Critique Ettiquette

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

In my travels through some of the writing communities around LJ over the last few years I ran across a person who often put work up for critique and then behaved badly when people critiqued the work.

The writer was really looking for adoration rather than help improving the work. This writer defended every point, a lot of which were valid points and didn't want to see or hear anything that countered the work as it stood. In fact, the defense was so adamant, the author would inevitably fly into high orbit and hit meltdown. Every single time. This would, of course, make the others in the community jump on meltdown author in a feeding frenzy. Flame wars ensued.

About a year later I saw that the author had posted one of those pieces of work in another community, completely unchanged.

So, I bring you critique Etiquette.


Giving a Critique

1. Do not criticize, offer constructive criticism.
2. Don't forget to point out what is working as well as what isn't.
3. If your manner has sharp corners on it try to blunt the edges, creative types are fragile.
4. Set aside personal biases and look at the structure of the work.
5. Write thoughtful and descriptive responses so the writer understands what you mean and so the comments will still be meaningful later.
6. You will probably need to read a work more than once to really see it.
7. Don't keep the writer waiting forever, finish your critique in a timely manner.


Receiving a Critique

1. If you don't really want an honest opinion, don't ask to have your work critiqued.
2. Do not throw tantrums if someone points out the flaws in your work.
3. Try not to justify/defend every point a critique partner has made, take a look at what they've said and ask yourself if they might have point.
4. Try to be objective.
5. If the feedback upsets you, go away for a few days to regain your equilibrium. Then, revisit the feedback. Are the comments valid after all?
5a. The feedback may not be as snarky as you think, go away for a few days and then come back and reread the feedback.
6. Not all feedback will be helpful, take it all with a grain of salt.
7. If more than one person says the same thing, they may be on to something.
8. Use spell check and fix the obvious errors before handing your work off to your critique group.
9. Thank your critique partner for their efforts and for taking the time to read and critique your work (even for the feedback you didn't find as helpful).
10. If you feel you have to explain things for clarification you may need to rework that part. You will NOT be there to explain things when an agent or editor is reading your work.


Discussions are great but flame wars will not be tolerated so keep things grown up and civilized.


Does anyone have any more critique etiquette to add?

What do you need from a critique?
What makes a good critique?

Comments

[demonlord-lover.livejournal.com]

Funny this should come now. I had a problem in a yahoo group I own/mod about proper debating prodedure.


Backhanded insults are still insults.

Ex. Someone posts a novel that included a vampire. Another responds with: Vampire novels are can be unimaginative and most authors tend to write poorly written porn just to get a rise out of the readers.

By association, the author is now on the defensive because now they assume it was said that their work was lumped in with that. If you have a bias against a certain genre, it's best to keep that to yourself. That isn't to say that you shouldn't offer help in other areas, but if you start out dumping on the basic premise of the story, the author will either ignore you outright or get offended.

If that is your opinion

[sora-kainomori.livejournal.com]

Please don't put only "That was good" or something similar to that. I want to know what was good exactly and what was bad. Most of the time as writers we know where are strong points are and if people just keep saying "it's good" it doesn't give us a chance to improve on our weaknesses

[artsyprincess.livejournal.com]

When I do a critique for someone, I always try to point out good elements and make suggestions for the not so good elements within the text. Then at the bottom, I write a little note with some overall encouraging sentences and a sort of disclaimer that these are only my suggestions and he/she is welcome to take or leave them. I try to keep a positive tone with whatever I write for them, and I expect the same in return. I expect honesty and constructive criticism, but I don't want the forum equivalent of screaming either. I have never posted my writing for critique online. The closest I've come to that is to enter a contest that picked finalists and mini-critique winners each week for a month. They picked mine for mini-critique, wrote a critique for it, and posted both on their website. That was a great experience because they were honest and objective. Of course the people doing the critique were professionals in the writing and publishing industry, so I ate up every word they said, both positive and negative. I have thick skin and can take constructive criticism well, but I've seen some pretty cruel things in critique forums and such. I haven't been brave enough to put mine out there. I think I'm also a little leery about copyright issues.

[since-that-day.livejournal.com]

This is for the recieving end.

You don't need to defend anything. Just accept the criticism, review it, and if there's a piece of criticism you just cannot reconcile with, keep it filed away and ignored. There is no need to tell the critiquer why you disagree unless they ask. It's your story and defending only makes both parties feel bad. However, always make sure you know why you are discarding any advice.