tamingthemuse | Standards and Voting

Voting: How to fairly rate each story. After all, the community members will decide whether or not a story meets our standards, so let's talk standards. First, standards does not mean taste. If an author writes a story you don't like, you don't like it, but you can still see whether the characters, plot, and grammar are correct.

Short version:
We don't use 1, 2, 3, or 4
5 is for a story we can't read/understand
6 is for a story with so many mistakes we can't focus on the story
7 is for a story with good basics, but with errors that need fixing
8 or 9 are for good stories
10 is for a perfect story

Standards:

The members of the community will vote on whether a story qualifies. Stories that are clearly thrown together in order to keep a run going should not be accepted as "real" stories. However, all writers have "on" and "off" weeks (and everyone is learning) so allowances should be made for that. Here are the guidelines for voting. People who do not vote fairly will lose their right to participate in the community. At the same time, if a story doesn't meet the standards, it doesn't meet the standards. Don't post a story if you think it's going to get a low rating.

Plot

Plot refers to having a clear storyline. When rating this, consider the following...

Did the author have a clear problem in the beginning and then solve that problem in the end. Keep in mind, sometimes the "solution" is not one we would want (for example, death), but it should still address the problem.

Did the story logically make sense? Did events and actions seem reasonable for the universe the author is using?

Did the story keep your interest as a reader? Did you want to read to the end

For a story to get the highest rating (10), the ending should provide a strong emotion (relief, joy, amusement, horror, pain). Did this story have a strong emotion at the end?

For a story to get the highest rating (10), the opening should grab you right up front. Did the very first sentence pull you into the story?

Now for the numbers

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - We don't need to use these.

5 - The plot is confusing or illogical

6 - The plot has real potential, but there is a serious error that keeps us from enjoying the story. Maybe the problem in the beginning is forgotten or the events are just illogical.

7 - There are problems here, but the story is enjoyable and worth reading.

8 - This is a solid story that keeps our interest throughout.

9 - This story is so good we're going to recommend it to other people.

10 - This story is perfect. We want to recommend it to friends, read it again, and save it to the computer just in case LJ dies and takes the story with it. Very few stories should get this, so don't throw these around.

Characters

Characters refers to the quality of the people walking around in your story. When rating this, consider the following...

Did the characters have a motivation that they followed throughout the story. If a character is motivated by greed, he won't just start giving away money unless something changes. So, did these characters stay true to themselves?

Did the way each character spoke remain consistent through the story. If a character has a southern accent up front, he should probably still have it at the end

Could you understand why a character did what he did? Did it make sense in the story

For a story to get the highest rating (10), the characters should be consistent with the fandom they are taken from. So, Nick Knight should act like Nick Knight from the show.

Now for the numbers

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - We don't need to use these

5 - The characters act in ways that are wildly illogical and don't seem to have any consistency in terms of how they speak or what they want.

6 - At least one major character has serious enough problems that we're thinking "what?" "huh?" throughout the story. This problem is serious enough that we can't enjoy the story.

7 - There are a few minor problems with characters, but we enjoyed the story.

8 - The characters are solid. They are generally logical and believable.

9 - The characters feel like real people. The author has written them well enough to understand their wants and needs and feel emotion toward them. Whether we hate, love, or fear the character, we feel something.

10 - If someone new to the fandom asked for an introduction to a character, this is the story I would recommend.Very few stories should get this, so don't throw these around.

Grammar

This refers to good old spelling, punctuation, and word use. And if you are horrible at grammar, skip rating other people. After all, if you don't know the rules, you can't rate how well someone else follows the rules! When rating this, consider the following...

Confusable words like their/there/they're or where/wear

Punctuation such as apostrophes, capitalization, commas, semicolons, and quotation marks

Spelling spelling spelling spelling spelling

If you are horrible at grammar, skip rating other people. After all, if you don't know the rules, you can't rate how well someone else follows the rules!

Now for the numbers

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - We don't need to use these
5 - There are common, serious grammar mistakes that make it difficult to understand the sentences. This story is just hard to read at all
6 - While we can clearly understand this story, the grammar mistakes are so common and so varied that it becomes distracting.
7 - Most punctuation and spelling is correct, but this story has one or two rules being constantly broken
8 - The only errors are small and are typing errors more than anything else.
9 - Very few errors in here at all
10 - Absolutely clean with NO mistakes at all. Very few stories should get this, so don't throw these around.