From the desk of Phyllis Picture Book Author Ciao Writers, A critique group is made up of friends you know who are supportive, honest and want to see everyone in the group succeed. There is no jealousy or dishonestly. The purpose of a critique group is to help each other get their writing to the best it can be. One of the best ways to start a group is ask your librarian or teacher for help. They may know of other writers who would benefit being in this group. The easiest way to hold meetings is online as virtual visits. Schedule a regular time and day. Hold the meetings once a week, or twice a week, or once a month. A few days before the meeting, everyone emails a limit of 5 pages or less. This gives the members time to look over the stories and make comments. One person from the group can send weekly reminder emails of the up and coming meetings. Editing Rules: 1. Critique with a kind heart. Don’t critique the writer, critique their work. 2. If you have to say something negative, do so in a thoughtful but honest, constructive way. Never say, ‘This is bad.” Instead, be specific like, “Would you consider …”, or “While this sounds good, it might soar if you ….” 3. Keep the group to eight people or less. Any larger, you won’t have enough time. If you meet for an hour and there are four of you, give everyone 15 minutes. 4. When your pages are being critiqued, try not to interrupt. Listen patiently. Then when they are done, respond to their suggestions. Do not be defensive. Be open to suggestions and remember you are the owner of your words so you do not have to accept the comments. 5. If you feel the suggestions are correct, take those and revise. If you feel one or more do not fit your vision, then toss them. However, if the entire group makes the same comment, chances are you should consider their recommendation. 6. Always start a critique and end a critique on a positive note. Be sure to send your comments as an attachment to the writer as well as the whole group. Some groups ask that you delete their pages when you are done. Some things that are important to consider when critiquing are: Does the story move forward at a good pace? Line editing. This means grammar checks. Try not to rewrite someone’s work. Offer suggestions instead. Try hard not to use filler words such as 'so', 'and', 'but', and stay away from adverbial phrases. (We'll discuss this in later lesson.) If you notice the writer uses too many of the same words, ask them to do a word 'search and find'. For example: A word search for pronouns like “I”. Once the meeting is done, and if time allows, talk about anything new you have heard or learned about. Sharing and networking are priceless! Happy Writing! Happy Critiquing! See you next time. Cheers, 😊
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AuthorI love to write stories, letters, cards, you name it...writing is what I enjoy. How about you? Archives
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