Merciless and Possibly Painful Critique

Posting Guidelines

For the considerably more experienced, thicker-skinned, and stronger-willed. Do not post here unless you have a burning desire to improve your poetry and a thirst for strong, constructive critique. Three important words: Lurk before posting. Two more: No whining. If the moderators don't feel you are ready for this forum, they may move your posts to a more appropriate forum for your experience level. Enjoy!

Before you consider posting, please read these guidelines in full:

Welcome to the Merciless forum of the Poetry Free For All. As with all the forums, please note that the Posting Guidelines apply here in Merciless as they do across PFFA. We would also like to include these Merciless-specific guidelines:

1. "For the considerably more experienced" is the key phrase here, and not "for the thicker skinned" or even "burning desire to improve your poetry" (although we certainly hope that's also the case). In other words, if you don't know what you're doing, and do it blindfolded, you shouldn't be in Merciless. This forum is for work that's polished, revised, and, if the writer chooses to do so, could be accepted into reputable poetry publications or competitions with a bit more tweaking. If you're not sure that this qualifies you, then you're not qualified yet.

2. No whining of any kind. Really. I mean it. If you cannot stomach the harshest imaginable critique you can think up, don't post your poetry here, because you'll likely get it.

3. The critique offered in Merciless should generally be well-informed, accurate, and extensive. Now certainly, since this is the forum for the highest quality of work, it is possible a poem will be posted where an experienced reader can find very few nits. However, this doesn't mean that fluff is allowed here. The moderators reserve the right to bar users from commenting in Merciless should their critiques consistently lack substance and/or accuracy.

4. There is an expectation of revision, should revision be called for. If you are a writer who consistently posts work to Merciless and consistently does not revise work, and if you're a writer whose new work, when posted, consistently reveals much the same errors and weaknesses as previous work, then you may well be asked to discontinue participation in the Merciless forum and to stick to a lower critical forum instead.

Merciless is the jumping off point just before potential publication. A writer may certainly choose not to publish, but the quality of the work in the Merciless forum should be such that if a writer did choose to publish in reputable e-zines or print publications, they could.

We hope you've enjoyed these guidelines. To continue, click the link below:

I have read and understood the rules for posting in Merciless
and hereby proffer the porcupine voodoo doll of my poetic soul for your pricking pleasure