.

wasn't too fond of Critters, either, to be honest.
CC has the neatest critique system of all, and Liberty Hall has some awesome people there.