Dipping your Toes in the Critique Pool, Part Three
By Renee Geffken, Coastal Dunes Branch
Continued from last month’s Part Two
Implausible Events: This is similar to Loose Ends, but your initial reaction differs. Now, it’s… “Wait a moment. I thought so and so happened?” or “How could this happen when such and such was ________.?” Once again, point this out. If you have experience in this erroneous situation, please explain a way to fix this issue. Writers do so much research as it is.
The Dialogue Pro: I’m proud of my skill with natural-sounding dialogue because I started out writing scripts. Then I wrote an all-dialogue novel with two characters. Many writers have told me I’m pretty good at it, too. Writing natural-sounding speech takes a long time, but anyone can crit another writer’s dialogue or lack thereof. Sometimes there’s a whole page of text, rare white space, with characters interacting. Feel free to comment, “This could be a good spot to add dialogue about ________.”
Character Development: Even though I said, ‘Your characters can engage your readers,’ it all comes down to character development. I’ve read many sci-fi stories where the AI/cyborg has more personality than some humans in a contemporary love story. There are many great writer’s craft books on this subject and the many speakers we’ve had at Coastal Dunes. Briefly, as Viviana mentioned at our recent meeting, “If there’s no emotion, there’s no poetry.” Same with all forms of writing. Readers spend hours reading books to feel a strong emotional connection; otherwise, they’ll watch a movie or TV.
Your job as a critiquer isn’t to overhaul the characters but to point out ways to make a character’s goals/wishes/quests a little more complicated, frustrating, humorous, or interpersonal—love or friendship. To accomplish this endeavor, one must be able to visualize completely what’s going on. If you can’t see it in your mind’s eye, then request more details.
Do’s and Don’ts: It’s a good idea to read the entire story before you critique it to get an overall impression of the setting, world-building, characters, and conflicts/goals. Once you know the goals, your mind can focus on the story. Otherwise, your mind can ‘jump the gun,’ and you’ll go back and delete those initial comments. However, with authors I reciprocate with on Critique Circle, my online critique group, sometimes I start critiquing before I read in total, so the writer can see how I interpreted or misinterpreted what’s going on as the story unfolds. These were for pieces anywhere from 3,000-5000 words.
Another don’t, actually a big DON’T, is in your comments, it’s not a good idea to write “you should….” Maybe there was a bit of enthusiasm when you wrote it, but the writer won’t take it that way.
Finally, some authors write at the end of their submission areas where they want you to focus, i.e., ‘Does the plot work? Are my characters boring? Are you motivated to read the next chapter?’ It doesn’t take much experience critiquing to answer these questions.
That’s my take on critiquing stories. I hope this helps.
This essay originally appeared in Imprints,
newsletter of the Coastal Dunes Branch.