This page will be updated by August 2019.
Thank you for your patience 🙂
Below are some of the key points I identified and presented in our May 2019 meeting. Following the text, you’ll be able to find links to the sources where a number of these tidbits come from. Happy critiquing!
How to ask for, and receive criticism on your writing.
- Smile and receive all feedback ~ but evaluate it against industry standards. (The Write Practice)
- People will generally mean well when they give you feedback, but you should compare what they are offering against the criteria for your genre.
- Ask specific questions! (The Write Practice)
- What tone is this scene setting?
- How vivid is my character?
- Am I using commas correctly here?
- Where did you have to reread for clarity?
- Know who to ask.
- Someone familiar with you genre.
- Someone published? A professional communicator? Training in your style of work?
- Post excerpts on sites / forums.
- Some require “credits” whereby in exchange for having X reviews, you must have reviewed Y other pieces.
- Is the site a “workshop” or a more informal “group”? Which is better for your needs?
- Prepare for feedback. (Helping Writers Become Authors)
- Polish your work into ‘good shape’!
- Provide a deadline for your reviewer.
- Approach multiple people, in case someone cannot come through.
- Offer something in return.
- Cookies? Review their work? Pet sit for them? Offer to take them to the airport?
- Sort “Good” versus “Bad” (see the first bullet on this list)
- If several reviewers are making the same / similar comments, listen a little more closely.
- Does their feedback fit with your intentions?
- “Why can’t characters X & Y fall in love?” They ask… “Because they’re mortal enemies…” You reply as you ignore the idiotic idea.
- Beware of critiques / advice that looks “good” but could drag your novel in the wrong direction.
How to give another writer feedback.
- Your feedback should be constructive, not crushing. (Grammarly)
- They’re not just a writer, but a person as well.They may suffer from Imposter Syndrome.Read it all. Thoroughly. More than once… Avoid the compliment sandwich. It’s a terrible concept (this one’s all me).Ask them questions to lead the writer in the right direction.
- “This is interesting, did you mean to contradict your world’s entire magic system to bail the hero out of a bind?”Don’t nit-pick the little stuff!
- Ask them if they have thought of asking someone to do a line-edit.A critique is not a review.
- You can like it or not, as a piece of fiction ~ but that shouldn’t weigh on your critique of their technical skills (unless they asked you to evaluate how invested you were or if you would keep reading).
- They’re not just a writer, but a person as well.They may suffer from Imposter Syndrome.Read it all. Thoroughly. More than once… Avoid the compliment sandwich. It’s a terrible concept (this one’s all me).Ask them questions to lead the writer in the right direction.
- How to give feedback (Change Media Group)
- Be specific!In addition to giving them a direction they can go to, tell them WHY you’re making that suggestion.Your edits MUST add something to their work.
- Effective feedback (Writers Cookbook)
- Be objective.
- Look for plot holes.
- Are they being too wordy?
- Are their characters consistent?
- Did they go on a journey?
- Does the dialogue read as ‘natural’?
- Be a fact checker for them (yes, even in fiction / fantasy).
- Give your feedback in depth.
- Be nice about it!
Bexley Fiction Writers 