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THEORY

When we finish writing a piece how do we critique it?

If we have just finished it we are far too close to be objective. I've never understood why writing, which was brilliant when I put it in the drawer, becomes so flawed when I look at it months later. Are their demons inside changing my pristine prose into blathering?

Giving it to friends and family isn't any good. Either they will love it not to hurt you or hate it to hurt you. There may be an exception if a family member or friend is a professional editor or writer. Most of us aren't lucky enough to have one of those. Also family members are forever thinking your characters are really them or resent that you use other family members instead of them.

I'm fortunate to have a writing mate, an Australian who looks over everything I do (and vice versa). Until Sylvia says a piece is done, I don't consider it finished. She ferrets out the scene that doesn't fit, the phrase that doesn't work, the plain old-fashioned typo, the character who has blue eyes in the beginning and green at the end. We may never agree on commas, nor prepositions, which we chalk up to the difference between American and Australian English, but it does short circuit drawer time for our writing. It took us years to build up both our critiquing abilities, but at the same time it helped us both develop as writers. Since we are both fanatic writers, we also boost each other when we have had a rejection and celebrate each other successes.

Sometimes there are writing circles or groups. The success of depends on how good the critiquing is. If members are out to prove how bad everyone else but themselves is, then you won't get the help you want. If members can't articulate why something is good or bad, it may offer some help in identifying that there is a problem, but not what the problem is. Comments like that comma should be a semicolon certainly don't go deep enough when you want to know if Marcy was believable when she left Jack or did you need more foreshadowing.

A few years ago I came across a helpful grid. The original was developed by English writer Alex Keegan (author of the Caz Flood mystery novels and originator of a writers' boot camp that was a hard-driving self-help group). A later incarnation of the gird, the one used below, was used for critiquing for submissions to the World Wide Writer's magazine and is available on my website at www.wisewordsonwriting.com or www.worldwidewriters.com.

Although all critiquing is subjective going through the list helps focus anyone who is critiquing another. I wish my writing mate and I had it in the early days. It would have helped show us what to look for. It is a tool you can give to people when you want them to evaluate your work with more feedback than saying "I liked it," or "I didn't like it." It also allows them to be a bit more objective in their criticism.

Learning to critique another's work helps you learn how to critique your own, although to some extent you will always be to close.

SAMPLES

OPENING

Superlative opening to a first class story [25]
Original and inventive - attention catching [20]
Intriguing start [10]
Room for improvement - not best feature [5]
Slow-pace for short story - picked up later [0]
Flat, lacked pace and punch [-5]
Needed re-writing, an early letdown [-10]

TITLE

Suited the story [10]
Needs improvement [5]
Try again [0]

PLOT/THEME

Strongest part of the story - Memorable [30]
Confidently handled - an assured touch [25]
Demanded and deserved full attention [20]
Original but not totally convincing [18]
A familiar situation but well handled [15]
This scenario has been overdone [12]
A touch superficial for the effort involved [10]
Strained credulity [5]
Neither important nor entertaining [0]

ACTION AND PACE

Effortless and well constructed [25]
Good control and well edited by the author [20]
Deteriorated after a promising start [15]
A re-write might improve the flow [10]
Struggled for control [5]
Too involved for a short story [0]
Too many unanswered questions [-5]
Anecdotal - Lacked a good narrative [-10]

CHARACTERS

Strong, confidently drawn and believable [25]
Easy people to understand and to recognise [20]
A mixture - some good, some sketchy [15]
Main character fine - lesser personnel flat [10]
Stock types, one dimensional [5]
Hard to believe these people could exist [0]
Much more work needed on characterisation [-5]

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT

A joy to read - Brilliant [40 ]
Quality writing throughout [35]
A page turner - as the Bookseller would say [25]
Good, but slightly run of the mill [20]
Some merit - competently told [15]
Might appeal to a minority [10]
Difficult to recommend [5]
No merit [0]

DIALOGUE (if applicable)

Vivid and crisp, in period, idiom and character [25]
Story well told in the words of the character [20]
Good, with one or two crisp exchanges [15]
Good, with one or two crisp exchanges [10]
More variety would have helped [5]
The idiom failed to match the theme [0]
Weakest point in the story [-5]

LANGUAGE

Effortless style, sensitive feeling for words [30]
Smooth and easy to read [25]
Flashes of originality gave it extra sparkle [20 ]
Stylish but parts could be polished [18]
Fluent without being striking [16]
Good command - lacked memorable phrases [15]
Good story slightly let down in the telling [10]
Little feeling for words [0]

ENDING

Totally apt [25]
Room for improvement [15]

DIRECTIONS

Add up all the points. It is interesting to see how several people score the same story.

Max Score [230]
[160+] is a good score
[108] is average

EXERCISES

1. Take a short story that you have never read before and use the grid to critique it. Then give it to a friend to do the same and compare the results.
2. Give the grid and one of your short stories to at least two people you trust and ask them to grade it without telling them it is yours. Then compare the results.

NOTES

1. Susan Tiberghien will be doing a series of creative writing workshops as follows:

   • Luxembourg, 09/28-29/02

   • Chicago, 05/3/03

   • Boston, 05/10/03

   She is also doing Jungian-oriented Workshops and Lectures

   • Pacifica, Santa Barbara, 03/14/01

   • Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 06/23/02

   • Boston, 04/26/03

   • Chicago, 04/04/03

   Susan is the force behind the Geneva Writers group and is the author of two books "Looking for Gold, A Year in Jungian Analysis" which relates an experience that belongs to everyone - of tapping the depths of the unconscious. And "Circling to the Center, One Woman's Encounter with Silent Prayer," a spiritual memoir and an introduction to the way of silent prayer.

   I've been taking classes with Susan for a decade and I never come away from any of her classes without being rejuvenated as a writer and with at lease one story idea.

   To find out more http://www.susantiberghien.com/.

2. If any reader would like a FREE sample copy of Writers Forum please e mail your name and address to writintl@globalnet.co.uk of write to Writers forum PO Box 3229 Bournemouth BH1 www.worldwidewriters.com then check on manuscript checklist.

3. My writing mate Sylvia Petter's short story collection, "Past Present" is available on Amazon.

4. Alex's website is http://www.btinternet.com/~alex.keegan1/.

See you next month,

D-L Nelson
Editor
W3

Wise Words on Writing may be shared with other writers as long as it is attributed to D-L Nelson. For anyone wishing a special topic to be treated in this monthly newsletter, or for other comments, please contact donna-lane.nelson@wanadoo.fr.