Raison d'être
The goal: to improve writing and maintain the highest standard of critique excellence anywhere on Reddit.
DestructiveReaders isn't about writers being nice to writers; it's about readers being honest with writers. We deconstruct writing to construct better writers.
Getting Started
Please read the rules below, and take a look at the FAQ and New User thread.
Assuring Quality & Rules
▼ Rules & Guidelines ▼
- This sub is dedicated to the blunt assessment of writing. Do not submit a story if you react poorly to potentially harsh feedback. Angry responses, trolling, flaming, vitriol etc. are not allowed.
- Before submitting work, you must provide at least one ‘high effort’ critique of a story that has (in total) the same word count as the piece you are submitting. Failure to do so will result in the application of a red leech tag. Leeches who do not critique burn at dawn (24 hours to critique) NOTE: Critiques can be banked ahead of time, but expire after 3 months.
- SUBMISSION RULES: The title of posts must begin with the word count in square brackets, just like this: [Word count] Insert title here. Don't submit rough drafts or unedited garbage. We want your best quality writing.
- When critiquing, do not engage in personal attacks or leave criticism without merit. Please read our guidelines for critiquing on Google docs, and leave the doc readable for other members.
- All top-level non-critique comments on submissions will be removed. This includes "shaming" comments telling people they haven't critiqued enough yet--please use the report button instead.
- You must wait at least two days between submissions. For best results, we suggest limiting your word count to ~2500. Do not post already published work.
- While not a rule, we prefer Google docs over any other submission type. Privacy Alert: Google will automatically attach your G+ account to your submissions. If you value your personal privacy, we suggest using a throwaway email.
▼ What is the red leech mark? ▼
- A leech is someone who takes without giving. The community would fall apart if everyone just dumped their writing and left. Most users here ignore leeches entirely.
- A leech post will appear faded with CSS enabled. The button on the sidebar [HIDE LEECH] does exactly that.
- If users are concerned about not critiquing a leech, we recommend they only critique submissions over 5 hours old. It is also recommended to focus critiques on posts no older than ~3 days (often abandoned/rewritten).
- Once marked, you have 24 hours to meet the 1:1 ratio. If you submit a 1000 word story, critique a 1000 word story. (Or two 500 word stories.) After 24 hours, the post is removed and you will be unable to resubmit for 2 days.
- Effort goes further than experience here. "I'm new!" isn't an excuse.
- Line edits are very welcome in Google docs, but aren't considered a large portion of critiquing. Critiques that copy-paste large sections of writing just to make trivial edits will be regarded as low quality.
Special Threads & Resources
Layout March-1st design by 1B6RD9BcWPMQrJQPqRzXg8zMKg7ye28CTf Coding by /u/Rachel-B
