SPACE COAST WRITERS' GUILD

Topic: Peer Critique Groups

Dean Naegel - 2/9/2010 8:06:45 PM About Peer Critique Groups “Make Your Words Work” by Gary Provost (Writer’s Digest Books), “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers” by Renni Brown & Dave King (Harper Collins), “Revisions & Self-Editing” by James Scott Bell (Writer’s Digest Books). These three books, and countless others, are excellent ways for us, as writers, to learn how to critique our work. What they cannot tell us - is if our story is interesting enough to keep the reader wanting to read more. So, somewhere between the How-To books and the reader, we have to have our manuscript reviewed. That is where Peer Critique Groups are an essential part of any writing project. Whether, or not the group provides editing suggestions, or new ideas. Let’s face it; we all love what we write. Just like a newborn baby - our manuscripts are the most beautiful collection of words the world has ever seen, right? How many of us have been in the position of doting over someone else’s baby? We describe the child with beautiful words. When in reality we wanted to tell the proud parents the child looks…well…different. Just like those proud parents, our new creations are just so wonderful that no publisher in his right mind would pass on its submission. I believe a peer critique group can and should describe the newborn novel, or story with honesty and constructive criticism. I believe the writer should want the group’s suggestions. Suggestions . . .one must always remember the criticism is not meant to be hurtful, or taken personally, but to be helpful. In any case, the suggestions are merely suggestions. We can choose to use them, or not. In the end, the goal is the same - to produce a beautiful baby that the entire world will agree is worth doting over. Critique groups, too, come in different sizes and shapes. Some prefer to exchange written pages through email, while others gather in a group and read aloud. In the groups I have been in, we like to bring 5 to 10 pages to the group and pass them around while the writer reads his or her copy aloud. This way, each reader follows along and marks their copy with suggestions. In addition, reading aloud helps the author catch mistakes overlooked during a silent review: such as long, over extended sentences, the pace and tone of the story and grammatical errors. Reading aloud helps find the natural breaks - the breathing breaks - of sentences and paragraphs, or scene changes, or point of view changes, or the natural flow of dialogue between characters. In our group, readers usually edit the material and discover where confusion in the plot or scene causes them to stumble. Everyone in a critique group brings their own personal - power - to the manuscript. Some will catch the repetition of words overlooked by the author - a good example is one of my own pirate stories where I have every one wearing boots. I have the thumping sound of boots, the clicking sound of boots, and the scuffling sound of boots - and on and on. After being pointed out to me, I got very tired of hearing all those boots. Another person in the group might be excellent in finding commas where they should not be, or not where they should be. Members in a critique group can also keep us on track with our stories. They can catch the little things we miss, like having our character sitting upon a wall in one scene, and then having the same character peering over the wall in another scene without first climbing down. What about when we have a character wearing one piece of wardrobe in the last chapter, and we have her remove something entirely different in the next chapter. The point is, sharing the editing within a group brings a three dimensional view to the story as a whole. It brings new ideas, or suggestions. In addition, while one person may not like a certain passage or use of words, two or three others in the group will not have a problem with it. In all cases, the decision to make a change rests solely on the author. As I said before, critique groups can give us more options, more suggestions to help our manuscript evolve into one a publisher expects from us, as professional writers. However, I believe a critique group should not strictly be a business affair; it should also be a social affair. Above all else, it should be fun. Writing should be fun. That is what makes getting recognition of our babies all the sweeter in the end.