Critique Circle

[DavidLeeHolcomb]

Same problem as friends critiquing. They know your work and might not be honest, might miss things, might be biased in favor of your work, etc.

Good point. I've experienced that problem first-hand. I guess if this were easy, everybody'd be doing it.

 

[gtanders]

IMO, if you're going to pay for a novel critique, you're better off hiring a professional editor (who is familiar with your genre and who has a strong track record of getting authors published) to do a substantive and/or line-edit, depending on what the ms needs. I think @gtanders did that recently and found it a worthwhile investment with a quick turnaround time (as was, I understand, hiring current/ex literary agents to assess their query letter).

I did. Now, I only got feedback on samples (10 pages) and queries. It was a great balance between getting industry intelligence, saving money, and forcing myself to understand the limited feedback and apply it across the whole MS. I would never pay multiple $Ks for a novel edit.

Re: critiquing, I feel you should know where you're at as a writer. If you're just starting out, you can get feedback from other beginners. If you're somewhere in the querying trenches, you want to find beta readers who are at your level or a little above (and willing to swap). As you get smarter and smarter in this process, you'll become more discerning about who's qualified to give feedback (or about what feedback to follow and what to discard).

Whether you can chart this journey on Critique Circle, I have no idea.

Cheers!

 

[StuckInFox]

I've been exploring Critique Circle for a couple of days, but I noticed something today that I hope I've misinterpreted. Is it true that if you want to get a novel critiqued (one chapter at a time) you have to pay for the Premium account?

I'm on CC, I've only critted and have yet to post but my understanding is that it costs 3 credits to post a chapter, I don't believe you need a premium account but as I've said - haven't posted yet.

 

[Maryn]

Same problem as friends critiquing. They know your work and might not be honest, might miss things, might be biased in favor of your work, etc.

I'm not a fan of asking people you know, whether it's friends, family, or colleagues, for critique. They will try to be unbiased, but they can't be. They also want to protect your feelings, their existing relationship with you, and the status quo.

Not that I didn't do it, in the early days, but later I wished I hadn't. Adding to that, I later learned some people felt I'd put them in a predicament, too.

Maryn, older and a teensy bit wiser

 

[TellMeAStory]

My fiction writers' group is looking for a few more members. We meet every other Wednesday by Zoom and critique by email.

I guess the best way to learn more is by the "conversations" option here.