I haven’t been a big fan of people using Q&As to write “could you look at my work and comment?” My position was ‘Q&As is Q&As and “shared works” is “shared works”! Two separate concepts.’
BUT it has now occurred to me that I spend too much of my logged-on time in Q&As and not enough in “shared works”. I wouldn’t even have read Melissa Taylor’s poems if Wilhelmina hadn’t recommended them to me… and she only found out about them from seeing Melinda’s Q&A. I will try to amend this imbalance in future.
Today, I decided to look at the “shared works” of people I admire here on Q&As. Senior users who give good advice to newcomers. And it’s strange (is it strange?) that they haven’t posted any. Out of 6 of the most active contributors to Q&As, only 3 have “shared works”.
I’m reminded of the saying “Those that can, do: those that can’t, teach.” I don’t actually believe this, but I’d like to urge senior users to share their work with the rest of us.
To break the ice, I’ve just shared a poem. Although I consider myself as much a poet as a short-story writer (and my poetry output over the years is MUCH greater), this is the first time that I share a poem with you. (Bashful blushes…)
https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/profile/jimmy-hollis-i-dickson/work/57c6b9f9387140d8218b4569
And ADMIN: Can you PLEASE add “children’s stories” and “poetry” to the genre drop-down options list?!!! It’s striking that you publish a separate Yearbook for W&As of children’s books, yet don’t offer this option in “shared works” genres!
For those of you who wonder, the “Practical / how to” genre that I opted for for my children’s story “A children's story of escalating violence” is sarcastic, fuelled by frustration at the lack of a suitable option. There are actually 2 stories in there and a link to another with illustrations. (From back in the days when we were only allowed to share ONE work.,)
In order not to have comments to the same question spread over 2 Q&As, please DON'T reply here, reply to the next Q. Reasons given there.