Comments on: How to Critique Other Writers’ Work

By: KD

KD — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:29:32 +0000

I am a romance writer (published under a pseudonym) and participate in a writer's workshop group (I prefer they not know I actually make a living writing) and have been attending (religiously!) for more than a year (every two weeks) – I love it! But, here is the dilemma… The pieces that we workshop – most of it is good… what I mean, they are really good writers (pretty words and stuff), but the stories they are writing… not so good. So far, the reputation I have is "you are too nice…". I don't want to change the way they write… they do that fine… but they need better stories and they all write in the first person POV (I prefer fiction written in the 3rd POV – 1st POV is all right if the story is really good, otherwise…). I find that I can't even get to the second page of their stuff without wanting to put it down… how do I tell them that if this were an agent or publisher they wouldn't be "nice"? How do I give a [I think, a much needed] critique without being 'not nice"?

By: Sierra Godfrey

Sierra Godfrey — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:20:53 +0000

I think the distinction should be made between positive and praise, and negative and hurtful.

I don't need equal parts positive and negative– and as you say, that's unrealistic if the manuscript needs a lot of work. What I'm saying is that criticism does not and should not be delivered in a negative way. When that happens, it doesn't matter how much positive critique was, it all gets buried.

By: Meghan Ward

Meghan Ward — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:52:05 +0000

Anne and Christi – thank you both for you comments. And good luck with the critique, Christi!

Anne, thanks for weighing in on the equal parts debate. I completely understand your and Sierra's POV, but I'm still not sure I agree. I think my fear is that giving too much praise to a piece that needs a lot of work is that it will give a writer the false impression that it is ready to publish. I think the key, then, is to give the right KIND of praise, whether in equal parts or not, in order not to frighten the writer into giving up the piece. I do know that when I get an excerpt back with almost as much red ink as text, I feel overwhelmed. So maybe you're both right. Maybe it's best to give equal parts praise/criticism. I need to take a vote.

By: Christi Corbett

Christi Corbett — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:07:37 +0000

Thanks for the great post. I've recently gained a critique partner who is going over my work page by page and chapter by chapter, while I do the same for her. It's my first experience with such an arrangement and so far it is going well.

Thanks for the tips,

Christi

By: Anne R. Allen

Anne R. Allen — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:44:37 +0000

Good post on a touchy subject. Interesting to hear it from an MFA's perspective. The free-for-all critiquing (rather than circular) sounds dangerous, and could become a bloodsport without a moderator. Thanks for bringing up the pack-mentality scenario. It's a danger with groups of all kinds.

I'm 100% with Sierra here. No matter how much revision a newbie's work needs, you have to give an equal amount of praise. This is because of the way the human brain works. When overwhelmed with too much negativity, we can't take in any more information. The brain registers "ATTACK" and shuts down. You can do somebody real damage this way, and you'll do nothing to help their writing. People who have been treated this way may come back to the group, but they'll turn into attackers and perpetuate the abuse.

By: Meghan Ward

Meghan Ward — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:26:28 +0000

You know, Sierra, I don't agree. I don't think the parts have to be equal. If a manuscript needs a ton of work, there's going to be more criticism than praise, or if there are a lot of specific comments to be made, those may take up a lot more time than the good comments. Conversely, if a ms (or excerpt) is ready to publish, it may have almost no critiques at all, and tons of praise. I don't think critiquers should try to make the parts equal just for the sake of being polite.

By: Sierra Godfrey

Sierra Godfrey — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:41:48 +0000

Thanks for the link and the recap of how to give a good critique, Meghan. The sandwich principle is really important — but you've got to make sure each element is equal, because if the negative part of the sandwich is much larger than the positive, then the positive gets reduced to nothing, like fat-free mayo.

By: Kristan

Kristan — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:25:01 +0000

Yes! The sandwich! It's so simple, and yet so many people don't get it…

I have had the same experiences as you with format 1 and format 2, and I think your comments are dead-on.