Using Critiques: Part 4: You’ve taken it, so now it’s your turn to dish it out
This is a been a very long time in coming and I apologize for having put it off for so long (curse impossible deadlines!), but here we are finally, at the final installment of the critique series. If you have yet read the first three parts, I recommend going back and starting at the beginning before reading below.
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In the first three parts, we covered the basics of getting critiques and how to use them for your own work, but in truth that’s probably the least useful part of critiquing. Crazy, I know! It’s of course great to get feedback on your own work and find out what others think works or doesn’t work, but the true value of critiquing is in giving critiques to others. Because critiquing is the best way to learn how to write better. Critiquing teaches us to look critically at how and why things don’t work, and how and why they do, and the lessons we learn from critiquing other people’s work can be used to improve our own work. This is why you want to become a good critiquer. And if you want to get critiques of your own work, chances are that you’re going to have to critique other people’s work. No one likes to critique the work of someone who never returns the favor, and who can blame them? Critique as much and as often as you can, and try to develop professional relationships with your fellow critiquers. After all you’re also in search of your dedicated reader and maybe even potential future private critique group members.
So what exactly is involved in critiquing?
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August 18, 2010 2 Comments
Using Critiques: Part 3: Where to get critiques, and how to develop lasting professional relationships through them.
– Originally published 4/26/2010 @ LiveJournal
I had this done on Friday, but things were too hectic for me to be able to edit it until today. But here it is!
Part 1 is here, part 2 is here.
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So far we’ve talked about how to use critiques, but the big question those just starting out might have is “But how do I get critiques?” There are many ways, some of them more expensive (and in some cases less effective) than others, but there’s probably one out there that will work for you. So let’s go through this.
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August 16, 2010 No Comments
Using Critiques: Part 2: I’ve got a pile of critiques, but what do I do with them?
– Originally published 4/16/2010 @ LiveJournal
If you haven’t read Part One, it’s here.
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So you’ve done the brave thing: you’ve put a finished story out there for critique, and you’ve waited and waited, and now you have a slug of critiques sitting in front of you. Now what do you do?
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August 16, 2010 1 Comment
Using critiques: Part One: First Things First
– Originally published 4/15/2010 @ LiveJournal
I actually thought about writing this months ago, but never got around to it, and now that I have, I realize that it’s going to be multiple posts. Who would have thought that I’d have so much to say about critiquing?
Anyway, I first decided to write this when I was fresh off of getting a whole lot of feedback on my novel and quite literally feeling like I’d been punched in the gut repeatedly until I wanted to puke. Getting critiques can be difficult, even for those who’ve been taking the punishment for years. I went through a phase where I just couldn’t deal with critiques anymore and so stopped doing them or putting my work out there to be critiqued for several years right after Clarion West. Eventually I came around to the fact that critiquing is useful, particularly for the learning writer, for it forces one to go beyond their gut reaction to a piece and analyze why something isn’t working, or even why it is working. One can grow by leaps and bounds if they go into critiquing others’ work with the right mindset and open themselves up to the lessons it can teach.
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August 16, 2010 3 Comments
