I'm getting to the point where the few folks who read my writing seem to enjoy it. While reading books on writing better is useful, it doesn't give you a critique of what lessons you didn't get nearly as well as you thought.

What sorts of resources are there for getting educated, semi-professional, or professional feedback? My guess is that I'm still a couple big steps in skill away from being published. However, I would like to know what particular steps I need to climb.

That is a very interesting question. I would be surprised if such a written resource exists (if it does, please let me know).

What it sounds like you are asking for is to become a part of a writers group. Ideally you could get into a group with a good mix of published and non published writers. Ironically, that is kind of what this forum is supposed to be (in my opinion). The trouble is, that it is hard to commit to reading and giving feedback on large chunks of text all at once. I've seen some people post, "Test readers needed for new book," and I'm like . Unfortunately I feel I don't have that kind of time on my hands.

Here is a strategy that I have found to be helpful for getting good feedback:
~Include a small group (2-3 people) in the process of your writing from the very beginning. It is better to have 1 person committed to giving real feedback over time than
~Include those people in say a Google doc on all of the things you are writing and ask them to comment on things as you go
~Be specific about the things you want critiqued. If you just learned about act structure, ask them to look at that. If you've been working on dialog, ask about that.
~If you can, try to include some deadlines for those reading your work. "I need your notes by the end of the month"
~It is best if there is something you can provide notes on their work too. You can really learn a lot by critiquing other people's work.

I did something like this once and emailed a chapter at a time to a small group of people who would do a track changes edit and send it back to me with notes. I think this could be done even better through Google docs. If you want to give this a try, PM me, and I can be your first note person. But that means I'll ask for your notes too!

Alternatively, the more traditional version of this would be a weekly meeting of writers who are committed to read a certain members work over the week and then meet back to discuss all the notes they had for the author. Then they would read someone else's work the following week. People are required by the group to have something to evaluate on their week so deadlines are built in, plus you get a BUNCH of notes. The problem is finding people who are both committed to reading and writing. Usually, this is a very serious group of current/aspiring authors. I.e. they are writing for a living.

Hope that helps!

Also, I didn't mean for this post to discourage you from posting on the forum. There are a lot of great people on here who can give you a lot of great notes! So you should also share what you have with the HW community!

Hey Andorin, thanks! I forgot to check the "notify me when someone provides a great answer" button so I just saw your response. Nothing you said was discouraging at all, and I'll probably jump in with your Writing Exercise.

I do a lot of role-playing game stuff, and like to do scenes my characters are in. A few years ago I got into a game, had a great character, and the game died abornin'. That was about the time Camp NaNo came into my view so I ran with it. First time I've done more than cobble a scene or two together. Now I'm in a game and the guy running it is happy to let me write stuff as he runs the game. Generally he'll do the game and I'll follow behind with extra scenes or take what we've played and flesh it out more.

Some time back I thought I saw a "join for $29.99/mo" writer's thing. It offered feedback and learning tools. Can't find it now and the Writer's Digest classes start at more than I want to experiment with paying.

In some ways there's a "level of effort" question in my mind. If I need to do "6 months of things" to get readable book skillset, that's fine. If the list looks more like "6 years", then I'll keep pottering at it and not really worry about publishing.

The first chapter is about 2500 words and starts when the main character and another significant character are mid-teen to just adult. The main question I have is, is it fun to read? If you want to dip your toe into light sci sci-fi, read your PMs.

Critters.org is a site where you can sign up for feedback on your work. You are required to critique a certain amount of other peoples' work to receive critique on your own, so it is certainly a commitment, but it is free, and you usually get a lot of detailed feedback from it.

It's not Christian, however. Some of the stories are not clean. You are allowed to choose the stories you read and respond to, however.