Sunday 5 May 2013

The End


Hello.

If you are reading this, you have probably been linked here expecting proof-reading or some other form of help with regards to your fanfiction.

I am afraid that we can no longer provide this service. Most of SALT's reviewing core has moved over to WRITE, and so I would suggest contacting them for help first. Alternatively, /fic/ and TTG over on MLPChan and Ponychan provide an excellent reviewing service. Contact both or either.

As it is, SALT is considered to have ended from this day forwards. I will be closing off the submissions spreadsheet and replacing it with a link to this post.

Thank you, however, for your interest. Whether you're planing to get on to EQD or just want help to improve as a writer, I wish you all the best.

And good luck.




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SALT is ending today, though it's been dead for a good while now.

Asking "why" and "why now" are both acceptable questions that I'll attempt to answer as briefly as possible. The first is because both reviewing and the Monthly Contests, the two integral parts of it, have been either inactive or unentered for a fair amount of time now. I dislike on principle letting things end with a whimper; I dislike even more not letting things end and just leaving a once occupied space to devolve into a ghost town without even ghosts.

SALT deserves an end over abandonment. I alone owe it that much.

The second question, the "why now", has an answer mildly more poetic. The Vault, regularly touted as one of the "to be" places in pony fanfiction, is currently set to post, in series, a spin-off from a SALT competition fic, an-almost-but-not-quite SALT competition fic, and a story by one of our own reviewers.

Or in other words, we get to end on some strange form of a bang, and do so before any interest from this coincidence, as unlikely as it may be, settles on a SALT unable to handle it.

Moving onwards, I'd like to thank certain people for helping out with SALT over its time in existence. I have not compiled a tally of every single review ever given, so forgive me if any names were missed. Additionally, I was not present during the formation of SALT from BROHOOF, and so I may have missed even more.

I apologise for any accidental omissions now, and ask that you contact me through FimFiction in order to rectify them. Or in the comments below. Either is fine.

And in a particular order without ranking or significance, thanks go to Ravensdagger, Cheezesauce, Burraku_Pansa, OtterMatt, Aquillo, Firebirdbtops, Fredick the Saiyan, Nagagon, Puppo530DGDDavidson, NobleQuickSilver, BlazewingBombedrumbum, Millennial Dan, Dublio, MyBoyJTheWattsMan, ZeroHero, Chromosome, Arcainum, AugieDog, and Melon Hunter.

Thank you for helping make SALT a possibility, both through reviewing and participating in the contests. I know it's helped me grow as a writer in ways that would not have been possible without, and I'm certain it has helped others similarly.

It's been an honour, guys. Feel free to use the comments below to tell me how sappy I'm being.

Yours,

          Aquillo


Sunday 2 December 2012

In Their Highnesses' Clandestine Corps :: Acts I-III

Author's name :: AugieDog

Links ::

Act I
Act II
Act III

Genre :: Romance/Adventure

Critique requested :: Opinion on likelihood of getting to EQD; Are the sentences too convoluted?

Anything Else :: The story's gotten two strikes from the EqD pre-readers already due in large part to my love of overly complicated grammatical structures. Sunset Read over in FimFiction's "EQD Rejects" group suggested I try posting it here as part of my current revision regimen.

Thanks!
Mike




Tuesday 27 November 2012

Rarity Has a Heart Attack [Working Title] :: Chp 1

Author's name :: Burraku_Pansa

The Link :: Chapter One

Genre :: Tragedy, Romance

Critique requested :: Grammar and internal consistency/consistency with
the show; Style, characterisation, themes and plot (not that kind)

Anything Else :: Other than a basic looking-over-and-telling-me-what-you-think, I could really use another set of eyes for the tense. It's a first-person story told as though the character is recalling memories, and should be consistent with that, but I find myself getting muddled with all of the "had"s and whatnot. Any other problems you find, feel free to point them out, of course.

Monday 26 November 2012

Touched By An Angel :: Chp 1

Author's name :: Lamealot

The Link :: Chapter One

Critique requested :: Basic spelling, punctuation and format run through; Grammar and internal consistency/consistency with the show; Style, characterisation, themes and plot (not that kind)

Genre :: Sad




Sunday 11 November 2012

Twilight's Odyssey :: Chp 1

Author's name :: DemPonies

The Link :: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/24518/Twilight%27s-Odyssey

Genre :: Alternate Universe, Adventure

Critique requested :: Opinion on likelihood of getting to EQD, Style,
characterisation, themes and plot (not that kind)

Anything Else :: This is an Alternate Universe fic set in an Equestria
where Discord never ruled and Luna & Celestia never came to power.

I hope to get this story into EQD.

The Powers That Be :: Chp 1

Author's name :: OtterMatt

The Link :: Chapter One

Genre :: Adventure

Critique requested :: Opinion on likelihood of getting to EQD

Anything Else :: This story is already pretty good, at least as my stories go. I'm very proud of it so far, but I want this thing to be perfect. I want to submit it to EqD when I release chapter 2, and I've got a feeling that with some TLC, it could be my second story to get accepted.

The main thing I've heard most so far is pacing. I need someone to point out places where the story is too quick and where it could use expanding. Fair warning: thar be headcanon ahead! I'll bet you've probably never read a Tia/Luna story like this before.

Tuesday 30 October 2012

SALT News: Merger Round Two

I think we've reached the point at which everyone's had their say on the merger in the previous post. I also don't think it's particularly polite to keep TWE waiting whilst we slowly debate this back & forth, so I'm moving this along into the counter-proposal stage.

I'll post what I think our counter-proposal should be in the comments down below; keep in mind that it's my view, not SALT's. How we vote is something that also needs to be settled: a vote counter on the blog's sides could be arranged; whether or not we use ECHO for it's also something that should be decided. I'll leave that up to whatever proposal I see getting repeated the most.

One final thing: In the previous thread, it seems like there's a large amount of confusion over what SALT does and what, exactly, editing is. I am going to state this as clearly as I can, so I can only apologise if this causes more debates/confusion.

SALT does not edit; SAlT has never edited. /fic/ does not edit. TWE do not edit (individual members occasionally do; the group's aims are not, however, angled towards it). There is, as of this date, no major* editing site within the fandom. The second proposal is, essentially, a proposal to create the first.

What /fic/, SALT and TWE do is a mixture of author-centric reviews and proof reading. An author-centric review points out flaws with the story, either grammatical or to do with the story itself. It suggest improvements for the story or areas which could be tightened. And that is it: the reviewer has no commitment to a follow-up review or to even clarify what they mean to the author. Most do, because people who are reviewing for free are generally nice like that. But -- just as there are reviewees who never respond -- there are reviewers who never respond. Editing is an entirely different beast.

Editing involves near constant interaction with the author. It is, in essence, one step down from being the author themselves: you are involved in every aspect of the story other than actually writing it. It is not -- and I stress this with a meta repetition -- not something to be taken on lightly.

And that's that. Oh, and in the interest of not being swayed by my opinion (I am just that charismatic, you see) please write out your proposal before reading the comments section.


*Our fandom being what it is, there are, of course, some. Here is one of them. It seems dead to me, though YMMV.