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26
26
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: 13+ | (4.5)
I back to pick apart your contest again. *Laugh* Remember that these are only my own opinions. Do with them as you see fit.

I love that you've added the word "contest" to the title. I think that was an important change! I've seen things that I didn't click on (back when I was entering contests regularly) because it didn't say "contest" so I didn't know. I thought it was some educational/how-to thing or a challenge or something else, but not a contest. Great change!

Your prizes are still enticing, but reasonable for a twice-a-month contest...and the description matches what the "prizes" section says. Good work.

In your description of malapropism, you have a comma outside the quotation marks in "for all intensive purposes." That's a great example, BTW. I hear that regularly. *FacePalm* Anyway, somewhere I got the idea that you might be British. I used to be somewhat familiar with the British rules on commas, but have now forgotten them. *Think* But in American English, the comma ALWAYS goes inside the quotation marks. I meant to mention this in the last review, but got distracted by who-knows-what. *Think* Anyway, so if you use British English, then maybe the comma is correct...or maybe not. But if you use American English, it's wrong. *Wink*

In the "Current Round" section, I noticed the parentheses before, but just wondered briefly about them and moved on. Now I'm really wondering about them. Why are there parentheses? Why not just say when the submissions are accepted and when they will be judged? I don't see any point in the parentheses. *Confused* Sorry. I know. I'm bringing up brand new things that could have been fixed before. *FacePalm* Well, think of it as this is getting better and better, so I'm no longer being distracted by big errors. *Bigsmile* So, speaking of being nitpicky, there should probably be a colon after "Judging" since you have one after "Current Round" and "Submissions accepted." *Smile*

I just noticed you have the contest ending at 11:59 am. Oh, noon! I didn't expect that! I think only your contest and "The Writer's Cramp end at noon. You'll likely have some folks who misread that and assume it's 11:59 pm because it's so uncommon. In fact, I misread it at first. I'm currently down in the part about the word count being done by MS Word and realized I should double check the time the entries are due. Yep, I misread that. *FacePalm* Maybe put the "a.m." in italics? Though I'm still sure someone will misread it. But you can't fully dummy-proof anything. Believe me, the Army has tried, yet Soldiers continue to show the Army that such a thing is actually impossible. *Rolling*

In the last paragraph of black before the words turn blue, you say "Write a flash fiction about the most..." This is okay, but I feel like "Write a flash fiction story about the most..." sounds better to me. *Think*

Personally, I would mention that the book entry link is found in the upper right corner of the entry. Too often I see people posting a link to the whole book because they use the book link, not the entry link. But since you told them to use the code for "entry," they now might end up with "Invalid (whatever--I forget what it says)" because they are using the "entry" code, but they are using the book item's link, not the entry's link. Remember, newbies might be entering. And also, I SURPRISING number of non-newbies don't know basic stuff. I have lost count of the people I've taught how to just do a basic item or bitem link even though they've been here 5+ years. Seriously?? I think the oldest was like someone who had been here 16-17 years and didn't know how to link anything. *FacePalm* I'm telling you, your current knowledge is WAY ahead of probably 90% of WdC. *Headbang*

Since you've been using periods, consider one after the max rating sentence and I'd add one after the next sentence about being disqualified for linking wrong. Though I hope you'll let people know if you notice it before judging. Mistakes happen and some people are just not good at it. Did I mention that for "The Contest Challenge, I ask people to post a link to the contest forum post where they actually entered the contest to prove they entered? They use {post:#######}. I have an example literally just above the forum. I had a woman who somehow managed to complete 12 consecutive entries, as required by the rules and though I corrected her EVERY SINGLE MONTH and directed her to the examples, in case she needed help, and EVERY SINGLE ENTRY WAS WRONG! Month after month after month...wrong, wrong, wrong. *Shock2* HOW?!? I have NO idea. *Headbang* Luckily for her, I say the challenge is supposed to be entering 12 contests, not posting the proof. *Laugh* Every month, I reexplained it and redirected her to examples, but it made no difference. *FacePalm* What's my point? Aside from saying that there are some, uh, less smart people on here, I'm also saying, "GOOD LUCK!" *Laugh* Though if you are only asking for bitem and entry links, maybe it will be okay. *Bigsmile*

Great job putting in bold that the entries are to be "under 500 words." That helps make sure it's clear that 500 is not acceptable, though it's a common max in other contests. Well done with that clarification!

The prizes seem much more sustainable now! Great work! Though you can bump them up later if you decide to move to a quarterly contest. For that matter, if you decide to run it monthly, you can literally double the prizes and still not spend any more. lol If you later decide to increase the prizes, I'd recommend increasing the GPs instead of the awardicon since no matter the size of the awardicon, it will only count for 1 CR. But a lot of people on here have to earn GPs to pay for their membership, so they'll appreciate more GPs. *Wink* That's my opinion, but if you're unsure, feel free to set up a poll and ask. There's literally a poll thing on here that you can do. *Bigsmile*

Your contest is nearly perfect, IMO. But if you don't make the suggested changes, at this point, I won't be bothered. It's come a long way and is looking great. These changes are pretty nitpicky, I know. *Wink* But that's because you have nothing huge to complain about. Great work on this! *Delight* I do hope you get several entries. If not, don't give up. And remember, if this contest doesn't hit it big, you've learned a lot through the process. Maybe your next idea with be "the one."

Though, also remember that even big-name contests on here don't get tons of entries most of the time. I think "The Whatever Contest -- Closed for Now is one of the few contests that got a lot of entries pretty regularly, but that's because I paid for entries. *Angelic* *Bigsmile* Like I said, people use GPs to pay for memberships. *Wink* I have deep pockets...Well, probably not as deep as I like to pretend, but that's a different issue. *Laugh* Anyway, I pay 5k-50k per entry, depending on how much work it requires. If I was running something like this, I'd probably pay 5k for each entry, then have the prizes on top of it. Though I usually pay the same as first prize, so I would probably pay the winner 5k (and an awardicon) instead of 10k. The winner would end up in the same boat since they'd get 5k for entering and 5k for winning whereas you're giving them 10k for winning. But the losers in my contest are happier. *Laugh* I'm not saying to pay for entries, though if you don't get many, it's something to consider, especially if you run this less often.

But just remember that if a contest like "The Writer's Cramp has rounds with no entries and other contests, even when I highlight them on "The Contest Challenge, will sometimes only get a couple of entries, yours isn't likely to get 10 and especially not after you've run it several times back to back. *Think* So, don't get disappointed. Rethink the plan (like paying for entries and/or running it less often or even moving on to another idea) and be happy with how much you've learned through this. You've done a FABULOUS job! Keep it up! *Hug1**Smile**Hug2* It's looking great! Good luck! *4leaf*
27
27
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: 13+ | (4.5)
Hey! I finally made it back to rereview this. *Bigsmile* I know. It took me long enough. *FacePalm*

Again, these are just my opinions. Do with them as you wish. *Whistle* *Laugh*

I'm curious as to why you "(2023)" as part of your contest title. *Confused* I'd consider deleting that and trying to squeeze the word "Contest" in there so it's obvious that it's a contest. *Wink* If you need more space, you can delete the "&" and the spaces before and after it and put a forward slash between "malaprops" and "mondegreens." Maybe that will work? I really think you need the word contest in there somehow. Speaking of which, did you list it under Community (on the left side), Contests? If not, definitely do that! *Delight*

Nice work on the genres and rating, though it knocks out my story. *Laugh* My friend has narcolepsy, the illness where you suddenly fall asleep. His roommate, of course, knew and he'd told his girlfriend. The roommate overheard his girlfriend telling one of her friends, "My boyfriend's roommate has necrophilia." (That's the desire to have sex with dead people, in case you didn't know. *Yikes*) You could hear the roommate yell from the other room, "NARCOLEPSY! HE HAS NARCOLEPSY!" *Rolling* *Rolling* *Rolling*

Anyway, so that's my story that I can't post because it's not 13+, but I wanted to share. *Bigsmile*

Your description says we can win 30k GPs and an awardicon, but the prizes say a 25k awardicon and 10k GPs. *Think* *Laugh* Aside from fixing the differences, consider a 10k awardicon and 10k GPs. I say this because most contests don't even give an awardicon, so no one is not going to enter this contest because the awardicon is "only" a 10k awardicon. *Wink* They both count for CRs, so I think people will be happy with that. Right now, you have the 1st place person getting 35k in prizes. That's not a small amount, especially if you run this twice a month. *Yikes* That's 70k GPs per month...with no honorable mentions. *Scared* Add 1 honorable mention per round and 2 rounds per month, that's 100,000 GPs per month in prizes! *Shock2* Maybe the honorable mention should just get GPs--5k or 10k if you feel a need to be really generous. *Wink* Just my thought... Whatever you do, update the description. *Bigsmile*

Great job with the definitions and examples. They are very clear and that mondegreen example... *Yikes* *Laugh* Yeah, that's definitely memorable! *Laugh*

Good job putting that the deadline is in 2023. I hate when I find a contest and I'm not sure if the upcoming deadline is for this year or not. *FacePalm* Of course, now I know to look in the top part of the item, where it says Modified. If it was last modified a year or more ago, definitely not an active contest. *Wink*

However, for your times, I'd encourage you to put 11:59 pm. 12:00 is confusing and leaves people wondering if you mean lunchtime or midnight. And even if you put am, some people still get confused. Also, you say your deadline is 12:00 (I'm assuming midnight) on the 14th. So, that means that since the 14th starts at midnight after the 13th, the deadline in a normal WdC contest would be listed as July 13th at 11:59 pm. Is that what you meant? I suspect you meant July 14th at 11:59 pm. If so, see how it's confusing and why we use 11:59 pm instead? *Laugh* Wait...Judging starts the 14th, so maybe you really DID mean 11:59 pm on the 13th. Or are you talking about noon, so July 14th at 11:59 am? Just before lunch? Okay, now I'm not even sure when the deadline is. *FacePalm* Or did you REALLY mean midnight at the start of the 14th? In which case you should put it as July 13th at 11:59 pm. Confusing. *RollEyes* *Laugh*

I encourage you to give instructions about linking a book entry as well, since you're explaining how to link a bitem. *Bigsmile* You use {entry:#######} where the entry number is found in the upper right corner of the book entry.

You say the item will be disqualified if the bitem isn't properly linked. But I'd say "b-item or entry"--well, I wouldn't include that rule, personally, but that's because of the AMAZING number of people I've met who don't know how to link items on here. *FacePalm* I literally just had to teach a yellow case how to link a bitem a little while ago. *FacePalm* If you choose to keep that rule, I do hope you at least check the forum regularly for errors (sometimes a person just puts a square bracket by accident because their fingers aren't in sync with each other) and tag them to get them to correct it as much as you can. Do you know how to tag folks? If not, let me know and I'll be happy to show you. *Smile*

A couple of sentences don't end in a period, but it's not a huge deal. *Wink*

Good job making it double clear that you don't want 500 words! Since most folks have a max of 500 or 1000 or 1500 or whatever, it would be natural for folks to think the max is 500, even though you did say 499. It's just what they're used to. But between saying it twice and putting it in bold, they have no excuse. *Laugh* Good job! *Bigsmile*

I also like that you say what you will be using for the word count so there's no confusion about that. Great addition!

You say to donate "over 25,000," so does that mean if a person donates 25k, they won't get anything? I recommend not saying "over 25k" but maybe "at least 25k" so they know that 25k will get them something. If it won't, tell them "at least 30k." 30k is still a pretty common price for a community MB. *Smile*

There's still a little work to be done--especially with ensuring you can keep up with those prizes (and that they are posted correctly everywhere *Laugh*) and clarifying that deadline. But it's looking really good! I'm super pleased with what you are doing! I hope you advertise it well and get some really good submissions. In case you haven't noticed others doing it on the Newsfeed (which means you probably are only on your Personal Newsfeed, not the Community Newsfeed), people often post the winners on the Newsfeed and sometimes even link the winning entries there as well. I think the winners like that, so consider doing that. *Smile*

Also, consider getting on the Community Newsfeed, if you aren't already. Clicking Newsfeed on the left only takes you to your Personal Newsfeed. Here you only see official WdC stuff and things posted by people whose plus sign you've already clicked at least once to set them as a favorite. Though I encourage you to double click until you see the megaphone as this makes you a fan of theirs and they are notified and some folks, like me, reward their fans. *Bigsmile* Thus, I always say double clicking to the megaphone is better since there's no real difference except whether you're secretly stalking them or actually supporting them. *Rolling*

Okay, that was a bit of a joke, but anyway, to get to the Community Newsfeed, go to your Personal Newsfeed (the default when you click Newsfeed) and along the top of your Personal Newsfeed, you'll see "View the Community Newsfeed." Click that. Now you'll see what EVERYONE is posting (within your rating limit). Scroll, Like, comment, and start making friends. If you hang out there a lot, more and more people will start looking forward to seeing you Like or comment on their items and eventually they will (hopefully) double click your plus. Then your adds will appear on their Personal Newsfeed. *Bigsmile* And, of course, when you meet folks you like, double click their plus as well. *Wink*

Good luck with your contest! *Hug1**Smile**Hug2* It's such a fun idea! I do hope you get a lot of entries, but if not, keep building a fan base and try it again later. *Bigsmile*
28
28
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (4.5)
Hey!

I'm back and I see you've made some changes to your fun madlib. *Delight* Nice!

As I said before, madlibs are fun and this is no exception. *Party* I definitely enjoyed it. Some parts, well, that's just how madlibs are--you aren't going to be able to get them so that every word sounds right. But I do think there have been improvements.

May I suggest some others? *Angelic* Remember that this is your masterpiece and these are only my own opinions, to be taken with a block of salt. *Wink*

Consider reviewing the initial thing where we type in the words. If this is going to go in a Newsletter, you might strive for perfection. If not, it's good enough. *Laugh* But there's discrepancies like you have Food1, Food2, and Food3. But you have Thing and Thing2 and you have Feeling2, but no Feeling1 or Feeling. I know the feeling one is just left over from previous changes. *Wink* None of these are ruining the experience. The inconsistencies are just something I noticed and wanted to mention, in case you planned to put this in the Newsletter. *Bigsmile*

As for the madlib, itself, some changes are definitely improvements, IMO. Well done! Others, did I miss a problem before or do we have a new problem? *Blush* *FacePalm* I don't know. I'll explain and let you decide what the situation is and if you want to fix it. *Smile*

Some of the things I changed were just to test them out. "50 degrees" works okay as a temp, but not as much as if I'd said hot or cold. Meh. Whatever.

While I wouldn't run to the Mai Tai store like I would my previous hot chocolate store, I'd definitely stop in out of curiosity. *Delight* This is a fun idea for a store. Very creative!

"They took (Greg) junky old (moped)..." Didn't it show possession last time? Or was the sentence different? I don't remember this not showing possession. Did it have an 's outside of the box I put the name in? If not, maybe include one. *Laugh*

"...a picnic basket full of (sandwich) and (chips) and (corn on the cob)." I wanted to see if you'd changed it so that singular foods work. Uh, not really. lol I know I suggested this before, but I still think it might be best to request plural foods instead of just food, but that's my opinion. It's your madlib. *Smile*

Shouldn't that be "(Greg) burst through the crowd..."? *Think* Though it's more colloquial, you can probably say "busted," if you want. *Laugh*

I love that Jules goes to a tree to write him a card or letter or whatever. But consider adding "tree" or is it just me that thinks it sounds better if you say "She went to the nearest (maple) tree and wrote..." Or "She went to the nearest (ash) tree and wrote..." Or "She went to the nearest (oak) tree and wrote..." Try reading those sentences with and without the word "tree." It could just be how I speak, but I think it's better with it, especially since there's no other reference to trees. Now, if this was about a forest, that would be different. *Bigsmile*

I think the last paragraph may need the most work, not that it's hard. *Smile* "At the end of the day, Jules and (Greg) went (park)." I'd add "to the" or "to a," depending on what you think works best for the most variety of places chosen. *Smile*

"Jules confessed she wouldn't change a thing and (Greg) wished he hadn't eaten (chips) because it makes him (jump)." There are a couple of things here, that you may have already noticed as you read what my madlib says. Since Jules and Greg have someone different experiences, I'd say, "Jules confessed she wouldn't change a thing, BUT (Greg)..." Naturally, that's not supposed to be capitalized. I just did that to ensure you noticed the change. lol

The other thing is that above, we see the singular foods don't work. Here, there's a combination of singular and plural needed to make this work. lol If we use "sandwich" as a singular food, it doesn't work in the 1st part, "...(Greg) wished he hadn't eaten (sandwich)..." But it partly does with the 2nd part because you have a singular food and you use "it." But it doesn't go well with the whole thing. I still think you should request all plural foods and then change this to "they make" so using the plural of "sandwich" in this example you would have "...(Greg) wished he hadn't eaten (sandwiches) because they make him (jump)." My chosen word of "chips" would also work in this sentence--"(Greg) wished he hadn't eaten (chips) because they make him (jump)."

So, yeah, still several suggested corrections, but it's still a fun madlib. Thank you for the MB, BTW! *Hug1**Smile**Hug2* I look forward to seeing what you do with these in the Newsletter! *Delight* Good luck! Exciting!!!
29
29
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: 13+ | (4.5)
Hey! I saw this advertised on the Newsfeed and for some reason, couldn't resist reading it. That says a lot because I resist reading 99.99999999% of things I see advertised there. *Laugh* Good job grabbing my attention! *Delight*

I think the title and description were instrumental in getting me to read this. Great work! I also see you filled in all the genres like a good WdC-er. Well done. *Bigsmile*

I tend to review as I read. Here are my thoughts and suggestions. But remember they are only my opinion. Do what you know to be best for your writing. *Wink*

"My name is Mildred, I'm 105 yo." I'm pretty sure this should be a semicolon, not a comma. Funny that in class just yesterday, we were studying older adults and one case we looked at was about a woman named Mildred. *Laugh* Though she wasn't 105 yet. *Wink* I'd also recommend writing out "years old." But you probably already know that. *Bigsmile*

I love the conversational tone you open with, especially the end of the 1st paragraph, "I guess I'll start at the beginning. Well, maybe not at the very beginning. I don't think anyone wants to take that long reading this here writing of mine." Fabulous! I feel like I want to sit by her feet and listen to her story. Excellent work here! *Delight*

In the 2nd paragraph, you have "They cared about their neighbor, even if that meant traveling miles to see their neighbor. We took care of one another. That's what neighbors did." I feel like you use "neighbor" too much here. Perhaps the 2nd use could be simply "...traveling miles to see them." Ah, yes, those were better times--at least in that respect. *Wink*

The 3rd and 4th paragraphs really draw me into the story and the care they took with their preparations and the concern they had for their work. It made me want to go and see them. *Smile*

In the paragraph where Lilly-Mae finally hears the wind (great name, BTW), I don't think you need to capitalize "lobelia" (though I'm supposed to be in the shower right now so I'm not going to take the time to double check that) and I know you don't need to capitalize "charcoal." I don't mean the one where the wind is speaking, but the one where she tells her mom about it.

Oh, no--as I'm reading, I'm getting feelings of "The Monkey's Paw" because Momma isn't ready to say goodbye. I started to have a little lump in my throat when Daddy was dying, but now I'm creeped out. *Scared*

Way to pique my curiosity and ratchet up the creep factor with "Doing things that shouldn't be done. Saying things that shouldn't be said." *Yikes*

In the really long paragraph, I think you should start a new paragraph with "About a month after she started this, Daddy started to come around."

"Daddy's eyes weren't right anymore. They were as black as the midnight sky, with no sparkle of light anywhere to be seen." Okay, definitely glad I'm reading this in the morning and not at night. EEK!

I'd probably start another paragraph here. "In the background was my daddy, well, not my daddy, but the thing that now lived in my daddy."

The part about him being able to hear her praying at the other end of the house? YIKES! Yeah, DEFINITELY glad I am about to be up and about for the day! *Scared* Are you taking s's horror class? *Laugh* I might use this as one of the items I discuss for assignment 1 (which I haven't even started yet lol).

"Dug a hole as deep as we were able to, over four days long." I love how you describe the depth with the time it took to dig. Really creative idea!

"She buried him under an oak tree for the love of the man he once was, but down deep enough for the devil that he became." Nice contrast here. *Smile*

"Listening to the voice on the back of the wind is a good thing if you know that voice is good." I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this and/or the end. I feel like the wind was good, but it was Momma who strayed and she should have kept listening to the wind, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Anyway, WOW! Yeah, definitely a horrible story in a wonderful way! Very well done! I'm glad I stopped to read this...or at least so I say now in broad daylight. *Laugh*

Keep up the great work! I'd forgotten how talented you are! You rock those words and I love it! *Heart*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
30
30
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (4.0)
Madlibs are so fun! I don't do them much, but I do enjoy them. *Delight* And it looks like you'll be including them in your next Newsletter, so that's extra exciting! Thank you for sharing your creation and allowing us to be a part of it! *Party*

While I enjoyed this, there were a few spots that I struggled with, though I can't offer a better suggestion--probably just one of those madlib things. But also, I found what I think were three typos in the original madlib.

Typo--"Jules need a vacation..." That should probably be "Jules needed a vacation..."

Also, in the next to last paragraph, where we included a writing utensil, we were asked for 1, but I can't come up with a single writing utensil that fits well into the last space of "She went to the (house) and wrote (Ralph) using (pencil)." Nothing singular fits for me--pen, marker, well, now that I get more creative, "blood" would work, but it's not an actual utensil. *Laugh* I think you should include "a" before the utensil since most probably begin with a consonant...a pencil, a pen, a marker, a feather dipped in blood. *Rolling*

The last typo is in the last madlib sentence, "...(Ralph) wish he hadn't eaten (tacos) because it make him (run)." That should probably be "...it makes..." Though I would recommend specifying that the food should be plural and changing that to "...because they make him..." because earlier you say they "...bring a picnic basket full of (pizza) and (tacos) and (spaghetti)." If I had put singular words, it would have sounded weird--"...bring a picnic basket full of (sandwich) and (cookie) and (hotdog)." It was only chance that I put in plural words. *Wink*

One of the things that might simply be one of the things about madlibs is when it says, "Together they decided to go to the (Texas). You asked for a location. Well, I don't know a way you could have said that more clearly so that I didn't choose a state. MAYBE if you sort of cheated and asked it like "Location (the ...)" But is that spoiling the fun of madlibs or making them more fun because they make more sense? I can't say. *Think*

In the 3rd paragraph, it says, "Jules (happy) it." This is a tricky one. It asked for a feeling. To be fair, I get feelings and emotions mixed up, even though I know they are technically different, but I'm not sure your random madlibber knows the difference, either. *Laugh* Anyway, there are things that would fit there, but they are generally past tense like "enjoyed" or "loved" or "hated." So, you might be able to improve this one with specifying it should be a past tense feeling, though I would have said "depressed." Okay, it would have still worked, but not with the same meaning. lol But I can't think of a present tense feeling that works here...well, now that I review it, the whole thing is written in past tense, so that would explain that. *FacePalm* *Laugh* I'm not a grammarian! *Laugh*

All in all, I enjoyed this, especially since I haven't done one in a long time. *Delight* Fun! My favorite part was the hot chocolate store. Yep! If I saw one, I'd DEFINITELY go in! *Coffee* *Cookie2* *Laugh* Thank you for sharing this! If you want me to rereview it, if you decide to make changes, let me know when you are done. *Smile* Madlibs are definitely tricky to make so that they are mostly fun and mostly not frustration. lol Good work! Keep it up!
31
31
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: 13+ | (4.0)
Hey!

I'm sending you this review because you asked for feedback about your new contest and I ended up having more feedback than expected. lol Well, I do love to give an opinion... *Think* *Laugh*

Anyway, here goes...

First, good job having all 3 genres filled out! Also, I see you listed Contest as one of those. Great! Definitely don't do that if it's a contest entry you are writing for someone and don't bother using Contest Entry as one of your genres because no one really searches for that when looking for something to read, even if what you wrote IS a contest entry. *Wink* It's really a category that shouldn't hardly ever (if ever) be used. *Wink* But good job with your genres here. I might not go with Writing, because to me, that suggestions perhaps info on writing rather than actually a written item since anything that's an item is almost always a written item. lol If the contest is always going to focus on mondegreens, I'd use Music as one of the genres, myself. Also, since these so often involve humor, you could use Comedy as one of your genres. But at least you filled all 3 in, which makes you a step above half the site, so well done! *Bigsmile*

You rated your contest E. I saw that both of you seem to be underaged, so good job not creating something you shouldn't be judging. *Laugh* But E is REALLY restrictive. Consider 13+? Not saying you HAVE to do that, but consider it. Also, list the rating in the rules, especially since it's not 18+.

I also really appreciate that you used a larger font. Smart! There are a lot of older adults on WdC and even some people with vision problems, so it's a good idea to use a larger font. I encourage people to at least use 3.5, but I tend to use 4, myself. *Smile* Anyway, well done. *Heart*

Are you sure a malapropism is when you HEAR something wrong? I'm pretty sure it's when someone SAYS something wrong. *Think*

This is a link that says a mondegreen is sort of the opposite of a malapropism and is when you hear it wrong, but that it often happens in music.

http://www.fun-with-words.com/malapropisms.html#:~...

Here's where it says saying it wrong is the malapropism.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/malapro...

In your second sentence/paragraph, you put the period inside the quotation marks. In your third sentence/paragraph, you put it outside. Are you British or American? Because for Americans, the period always goes inside the quotation marks. (Question marks and exclamation points vary, depending on the usage.) Just making sure you're using it right if you're American. *Bigsmile*

Just so you know, 500 words or less isn't usually considered a short story. Depending on who you ask, it's either flash fiction or micro fiction. Here's a link that talks about the various lengths of things. Though that link leaves a gap between 500 and 1000 words. lol

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/word-count-gu...

I think here we consider anything below 1k flash fiction, but I've seen micro fiction thrown around and it's even the title of a couple of contests. But for here, either is probably acceptable. But I wouldn't use the term short story.

Also, in that bit where you are saying it's a short story and we can write whatever, that it can be funny or crazy or just plain weird, that is a run-on sentence--the last part, especially.

I would put the word "Rules" in bold, personally. But what you have isn't wrong.

The 1st couple of rules don't have periods, but the rest do. *Laugh*

Be sure to mention the max rating limit in the rules. Otherwise, you're definitely going to get some non-E (or even non-13-+, if you raise it) stories. *Laugh* *FacePalm*

You say each round is 2 weeks, but I recommend also including the current deadline because we don't necessarily know when you started counting the 2 weeks. *Wink* Maybe say that the rounds last 2 weeks, then immediately under, in bold, put something like "Deadline: July 15, 2023" or whatever. I do encourage you to include the year so that when a newbie runs into this, they know it's still active (or not) because they don't know all the clues like the last updated date in the lower right corner of the top part of an item. *Wink*

When you talk about the entries being submitted as a b-item link, I can show you how to write that example so it's more clear. *Bigsmile* You literally use 2 sets of braces such as {{bitem:2109126}}. To show you those 2 sets, I created 3 sets. When you create 2 sets, the reader will see only 1 set because 1 set always disappears. See this 1 set of braces? {bitem:2109126} I created 2 sets to show them to you. *Bigsmile* (Also, you don't need the dash, in case you didn't know.) And consider using # instead of X as {bitem:#######} to help them understand it's numbers they should be including. And I would call it the item ID number and mention that it's 7-digit number at the top of their item, between the title and description. But that's how I'd do it. *Whistle* *Laugh*

Also, I see you aren't allowing book entries like from blogs and such. A lot of folks use books/blogs for writing their contest entries to save space in their port. I'm not saying you have to allow them, but most folks do. When the person creates their entry, they then use the 7-digit number in the upper right corner of that entry and create a link with {entry:#######}. If you use the number at the top, you link to the whole blog, not that specific page. *Wink*

You say it's not necessary to write an entry in the timeframe of the round. Does that mean you allow late entries? I assume that means up until the judging, of course. But then, what if you are judging right now and just before you post the results, someone else posts an entry. So, before each time you post the winners, you'll double check the forum to make sure no one else has entered in the meantime? If that's what you mean, that's quite generous of you! If that's not what you mean, maybe rewrite that part because that's what I'd assume. lol And if you are going to allow late entries, perhaps say something about entering late at their own risk and that you don't announce when judging begins, but when it does, late entries will no longer be accepted. That way, if you get a late entry right before you announce the winners, you don't have to go back and rejudge. *Pthb* Just my opinion...but if you want to check the forum for late entries before you post winners, by all means, do so. That's very generous of you! *Smile*

You have the word count as "under 500." Consider putting in bold below that something like, "Max word count 499." These types of things like the bold deadline and bold word count help new folks quickly see what they need to do. *Smile*

You say that the entries will be disqualified if they exceed the word count, but you don't require one. Just so you know, different sites give different word counts. I think it's good that you don't require it. I once lost a contest when I was the only entry because they wanted the word count in 2 places and I only put it in one. *FacePalm* But maybe state the site you'll be using for determining the word count? And are you going to test everything? Otherwise, a person can just lie. *Whistle* Not saying you need to. No one does...to my knowledge. But just asking questions here. *Wink* You can also just leave that bit out because it's assumed you are disqualified if you don't follow the rules and one of the rules is a max word count of 499. *Wink* Also, those 2 lines (over word count and wrong bitem link disqualify you) don't have a period. lol And this isn't something to necessarily put on the page, but if you are going to look at the page throughout the month, if you see someone who linked wrong, are you going to let them know or they're just on their own. It's something to think about. Newbies may link wrong (thus why it's important to have clear instructions on how to do it) and even those who know better will occasionally use a square bracket instead of a curly brace because their fingers weren't in sync. *Wink* I'm not saying you have to call people's attention to it or help them if they are new, but it's something to think about. What are you going to do in that case?

I'd bold "Prizes."

WHOA! Those are some really good prizes! Are you able to afford that on a regular basis? Or is this contest not running regularly? If not, that's totally fine. But you make it sound like it will run every 2 weeks since you didn't say that it will run for 2 weeks once a month or every other month or whatever. So, if you run it every 2 weeks, that's 80,000 GPs in prizes (the GPs and awardicons together) if you only have a winner and 1 honorable mention. And if you run this twice a month, that's 160,000 GPs per month. *Shock2* Do you have that ability? If not, either back off the prizes (just GPs or just an awardicon is fine and don't mention a specific number of honorable mentions, only that they will be awarded at the judges discretion) or mention how often you plan to run it.

In your number of entries vs. number of honorable mentions, you have a period on the last one, but not the others. I'd say it's okay to leave that period off since they aren't really regular sentences. *Smile*

I'd put "Judges" in bold and add a colon since you did with the other parts. Also, I do prefer the blank space between that headline and the info, so consider putting a blank space between "Rules" and the rules as well as "Prizes" and the info on prizes. Though I'm not sure you need to say, "The judges of this contest will be" because you just labeled that part as "Judges." lol Will both of you be judging? That's how it sounds. If not, or if sometimes yes and sometimes not, consider putting "and/or" and maybe something like "depending on the number of entries received" so you have some flexibility. *Wink*

If you are running a round where for sure only 1 of you is judging, you should probably take off the other person's name. You can do that with hide tags {hide} Put text to be hidden in here {/hide} or with these type of hide tags... {-- Put text to be hidden in here --} Usually you use the hide /hide ones if you are hiding larger amounts of text, but in the case of just hiding a judge temporarily, the others might be more commonly used. Though it doesn't REALLY matter since we won't see what you used. lol

I really like that you used "user" instead of "suser" or "huser" tags for the judges so folks can see who is online if they have a question. Smart. *Smile*

For "Donations," I'd also put that in bold and add a colon and a blank space between it and the info below. *Smile*

I like the simplicity of the contest and rules. Good use of color. You can consider adding a GIF, if you want to make things a bit more interesting. I did a quick search and found {embed:giphy:26BRO4GNTxgD3jVwA} which creates



I'm not in love with it, but didn't care for the others...well, I did like 1, but it used the b-word, so you can't use that with the current E rating. *Wink* But you can see what you find with different searches, if you want to use a GIF, but don't like that one. Click the black box on the far right of the list of buttons at the top of the text box. It's the one that has a colorful rectangle and is next to the smiley face button that lists all the emojis. Click that black button and then search a word or short phrase. I checked for both "malaprop" and "malapropism." They both yielded the same 4 options. Usually there are a lot more, but not for "malaprop." lol When you find one you like, click it and the code will appear above the GIFs, just below the search bar. Copy that, of course. lol

You are both newbies, so you're going to need to advertise in more creative ways. You have just 1 fan and your judge has only 6, but one is you, so really only 5. *Laugh* When you post on the Newsfeed, only people who have clicked your plus sign at least once will see your notes...unless they're on the Community Newsfeed, but since barely anyone gets on that, don't count on that option. *Pthb*

Ideally, you need more fans, but those are hard to get suddenly. I do encourage you to get on the Community Newsfeed and start socializing to make friends who will hopefully turn into fans eventually. To get there, click Newsfeed. It will take you to your Personal Newsfeed by default. This is where you only see people whose plus you have clicked and official WdC stuff. You have your Newsfeed rated as E, so you won't see too much. Consider changing it to 13+. You can do that in the settings or in the upper right corner of the Newsfeed, though I don't recall if that changes it permanently or not. I have mine set to 18+, but rarely see anything worse than 13+ and most is probably E. The problem is that even if the thing is actually an E post, you won't see it because you have your rating set to E, but they have theirs set higher by default, regardless of what that specific post should actually be rated. Does that make sense?

Anyway, when you get to your Personal Newsfeed, click "View the Community Newsfeed" on the top of your Personal Newsfeed. This will allow you to see what everyone is posting within your rating limit. (Double check what rating it's listing in the upper right corner as I'm not sure if it changes or reverts back or whatever if you switch to the other Newsfeed, but had just changed your rating limit.) Anyway, scroll, Like, comment, and start making friends. It takes time to make friends, but as you do, people will eventually start clicking your plus. *Smile*

In the meantime, since right now, almost no one will see your Newsfeed notes, you need to find other ways to advertise. Consider clicking Community on the left side, then click Newsletters. Go to the Contests & Activities Newsletters and look for ones that talk about how to advertise. I know there have been several over time and I feel like 1 was within the last 6-8 months, but I might be wrong. Anyway, those can be useful for creative ways to advertise besides just posting on the Newsfeed. *Smile* You can advertise by going to Community, then Contests and filling out the form there to get your contest listed. If you see the Newsfeed Highlights, at the bottom, it has a link for how to get added to that, but if you don't plan to run this regularly, that might be hard to plan for since you can't be guaranteed when your contest will be highlighted. *Pthb* I know there are other ways to advertise, including asking your fans to post on their Newsfeed, but I can't think of anything else right now. Like I said, check the Newsletters for ideas. *Smile* Oh, you can add a link to your signature block (if you have a membership level that allows that--not sure what does and what doesn't). Check the membership info for that and/or Settings.

Well, overall, nice job! There are a few things that need to be just tightened up such as a period or colon here and no period or colon there. But overall, nice work. It's a fun idea for a contest! Do know that it's not easy to get entries, so don't get discouraged, especially since you're both so new. But the fact that this is asking for something short, that might help. Yes, there are plenty of folks here who think even 2k isn't enough words and refuse to enter contests because of word count limits, but many people are happy to enter a shorter contest and this short might find many people interested...if you can get them to know about the contest. *Wink*

One thing you can do is when you are on the Community Newsfeed, when you see a person who is saying their bored or looking for a contest, you can link yours. *Bigsmile* If you see a person who posts like, "Read my new story I just wrote" but they don't include a link, teach them how to create a link using your contest as an example. *Bigsmile* Be sure to use the double braces so they can understand and explain where to find their item number. I tend to show both item and bitem links, myself.

I do hope you two find great success on here! If not, remember that your newness might be part of the problem and wait until you have a larger fan base. You can see how many fans you have by clicking the Fans tab along the top of your Portfolio. It's just after the Community tab. The fans are the ones who have double clicked your plus. Those are the best because you can see who is following you. If a person clicks only once, they set you as a favorite and you can't track them as favorites are private. Thus, I always encourage people to double click my plus. *Bigsmile* Fans see the megaphone. Favorites see the finger with the string in place of the plus, after clicking it. No pressure, but have you double clicked mine? *Angelic* *Bigsmile* *Laugh* Schnujo is Late to Lannister If you haven't, you don't have to, but I do pay all my new fans 10k GPs. *Delight* Anyway, I definitely encourage you to work on making more fans. It's a long, slow process, but without fans, very few people see what you put on the Newsfeed. *Frown*

Back to the contest, nice idea and good job with the plan. I like it and hope you get a lot of good entries! The prizes are definitely impressive! Just be sure you don't go broke if you are planning to run this repeatedly. *Laugh* You are definitely generous! *Heart*
32
32
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: ASR | (4.5)
I'm giving this 4.5 stars because it doesn't come across as poetry to me, though it's labeled as such. That's the only thing. If this was a blog post or listed as something else, I'd give it 5 stars.

Mainly, I'm sending you a review because I wanted to encourage and support you after reading this. Remember that church is only a gathering of flawed people. What (I presume) they did was not okay. But also, that has nothing to do with God or your relationship with Him. You can still get good things from bad situations. You can still find the peace and love of God in a church that is horrible. You just have to separate them in your mind. We shouldn't (but often do) allow other humans to separate us from God.

You had a good experience for part or most or even all of that year before you found out what was happening. Don't let them steal that from you in the same way that they stole innocence and light from others. God is everywhere, including in the darkest places. And if you did or feel you did (because sometimes we take more responsibility for things than we should) or even didn't do anything when you should have because you were fully in the know, it's nothing that God can't forgive. That redemption isn't lost forever. And no, you don't deserve it, but none of us do, no matter how "bad our sins." That's why it's given in God's grace and mercy. We are fallen beings and can't deserve it.

When I came back from Iraq, I returned with horrible survivor's guilt over deaths that happened there that, while not 100% my fault, I could have maybe prevented if I'd tried harder. I spent years hating myself and refusing to get help because I didn't deserve it. I wouldn't go to church because I knew God loved me, but I didn't deserve or want Him to so I actively avoided Him. After finally getting some trauma treatment (I HIGHLY recommend Accelerated Resolution Therapy, though insurance won't pay for it, but they will pay for EMDR--Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, which ART is based off of, so it's a good 2nd option), I finally came to realize that I can't blame myself forever for the things I didn't do. That only destroys the future good I can do in the world. If I believed that making up for it through doing good things or doing better in the world is important, than I had to get over/through this time in my life or I'd never be able to make the world a better place because I was holding myself back and through that, hurting the world and working against my own moral compass.

What I had and what I suspect you have is a moral injury. This is where we act or don't act in a way that contradicts our personal belief system. They can be very hard to overcome, but we can do it. *HeartBroken* *HeartBl* *HeartP* *Heart* I encourage you to seek treatment for this. Don't let other people's sins define you and don't let your past sins (real or imagined) define your future. It's okay to be angry, but not okay to take it out on yourself and not okay to allow that to hinder your personal and spiritual growth. That's what Satan wants. That's what makes him happy when he makes these things happen. That's his whole purpose--to destroy the church and God's people. Don't let him win.

If you feel comfortable doing so, you can reach out to some of the victims and offer support. You can even apologize for not supporting them more at the time. Some may reject you out of anger. Some may ignore you, wishing to put that part of their life behind them. Some may accept your apology and even appreciate it. I can't say. I only know that you need to do what will help you so that that you can move forward from this. If you hold this against yourself or others or God, you will be hurting yourself and your own future and the future of those that you could have helped in so many ways if you had allowed this time to only be a part of your past and not to be something actively a part of your future. You have so much to offer the world. Don't let this define who you are or the things that you can do for others.

It's okay to be angry. But it's not okay to let the past destroy what God has in store for you in the future. *Hug1**Smile**Hug2* I do hope you are able to find and get help. (Though remember that sometimes your first therapist isn't a good fit. Keep looking until you find one that is. And let them know you are specifically looking for trauma treatment such as EMDR. Otherwise, you can fall into the habit of just chatting about your life and never getting any real work done. *Wink* You might need to start there to build rapport, but don't let that be everything you do in therapy.) Don't let Satan steal more from you and others than he already has. Everything from this that holds you back from God or from the best you that you can be or, perhaps worst of all, that keeps you from doing everything you can for others in the future is another victory for him. He wins enough. There's no need to hand him victories. It won't be easy, but you can get through this!

If I'm way off base here, I do apologize. I just saw the hurt and wanted to reach out. I, too, am only another flawed human. I've done terrible things and I've blamed myself for the terrible things of others. I've allowed Satan to win and I've stolen the victory that was rightfully God's from Him. But I've also done wonderful things and helped so many other people. I've allowed God to work through me and helped others find Him because of me. At times, I've held myself back and at other times, I've allowed God to set me free. Like everyone, I'm still a work in progress.

I pray that you and the others can find some peace and that this doesn't permanently separate you or them from God. Nothing can undo the damage. But there is still love, peace, hope, and even redemption to be found in God, despite humanity. They are gifts He freely gives to us. We just have to ask...and sometimes work through our own brokenness to see them. *Pray* *Heart* *Pray*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
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33
Review of Soldiers  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: 13+ | (5.0)
Wow! What a powerful piece of writing here! Thank you so much for sharing this. Even the opening line grabbed me, "When bombs start bursting..." But of course, I was in war, so... *Wink*

I love that you centered this instead of putting it off to the side. Not sure if you meant for it to help bring more attention to the words, but I think it does--putting them front and center. Well done!

The only criticism I have is "...brutality is measured by soldier's bodies." Amazing description, but shouldn't that be "soldiers' bodies" instead?

Thank you so much for sharing this poem! You are, indeed, an excellent poet! *Heart* I just checked to see if I could nominate it for "Invalid Item. Alas, I don't think they existed when this was written in 2005. *Frown* But know that I live it that much! *InLove2*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
34
34
Review of SELF ESTEEM  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (3.5)
Hi! Welcome to WdC! *Hug1**Smile**Hug2*

Thank you for sharing your item. *Smile* This review is just my opinion, so take from it what you find helpful and ignore the rest. *Wink*

You say you have "little experience about life." I'm wondering if that means you are young? If so, I'm especially happy to see you here. *Delight* If not, well, me neither, so it's fine. *Laugh* Anyway, I believe you need a comma after "life."

Don't forget to capitalize "I." And it would make a bit more sense if you said, "human actions are born" or humans act out of their self-esteem." BTW, that should be "self-esteem." *Laugh*

I'm not sure I think it's "either good or bad." I think sometimes our self-esteem fluctuates and sometimes even just in the middle, but that's my opinion. *Angelic* However, I definitely agree that a BIG part of how we act is based on our self-esteem, for sure! Great point! And we can often tell something about a person's self-esteem from their actions, though not always. Of course, we all have a bad day or someone is mean to us sometimes, so that can impact our behavior. *Frown*

That should be "each and everyone's self-esteem" because it is their self-esteem, so it should be possessive. And that is "either way," not "either ways," even though it is talking about more than one way that can be gone, ultimately, it is talking about choosing only 1 way, if that helps you remember. *Smile*

You are 100% that we all need to work on our self-esteem, though perhaps to also be sure to guard against becoming too prideful or even egotistical. But I think that's much less common than having low self-esteem.

That last sentence in your first paragraph is super long and could (probably should) be broken down. Wait, I just realized, that first paragraph is 1 giant sentence. *Laugh* We call that a run-on sentence. Try to break it up some. Usually where the thoughts change is a great place. I think this is part of why it ends with "either solid or weak." I think the point got lost in the sentence because you are talking about the importance of working on self-esteem. If you work on your self-esteem, then the result should be a solid ability to fight through when things get rough. *Smile*

I, again, disagree that you have either low or high self-esteem and that you can't have medium self-esteem or it can't change throughout the day or week. But, this is a matter of opinion and doesn't make a difference to my review rating, of course.

I'm SUPER excited to see you filled out all 3 genres for your item! *Party* GREAT WORK! SO MANY people don't do this and they really should! Though I will recommend you change some of the genres you chose. Activities is usually reserved for challenges, social forums, and things like that. Adult means, uh, things that kids shouldn't be reading, if you know what I mean. *Blush* *Laugh* Maybe consider things like Cultural, Educational, possibly Health or Medical (for the mental health side of the idea of self-esteem), definitely Psychology, and self-help would be good as well. Other ones not to choose are Other, Contest (unless you are actually creating a contest for people to enter), or Contest Entry.

There are several reasons to use all 3 genres--1. People search using genres more than any other way to find something to read on here. But this is also why I don't recommend things like Other or Contest Entry. People don't search for that. *Wink* 2. Moderators write Newsletters and they are expected to include 5-20 items in their Newsletter so they have to search for items to include. Obviously, they search based on what the Newsletter is about, so whether it's the Horror or Romance Newsletter, they aren't searching Other or Contest Entry for something to include because that wouldn't give them a very defined set of items to check. 3. We have an activity called "The Quills. People can nominate exceptional items they love. They nominate them for categories like Best Long Poem-Structured or Best Flash Fiction. (Anyone can nominate something...except their own thing, of course, so feel free to nominate stuff written this year through "Quill Nomination Form 2024.) Once an item has been nominated, the item is then put into the genre categories listed by the author for further opportunities to win a Quill. You could not win Best Short Nonfiction, but then win Best Psychology, for example...or, you could win both. *Delight* However, no matter HOW OBVIOUS it is, the genre categories it gets judged in is ONLY what the author lists. So, if they write something called "The Terror of a Home Invasion" and write all kinds of scary things, but only label it Other, Other, and Other, they won't have any chance except to win in the main category it was nominated it because "Other" isn't a judged genre category.

So, all this is to so I'm very happy you filled out all the genres, but I do recommend maybe considering some different ones. *Wink* When you do reviews, feel free to see what people are listing. (It's in the top left area under the image.) And if you disagree with what they used or they didn't use anything, click Browse by Genre on the left side of the computer screen and it will bring up all the genre options and you can give them some suggestions to help them out. I also recommend explaining why they are so important to list and to list good ones--search results, to maybe be included in a Newsletter, and to get judged in more categories if their item is nominated for "Invalid Item. But only things from this year can be nominated...unless you are nominating a contest, activity, etc. But of poem, stories, etc., only things this year can be nominated.

Remember that my comments about your item are only my opinion. It's your writing, so do with it as you please. *Smile*

It looks like maybe you aren't a native speaker. If that is the case, I'm even MORE impressed with you and your writing! Stick around, read, review, and participate in activities and your English will really grow! *Delight*

Again, welcome to WdC and thank you for sharing your writing! *Heart*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
35
35
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: 18+ | (4.5)
WELCOME TO WdC! *Hug1**Smile**Hug2*

This review is intended to be helpful. Take what you agree with and toss what you don't. It's all just my own opinion. *Wink*

Okay, well, it's not ALL my own opinion... *Angelic* The intro is rated as Non-E, but that's not accurate. The title is "Where Lost Trinkets Go" and the description is "Uress discovers something strange about his couch." There's nothing non-E about this. *Wink* You can check the rules for how to rate things here *Right* "Content Rating System (CRS) While no one is going to complain that you rated it too high, you won't get as many views as you would if you rated it appropriately. *Wink* The content does seem to be appropriately rated. *Smile*

This is totally just a suggestion. There are a LOT of older members here with older eyes. Consider enlarging your font to 3.5 or maybe 4. I have a touchscreen so it's fine for me. But not everyone here does. *Frown*

"Uress woke up with his head feeling like a blocked drain, stuck with lumps of ancient pudding and bits of chicken legs pounding against his skull." WOW! What an opening like! I love it...and am pretty sure I've felt like that before, though not for the same reason. lol

"In the corner stood a counter, it's top stacked with magazines and pokemon cards. an old man stood behind it, he reminded Uress of a stone beside a road, eroded by eons of water erosion, winds pushing while the earth sunk him deeper down and moss as old as time itself grew beneath." Another great sentence! You really have some talent! I'm super impressed!

The only error I spotted was "Well, strike me in the bowels and call me jitterbugged, If it ain't some luck," "If" shouldn't be capitalized there...or that comma needs to be a period. *Wink*

The only other correction I'd recommend is to change 2 of your genres. Other and Contest Entry aren't searched for much (if at all) by readers here. Plus, Moderators look for items to post in their Newsletters and they don't search for those, either. And we have an awards ceremony here called "Invalid Item. If an item gets nominated (for example, Best Flash Fiction category), then the item is automatically put in the genre categories that are listed by the author. You would only qualify for the Fantasy genre. While I agree that it's the best option, anything is better than nothing. *Wink* Consider Folklore, Mystery, or Supernatural for your other 2 genres.

You're a very talented writer who obviously put a lot of time into his story! Wonderful work! I do hope to see you around with lots more writing! Good luck and welcome to WdC!


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
36
36
Review of The Door  
Rated: 13+ | (4.5)
Welcome to WdC! I hope you are finding it to be a nice and friendly place. *Smile*

I enjoyed your poem...and I usually don't like free-verse...or really poetry at all. *Laugh* Nicely done. *Smile*

I would definitely recommend you try to fill in all 3 genres. I realize it's a bit harder for this poem. Maybe Dark, Gothic, Tragedy, Tribute, or even Home/Garden. *Laugh* There are several reasons to fill out all the genres. 1. Many people search for things to read and/or review via the genre. The more you have filled in, the more folks are going to find your poem. 2. We have newsletters on this site and the people who write the newsletters include examples of writing in their newsletters. Thus, they need to search by genre. *Wink* 3. We have an award ceremony called "Invalid Item. It's like the Oscars, but much more low budget and low key. *Laugh* But still, it's an honor just to be nominated. *Laugh* Anyway, if this poem were to be nominated, it would be nominated for the poetry category for unstructured, short poems. That's automatic when it's nominated. But then there are genre categories it also automatically goes into if there are enough items of that genre for judging that year. Yours would only have a chance at willing a Quill Award in the mystery genre. If you have all 3 filled out, you get 3 chances instead of just 1 chance to win a genre award. *Bigsmile*

Anyway, to your poem...you do an excellent job of describing the door. My favorite part is the bit about the window looking like oilslicked water. Cool!

Well done! Keep it up! Also, as you browse the site, feel free to nominate things you love for a Quill award using "Quill Nomination Form 2024. Static items like stories and poems had to have been written this year, but contests, interactives, activities, etc. just need to be active this year. *Smile*

Again, welcome to WdC! It's great to see you here!
37
37
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (4.0)
Howdy!

I saw your request for a review and thought I'd throw in my 2 cents since it was a short poem. *Angelic* *Bigsmile*

As with any review, take what you find useful and ignore the rest. These are only my own opinions, so do with them what you will. *Wink*

The first thing I notice is a "mistake" I used to make in my poetry. I used to capitalize every line as well, but have since been told that that isn't the style (anymore?). Like with regular sentences, you only capitalize when you come to the end of the sentence. *Confused* *Think* That's what I've been told, so I pass it on to you. Mind you, I'm not a poet, so take all my advice with a box of salt. *Laugh*

BTW, I love the addition of the rose images! *InLove2*

You wrote, "As the rose petals fall into place;" but I sort of want that to be "...fall out of place" because what I'm imaging is that the petals are on the rose when we are alive, but then as we die, they fall to the table or ground or whatever, so they are falling out of place from where they originally were. But maybe you are thinking of death as the place we should all be and thus the rose petals are falling into place as we die?

Nice rhyme scheme. I prefer poem that rhyme, so good job in my mind. *Laugh* But I have to say, I don't get the bit about...

So I may have a chance;
To know it will defend.

What are they defending? I don't get that.

I like that you centered the poem. But I was looking at the shape and thought it would look even cooler if you tried to create a rose petal-type shape with the poem. You can keep the spacing, IMO, but just fill out some of the center lines so the middle of the poem is fatter. Yeah, it would mean reworking a LOT of the poem, but it would look cool, IMO. *Bigsmile* *Angelic* It's easier to make giant suggestions to other people's work. *Rolling* *Rolling* *Rolling*

I have a couple of favorite lines here.

Inside one's soul;
Lay one's dreams;

and

The time says goodbye.

Nice work on those especially. *Smile* They are cool ideas and images to put in my mind. Thanks for that!

Nice work on your poem! Keep at it! BTW, next month is National Poetry Month and I'll be doing a prompt where you pick a poetry style you've never done before and you explain it, then write a poem in that style. *Smile* My contest always pays people for entering, so I encourage you to post an entry to "The Whatever Contest -- Closed for Now next month. *Bigsmile*

Good luck with your efforts to learn to write more poetry! The fact that you are asking for critiques so you can learn more is huge! Good for you! But remember that these are our opinions, not necessarily fact. Keep at it! *Heart*


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Review of The Bird  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (5.0)
What a fabulous poem! Thank you so much for sharing it! You're very talented and I'm glad to see you are sharing it on here. Thank you for that, for sure.

I think my favorite lines are the 1st and last...

A bird which flew on wisps of thought,

And flew out to creation's edge.

These are fabulous lines that show us the bird in new and interesting ways. Great work! I was actually going to nominate it for "The Quills, but then I saw it wasn't written this year. Alas, for Quills, it has to be written in the current year (except in January when you can nominate for the previous year or the current year). I'm sorry I can't nominate this, but know that I really enjoyed it. *Smile*

My only suggestion isn't about your writing. I'd just suggest you see if you can find a picture of the inspiration postcard for this on the internet. You can even just edit the poem and post a link to it if you are low on port space. Let me know if you need help with editing or posting links here. Actually, I think SM has now made it so you can just paste a link in and it automatically becomes clickable so you don't need the ML code for that, but if I'm wrong, let me know if you need the code.

Anyway, thank you for sharing your talent with us!


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Review of 88 Keys  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (4.0)
Hey! Welcome to writing.com! I'm so glad to have you join us all! *Bigsmile*

I was reading entries from Test Your Poetry and found yours. This is a very nice poem about your piano. How sweet. *Smile*

I did notice you included (or accidentally included, I'm guessing), the item number in the first line. *Think*

He is white and black and played with love 2258777

I was trying to figure out where that number came from and thought it must be the phone number given in some song I wasn't familiar with. All I could remember was *Music1*867-5309*Music2* (I think is correct). *Laugh*

Anyway, I like how you personified music and also enjoyed some lines where you were especially poetic such as "I can bend sound..." Nicely done!

If you decide to edit this piece, you will find a gear in the upper right corner of the item. Click that. I generally pick Quick Edit, myself, but do what makes you happy. Thanks for sharing this piece!

Keep it up and welcome to WdC! *Heart*


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Review of Ode To Why  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (4.0)
This is a fun poem that I'm sure has been recited in many different ways throughout the last couple of years. *Laugh* I'm glad you worked to put voice to the thoughts and words of so many, especially the little kids who don't have much understanding at all about what is going on.

I did find 2 things that appear to be errors...

Tom,”
“My son does make a valid, Mom.”

They are back to back lines. The first is missing the opening quotation marks. The second, I think, is missing the word "point" after "valid."

Otherwise, nice work and thank you for putting it out there for the rest of us! *Heart*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
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Review of 14 (Fourteen)  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (5.0)
This is such a great poem! I really enjoyed the line structure and how you broke things up. I also think you did a great job of describing how people feel and what is going on when their adolescence is dying and they are growing every closer to becoming an adult. Great work!

We aren't allowed to tell people if they get nominated for "The Quills, but I think I am allowed to tell you I was going to nominate this poem for a Quill, but then I discovered I can't because it wasn't written this year. *Frown* Well, know that I thought it was good enough to nominate. *Bigsmile* That's something, right? *Wink*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
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for entry "Real Life Information
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: 18+ | (4.0)
Okay, I felt guilty and decided to do 1 little review. *Bigsmile*

Thanks for the trinket, BTW! *Heart*

I agree that it's a good idea to research things. We tend to assume we know all we need to know. And perhaps we know all we NEED to know, but further research can certainly open up possibilities we never imagined.

You use a lot of hyphens in here. "Also, you have to know the people- in 1820’s you had a number of poor people..." I suggest you take a look at endash vs. emdash on Google. I think you want to use emdashes here. WdC actually has a thing for that {emdash} and it shows as this —. Though in regular places, or if you can't remember how to do it, you can just use 2 hyphens together as this --. In fact, if you are on MS Word and use the 2 dashes, it automatically makes them into an emdash (assuming I'm right in that's the one you're supposed to be using) when you hit the space after the 2nd word. So, "...people--in..." would become "...people—in..." as soon as you hit the spacebar after "in." But it leaves them as 2 dashes without the 2nd word and then spacebar. Though MS Word insists they be used without a space between the words, I believe it is grammatically correct to do both "...people—in..." and "...people — in..." BTW, I'm creating those examples by doing this, as you probably can guess... "...people{emdash}in..."

That's a very important point you make about researching the appropriate years you are writing about. I didn't realize even the terms might be different. Very interesting!

"...between a King Cobra, a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, and a Green Anaconda." I'm pretty sure these aren't capitalized, even though they are the name of the type of snake, but they aren't the actual name of the snake. Just as you wouldn't capitalize "daughter," but would capitalize the name of your daughter. *Smile*

"Russian-built" You've used hyphenated compound words several times and they are all (as far as I can tell) 100% correct. Great job! That's something a lot of people really struggle with so I'm definitely impressed!

"...Private, Seaman, and Aircraftman are the lowest ranks." Are you not in the US? I thought you were, but maybe not. If you're not, then ignore this. lol But if you are, the lowest Air Force rank is "Airman," not "Aircraftman." *Wink* Maybe it was many years ago; I don't know. But I do know that's not the common term now. *Bigsmile*

Another example to consider for the military branches is Captain. An Army Captain is a much lower rank than a Navy Captain. Almost all officers in the Army become a Captain at some point, but a Naval Captain runs the boat (as I understand it) and that's a much harder rank to attain. That's equal to an Army Colonel.

The rating is simply a reflection of the errors, not of the educational aspect of this piece. The educational part is very well done and very important! <e

Great blog/newsletter post! I especially love the encouraging and inspiring ending! Great work! I did make a number of corrections, but it's all easy stuff. In general, you're a skilled writer and even your common mistakes don't take away from your piece. I'm glad I took the time to read this. Thank you for sharing and keep it up!


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Review of Father  
Rated: ASR | (4.0)
I'm doing this review so I can give you better instructions on how to make sure your items qualify for the tickets in "WdC 2023 Birthday Review Raffle - CLOSED. Some of your reviews were private. I'm not sure if you just didn't click that little Make Public box between Make Anonymous and Submit to Good Deeds Get CASH or if you meant to make it private for a reason.

Mine is automatically checked so all my reviews are automatically public. If you want to do this, you can click Set Default next to Make Public and then when the new window opens, make sure Public Review Checkbox Default is set to Default as Checked. Then click Submit Changes, of course. But maybe you unchecked it for a reason. So, I'm going to make this a private review and see if I can change it to public later so I can tell you how...if I can. I'm also going to see how we can edit a review so I can give you instructions on that as well so you can make your shorter ones long enough to qualify. I know we can edit reviews, I just don't remember how.

Anyway, to your actual review!

I love the name and the description of this item. Great work! Also, I'm really glad you used all 3 genres. Perfect! So often that is missed! (Note: It's a quick and easy thing you can comment about on reviews you need to make longer--especially if they didn't because you can include why they should put all 3 genres. *Wink* )

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your mother! *Hug1**Cry**Hug2* I lost my dad at 14. It's so hard to lose a parent, but especially at that age! *HeartBroken*

‘when you need anything, just write it on a note and I’ll get it for you.’ You need to capitalize "when" but that is such a sweet thing your father did for you. *Candy5* I love it!

"Since then, my father played the role of both parents.
Many of our relatives and friends encouraged my father..." You have an awkward line break there. I'd recommend putting the 2nd sentence back with the 1st one, but you could make them both mini paragraphs if you prefer, I suppose.

My mother also loved my father too much to remarry, even though even we encouraged her to after a while. It's sad, but also so romantic. *InLove2*

"...he taught me how to fall in love with the city through his eyes..." This is fabulous! I love that you didn't just say, "My father taught me how to take pictures." This is a fabulous way to get that idea across with so much more feeling! *Heart*

"He was open minded..." That should be open-minded with a hyphen. *Wink*

I'm so sorry about your dad falling and having failing health so suddenly. I don't know exactly why, but once an older person starts to fall, their health usually declines pretty quickly after a few falls. Perhaps it's simply that their delicate organs can't take the thrashing they receive from a fall, but officially, I don't know.

"...we were due for 3 surgeries.
He got a pacemaker installed..." These should probably be in the same paragraph.

"...but his spirit was untouchable.
Through the 55 days in the hospital..." You seem to have a paragraph break here, but you didn't skip a space. The skipped spaces give our eyes a brief moment of rest and indicate that this is really a new paragraph with new ideas.

"...we finally had ‘the’ talk.
I was given strict instructions..." Again, you seem to have changed paragraphs, but didn't skip a line like you did in the previous paragraph changes. It's good to skip lines between paragraphs. *Wink*

"...I realise now that he stayed strong throughout for me. We knew it was the end, so he had nothing to gain from his high spirits, but he knew that if I saw him crumble, I would fall apart." OMG! This is so heartbreaking, but also shows what a strong person he was! *Heart* Never forget that he raised you and is a part of you and so is his strength! *Hug1**Smile**Hug2*

"...I would fall apart.
He was teaching me how to be alone." Again, you don't have a space, but I think this paragraph is too short to stand alone, but also fits okay with the one before, so put the part where he was teaching you to be alone in the paragraph above. Also, that is just so heartrending! I got a pit in my stomach and tears in my eyes from that! *Cry* Your father was an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING MAN!

"3 days later, he was gone.
I performed his last rites..." Again, skip a line. Also, when you start a sentence with a number, it should be spelled out, so this should be "Three days later..."

"I’ve kept his pacemaker safely..." That should be "I've kept his pacemaker safe..." This whole paragraph is just gu twrenching! But also so inspiring! And I didn't know you could donate a pacemaker. I think that's an amazing thing! I can imagine it is what he would want, but also that it must be so hard for you to do. I don't know if it would be possible for you to meet the person it was donated it, but maybe that would help when the time comes. Even if you can't, know that you and your father gave life to another person and another family who couldn't have otherwise afforded it. *Heart*

"...he would have wanted that.
It’s been just over two weeks..." Again, you need a paragraph space.

Thanks. And now you've made me cry. *Right* "But he made me promise that I would live my life, and that his blessings would always be with me, so although my heart is broken, I’m trying to live a little more each day—for all three of us."

The rating is based on errors, not on the heart that was put into this work The emotion was absolutely 5 stars, but there were some technical issues. *Wink*

This was such a beautiful peace! I'm SO GLAD I chose it! *Heart* Also, I think your writing has really improved since we met. Nice work! Thakn you for sharing this part of you. I'm so sorry for what you have been through, but it's good to know there have been such amazing people on this Earth and they have given us their amazing children! *Hug1**Smile**Hug2*
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In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (5.0)
Thank you so much for the trinket! I especially love how you gave us some information not just about them, but about you as well because I'm here on WdC to connect to people, not just to collect trinkets or merit badges...though that might be how it seems sometimes. *Laugh* Anyway, thank you for the lovely trinket! *Heart*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
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45
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (5.0)
What a fun poem. I love that you wrote about trinket collecting and trinket collectors! *Delight* But do you know what I think would make it even better? If you included a trinket with this poem so people could collect it when they read it. Yep, that is my genius idea that I give to you for free. *Rolling* Anyway, thank you for sharing your words with us. Have a great day!


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
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Review of WDC  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (5.0)
Howdy! I love that you included a seek-a-word. Though I have to say, I couldn't figure out how to circle or highlight or whatever the words. *Think* I'm sure it's just me and I know I've figured it out in the past, but it wouldn't hurt to post instructions for the slower members of the community. *Laugh* Also, since you mention trinkets, I 100% think you should include one here for people to collect! *Bigsmile* You can post it with {trinket:XXXXXXX}. Anyway, thanks again!
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Review of Time  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (5.0)
I like your poem. It's short, which for me and my attention span, works perfectly, but it also brings together concepts that I think are very accurate. Nicely done.

I have a suggestion. Are you familiar with trinkets on WdC? You can go to Points, then at the bottom of that popup, Trinkets: Create New. I'm sure there's info in the WdC 101 section as well. But you can create a collectable trinket to reward people for coming here. They do cost 50k to make, but then you can post it here with (Trinket unavailable.) and people who visit this item can collect a trinket while reading about "time as a trinket." *Laugh*

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out "Note: I totally didn’t have a chance to do this on ..." as an example. Click on it, click Collect, and you'll have the trinket in your collection (which you can then see if you go to Points, then Trinkets: Collected) and you can read whatever the maker posted for that trinket. *Smile* Try it! *Smile*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
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Review of WOW!  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: ASR | (5.0)
I totally love this item and the tie-in with "Invalid Item It's hilarious! I especially love that you tagged each person and mentioned their situation and your excuse to be at the new handbag factory because of them. *Laugh* That was especially kind of you to offer to buy LightinMind's wife more handbags than you want him to. *InLove2* The other thing I liked in your piece is how you "studied" so many other things besides what you were supposed to. Yep, that's how studying with others usually goes. *Rolling* Thanks for sharing this! *Heart*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
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Review of Moving On Blues  
In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: 13+ | (4.0)
I felt bad telling you probably not a lot of folks were going to check out your poem because of the festivities, so I decided to review it, myself. Bare in mind, I'm not a poet. *Wink*

I like that you get a shiver when he touches you. That can go as both a positive thing and negative, so I like that. Good choice!

I'm not digging the sweet bubbles bit if it's a cold brew. Personally, I don't think of beer bubbles as sweet. Hops bubbles? Or in reference to the bad relationship, bitter bubbles? Just my opinion...

I'm a little confused with the pronouns. Sometimes it's "I" and other times it's "she" (and "he," but that's less confusing since you are a female--I assume you are talking about your partner). But maybe it's intentional and I just don't get it because I'm not a poet. *Confused*

As a Southerner, I fully support the phrase "hot butter blues." *Bigsmile* I also really love the bit about women having an expiration date on their face. Ugh. So true! *Pthb*

Over all, nice poem! I think it could use a couple tweaks here and there, but nice work! Keep it up!



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In affiliation with The Witch's House  
Rated: E | (5.0)
What an awesome poem! I love this! *InLove* Such a fun idea! But I definitely disagree with the last line that they are a waste of time. I really enjoyed these and was curious when you said it was a choose-your-own-adventure type of poem. I was like, "How in the world..." AWESOME! Thank you for sharing!


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