Critique or writers groups: Some writers swear by them, others view them with disdain, and I have met many folks who have just had awful experiences with them. Many successful authors label them unnecessary, which probably makes sense for them – if you have a dozen or more books under your belt, you should have honed your craft to a fine point.
I don’t need a group – I have beta readers.
Excellent. Beta readers are a necessity, but you want two types of feedback on your work. Beta readers should ideally be non-writers, and you are relying upon their input as a prospective reader. Is your book fun, exiting, boring, predictable, etc.? A writers group, however, should provide intense feedback on your craft – POV shifts, grammar, bad transitions, stereotype characters, tense, sentence and paragraph construction, etc. A good critiquer shouldn’t even have to like your genre or style to assist you in improving your writing skills.
So, what does a writers group look like anyway?
There are probably as many formats as there are writers, but let’s examine the typical criteria:
Location
- Face-to-face: Members get together, typically at one of the member’s houses, or round-robin’ing so that no one person has the sole burden of hosting. Some groups prefer neutral ground like a community center, HOA reception room, college campus, Starbucks, etc. Works great for local groups, and probably the most social format. Wine/beer/coffee and snacks is an added bonus.
- Email: Members email submissions and critiques to each other. This is ideal if you can’t find a local group, or want to make friends and work with people across the country or around the world. No need to turn out in the rain to drive to someone’s house, either.
- Video-conferencing: This has become an interesting alternative to email in recent years, now that video applications such as Skype, ooVoo, GoToMeeting can be reliable and of high quality. Group membership could be limited to those tech-savvy enough to set up these often-quirky applications, and a broadband connection is a must.
- Online: There are numerous good critiquing sites on the web. They usually operate a queue system that requires you to perform one or more critiques of other writers’ submissions before your own piece floats to the top of the queue. In a large community, be prepared to spend considerable time critiquing others before they reciprocate, but the feedback is often of very high quality. Examples include Critters, Critique Circle, Review Fuse and most recently Criticular.
Frequency
- Ad-hoc: This best describes the online sites, where the time taken for one or more people to critique your piece is highly variable from hours to a month or more. Not useful if you want a predictable and constant flow of feedback on your weekly pages.
- Monthly: This is a very popular format in the modern world, where everyone’s schedules are over-booked. It gives you ample time to write and polish pages ready to submit. One disadvantage is that if you miss one or more meetings, you are going a long time between critiques.
- Weekly: An excellent format if you can pull it off. It provides a constant flow of feedback, letting you see early and often if you have gone off the. It’s also fantastic motivation to keep writing – nothing like a bit of pressure to keep you going!
Format
- Silent read and markup: Each member submits a piece of a pre-determined length, be it a chapter or 10 pages, etc., and then everyone else marks it up and writes their critique. Track Changes in Word is a perfect tool for this. It is up to the group how it set deadlines – maybe critiques should be returned in 48 hours, or just by the next “meeting”. This is how email and online groups work.
- Read aloud and discuss: This is a popular format for face-to-face groups. Each person reads his or her pages aloud. This is a great opportunity to experience your work from a different perspective, especially to see if your dialogue is flat. Then you go round the room, listening to each person’s feedback in turn. It is your responsibility as the reader to take notes or voice-record. The group may or may not allow open discussion after everyone has had a turn critiquing, but it is important to ensure there is enough time for everyone to read.
- Read aloud and make notes: This is a hybrid approach wherein everyone marks up a copy of your pages as they follow along with you reading aloud. You can still allow discussion and perhaps a vocal summary from each critiquer, but this method has the advantage of them being able to mark up grammar, typos, clichés, repeaters, etc., for you to study later.
- Social: These groups don’t actually critique each other’s work. Instead, they discuss writing craft, publishing industry news, review how-to books, and generally share knowledge, and just as important, motivation and support. You might be expected to give a short talk about something you learned or want to know more about. Maybe the group can afford to pay for guest speakers: published authors, agents or editors.
I’m sure that many groups combine several or all of the above criteria, varying their methods as membership fluxes, during summer vacations or just on a whim. The most important thing is that each member commits to meeting as often as possible. We writers need constant nurturing. ☺
How do I find a group?
Meetup.com is a great resource for local groups. Look on Craigslist too, and even put up a wanted ad of your own. Professional organizations such as SFWA often list their chapter groups or local meetings. Ask around on social media, check out the web sites of local authors, or even the notice board at local colleges or universities. Creative Writing teachers can be a great resource. If all else fails, there’s always Google. If you’re not already a member of a group, try it, don’t be shy.
In part 2, I’ll look at the do’s and don’ts and what to expect once you’re in the door.
