<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">It seems as though the arena is becoming a bit of a graveyard of late. In the last few months I&rsquo;ve only read stories from Tess, Tachles, Scoop (the last of which was a witch&rsquo;s story but my computer crashed before I could review it) and more recently, Molly. I may have missed some others, I&rsquo;ve been away, but that is all I can recall.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">I remember when I first joined writelink. It was on the old site and I joined as a reader only &ndash; I was too worried about my own ability to write in order to share with others. But then, one day as I visited the site there had been a competition put up &ndash; River Shivers I think it was called. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>That was all I needed to see. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">I joined up and entered four pieces. I didn&rsquo;t win, that didn&rsquo;t matter to me at the time. What mattered to me was that I had plucked up enough courage to show my work to other writers. I waited nervously for my first review and when it came I remember being pleasantly surprised with what had been said. I&rsquo;d been given enough positives in my first few comments to want to stay on. And I enjoyed reviewing others work. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Then I moved over to the new site with the likes of Teslin, Ryanlion and nicky09 to name a few. But there were other writers already on the site and I remember feeling totally overwhelmed when I read pieces by Trevor and Mo, David and Jill(steerpike) and Bob, and I remember thinking, I can&rsquo;t write like them. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">It took a while, but eventually I plucked up the courage to post a piece. I have know idea what it was but I do know that I wasn&rsquo;t laughed off the site or told, &lsquo;get out of here kid, you&rsquo;re just not good enough.&rsquo; Some may have been thinking it, but it was certainly never said. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Getting comments from the likes of Trevor and David etc, who write with such confidence, was something I always looked forward to. It fills you with confidence just knowing that other writers, far more accomplished than you, are enjoying your work as much as you enjoy theirs.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">It&rsquo;s okay getting your partner to read a piece for you, but if yours is like mine I always get the same thing. &lsquo;Yeah, that&rsquo;s really good.&rsquo;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">It&rsquo;s great to hear, but it doesn&rsquo;t really help. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">I think Tess has improved loads since she first came on the site. She is writing with real confidence now and I can&rsquo;t help but think that it is because of this site and the reviews she would have got, along with her own hard work, that has pushed her to get better. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">It seems now that people are refusing to post their work &ndash; even the poets are deserting us, and opting instead for their own blogs. I have David&rsquo;s The Diary of an Unexpected Zombie and Moosey&rsquo;s Codine and Bourbon stuck in my favourites box to read when I get the chance. I also have Trevor&rsquo;s Weswhich Writer&rsquo;s Club.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">I understand why they do that, but the arena shouldn&rsquo;t become a forgotten tool when it can help so many other writers. Tachles is posting a Kroupa tale at the moment. The story reads part script part novel, and the comments he could receive from someone like David, with his experience, and Philpot for his dialogue would be invaluable to him. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">It only takes ten minutes to review a piece of work and it really does helps. I&rsquo;m no angel. I often click on a piece and think, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll get back to it later,&rsquo; only later never arrives. And I sometimes worry that what I say may be taken the wrong way. Moosey pulled me up on a story not so long back. She told me point blank what she thought &ndash; it wasn&rsquo;t a bad review, just very honest, and I appreciated her for it because honesty is what I need.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">If everyone who logged on could spend just ten minutes of their time reviewing just one piece a day the arena could become a thriving place for people to hone their skills again. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Part 2 of Mirror Images is up now &ndash; hint hint ;-)</span></p>