How To Give an In-depth Critique

If you’ve shared your writing with other writers, you probably received some sort of feedback. Maybe you got generic praise or a vague suggestion. Or maybe they handed you a template with a few bullet points or a paragraph summarizing with their thoughts.

While any input can be helpful and motivating, often times that surface level feedback doesn’t dive into the specifics. Editors or writing instructors are often too busy and don’t have the time. And the strangers you met at a drop in group or class might not be experienced with critiques or don’t want to hurt your feelings. In most of the writers’ groups and meetups I’ve attended, I’ve noticed this as the norm rather than the exception. Consequently, many of these critiques miss out on helping writers elevate their writing.

I’ve used this process in my most recent writers’ group. Like any critique, this approach may or may not resonate with you depending on your preference and situation. Based on my experience, this works best for submissions around 5,000 words (I can’t speak to reading a full manuscript) and if you have close working relationships with your critique partners.

The first read-through: General impressions

It’s up to you if you want to print out the submission and take notes by hand. Inserting comments on Word is good enough for me. Some people prefer writing longhand because it helps you better connect with the piece. But if you’re conversing with a critique partner online, you’ll probably go the digital route.

As you read the chapter or story, write down any thoughts that arise in the moment. Note any parts that you felt strongly about. It could be something you liked such as a metaphor or the protagonist’s distinctive choices in hats. The whole point is to gather your general impressions and engage with the story.

Also make sure to mark any lines that stopped you and took you out of the narrative. Ask yourself why. Was the prose wordy? Did the character’s dialogue sound stilted? Did you feel bored because the writer spent way too much time describing every tile of a bathroom floor? You might not know what the issue is yet, but make a note. You can revisit them later.

The second read-through: A closer look

Even if you’re short on time, submissions need a second pass at the minimum. As with revising your own work, stepping away and reading it again the next day with fresh eyes makes a huge difference. Maybe this read-through you’ll notice yourself processing the words a bit faster and parts you fumbled over before might make sense now.

Again, comment on any part that stopped you. Return to your notes from the initial pass to see if there’s anything else to add or to answer any questions that you didn’t address the first time. Maybe now you realize what stopped you was grammatical because the author was trying to sound too clever. Or maybe you notice the character was acting according to the author’s whims instead of being themselves.

The third read-through: Fill in the gaps

If you want to be a killer critique partner, a third time ought to help fill in any gaps you’ve missed. Be a nitpicker. Challenge the writer so if you ask, they can justify their use of the word coulrophobia and why their lumberjack-looking protagonist drives a Prius. If you’re still stuck on understanding why certain sections aren’t working for you, feel free to do another read-through. And worst case, you can save those nagging questions for a conversation with your group or partner.

When you’re done, you can synthesize your general impressions (the good, the not so good, and any other overarching thoughts) at the end of the document.

Presenting feedback

Sharing writing is a vulnerable act. Be gentle. A friend of mine adds the disclaimer that one’s critiques are only opinions, so it’s up to the writer to decide what to accept and what to disregard. Ultimately, unless you’re co-authoring something, it’s your partner’s writing, not yours.

Now that you’re finally ready to give your feedback to your fellow anxious writer, how do you start?

Go through the submission from page one and review each comment. If the first point is on the critical side, you might emphasize the positives first, before you dive into the meat of the critique. If you’ve been working together for a while, then you might not bother with this. After you finish with your comments, make sure to summarize the key points and to end on a note of encouragement.

You can also allow for questions and dialogue as you go through your comments. Or the writer can save their questions until the end. Either way, it’s important to have a conversation about the piece. See if there was anything lost in translation. Maybe the literary fiction writer in the group had no understanding about the rules in your fantasy epic.

Writers put a lot of time and energy into their writing. As a critique partner, you can dedicate similar attention to your fellow writers’ work. Writing is hard, but it’s a bit easier when we support each other through the process.

Originally published on Medium