I think that maybe the idea of having pre-readers seems a lot like 

washing

your dishes before putting them in a dishwasher to me. But hey, *this*
dishwasher (the FFML) does actually work!

Oh, how I wish that were true.  But the reality is, unless your 'fic is 

a

Ranma one, you're unlikely to get much response, as far as I can tell.  

Even

my most trivial Ranma spamfics have gotten me more comments than I 

generally

get for "Sailor Moon 4200."

Well, I for one can count the number of responses that I received for 
the last two chapters of "Waters Under Earth" on the fingers of one 
hand.  I have received so little response for some chapters that I have 
at points wondered whether anyone reads them at all.  

>From my experience, if you want to get commentary, write short, one-shot 
Ranma pieces.  "Time, Out of Mind", for example, generated more comments 
than any chapter of WUE ever did; granted, much of the commentary was 
along the lines of "who are you and what have you done with the real 
Alan Harnum?", but it was commentary all the same.  ;)

I went without pre-readers for a long time because I was hoping that 

the FFML

would provide the kind of criticism I was after.  But the truth is, I 

seldom

got anything.  So when I started getting thoughtful, extremely helpful 

comments

-- from someone who read my stuff off the newsgroup; she isn't 

connected to the

FFML -- I asked her if she'd keep it up.  The result has been 

dramatically

helpful.

I myself have considered sending out a call for prereaders for WUE for 
exactly the same reasons as yours, mainly that I had hoped the FFML 
would provide the function that prereaders normally do (detailed 
criticism that would help me improve my writing), but it has, 
unfortunately, not done that to the extent that I had hoped.

I have no intention of leaving the FFML.  There've been a number of 

times

when I've had valuable feedback from its members.  But still, for it to 

be

useful, people do have to make an effort.

There have been times (more often in some of the early chapters) that I 
have received useful commentary for WUE, but for the past few chapters, 
I have received so little that I've begun to wonder whether it is 
genuinely worth my time to post chapters here.

... And I have to admit that I'm somewhat lax in that regard myself.  I 

do

send comments on occasion, so I don't think I'm entirely dead wood, but 

I

think the appropriate grading would be "must try harder" ...  :)

I will confess to being in something of the same category, Angus.  :)

However, as I am now a subscriber to list as of yesterday (rather than 
simply skimming the archives as I have done before), I hope to be able 
to do more commentary than I have before.  Tremble, ye mortals.  ;)

-Alan Harnum

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