How to Deliver a Thoughtful Critique

Think trip. Foray. Fun. Your destination is CCC, a meeting place reserved for Competent, Confident Critics. Since you're traveling with others, and groups vary, be ready to tailor these tips to fit your organization's arrangements.
Inexperienced? Don't let that deter you. You are a reader, right? You don't need to drive the bus to move along the road. Get on board and join the conversation. Your comments count.
Essentials on Your Packing List
Like the toothbrush and clean underwear in your bag, you need to pack your mind with a few essentials before starting out.

• Respect. When you regard each person in your group with professional dignity, it will be easier for you to criticize fellow members' writing. You will make purposeful comments even when a genre is one you don't normally read, or an author's opinions differ from yours.
• Friendliness. When you are a team player, you'll find a place to draw a happy face on each manuscript, and be compelled to compliment each writer when it's your turn to speak.
• Flexibility. When you understand the author's target audience, and what kind of critique s/he wants, your notations will be more appropriate and concise than they would be otherwise. (To save time, the author should provide a brief note stating background to the piece, audience, and the degree of thoroughness wanted in the critiques. It may be anything from an overall impression to as detailed a critique as time allows. If you need clarification of the term "audience" do the exercise below. It illustrates audience differences.

Stuffy Nose Stuff

 Instructions: draw lines to match the words to their owners

1. Exudates                 a. A six-year-old

2. Mucous                   b. A Medical professional in formal writing

3. Snot                         c. An adult in polite company

A Time to Be Picky

If a manuscript's next stop is an editor's desk, mark anything you think could hamper its sale. Look for errors that discredit the writer, such as improper agreement between subject and verb, an extra space between words, a comma accidentally left in when a sentence was changed. Watch for what a computer's spell-check may not catch: peer/pier, foreword/ forward, and so forth. Your careful inspection might give the manuscript the extra horsepower to beat traffic on Publication's super highway.

Pick Three

Try to make three comments about each manuscript you read. Do you need ideas? Below are a baker's dozen. Need more help? Use the "Comments" space below the blog to request it.

1. Awkward construction. If you read a section more than once, sentence construction may need improvement. If you can't think of how to fix the problem, indicate how many times you read it. "read 2x, 3x," etc.
2. Cliches. These are fun. For your own writing practice, make a list of cliches and your original substitutes. Be ready to replace the nondescript tires with the best on the road.
3. Descriptive phrases. Did you find one you liked? Give it a diamond.
4. Dialog. Comment on the dialog. Does it reveal character? Is it easy to follow? Where, if at all, do you think dialog would improve sections of narrative?
5. Echoes. Is a word or phrase repeated several times? Circle them.
6. Flow. If the piece read smoothly, say so. If not, can you spot what interrupted your reading flow? Remember to mention it in your verbal critique.
7. Hook. Do the opening sentences grab the reader? If not can you suggest a better hook?
8. Inconsistencies. Look for characters out of voice, time discrepancies, illogical elements or even contradictions to known facts.
9. Interest. Mention specifics that made the reading interesting to you.
10. Purpose. Does a piece fulfill its purpose? For example, does it instruct, entertain, provoke thought, or soothe your soul?
11. Setting. Does a scene lack (and need) a stronger sense of place? Comment on details that enliven the setting.
12. Verbs. Applaud the superlative. Check your thesaurus for active, expressive verbs to replace the passive or nondescript.
13. Zingers. Hopefully your group members are closing chapters with zingers. Give them a "Like" in fancy letters.

During the oral critique, direct your comments, prefaced with a positive word of two, to the writer. In a well-attended meeting, limit your observations to three points so others can have a turn. Be honest. Be compassionate. But remember the session's purpose: writing improvement. You should not, by your omissions, steer a writer down Rejection Road.

*Answers to Stuffy Nose Stuff: 1. b, 2. c, 3. a.

Excerpt from an unpublished book, CRAFT: Create, Rewrite, And Fine Tune

(c) 2011, Bernice Simpson

The Small or Local Writing Group: Reasons to Join It

Last week, Hang Tough outlined how to receive a critique. Next week’s topic will be how to give a critique. But to give and receive critiques, you must have interaction with at least one other writer. Preferably though, you are part of a critique group. Why? Consider these benefits.

·         A little push. Writers must be self-starters. No boss tells you when to work or what to work on. Your regular meeting provides impetus to finish that scene, chapter, poem or proposal.

·         Free proofreading. Your five-minute read by a fellow writer whose eagle-eye catches a simple spelling error is worth a dollar or more. That's what a professional reader charges for red-lining each of your careless mistakes.

·         A reader's reaction. Writers are readers--magazine subscribers, library patrons and book buyers, especially in their own genre. Most of them develop a feel for the market--the what's in and what's not. Where can you find a better bunch to respond to your work?

·         Truthful comments. Your mother and best friends don't want to hurt your feelings. Your writing friends don't want to be hurtful either, but they know their honesty is important to you in making your work the best it can be.

·         Professional style. Correctly written is not synonymous with well written. You may have excelled in English classes, but have you developed a fine, professional style? A focused critique group will help you define your voice and put punch in your prose.

·         Writers’ techniques. Most writers take writing courses, attend author's seminars and read books about writing. When armed with knowledge, they’ll not only tell you what works, but why it works, and how to employ techniques to overcome your manuscript’s flaws.

·         Editor-like input. Writers develop expertise in different areas. One writer is dynamite with dialogue while another can recite grammar rules and give the reason for each. Collectively, your group can equal one experienced editor.

·         Support. It takes discipline to spend long hours in front of a computer, only to shred your hard copy and start again. A writer knows how it feels to be rejected when he believes his manuscript is finally perfect. Critique groups give their members what money cannot buy—camaraderie and encouragement.

(c) 2011, Bernice W. Simpson