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8 Smart Questions to Ask as You Start, Alter, or Join a Critique Group

Aug 13, 2015 | Writing | 4 Comments

“The process of critiquing other writers’ work thoughtfully and intelligently will help you strengthen your own writing.” — Melissa Donovan

by ClkerFreeVectorImages

Critiquing is valuable to success…unless you find yourself in the wrong critique group.

Use the following questionnaire to:

Revamp your floundering group
Start a new compatible group
Join the right existing group

by ClkerFreeVectorImages

Questionnaire

What help do you need? Be honest. Don’t leave off tasks because you want to avoid criticism of your weak areas. Possible tasks are:

Punctuation, spelling, & grammar
Word choices
Paragraph & sentence construction
Plot & characters
Scene goals & hooks
Conflict & believability
Prayer

What’s the feedback style you’re willing to give and receive? Some are:

Frank honesty (“This paragraph is too melodramatic.”)
Soft honesty (“You may want to tone down this paragraph.”)
High on encouragement; low on criticism (“I like this word choice.”)
Combination (“This paragraph is too melodramatic. You may want to tone down what Mark says to Melanie. I like your use of ‘grandiose’ in the last sentence.”)

by nile

How much time are you willing to spend critiquing a chapter? If group members commit to more than the first two tasks under Question 1, you may spend two or more hours on a chapter. Also, the levels of writing ability will determine how much needs to be addressed.

How many critique partners can you realistically handle? And:

° progress your own manuscript

° perform an effective job on others’ chapters

In a 6-member group, depending on tasks chosen in Question 1, you could spend 6 to 18 hours a week critiquing.

In a past large group, some marked punctuation, spelling, and grammar only, while others performed in-depth critiques. Another member and I split off to form a 2-member group of frank, in-depth partners. That worked better for us.

Maybe it’s time to break your large critique group into smaller groups.

by PublicDomainPictures
What rules do you expect so the group functions fairly? No one wants to feel imposed upon by members not pulling their load. Rules might address:

Number of critiques performed to earn a critique
Expected tasks to be performed (Question 1)
Style of feedback (Question 4)

What mix of writing-skill levels do you desire? Writers who:

are writing their first book
have completed a novel
have submitted for publication at least two books
have one or more published novels

Writers are readers, so all levels can add value.

What craft development do you expect from members? A group may fail if some are learning the writing craft and others aren’t.

Activities members could choose from:

Attend writing workshops
Join local and online writing groups
Read craft books from a recommended list
Take online courses
Subscribe to writing blogs

by appraisal2day

8. How important is it to critique in your genre?

In one group, a woman wrote Regency. Not having read Regency, I was ill-equipped to critique her work in some aspects. In another group, we had to, at least, read Amish novels. I read them and could give all-around feedback.

Join the right critique group, revamp a failing one, or start an effective one. Click to tweet.

What’s most important to you in a critique group?

Devious Clichés Masquerading as Fine Writing in Your Stories

Aug 6, 2015 | Writing | 16 Comments

“One of the standard Words of Advice that writers—new and old—get, is to avoid clichés. The advice itself is rather a cliché but, like all clichés, it is based on truth, and it would be wrong to reflexively ignore it.” — Madeleine Robbins

bykst

I like today’s quote. So, what do writing professionals say about clichés?

Clichés:

Are overused words or phrases
Lack originality and freshness
Express truths in phrases now too commonplace
Become meaningless
by tpsdave
Are too general or vague, e.g. “His idea knocked it out of the park.” What did his idea affect? What were the actual benefits?
Used as padding for word count
Can be something other than trite words and phrases:
- Ordinary, unimaginative, predictable, overused
  - characters
  - situations
  - plots
- Overdone devices, such as:
  - Mirrors for describing characters
  - Car chases for action
  - Dreams to relay information or emotions
  - Too familiar melodrama for melodrama’s sake, e.g. Hero fails to compliment her dress. So she throws herself across her bed, beats her fists against the mattress, and drenches the pillow with her tears.
  - Countdown clocks to increase tension

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The harm clichés do to your story:

Clichés:

Remove the specificity that draws the reader to
- picture an authentic action
- understand what the author genuinely wants to say.
Add only what anyone, including the reader, could’ve written.
Lessen credibility of the author, especially with each subsequent cliché.

Examples of Clichés:

by Joergelman
Obvious:
- All’s fair in love and war.
- His bark is worse than his bite.
- She can’t cut the mustard.
- He’s like a kid in a candy store.
- She was on cloud nine.
- Opportunity doesn’t knock twice.
- A stitch in time saves nine.
- Don’t flog a dead horse

“Less Obvious”
- She was a kind soul
- Bide your time
- Blow off steam
- Case of mistaken identity
- Burning question
- Cold shoulder
- Crystal clear
- Caught in the crossfire
- Keep an eye on
- Know the ropes
- Look down your nose on
- Make the best of it
- Lose your temper
- Off the top of my head
- On a roll
- Every fiber of my being
- Sigh of relief
- In his element

What we should do about clichés:

Allow, sparingly, in dialogue or characters’ thoughts. Characters will say and think clichés. When writing in deep point of view, the writer is always in the point-of-view characters head, so readers may expect the “less obvious” clichés. Sparingly still applies.
Watch for clichés sprouting when making comparisons, e.g. he was stronger than Samson; his words were Greek to me.
Give specific details instead of a cliché.
Develop characters so readers can’t identify them using a cliché, e.g. bleeding heart.
Become familiar with this extensive list of 681 clichés.
Avoid laziness and write genuine, authentic, fresh phrases, plots, situations, and characters.
Rewrite clichés to make them fresh.
Remove common melodrama, e.g. a woman throwing plates at her insensitive, dodging husband.

Why would readers spend money on what they could write themselves, i.e. clichés? Click to tweet.

What cliché turns you off in your reading experiences?

3 Great Ways to Use FIND Before You Submit Your Manuscript

Jul 30, 2015 | Writing | 8 Comments

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” — Samuel Johnson

by geralt

First, consider these two cautions in using the find and replace feature of your word processor for editing:

Look at each occurrence from the search results to make sure a change works. Automatic replacing can cause problems. For example, consider the paragraph: “He sat next to her. In his grief, he was beside himself.” If you perform a find on next to and replace all with beside, you’ll have: “He sat beside her. In his grief, he was beside himself.”

Replace in moderation. If the change works, do it. Your aim is to reduce repetitions and weak words and phrases, not eradicate certain words.

3 Ways to Use FIND on Your Polished Manuscript

Peruse novels or keep an eye out for well-written phrases. When you find better or more concise phrases, search for a key word that’ll lead you to your ho-hum or wordy phrase and replace the ones that need a change.

by Pescador

Example:

If you mention a steering wheel often while characters drive, search on “steering wheel” and try a phrase like the following I found:

Before: He turned the steering wheel and left Main Street…

After: He turned off Main…

Check counts. If you use an individual word (other than expected high-frequency words, such as the, he, a character’s name) in an 80,000-word novel over 200 times you should work on reducing them. Once, I used up 417 times. I cut the occurrences significantly. Check the words mentioned in 3. below. Using some of these over 25 times may be too often.

To obtain a count:

PC = option + f and enter the word
Mac = command + f and enter word
Scrivener (get a count on every word in your manuscript) =
- Select desired scenes
- Click on Editor screen
- Click on Project, Text Statistics, and Word Frequency
- Click on desired column to sort

Search for these words or characters.

Your favorite word. In one manuscript, mine was while.
Exclamation marks. Use these for shouting in dialogue and thoughts. Your choice of words should show excitement.
Ellipses (…)
Filler words like uh or um.
by HebiFot
Weasel words such as just, very, and some. Here’s an excellent post on words, phrases, and characters to search for: Editing Your Own Writing on Darcy Andries’s website. This is a must read. It covers:
- Unnecessary and Redundant Words
- Weak Words:
  - Dull Drab Diluters
  - Filtering
  - Colorless Verbs
  - Modifiers

Before sending your manuscript to a publisher, use FIND and search for these. Click to tweet.

What is the word, phrase, or character you have grossly overused in your manuscript?

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8 Smart Questions to Ask as You Start, Alter, or Join a Critique Group

Questionnaire

Devious Clichés Masquerading as Fine Writing in Your Stories

Clichés:

The harm clichés do to your story:

Examples of Clichés:

What we should do about clichés:

3 Great Ways to Use FIND Before You Submit Your Manuscript

3 Ways to Use FIND on Your Polished Manuscript

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