I’ve been trying my hand at critiquing for the first time this week. Now, as those who know me will agree, I’m not famous for my tact and sensitivity. So creating a formal critique was quite a daunting challenge.
Of course, I’ve given my opinion on other people’s writing before. Expressing my thoughts on others’ work is easy and enjoyable. What’s harder is to critique in a helpful and inspiring way, rather than leaving a trail of sobbing victims, all vowing they’ll never write again!
Often, when writers ask for other people’s opinions on their first draft, they don’t really want to hear what you think. They’re expecting to be told that it’s all wonderful. But a first draft is rarely the last draft – or it shouldn’t be.
It’s easy to get unconditional praise when you’ve written an entire book – most people are incredibly impressed and assume it must be a piece of utter brilliance, simply because it’s finished. Wow! Look at all those thousands of words! Well done!
It’s also easy to get the sort of feedback that consists of pointing out every typo, and actually that’s not terribly helpful during the first stage of the revision process. There will be a time to fix spelling mistakes, misused words, double-size gaps and grammatical errors later.
Initially, the writer needs to be sure they’re happy with the overall structure of the book and the quality of their writing – the way the plot develops, the balance of the relationships between the characters, and the believability of situations and dialogue. That’s where a critique can help.
What if someone asks for a critique of their book, and I think it’s utter rubbish? Fortunately, I haven’t had that problem on this occasion. Perhaps it can’t exist: some books may not be quite ready to publish yet, or possibly need major changes, but I don’t feel any lack of respect for them or their writers. It’s down to the writer to decide whether it would be easier to start again from scratch, or to rewrite – I can’t see myself telling anyone it would be kinder to take their novel out and shoot it to put it out of its misery.
We all need to develop thick skins and accept that we can’t please everyone with our writing, otherwise our first few negative reviews on Amazon would be devastating. As I said at our first Island Writers meeting, a writer needs the humility to listen to advice, and then the confidence to choose not to follow it. I’ve tried to make it clear to the writers I’m critiquing that they will need to select what works for them out of the advice I’ve given, and reject the rest.
The critique process has been interesting and thought-provoking, Sometimes, it’s only seeing how other people are doing things wrong that teaches you how to do your own writing better. I hoped I could help other writers by giving them critical feedback, but in fact, I’ve probably learned more from the experience than my ‘victims’ have!