A Question (or several) to Critters....

One of the things I love about this place, is the exellent feedback I've gotten.

I've posted a few things in SYW, and the help was tremendous! Thank you!

Now the question: Seems only reasonable to me, that if I'm asking for feedback, that I should return the favor. But I am not "educated" (read, experienced) enough to know how to give it well, other than I liked it, or I didn't.

What do you look for, and how do you give good constuctive crits?

I think we covered this here and there in "Writing Novel" and SYW. I think different people have different needs for crits, and I always encourage them to specify clearly in their posts -- what kind of crits do you want? Some people don't care about line editing. Some only cares about POV issues... Some wonder if their stories are interesting to the readers....

There are many ways to skin a cat. I think you can offer your help in many ways. If you don't think you're experienced enough to offer technical crits, perhaps you can offer a "reader perspective" analysis, especially on a piece that is up your alley (say, fantasy or mystery or mainstream...) I think it's invaluable for a writer to get feedback from "readers" as well as other "writers" on different things.

When I offer criticism, I look first for the overall quality of writing. I try to see the big picture. I look at general themes, character arcs, interest in the plot, and so on. That becomes the primary area of my criticism.

Next, I narrow my view to construction issues. I look for a variety of sentence construction, paragraph & sentence length, dialogue realism, narrative smoothness, and so on.

Finally I look at mechanical items, like spelling, grammar, and other typographical things.

However, if the writing is full of misspellings or poor grammar, so much that it's a chore to continue reading, I quit, tell the writer to learn the English language and come back later. That may seem sarcastic, but I'm not very patient with people who don't know the difference between "its" and "it's", or "their" vs. "they're", and then try to be "arthurs".

UMHO, tell the truth tersely, with no regard to ego (yours or the authors).

Beyond that: see the Critiquing Section here
www.sfwa.org/writing/

critique don't criticize

Sounds weird but there is a difference.

in one, the person reading, critiques the work, in the other they pick out things that really don't matter to plot, but go with their preference and bash the author with absolutes--saying things like, it is not only needed but required (say in reference to not naming a character what they thought they should be named and so on) Unless there is a hard and fast rule to support it--don't insist it's required.

Stay out of your "but if it were my story I would" hat. :hat It's not your story so if the author wants to only name the main characters--that's the authors choice, not yours.

Remember the type of story it is--a people story is going to have more exposition and internal thoughts than an action story mostly about the new land they discovered.

Most of all--LOOK, LISTEN, and HEAR your words as if they were being said to you. If they sound mean and terse, then go back and redo them--there are two ways to say things, one is helpful the other is not. If you don't know the difference then you don't belong critiquing someone's work.

Shawn

Re: critique don't criticize

I would look here, here, and here.

Re: critique don't criticize

I was going to suggest the first link Euan already has.

Re: critique don't criticize

Great minds think alike.

Re: critique don't criticize

I put my personal likes and dislikes aside and focus on what works, what doesn't work and what needs to be done to make it work.

Re: critique don't criticize

I just try my best to explain, as a reader, how the text went off when run through my particular brain. My comments tend to be about the flow, and the logic of the prose, with an emphasis on the visuals.

I'll quibble about phrasing occasionally too, but more or less, I'm just trying to tell the writer how it flowed for me.

As an amature critic, I guess my only pet peeve is seeing a brand new member, whose very first post is a peice of fiction in SYW with a header like "FEEDBACK PLEEEEAAASE!" I don't read those ones because I feel a little like they're using the system to get some instant gratification.

I feel like, "Jeeze! Take some time to get to know us, and to introduce yourself before you toss something up there for a review."

Re: critique don't criticize

I have not been on here very long and have only just started my novel after several years of thinking about it. However, reading the crits in SYW has really helped my understanding of how it should be written.

I look forward to the day I post something in SYW and will welcome all types of crit., as they will all be valid points, just from a different point of view.

So far, I have based my writing on how I like something to read.