First, we should be clear on what a critique is. A critique is a (preferably detailed) explanation of a reader's experience with a story. It should be more than just a thumbs-up/thumbs-down review. It should also be more than just praise -- no story is perfect. The majority of a critique should focus on things that could be improved. Improvement is the whole point of critiquing.
The obvious goal of a critique is to help the writer (the critiquee?) improve his or her story. However, there are lots of benefits to the person critiquing which are often overlooked.
Critiquing someone else's story helps you improve as a writer. You begin to develop an editorial eye for everything you read, including your own work. You start to notice common mistakes and weaknesses, which helps you avoid them in your own writing. This process isn't always obvious as it's happening, but it will make a major difference in your writing.
When you get your own stories critiqued, it also helps you in multiple ways. Your critiquers will show you holes in your plot, bad word choices, and the parts of your story that are unclear or just plain boring. Every writer misses things, usually because they've written and rewritten the piece, edited it and read over it repeatedly. The writer also has the story perfectly presented in their mind, and sometimes its easy to see that story instead of what is actually on the page.
So, getting critiques helps you clean up the weak points in your story. Once you've gotten used to being critiqued, you'll also begin to anticipate some of your readers' questions before they're even raised. You'll get better at reading your own stories as a reader, not just as a writer. You'll also begin to build up a thick hide, which is a must for any writer. Get used to criticism. Embrace it. Use it.
Since there are so many benefits, how does one start giving and receiving critiques?
- Friends and family. This is where beginning writers frequently turn. However, this can be dangerous. These people like you. They don't want to hurt your feelings (hopefully!). You also probably love them, so it may hurt a lot more to get negative feedback from them. Friends and family tend to be soft critiquers, unless you can really train them to not hold back.
- Your better half. As far as I am concerned, a spouse is an invaluable resource to a writer. Granted, you can encounter the same problems I mentioned about other friends and family if you're not careful. However, your spouse probably wants you to succeed in your writing as much as you do. Since writing tends to be a very solitary affair, you might be surprised how appreciative your husband or wife is to be included in the process. Make it clear that you want their criticism, and feel free to tell them what sorts of issues to look for. After they read, discuss the story with them. As you grow as a writer, your spouse will get better at critiquing. Writing stops being a solitary experience where you abandon them to go type for hours. Instead it becomes a fun, collaborative effort.
- Workshops and local critique groups. I have little personal experience with these, so I won't say much. If you can find or found a group that works well for you, go for it. For many of us though, this isn't a very practical option. (If anyone has any personal experiences they'd like to share, please comment. I'm curious to hear what your experiences have been like.)
- The Internet. This encompasses a wide range of options, but again I'll only cover what I have experience with.
The type of online group that's easiest to find are is the sort that allow unrestricted posting of stories and unrestricted reading and commenting. The largest example is probably Fictionpress, but there are several similar sites.
The main problem that I have with these sites is their lack of structure. Most comments on a story tend to be fluff and very rarely offer any useful criticisms. There's no advantage to offering someone a good critique. In many cases, people are outright offended by well-meant, honest criticism. Many of the people who use these sites don't aspire to professionalism, they write solely for fun. Don't misunderstand me, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I just think it's not a very nourishing environment for writers who want to push themselves to improve.
The other major problem with these sites is that anyone can read your story. My understanding is that publishers may perceive this as using your first electronic publishing rights, and possibly others, and may make it harder to sell your work. - Online critique groups. Unlike the other internet sites, these groups require you to join the group before you can access manuscripts. They may enforce other rules as well, like requiring regular critiques. They tend to be populated by serious writers. They also eliminate some of the inefficiencies of writing groups that meet in person. I'm a member of one such group, Critters, so I'll explain that in a little more detail.
This relatively simple system works well, and is mostly automated. Impressively, it's run by a single person, but it serves hundreds of active members. Because participation is enforced, you can easily get 5-15 genuinely helpful critiques of a short story (there is a slightly different system for novels). The requirement also helps motivate you to do critiques yourself, gaining all the associated benefits.
As you can probably guess, I highly recommend this sort of online critique group.
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