Be an Author: Critiquing · 9:13pm Nov 11th, 2018
Becoming an effective, efficient author requires you to both master how to give inspiring criticism and how to take criticism without tearing yourself (or others) apart. In this blog entry, I will show you how.
As a graduate of the Clarion West Workshop, I’m going to discuss that method here. It is 100% applicable to commenting on FimFiction and for virtual circles of MLP authors writing and critiquing stories, for example, on WriteOff.me. A Clarion-style workshop is usually a roundtable meeting with multiple authors. Stories are handed out sometime prior to the meeting. At the meeting, a story is picked and everyone briefly reads the choice parts of their written critique, going around the table. Then the next story is picked and so on. Below, I’ve boldfaced the fundamental principles of giving and receiving a critique for you who would prefer to skim.
First and foremost: Never attack the author. The person who wrote the work and the work itself are two different entities. As an author, you probably have already realized that when we write, we turn off our internal censor. (If you haven’t, take some time to meditate on that statement before continuing—this may be a revelation for you.) Stuff that we wouldn’t say or do in real life happens in our stories. A story—no matter how poorly written or how despicable something in it may be—is not the author. It’s the work in service of a message, potentially something ugly. It’s an object. You don’t want to cause tears or see someone puking. Trust me on this. If you attack the author, you will receive it back ten-fold.
The idea of a critique is to point out to the author how to improve their story. It is not to score points. Read that four or five times until you can recite it from memory.
Always pose your criticism as “from the point of view of a reader.” Give the author an idea of what you understood about what they wrote; specifically cite the sentences, paragraphs, or chapters. They know what they wrote, but when you tell them what you understood about what they wrote, they can then judge the effectiveness of their prose. Every author desperately needs to know if they got across the message they wanted to get across. You are facilitating this.
Now the from the author’s perspective receiving a critique: No matter what is written in a critique of your work, always take a critique as “from the point of view of a reader.” Try to understand what is being said about what you wrote; never become defensive. You are never obligated to agree with any critic’s point. It is your story, after all (but never say that aloud!). If you are receiving multiple critiques, they will likely all disagree on points and agree on others. Try to imagine how what they said could be true, and ask for clarification of their thought process if necessary. Here is the key: pick and choose what, if anything, your critics have given you is valid. If you find yourself ignoring everyone though, you are either being stubborn or you have the wrong critique group.
Don’t rewrite the author’s work. You may politely suggest that a scene be cut, or added, or other edits. Depending on the author’s personality, consider even asking permission before doing that little. You are not writing a critique to prove you are the better author. You are performing a service as a reader1 and relating what you understood of the story.
Always talk about what you liked about the story and why. Quote if something is particularly funny or profound. It is best to write this at the beginning of your critique, then to allude to it at the end—especially if you’ve turned part of the story into a crispy critter in between. Don’t fail to be enthusiastic if you really liked the story so as to encourage the author to revise and publish quickly. That’s what you want your critic to do for you, isn’t it? Be enthusiastic if at all possible. We all need the inspiration to keep writing.
If you feel the story is failing, it is probably best to ask permission to discuss it offline with the author. That’s what you’d like, right? You don’t want someone to talk in public about the embarrassing magazines they found under your bed, do you? And, be honest with yourself, you know when your story isn’t working already, don’t you? If you must critique a story anyway, find the bits that are good and encourage the author to write something new with the good bits. Sometimes you might even want to abstain from a critique if there is nothing good you can say. Abstention is a sufficient critique to get the point across.
Citing typos and grammar errors is not giving a critique, it’s copyediting—unless you’re addressing something pervasive like its/it’s or misused tenses. Generally, add a friendly list of only the egregious minutia at the end of your critique. If you are attending a live roundtable, don’t read them aloud. You’ll look petty.
How do you receive a critique? The Clarion standard response is to say only “thank you.” Nothing else is necessary.
Remember, the critique is always from the point of view of a reader. It is what they understood2 after reading what you wrote—that is of incalculable value. So, say “thank you” for their gift.
Say nothing more if you feel any urge to justify anything or are feeling defensive, even if you feel you have been attacked as an author. Everyone will see the miscreant for what they are, so don’t sully yourself. The only valid additional responses are (1) to ask for a clarification of something the critic said, or to ask for more examples of what they meant. (2) You may also ask a question if something you really expected to be commented upon was omitted. Don’t be shy.
No matter what, never become defensive. Do not verbally justify yourself. If you are in an online forum, the formula is the same. Write “thank you,” and don’t justify yourself. In real life—and by that I mean authors writing stories that they cannot post online because they plan to publish them in a magazine or as a book—no one receives credible feedback except through critique roundtables. You want—you need—a reader’s perspective, even if you are writing online fiction on FimFiction.
It is your right to disagree and to discard advice, but first understand and figure out why any specific reader didn’t get what you wrote before dismissing anything. A reader’s feedback is always enlightening, some more than others, naturally. What to do with the feed back is 100% your choice. The thing I learned the hard way was that sometimes my choices do interfere with the message I want to pass to the reader, or, in the real world, can lose you a book sale. Yep. You want readers (and your editors) to enjoy your work and to find your writing invisible. Judge every point of a critique not on how you feel, but on whether it assists you in your goal of enticing as many readers as possible to like your stories and to accurately soak in your philosophy.
If the critiques you receive are informative, you’ll hear some problems coming up again and again in your stories. After a while, as you write and revise your stories, you’ll look at something and hear the voice of this or that critic telling you how to fix the problem. In Clarion, we referred to it as having little birds perched on your shoulder, tweeting into your ear. You want this. It’s as infuriating as it is addicting.
That’s it. Think about what you just read. Please, ask questions in the comments below if I was too vague about something or omitted something. As an exercise, go out and give a good critique for a story you recently read that you liked but really thought ought to have been better. Be nice. Help the author see how to improve. Encourage them to continue. I’ve tagged a story I think is both good and flawed. Feel free to sink your fangs into it and use it for practice.
1 It is a basic tenant of human physiology that if you provide a service or a gift to a person, that person will feel obligated to respond in kind. Giving an inspiring, useful critique will inspire your fellow author to do the same for you. If you respond defensively or attack the author, not only will you not receive the insight you desperately need, you will be shown the door.
2 Not only is a critique what a reader understood after reading what you wrote, from their point of view, it is never wrong. It is, after all, what your writing caused them to understand.
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Good blog.
I'm aware I'm an author and I try to critique what I read when I see room for improvement. It's a statistic that there are fewer writers than readers, but I still value non-writer comments except when they are commenting about what is in their head or not even in the story. Then I just sigh. I offer this essay on critiquing not just for the aspiring author but, with hopefulness, for the few that might be inspired to comment better and actually help the writers whose work they enjoyed.
Yes! You put it better than I did. If an author gets nothing else from my post, cherishing feedback because it helps you gauge the efficacy of your writing is a win.
You get a gold star! ⭐️