Tag: Critiquing

Posted in Critique Groups, Critiquing

Friday Five: How to Keep Critiquing Strong Through the Summer

Posted on by beckylevine

Okay, the solstice may not have hit, but as I mentioned last post, summer’s pretty much here. For some of us, that means kids out of school, family visits, vacations from work to someplace with lounge chairs and margaritas. As wonderful as these changes are, they can make writing…and critiquing quite the challenge. With schedules shifting and calendars filling up, it can be tempting to let the critique meetings drop, to write your way through as much of the summer as you can, but procrastinate actually getting stuff to your critique partners.

Resist that temptation.

Your critique group keeps you in touch with your writing and your current project, even if you feel like you’re mostly just showing up. Your critique partners will check in with you, you’ll end up talking about a character or a big plot point, and you’ll at least think about what you might write next. You will be critiquing work from the other members (yes, we pretty much always manage to make time for our commitment to others, even if we back off from that same commitment to ourselves), and that will keep you musing about strong setting, active dialogue, and how to weave some humor into a voice.  You’ll find yourself motivated to grab a few more minutes each week to write, and you’ll see that you are making progress–even if it slows down from the pace you’d like to set.

And, at the end of summer, you’ll find yourself still connected to your WIP, instead of having to find that connection all over again.

Here are a few tips to hold onto your critique pattern for the next few months.

1. If you’re in an in-person group, get everybody to bring their calendars to each meeting. Confirm that your usual meeting will work for everyone, or at least for the majority of the group. If too many people are scattering in the next couple of weeks, or cleaning for and entertaining those in-laws, set a new date for the next meeting. It’s okay if you’re a week late, and it’s okay if the one lucky member who’s spending the summer in France emails in their critiques. But schedule that time.

2. If you’re in an online group, shoot for the same kind of check-in. Email around and find out about everybody’s plans for the summer, and make sure your usual submission/critique schedule will work. If it looks like there’s going to be a bigger-than-usual gap, try to work something out for the “empty” time. Maybe you’ll email every couple of weeks for status reports and motivation; maybe you’ll commit to at least reading the submissions from the member who wants to submit to an agent in the fall. Find some way to avoid the void! 🙂

3. Be imaginative about where and when you read and critique. Maybe you’re used to a few hours of school time when you can sit quietly with the submissions from your group, but now the kids are home. Can you take them to the park for some run-around time? Are you up for allowing a few more hours of TV and/or video games during the summer months? Are you traveling? Can you critique on the plane without getting airsick? (Not mentioning cars here, because you don’t even want to THINK about me critiquing on a windy road!) What about pool-time at the hotel?  If you’ve got family visiting, let them know you will be mysteriously disappearing a few times while they’re there. Offer to drop them at a museum or a trailhead for a bit, then find a nearby cafe or bench to get your critiquing done.

4. Again, if you’re meeting in-person, consider shifting the location of your get-togethers. If one or more of you have small children at home, see if the other members will come to your houses. Yes, the kids will be distracting; yes, as soon as the group shows up, the shy ones will need Mommy or Daddy’s attention, and the non-shy ones will want everybody else’s. Work with it. Get a movie going at low volume in the same room (I can recommend any of the Land Before Time movies for a WIDE range of ages!)

5. Don’t beat yourself up too much if your focus isn’t as tight or if your critiques don’t go quite as deep as you usually shoot for. Yes, giving your critique partners your best feedback is important, but it’s just as important to keep rolling along with what feedback you can provide. It’s much better for everybody to swap a few basic ideas for improvement than to drop your creative exchange altogether.

Overall, be flexible and gentle with yourself and your critique partners. I’m learning big-time these days that baby steps can lead to big productivity and keep us sane! Odds are, nobody will make it to every meeting this summer, or be on-time with every submission to an online group. And, sure, you may see the intensity of your critiques drop a bit. That’s okay. What’s important is to not let the whole summer slip away from you, to keep touching base with each other and keep at least some feedback flowing.

It’s another time to remember that our writing is important to us, that it’s one of the things in our lives we love and need. It’s another time to make sure your current project is on your to-do list–somewhere near the top. It’s another time to commit to our WIPS and to the critiquing that keeps them going.

You can do all this and enjoy the sunshine. I promise.

Posted in Critiquing

Critiquing: Your Brain is Talking–Listen.

Posted on by beckylevine

In the talks I’m giving this month, I’m getting down to some basics about digging into a critique. I’m trying to give new critiquers some tools to get started with confidence and encourage critiquers who have been doing this for a while to stretch themselves.

And the first thing I’m telling people is to listen to themselves.

When you sit down to critique someone’s manuscript, the first thing you’re doing is reading. Okay, that may sound too basic, but this is where it all starts. You’re turning pages, you’re taking in the words, and you’re responding.

Let me say that last one again…You Are Responding.

When we start critiquing, we’re not always so sure we’ve got anything intelligent to say. Maybe nothing unintelligent, either! We read the manuscript, mention a few inconsistencies and commas, then pass the pages back with a smile and the comment that we “like it.”

The odds are, though, that we’ve read some pages, passages, or paragraphs that we didn’t actually like all that much. And we’ve ignored those bits. Maybe not intentionally; maybe we didn’t even notice that we had a bad feeling. We did, though, feel it.

As a critiquer, the first thing you have to do is pay attention to those feelings, to the emotional responses you’re having to your critique partner’s manuscript. You need to register when you’re feeling bored, or distracted, or irritated, or confused. And when you get one of those feelings, or any other response that pulls you out of that book, you need to STOP. Do not keep reading, do not turn more pages, do not collect $200.

Your responses mean something.

Figuring out what they need is another step, another blog post. Today, I want to remind you to pay attention to your feelings, your reactions. You are not just a writer; you are a reader. How old are you? How many years…decades…have you been reading books, talking about them, sharing out loud what you did and didn’t like about them. I’ll say it for you–a long time!

You have experience. You have skills. You are good at this. Yes, you may–as I said above–need to stretch yourself, push yourself past your critical-thinking comfort zone and dig more deeply into why. But don’t ever discount the responses you’re having as you read.

They’re real, and they’re important. Listen.

Posted in Critique Groups, Critiquing

What to Expect from a Critique

Posted on by beckylevine

After a lovely week of talking about other authors, I thought it was time to come back to talking a bit about…you! This post is modified from a downloadable PDF (of the same title) available at my Critiquing tab above, that I wrote for writers who are considering hiring me for a professional critique. I think a lot of it’s true, though, for anyone getting critique feedback, especially if it’s a new experience. So enjoy and, remember, it’s worth the risk! (And thanks to Jordan Rosenfeld for the suggestion!)

If you have never been critiqued, you may not be completely prepared for the kind of feedback another writer can give you, or for the feelings their suggestions may cause in you. If you have experience being critiqued, receiving feedback from other writers, you are probably familiar with some of the feelings a critique can engender. You feel great when your critique partners tell you what you’ve done well, and you feel not-so-great when they point out what’s not yet working. Hopefully, you haven’t received a critique that made you feel hurt, or that made you wonder whether you should be writing.

You should.

You should also, though, be revising. And one of the best ways to do that, if not always the easiest, is to receive strong feedback from a critiquer.

When you receive a critique, you are hopefully getting a thorough, detailed set of feedback. This may include a page or more of overall comments, suggestions about the big elements of writing—things like plot and characterization in fiction, organization and voice in nonfiction. The critiquer may also make notes throughout the manuscript, pointing out specific places where they think you can do more work, passages they think illustrate the suggestions they’ve made in their overall critique, and—of course—any writing that they love.

When you look at these pages, you’re going to see a lot of comments. (This may be where that fear of red ink comes from!)Even if, logically, you know all those comments are there to help you, you may still feel overwhelmed. Sometimes very overwhelmed.

Try to remember a few things.

You are not the only person to ever have their work marked up this way. It happens to most writers. It happens to me all the time! You are allowed to start slowly. Take it a chapter at a time, work with the small changes you can say “yes” or “no” to, and let the other, bigger comments simmer in your brain as you work.

You don’t have to make all the changes at once. When I’m revising from a critique, I find it most helpful to pick one or two big things to work through in one revision, following the thread of changes through each scene, and watching how my story grows and improves as I work.

You are the author of this manuscript. I happily give you permission, here and now, to decide against putting in any of the suggested changes that you’re not happy with. (I also ask you, if the critiquer make a big point about something multiple times through the pages, to take a second look at those comments before making that decision. â˜ș)

You can do this. We send our words out with high expectations, and higher hopes. We know, in general terms, that we have more work to do, but—often—we don’t know or recognize, how much work that will be. Take your time. Be patient with yourself, and allow yourself to grow your writing along with your project. Every revision you do of your manuscript will bring it that much closer to being the book you want it to be.

Finally, remember that your critique partner is not (usually!) going to disappear after they send you the critique. They’re available  for questions—don’t hesitate to email them if you don’t understand something they’ve written, or if you’re feeling confused about where to go with the critique. They’re in your group because they want to help—ask for that help when you need it.

Posted in Critique Groups, Critiquing, Uncategorized

Critique Groups: The Case (Okay, MY Case) for Reading Ahead

Posted on by beckylevine

When I started writing The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, I knew I wanted to include some of the basics about how to actually run a strong group—the mechanics of it. If you’ve read my blog for a while, or if you know me in person, you may have figured out that I have some strong opinions. As much as I worked to achieve balance, I’m sure some of that shows up in the book.

Let’s just be nice to me for today, and call that voice. 🙂

Anyway, one of the steps I write about in The Survival Guide is critiquing a manuscript before the actual critique meeting. As I researched the book, and as I talked to more and more writers about their groups, I realized that many groups don’t do this. And most, if not all of those groups, are filled with happy critique partners who make progress with their manuscripts and grow their writing skills. Some groups just started out that way and have continued the pattern; others have thought things out and, because of busy lives and crowded schedules, need to contain their critiquing time to the hours alloted to the group’s meetings. “Extra” hours in the week need to be for writing. This all makes sense.

Still…

I’d like to make my case today for doing it the other way.

Here’s what I think you gain by reading submissions and preparing critiques ahead of time.

  • Time. Yes, it’s a trade-off; if you don’t use meeting time to read the submissions, you’ve got to find those minutes (hours!) some other place in your week. However, you get to spend more of the meeting time presenting those critiques to authors, brainstorming stories, and having idea-sparking discussions. Also, I’m a big advocate of writing up a thorough, detailed overview critique, and this is much harder to fit into the limited time you have at a meeting.
  • Focus. When you’re sharing a table with other critiquers, all shuffling pages and scribbling away, it can be awfully distracting.  I know many groups have someone read the piece out loud, often the author, but–again–I think it’s harder to look closely at the work when it’s being read to you. As someone pointed out once, a strong reader can make anything sound pretty good!
  • Depth. A strong critique takes thought. I know there are many readers who have great insight to a story as they read and who are capable of putting together helpful feedback quickly. I believe, though, that we can all do a better job of that if we have the leisure to sit with what we’re reading, to turn back pages and remind ourselves of what has come before, to look carefully for examples of strengths nad weaknesses in the text, to contemplate the best way to present an idea. If you’re trying to get in two or three reading and critiquing sessions during a meeting, I think that cuts short how much constructive feedback you can develop.
  • Simmering. I’m not sure what else to call this one, but it’s today’s word for that kind of thinking we all do after we’re finished reading a manuscript, or even a published book. The story or the characters or the theme stay with us after we turn the last page, and thoughts & ideas come to us in the hours and days afterward—as we cook dinner, while we take a shower, or—as one of my critique partner says—in the car on the way to the meeting. A critique improves with age, with a gap between the process of developing feedback and the act of delivering it.

Okay. There you have it. I’ve piled my arguments on one side of the scale. If you’re in a group that does it differently, try and look at this as a critique itself. Don’t dismiss my feedback out of hand. Take some time and think about it, bounce the idea around in your head for a while. If it sounds good, see what your group thinks–maybe they’ve all been wondering how to get a bit more time at the meetings, or maybe someone’s been feeling rushed trying to read as fast as everybody else.

And see what you think. 🙂

Posted in Contest, Critiquing, Memoir

Wednesday’s Winner…& a Memoir Teleseminar

Posted on by beckylevine

Last week, I interviewed Laura Purdie Salas about the marketing she did for her picture book Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School. I entered everybody who left a comment in a contest for Laura’s book. This morning, I crumpled up all the little pieces of paper and picked one out of the bowl.

And the winner is…JENNIFER BEASLEY!!!!!

Congratulations, Jennifer. Email me your snail mail address at beckylevine at ymail dot com, and I’ll get this wonderful book out to you ASAP.

And a heads up for any of you who are writing, or thinking about writing, a memoir. A week from Friday, I’ll be doing a teleseminar with Linda Joy Myers about critiquing memoir, over at the National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW). You’ll find details here about getting in on the teleseminar.

Hope everyone’s writing week is going well!

Posted in Critiquing, Electronic Critiquing

Critiquing Electronically

Posted on by beckylevine

I’m not someone who jumps instantly for the latest and greatest thing. I don’t own an e-reader of any sort, my cellphone is a phone and camera, and that’s about it. And it’s taken me a while to really accept electronic editing.

I did a little bit of it when I was freelance editing. And I stick notes to myself into my writing all the time. But I still considered that I couldn’t read as “well” or as deeply on the computer, as I did with a paper manuscript and a pen.

I’m changing my mind. The shift happened when, with the edits for The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, I was on the other end of the feedback. All my edits, both developmental and copyediting, have come to me over email, in the file. Changes were marked with Word’s Track Changes feature, and all the editors have left nice, detailed, helpful comments in the margin, through Word’s Comment tool.

Putting the changes in was great. Not only was everything marked at the place where there was a problem, but I could read everything so easily–no trying to figure out whether a letter was an o or an a, no translating of entire words that I couldn’t read at first glance.

And lately I’ve been critiquing for other writers in the file, using these same tools. So far, it seems to be working great. Maybe it’s just taken me this long to be able to read deeply on a computer, but I don’t seem to be struggling to stay with the manuscript, and I’m not missing the feel of the pages in my hands. Actually, it just makes it a lot easier to be able to open up my laptop whenever I’ve got some work to do, rather than tote the messy, loose stack of 200+ pages around the house. Or to the coffeehouse.

The writers I’ve been doing this for seem happy with the results as well. I check with them first, just in case they hate the idea of not having my handwritten notes to think about. They all seem to prefer the in-file changes, probably because those handwritten notes have never been all that legible! And, really, they can work with the feedback on-screen, with their own computer, or they can get a print-out and read the notes on a hard-copy while they revise.

I think I’ve made the change. It feels good–yes, the trees can still get used up for the print-out (although with my new, two-sided printer, it’s only HALF the trees), but not always. My guess is the more we do this, the less we’ll need the hard copy to work from. And it means we can really critique back & forth with anyone we want–local or distant, without having to make that stop at the post office, with the big, heavy manuscript envelope. It’s widening our writing community at the same time as it tightens the connections we already have.

It’s going to make it easier to find critique partners and groups. And you know I think that’s a good thing.

So maybe an e-reader is a good thing, too? 🙂

Posted in Critique Groups, Critiquing, Revising

Critiques: Writing up the Big Stuff

Posted on by beckylevine

At my workshop last weekend, for the Redwood Writers, I took the participants through a few of the basics of critiquing:

  • Reading the manuscript
  • Writing the critique
  • Presenting the critique 

After a few minutes of my blathering talking, I had them get into groups and practice these basics. Then I critiqued their critique and we talked out a few things.

One of these things was the overall write-up that I recommend doing for every critique. I had some experienced and strong critiquers in the workshop, and this wasn’t something they were all used to doing. They had good reasons–available time and the size of their groups, and I didn’t–I hope–push them too hard to change the critique methods that were working for them.

I did, though, spend a few minutes mulling over why I think this written critique is important.

What I’m talking about here is the summary a critiquer gives the writer–the page or two of clearly written, full-sentence comments about any big problems the critiquer is seeing in the manuscript. These are comments about things like the overall plot, the character development, the clarity of instructions, and the strength of the author’s voice. Yes, of course, the critiquer has marked these problems as they noticed them on the manuscript pages, but this write-up is an extra step.

Here’s why I think this summary is important:

  • Writing it helps the critiquer clarify their ideas. This doesn’t only help the writer, but pushes the critiquer, too, further along the learning curve we’re all on.
  • The summary saves the critique session from being too rambly. If everybody just makes notes on their pages, then reads through them, the critiques are missing the big picture, the birds-eye view of the manuscript. The critiquers end up focusing on the words and sentences, at a time when the writer may actually need to step back from those words and think about bigger concepts for revision.
  • No matter how supportive and respectful a critique is, the feedback can still feel overwhelming & intimidating. It can be hard for a writer to actually “hear” everything the critiquer is telling them, to absorb and understand it all. Having written comments to look at after the critique session can be invaluable to the author.
  • I am an advocate of the Don’t-Revise-Until-You’ve-Finished-the-Draft school of thought. In other words, if I send in a couple of chapters for my critique group to read, I’m going to keep writing. When I get their comments, I’ll read through them, but then I’ll set them aside until I have written all the way through my current draft–at which time, I’ll look at ALL the comments I’ve received and get ready to revise/write the next draft.
    If you also work this way (yay!), it can be weeks, or months, after you receive a critique that you start incorporating it into your manuscript. If you have to go back through 300 pages (times three or four critiquers) and sort through all the line-by-line comments, you’re going to feel lost before you get started. If you have a summary write-up for every chapter, from every critiquer, you have a solid place to start thinking about your revision. You have a way in.

In my book, The Writing Group Survival Guide, I incorporate this step–the step of writing up the big stuff–into the basic procedures for critiquing. If you’re in a critique group, or have been, was this part of your process?

Leave me your thoughts in the comments. 🙂

Posted in Critique Groups, Critiquing, Revising

Receiving a Critique: What Can YOU Do?

Posted on by beckylevine
There are two sides to every coin and, almost always, to every situation. This rule applies very well to critique groups.  I’ve always known this, but it’s hitting home again as I work on The Critiquer’s Survival Guide. (Half the book is heading to the editor this week–three cheers!)
I hear a lot of stories about writers worried about how they’ll feel when they get critiqued. Either they’ve had a bad experience in a critique group, or they’re worried about heading into one.  I discuss these situations in my book, and I’m sure I’ll blog about them here.
Today, though, it’s another post. And this one is going to talk about our responsibilities when we arebeing critiqued. Everybody in a critique group trades roles back and forth, and each role–even that of critiquee–has a few tasks that go with it.
When you are being critiqued, you need to:
  • Listen
    You’ve all heard the duct-tape threat; it will be used on any writer who interrupts, defends, or argues in response to a critique. I don’t go QUITE that far. It is important, though, to give the critiquer the same respect (by listening & taking notes) that they have given to reading your work and writing out their feedback.
  • Ask questions.
    I know. I just said not to interrupt, and I’m sticking to that. Write the question down and wait until the critiquers are done talking. You might hear the answer you need, without having to ask. And if you’re truly confused, raise your hand. Ask and be answered, then go back to step 1–listening.
  • Think
    Spend time with the feedback you get and consider each point. Yes, you know your project very well, but you don’t know it perfectly. Fresh eyes, from a strong reader, can provide a solution to the problem you’ve been wrestling with or send your project in a new, brilliant direction. Just because an idea doesn’t resonate with you the first time you hear it, take note and give that idea full consideration when you go over the critique.
  • Revise.
    I know. Of course, revise. But with the critique pages at your side. Look at each comment your critiquers have made and mentally lay that comment aside your project. Does it have validity? Will it improve the writing or the overall book? Is it possible, even if the critiquer’s feedback seems off, that the passage they pointed to is having a problem? And really, really analyze the big critique elements–plot, character, structure, voice. This is what you’ve asked your critique partners to do: dig deep into your project and help you see the best vision for it. You asked, they gave. Now use it.

Yes, of course, my list assumes that you are working with supportive, encouraging, and skilled critiquers. That’s my wish for you, and that’s a big goal you should be shooting for.  You should also, though, be remembering your part of the whole, and making sure you’re shouldering that commitment.

Posted in Critiquing

Opening the Critique Discussion

Posted on by beckylevine

One of the reasons I started this website is that there was a pretty serious curve in my own writing path this year. Up until last spring, I was writing mostly fiction and filling in gaps with freelance manuscript editing. Then I pitched a critique-book idea to an editor at Writer’s Digest and found myself with a nonfiction book contract. The Critiquer’s Survival Guide was born.

Okay, well, it won’t be born for another year, but the writing commitment it was going to take from me was definitely given a kick in the you-know-what.

Anyway, it felt like time to change the look and focus of my site, so here you go. Ta da!

While I write this book (and for quite some time, afterward, I suspect) I’ll be thinking a lot about critique groups and about the critique process–how to really dig deep into a story and provide thorough, constructive, and–yes–supportive feedback. So, one of the things I’d like to do with this website is use it as a central “location” for people to talk about this topic. I’d like for people to feel they can come here with questions, for answers, to brainstorm techniques, and to troubleshoot any problems. We’ll use the comments section a lot, I hope, and I’ll take what seem big questions and ideas and see about turning them into new posts–for new discussions!

Now, I’m going to be honest here. You know those times when you are trying to tell a story to a group of very young children? Let’s say you’re telling them about a trip you and your grandfather took to the zoo. You have this great set-up, and you’ve got some funny stuff along the way for details, and there is a whiz-bang ending that will tie it all up into a beautiful package. And what do the kids do? They (hopefully!) raise their hands, all of them, to tell you about the time they went to the zoo, and theysaw an elephant (or a zebra or a boa constrictor or an okapi), and then the parrot “messed” on their little brother’s cotton candy, and they never did get to the platypus exhibit! And maybe the kids even start pushing each other if they don’t think they’re getting their turn, and somebody throws a cookie, and someone else uses the word “stupid.”

🙂

You get the picture. Let’s keep our discussions on topic and respectful–hey, kind of like a critique group
! I want to hear any and all opinions, but I will delete comments that I think cross a line. (Don’t worry–I know that any of you who have already stopped by don’t need to hear that, but I’m sticking it in for a just-in-case, I-warned-you scenario for the future!

So what do you think? Any takers? Does this sound like a good idea to anybody but me? For this first post, is there a question you’ve had for a while about how critique groups work, or what kind might be best-suited to you? Throw a comment in, and let’s see what we all get back!