The Art of Critiquing

For February, our topic is Critique. Are you part of a critique group or do you have a critique partner? If so, how does this support and help you with your writing?

Oh, that dreaded word, critique. I well remember finishing my first book, His Dark Enchantress, with a sense of doom hovering over my head. This was my baby. My first Regency romance, after carefully nursing it through the process from a barely formed premise to writing The End, now had to run the gauntlet of another pair of eyes before I could consider submitting it anywhere.

My hesitation to pass it on stemmed from a one-off experience in a critique class – one in which the presenter showed no interest in reining in two women who jumped on everyone’s work and shredded it. One person in the class walked out, and another emailed the organizer to say they would not be back. Stubbornly, I hung on, determined to learn what not to do and to be as supportive as I could to the rest of the class, even to the two naysayers.

For a while, I belonged to a largely oversubscribed critique group. The program required everyone to write a short story each week, which was then critiqued during the meeting. The time frame was impossible to work with, given the numbers, so we started bi-weekly meetings, which only marginally solved the time problem. What I took away from those two experiences was that some authors were incredibly thin-skinned, while others thought they had carte blanche to strip another’s work to the bones.

I entrusted my baby to two author friends, one who wrote Regency romance and the other, at the time, who was writing western historical romance. I breathed a sigh of relief when those first critiques came back to me. They both had many comments, and where their comments aligned, I knew I had work to do. One picked me up on some of my Regency accuracy. At the same time, the other asked questions about the era's terminology and customs, quickly eroding my blithe supposition that everyone would understand it. I wanted my readers (if there were any) to enjoy what they were reading without being tripped up by either situation, and I quickly learned that writing The End was, in fact, only the beginning.

Since then, I have worked with a handful of writer friends to critique my work. The choice of reader depends on the genre I’m writing in. If it’s a historical novel, I ask someone who writes contemporary fiction to give me a critique, as well as someone who writes historicals. Thankfully, I have that mix in my close critique group. We know each other well enough that none of us takes umbrage at the results.

When I am asked to give a critique, I’m looking for rounded characters and well-thought-out plots. If I come across awkwardly worded sentences, I will suggest an alternative – this is not for the author to use unless they feel it's warranted within their work – more to give them an idea of how to frame that sentence in their own voice. I will pick up on word choice, repetition, misplaced modifiers, and run-on sentences.

That first draft is essential to commit the story to the page in the first place. Subsequent drafts are for improvement all around, and I know I couldn’t do that without input from my ‘Dream Team.’ Personally, I read my manuscript aloud when I think it is finished and still catch problems, usually with syntax, which a text-to-speech program would likely miss. Once that is done, I put it aside for a few days, read it again, and if I’m happy with it, I submit it to my publisher.

As much as writing is a skill, so is critiquing. It is not helpful to a budding or a seasoned author to give their work to a family member or friend who will probably say they love it and haven’t you done well to write a whole book! An author needs another author, or a very perceptive reader’s critical eye, to see a problem, address it constructively, and together build a better book.

Now to see what my Round Robin colleagues might have to say on the topic.

 

Sally Odgers Behind Sally's Books Mark 2

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com (Graham)

Diane Bator https://escapewithawriter.wordpress.com/

Dr. Bob Rich   http://wp.me/P3Xihq-1

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea