How to be a Good Critique Partner

As a writer, I think perhaps the hardest thing about writing is not the writing at all--it's the critiquing.  Letting another person critique your work is like leaving your newborn infant with a babysitter you do not know.  You want that babysitter to tell you if your baby has a fever, but you do not want that babysitter to tell you your baby is ugly.  It's hard to let someone else read your work.  You've labored over this thing.  You've got a real emotional attachment to this thing--it's a part of you, like a kidney or something.  The last thing you need is for someone to bash in your kidney.

You also need a critique partner (heretofore referred to as a CP) who has strengths opposite of your own.  For instance, I am a grammar nut.  I don't catch everything.  I am not a professional editor.  I do, however, catch most grammatical mistakes--more than your average bear.  That's my strength.  I am not good at showing not telling. I need someone who can point out when I am telling instead of showing.  If you can do that, and you suck at comma usage we might be a good match.

There is a huge difference between constructive criticism and negative judgment.  Learn the difference or lose CPs. 

So what makes a good CP:

• Constructive Criticism.  The goal of constructive criticism is improvement.  If a remark you are about to make will not help the author improve then you should probably keep your trap shut.  Critique should be learning experiences. If you are not helping a person learn then you are not critiquing properly.
• Be Kind and be Tactful.  This manuscript is their baby!  They love it. It's a piece of them.  You know this. You write.  How would you feel if someone told you your story sucked?  How would you feel if someone told you they weren't 'drawn in' to your book?  Remarks like 'this sucks,' 'I'm not drawn into your story,' 'I'm not emotionally connecting to your characters,' or 'I just don't like it' are not helpful--they're hurtful.  Don't judge. Provide constructive criticism. It really is that simple.
• Know the Genre. If you do not read the genre the other person writes then you aren't likely to be a good CP.  I write fantasy.  If you don't read fantasy then you are not going to like my work, and you are not going to have useful feedback.  If you don't know the genre, then you can't critique it. I don't read much romance, so I'd never try to crit romance.
• Be Honest. Being kind doesn't mean you can't be honest.  If something sounds wonky to you then say, "X sounds strange to me because Y." 
• Don't just criticize, PRAISE. Always, always, always comment on the things you see that you like!  No one wants to see a million red comments all about mistakes.  There are parts that make you smile--say so.  If there are parts that made you laugh out loud--say so.  

 I could use a good CP.  I have had some great, trustworthy people look over my work.  My friend Amanda has a degree in English and she provided some excellent constructive criticism.  She didn't avoid being honest.  She didn't beat around the bush either.  If something sucked then she told me, but she never said anything hurtful.  She said here is a mistake and here's how you can fix it.  Or she said here is a mistake you keep making so you might want to look into it.  She didn't avoid pointing out mistakes, but she wasn't negative. 

If you'd like to be my CP then I expect you to be honest without being judgmental.  I expect you to provide constructive criticism.  I expect you to be able to point out the things I do well.  I expect you to be know my genre (fantasy) and I should know your's.  I have these expectations because I meet these expectations.

If you'd like to be my CP I will provide constructive criticism. I will be honest, but tactful. I will only agree to be your CP if I know your genre (and you should know mine).  I'll do my best to make your writing better and to make you a better writer.  I want you to do the same.  I don't think that's too much to ask.  Do you? 

My Twitter friend Natalie (whom I do not know in 'real' life) recently posted critique partner classifieds. If you'd like to be my CP then please shoot me an email or comment below.  Maybe we can be CPs and lifelong friends :)  Happy editing!

My Editing Plan (or How Not to Pull My Hair Out)

When I wrote this blog entry the only plan I had was to stuff my completed manuscript in a drawer and come back to it in one month.  I didn't really think past that because I was still trying to process the overwhelming thought that I had actually completed my first book. I mean holy freaking cow I wrote 300+ pages of a book and I did it all by myself! That's pretty huge.  Right? 

My month of don't-touch-the-ms-don't-read-the-ms-leave-the-ms-alone is coming to a close.  I have followed Stephen King's advice and I have left my manuscript alone for an entire month. I have managed not to look at it.  I have held my flash drive in the palm of my hand and I have told myself no! Don't look. Leave it alone! And I did leave it alone.  For a whole month. Talk about willpower! Man, that took some major willpower! But I did it.

In 4 days my don't-look-month will end, and I can start editing.  I suddenly realized that I really do need a plan.  How do I approach this?  It's going to be difficult.  I'm a planner.  I need a plan.  So I came up with this:

Step 1:  Edit entire manuscript for major grammatical mistakes and glaring errors: 14 days

BREAK: 5 days ---> Why?--->So I can begin the next step with 'fresh eyes.'

Step 2:  Edit entire manuscript for big stuff that's hard to see: active vs passive voice, overused words/phrases, point of view, showing not telling, etc:  this part requires attention to detail and will take the longest--no time limit but I'd like to be done with it in about a month.

BREAK:  5 days

Step 3: Revise! Revise! Revise! This is the part where I cut unnecessary bits out of my story and change stuff.  This part could be fun.  I hope it's fun!

Step 4: Read over it.  Edit revisions. Catch mistakes I might have missed the first time.

Step 5: Edit format.  Make sure ms is in the correct format.  Eliminate double spaces after periods (apparently you aren't supposed to do that in fictional works), etc.

I plan to give myself 3 months to complete this.  Of course I'll be working with critique partners and teen focus groups somewhere in there.  I'll be looking for feedback and making this manuscript that absolute best I can make it without an agent's/editor's input. 

I anticipate frustration during this process.  I hope my step by step plan will keep me from pulling my hair out. If you'd like to be considered as a critique partner or would like to become a new member of my teen focus group please let me know (comment here or shoot me an email at jenniferwelbornwrites(at)gmail(dot)com).

This is it people.  I'm rounding home base! Okay--no I'm not.  I'm rounding second and I'm running to third, but I'm making it damn it!  There are a lot of next steps to go before I can round home: finding an agent, editing what the agent wants me to edit, agent finds publisher, editing what publisher's editor wants me to edit, planning marketing (I've already started on this--yep, way to count my chickens before they hatch), and probably a whole bunch of other stuff I don't even know about. 

This part, however, this last bit of personal editing--this is the last part of the process where the manuscript is all mine.  It's the last part before other eyes see it and before other people expect anything of it.  I'm going to try to enjoy this part.  I'm going to try to appreciate this last bit of the all mine stage of publication.  Wish me luck!

Writing Scared

Lots of people think getting published is easy.  Lots of people think they could write a book and get it published.  Lots of people say, "You know I have this idea for a book" and then finish that sentence with some lame excuse like, "but I just don't have time to write it."  They think writing a book is easy.  They think publishing a book is easy.  They think selling a book is easy.

It's not.  It's not easy.  It's hard and it's scary.  I've worked for more than a year to finish my first novel.  I wrote the last page.  It's done.

Except that it's not done.  Now I have to revise it. I have to edit it.  I have to erase parts of it.  I have to chop scenes I loved into little pieces.  I have to kill pieces of my baby, and that's what this manuscript is--my creation, my baby.

Perhaps that sounds overly dramatic to some of you, but I can assure you it's not.  Writing a book is fun.  Editing a book is downright painful.  I've been told to put it in a drawer and forget about it for a month, then come back and edit.  Jennifer Laughran of Andrea Brown Literary Agency (whom I shamelessly follow and talk to on twitter and who has an awesome blog) told me to do it.  Stephen King (in On Writing) told me to do it.  So I'm gonna do it.  I'm putting my story away for a bit and then I'll come back to it.

But what if I don't want to come back to it? Okay, okay.  So I want the book to be published.  I want my book to end up on a bookstore bookshelf like the one in the photo at the top.  I think that photo is of a Borders (I stole it from Jill Corcoran's blog--which you should also follow), but I don't just want my book on shelves at Borders.  I want my book on shelves at Books-A-Million and Barnes and Noble. I most especially want my book on shelves at independent booksellers across the country (c'mon--inde bookstores are AWESOME people). And I know that in order to see my book on shelves, I first have to edit it (and find an agent and a publisher and a whole slew of other little details. I also know I shouldn't start sentences with 'and' but I just did so sue me.).

I know what I have to do.  What's the problem then?  I'll spell it out for you: F-E-A-R.  If I edit my book then it really will be done.  It will be finished.  I'll have to send it off for other people to accept it or reject it.  I won't have any excuses left, any other ways to avoid sending my baby manuscript off to more critical eyes--eyes that might not like it.

What if it doesn't get published?  What if everyone I send it to hates it?  What if I suck?  Worse yet, what if my writing sucks?  That's scary.  I am ashamed to admit that my heart has stopped beating (yes, literally) and I find the idea of rejection more frightening than that was (Yes, I know.  That's ridiculous.  I can't help it.  That's how I feel.).

But I'm going to do it.  All of it.  I'm going to wait a month and then I'm going to start editing.  I'm going to murder my babies--slash scenes that don't further my story, kill words that are unnecessary, get rid of the amazing description of this one thing that I thought was so awesome but is really kind of pointless.  Then I'm going to send that edited manuscript to the prying, critical eyes of literary agents whom I respect and fear.  I'm going to do all of it--in hopes that my dream of publication will be achieved.  In hopes that conquering this fear will be worth it.  In hopes that one day a teenage girl will read my novel and squeal with delight and cry with sorrow and laugh with joy and pass it on to her friend because omg you just have to read this great book!