Obsolete: Bulbagarden Reviewing Secret Santa 2019

[Beth Pavell]

December is soon upon us, and that means a month of holiday celebrations! This year, we'd like to celebrate our community's writers by reprising last year's (Happily successful) review exchange. In the spirit of giving, those who participate will both give and receive reviews and other creative gifts; there's also some hefty Review League points up for grabs, too! A gift from us moderators to you.

It's a great season for stories, and what makes a story better than to give and receive?

Are you interested in participating? It's as simple as signing up, awaiting your assignments and then reading and reviewing!

We're not asking for folks who participate to build the most comprehensive review possible (though that is certainly welcome, and certainly lucrative in terms of Review League points), we're simply trying to encourage an increase in the reviewing culture. What does a review mean for you? A full story read, in which you comment on each chapter, the way characters grow and change and how they interact with the plot? Or something simple, where you comment on a chapter or two in greater detail? However you review other stories any other time of the year is how we would like you to review those that you are assigned. This isn't meant to be a stressful event, but a fun event for all!

Not confident in your reviewing skills, or not much of a reviewer in the first place? That's fine! We have an old article in the Workshop Academy dedicated to helping people form a review! Or you can check out reviews left by other people to see how they do it for inspiration on how to form your own critiques of your assigned story.

Reviews can be posted any time between 20th December and 10th January. Reviews made as part of the official review exchange are worth double points in the Review League! In addition, if you'd like to attach an extra gift to the review, such as a banner, a piece of fan art, a musical piece inspired by the story or even a short work of your own featuring the story's characters, that extra bit of effort is worth a hefty bonus of 10 Review League points!

However, reviews that are posted after the 10th January deadline are not eligible for bonus Review League points.

Interested in participating? You can sign up to enter here! What we'll need:

Author name:
Primary work:
Secondary work:
Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?:
Which chapter(s) I would like the reviewer to focus on:
Any other notes for the reviewer:

If we have enough participants and the maths works out, we may be able to arrange for another story of yours to be reviewed as well! You'd still only get two reviews out of this event, but they would be split between your primary and secondary works. If you are only interested in reviews for one story, please leave the secondary work section blank.

When submitting your works, tell us how long they are. We'll try to distribute stories in a manner that's comparative between story lengths, with fairness in mind. Similarly, if you're willing to tackle a longer story (think of the potential bonus points for a larger review!), specify that with your author name as well!

You'll notice there's an option to ask for the reviewer to focus on particular chapters. The idea is that for those of you with longer stories, you can ask for the attention to be on a particular arc or point in the story you'd most like feedback on. You can also leave some notes, such as a plot summary for the reviewer, too, if you like.

Signups close on December 8th.

We hope to see lots of participation here! 'Tis the season!

 

[Juliko]

Oh! Oh! I wanna sign up! I liked what we did for it last year, so I wanna try this again!

Author name: Juliko
Primary work: Pokemon: A Marvelous Journey
Secondary work: Open Book (A Harvest Moon fan fic)
Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: Yes.
Which chapter(s) I would like the reviewer to focus on: Any is fine, whether it's one chapter or a bunch of them.
Any other notes for the reviewer: I don't read the following genres: Horror, ecchi, porn, or anything involving giant robots or military stuff. I'm also hoping maybe someone can help me with showing over telling and evaluate whether my efforts to improve on this have actually bore fruit or not.

 

[canisaries]

I need to get more reading done, so let's do this.

Author name: canisaries
Primary work: Hunter, Haunted
Secondary work: Seiren
Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: Yep
Which chapter(s) I would like the reviewer to focus on: For HH, I would really appreciate feedback on chapters onwards from 2, as I've gotten plenty of feedback for the prologues and first chapter already. I'd prefer it if the reviewer did read those too for the sake of context, but if they don't want to, I'm okay with them skipping ahead. As for Seiren, please only read chapters that have been revised - what point the story has been revised up to is mentioned at the top of the first post. (At the time of me writing this, it is chapter 7.)
Any other notes for the reviewer: I already gave plenty of notes just now so nothing more lol

 

[UselessBytes]

Might as well get off my ass and force myself to actually do some reading here for once! I vaguely remember doing this last year, and I'm glad to participate again!

Author name: UselessBytes
Primary work: Yu-Gi-Oh! Temporal Memories
Secondary work: N/A
Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: Yes
Which chapter(s) I would like the reviewer to focus on: Ideally, the whole work. It isn't that long, at the time of entering it's just under 6k words, and shouldn't get more than another chapter or two before the review posting period. However, if that's a little too much for whoever's reviewing, just the most recent chapter or two is fine!
Any other notes for the reviewer: Don't worry if you don't know anything about Yugioh! Just comments on characters and grammar and the like is great and totally appreciated!

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Author name: unrepentantauthor
Primary work: Different Eyes
Secondary work: Dispatch Deferred
Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: Yeah
Which chapter(s) I would like the reviewer to focus on: For DE, preferably a recent chapter. If I can get ch7 up this week, please choose that! DD is a oneshot.
Any other notes for the reviewer: Honestly, review however is most comfortable for you. However, I'm not looking for anything specific in the way of critical analysis right now, so I'd love to hear your personal, subjective response rather than more objective critiques.

 

[namohysip]

Me as well!

Author name: Namohysip
Primary work: Hands of Creation
Secondary work: Various oneshots, most recent being Prayers Unheard.
Willing to read MATURE?: Yep
Chapters I'd like the reviewer to focus on: So, I know that my work is a long one, and I know that of the platforms I publish to, things are relatively quiet here... So all I can really say is, "As far in as you can, but don't push yourself." The later the better, because I've already gotten ample feedback for the early chapters. I figure this goes for anyone, though. I have a heavy preference for HoC to be read than my one-shot, which has already more or less been through its time. If only I had a more recent one-shot to publish...
Other notes for the reviewer: Eh. If you get assigned my fic, use it as an excuse to start something and maybe, if I'm interesting enough, you'll keep going for casual reading! And if you had mine but had to drop off, use it as an excuse to resume?

 

[ogDG]

i have no fics to offer, but i will gladly review!

Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: yes for graphic depictions of romance, no for graphic depictions of violence

 

[akanthalily5036]

Well, I don't have time to write fics, so I'll read and review!

Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: yes, just no underage fics

 

[Beth Pavell]

Time for my entry:

Author name: Beth Pavell
Primary work: The Long Walk
Secondary work: Kanto: There and Back Again
Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: Yes
Which chapter(s) I would like the reviewer to focus on: For The Long Walk, I'm especially interested in feedback for the revised Prelude (If the reviewer hasn't already done so), and any and all chapters in Part Two.
Any other notes for the reviewer: I don't expect full story reviews, especially if the reviewer has already read the majority of either story before. More in-depth reviews of later chapters (Part Two for the primary story, Maiden's Peak/Button-on-Sea for the secondary) are more valuable to me than a general overview

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

I'm in for this. Here's my entry:

Author name: InfiniteBakuphoon
Primary work: Mirror Adventures: A Tragedy of False Smiles
Secondary work: N/A
Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: Yes.
Which chapter(s) I would like the reviewer to focus on: Ideally, as many as you can. Realistically, if you can only read one chapter, I would recommend Chapter 1.
Any other notes for the reviewer: The first three chapters — two of which currently exist — are altogether intended to form a self-contained "prologue" for the story as a whole. They are best read together, although it should be noted that the first two chapters are just over 11K words long (2.8K for Chapter 1 and 8.3K for Chapter 2). The third chapter — projected to be at least as long as Chapter 2 — is currently in progress, which, if released by the start of this event, will likely raise the total word count to just under 20K words. This all makes for an admittedly long read; given that, please don't feel pressured to read or review any more than you're willing to.

I suppose I should also explain the premise for those of you unfamiliar with this fic. It's anime-based, but it also happens to be an alternate universe fic where everyone's personalities are the opposite of those of their canon counterparts (based on an actual anime episode that explores the same basic concept). Despite this — or even because of it, actually — no knowledge of anything besides basic Pokémon facts is required, since so much is different here that most canon characters effectively become OCs, while several aspects of the universe are necessarily introduced and explained all over again anyway. I'd expect — and prefer, honestly — for the story's universe and characters to be reviewed more on their own merits than how they compare to canon, although if those of you familiar with the anime would like to share at least some personal thoughts on that, then I certainly wouldn't be unhappy to read them!

 

[Cresselia92]

Well, time to get to it before time's up!

Author name: Cresselia92
Primary work: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Delta Dossiers
Secondary work: SWAP!
Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: Nope.
Which chapter(s) I would like the reviewer to focus on: Hmm... I'd say B.L.A.D.E. would be the chapter that I would want the most focus on, as a way to gauge the descriptions of the characters, ambiance and fighting scenes. H.U.M.A.N. is more a prelude than anything, but it still offers some background story of the characters, so it may be worth a quick read. The story is still at the beginning, so it shouldn't take too long to read, but no pressure. Read whatever you can read.
Any other notes for the reviewer: Delta Dossiers is currently undergoing a massive revamp, so if the reviewer would be willing to wait a bit for me to finish fixing stuff, then they would enjoy a more polished and refined product. No comments regarding SWAP!, but bear in mind that it was an entry written in around two weeks, so it may be a bit unpolished.

 

[Ryoma Maser]

About time I stop procrastinating about this and sign up for it like I did last year, I like reviewing.

Author name: Ryoma Maser
Primary work: Orre: The Desert
Secondary work: NA.
Am I willing to read MATURE rated fics?: Yes.
Which chapter(s) I would like the reviewer to focus on: Focus on anything you want, the first two chapters are short and chapter 3 is a step up from the rest being a lot longer than both.
Any other notes for the reviewer: Due to being busy with school stuff and laziness with a bit of writer's block, I haven't been able to get a new chapter out in a long while, BUT I will try my best to get a new chapter out as soon as I can before the 20th.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Thank you to everyone who's entered - the sign-ups are now closed. We hope to PM you all with your stories as soon as possible. It may be delayed a few days, dependent upon how long the forum upgrade takes

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

One day left to submit reviews eligible for additional points in the Review League, everybody!