With the right critique group you can learn exponentially, shaving years off the learning curve. Not only do you get some quick and honest feedback on what you’ve written, but the act of critiquing someone else’s manuscript can teach you a great deal about what works and what doesn’t.
As writers, we are generally voracious readers as well. (If you’re not…You should be!) You may not realize it, but all of the reading you have done in your life has honed your instincts about other people’s writing. You can spot it immediately when something isn’t working. It feels awkward or off somehow and it interrupts your involvement in the story, jolting you back to your armchair or wherever you happen to be reading.
It takes some skill and effort to learn to step back from your own writing and ask yourself why something doesn’t work. A critique done by a sympathetic friend and/or writer can more quickly flag the problem and that act alone will teach you a great deal.
Face-to-Face or On-line Groups
I’m sure everyone you talk to will have a different preference as to whether it is best to join an on-line group or participate in an actual physical group that meets regularly. I think there are advantages and disadvantages to both.
Face-to-Face Group
Advantages
• Meet local writers. Make friends with similar interests with whom you informally share experiences in the real world. In this day of cyberspace, it is nice to get away from the computer and actually exchange ideas with some real people.
• Get first hand reactions and instant feedback from those reading your work. You can actually watch the audience react to your story—do they fidget at the bottom of the third page; are they deeply engrossed during the fight scene? You can only get these insights from reading to a group.
• Meetings are a great place to discuss problems you are having with your manuscript or raise writing issues in general.
• You usually experience a wide variety of styles and genres. Face-to-face groups are usually less specialized because there simply aren’t enough writers of any one genre to make a group.
Disadvantages
• Criticism can be harder to take face-to-face. It is difficult to hear criticism of your work and it is hard to fight the urge to argue. It’s sort of like introducing your child to an acquaintance and having them comment immediately on what large ears your child has, or them making fun of your child’s lisp.
• The lack of specialization can be a problem if you need specific input from other writers who understand the genre. (Poetry is a good example.)
• There is little choice as you are limited by the caliber of writers in the area or what type of group is available.
• A personality conflict is harder to deal with face-to-face. Comments can seem a lot more personal.
• Meetings are scheduled events and not pliable to your own timetable.
• Depending on how the meetings are run, you receive oral feedback immediately following your reading with no chance for the reader to reconsider their critique.
• As there might only be time for one or two people to read at a meeting, you could go a couple of months between readings of your own work.
On-Line Groups
Advantages
• Communicate with writers from all over the world. You can make some lasting friendships with writers from your on-line critique group. Then one day you can travel to meet with established friends.
• On-line groups can be more specialized, gearing themselves to a particular genre or target audience.
• You can fit the critique work into your own schedule, doing it when you have time to concentrate on it. And you get a thorough, detailed written critique because the other person is not as rushed.
• You may get more honest feedback in an on-line environment as the relationship is comfortably distant. Your critique partner is reacting only to your writing, not your looks or your personality.
• You can come and go through several groups while choosing the one that works best for you.
Disadvantages
• You don’t really get to know all the people in your group and there is always some fear of others stealing your work —usually an unfounded fear of beginning writers—but possible none the less.
• You have to wait for your critiques, sometimes for a week or more and if someone is totally off base or misreads your story, there is no opportunity to correct them so the critique may not be as valuable as it could be.
• You sometimes get so involved with your career online that you do most of your socializing on the computer with someone on the other side of the globe. It is easy to become recluse if this is the only socializing you do. You have to remind yourself to get out and talk to real people once in a while
Choosing the Right Group
While the right critique group can advance your writing in giant leaps, the wrong group can severely damage your tender confidence. So how do you choose a group?
There are a number of questions you can ask before you begin. Assess your comfort with the answers before committing to join.
• If it is a face-to-face group, how often do they meet? How long are meetings? How are critiques handled at meetings?
• Do you submit manuscripts ahead of time so that the other members have a chance to review them at their leisure? Or do you only critique what is read / heard during the meeting? The problem I have with hearing someone read from their manuscript, rather than everyone actually reading it, is one may not be good at reading out loud and their work could inadvertently be judged on what others “heard” rather than how it reads.
• How many people are in the group? Are they beginners, experienced or both?
• Does everyone critique all submissions? How long do you have to critique a submission and how many per week are you required to critique?
• How often are you required to submit something and what word length is expected?
• Personally I would prefer to exchange manuscripts at the meetings and turn in a review or critique at the next meeting. That way you have a chance to read it carefully perhaps more than once and make calculated remarks rather than “off the cuff” after hearing it read at the meeting and immediately critiquing.
Once you find a group that fits into your schedule, try it out. People come and go in groups all the time. Sometimes, you hit on a good combination of people and you stay in one group for months or even years. Other times, there is someone in the group that you clash with or the group is at a different level than you are (either way too advanced, or way too beginner for you).
When that happens, just move on to another group.
Eventually, you’ll find one that works. You may find, that you pick up a couple of friends from each group who you keep in touch with and occasionally (or more often) exchange manuscripts on a more informal basis.
As always, Good luck with your writing and keep doing it! You’ll only get better.
~ J.
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