Critique for FanLit Entries

An awful lot of the time I wish I could use critiquer’s shorthand on the entry comments.  It would be so much easier to say “white room syndrome” or “talking heads” or “headhopping”.  Especially when you have so few characters in which to say it.

For those of you – Hi Raven! – not on FanLit, I’m not talking the kind of characters who live and breath in my head.  I’m talking about individual letters and numbers.  We have a total of 500 of them in which to do a critique.

So it isn’t possible to be really helpful.  There isn’t enough room in which to describe which sentences make no sense at all, or why Damien is coming off looking like a troll.  With some critiquer’s shorthand, it might.

But How many of our fellow FanLitter’s would recognize GMC?  How many are familiar with emotional arcs?

So I settle for comments like “Needs more detail” or “Needs more conflict” where I might otherwise say “Needs scene anchors and better dialogue tags along with clearer goals and more realistic motivation.”  Better that than “Boring.”  But then, the number of boring entries has dropped lately.  So maybe all I really need anymore is “Good job!”

Alice