The Down sides of Critique

While I definitely advocate participating in a critique group to test your writing and get constructive feedback, there are down sides of critique that need to be addressed.

Individuals give critique based on their own experience. Sometimes this leads to critique that is not useful - for example, when they are not familiar with your genre and expect it to fit a different style. You can ignore most of that.

Sometimes they just heap praise on everything that is read, because they don't have confidence in their own ability to comment. Start by asking for a specific point of comment and eventually they'll grow as a critiquer.

And sometimes a member of your critique group asks the questions that make you realize you need to start all over (again) with major changes in the plot and characters.

That's good critique, but it's also a bummer when you thought the novel was done - at least until you roll up your sleeves and get to work making your story better.

That's where I am right now. I thought the manuscript just need a light polish.

One question made me realize a secondary character really has to take the lead - and appear in the opening scene. I'll have to go through the entire manuscript to make that change work throughout the story.

Another question made me revisit the core mystery - what is in that envelope? I'm updating a novel I first wrote forty years ago. What was in the envelope then simply doesn't have the necessary punch anymore.

The easiest question I'd already been asking myself - will my idea work for the accident? I'd already decided to consult with an expert, which has now been accomplished. The details will be adjusted accordingly.

So, the down sides of critique are that sometimes you need to ignore the advice - and sometimes you need to let it lead to a complete do-over.

Writers Revise

Looking back, I accidentally pulled my first all-nighter in fifth grade. When my parents went to bed, I told them I just had to copy my essay one more time - yes, I am a dinosaur who had to write my essays in cursive and hand-draw any illustrations. I kept finishing, seeing a small error or drawing I could do better, and redoing the whole paper, until I heard my father's alarm clock go off. I still have that essay - it looks childish next to what kids can produce today with computers, but the writing was excellent.

When I was in high school, most finals included essays, often heavily weighted, and you couldn't do a bunch of revision and still finish on time. So tests during the year also included essays. Organization, coherent presentation of ideas, error-free grammar and spelling - all the elements of good writing had to be present in first drafts to do well on those tests. Again, this was all hand-written - no word processing to make corrections quickly and cleanly. It was excellent training; my first drafts are usually clean - especially when I'm working on the computer.

But I don't publish first drafts. It's not just spelling everything right and using words correctly; it's also the flow of the piece. I'm writing this just before posting, but I've already revised the beginning a few times and I'll read through it all at least twice more before hitting publish. When I write a grant proposal or social history or any kind of non-fiction piece, it's always been revised and fine-tuned before I send it out.

And that's just revision on my own.

When there's time, and especially when I'm working with fiction, I prefer to have feedback from other people. They haven't read and re-read it and gotten stuck on one way of telling the tale. They'll tell me if I've started in the wrong spot, or included unnecessary information that starts to lose their interest. If I've revised and ended up with tense changes or other errors that make it difficult to follow, they'll tell me - or I'll hear it myself if it's a group where we read our work aloud. Sometimes they'll make suggestions that I reject (it's always the author's story in the end) but not without considering their feedback and their reasons.

Writers revise.