Importance of a Good Critique Group
If I beg and bribe my non-writer friends, they will eventually read my work. I ask them, please be honest. Tell me the truth. If it bores you, put it down and tell me where that point was.
Here’s the problem though: they’re family. Family is not good at being honest. And sometimes, if we really think about it, that’s a good thing. Family is a long term relationship, so they don’t want to sit across the Thanksgiving dinner table from the person whose manuscript they tore to shreds. That’s where your critique group comes in.
I tried to find a critique group that meets in person every week. With Covid, however, these are practically nonexistent right now. Luckily, I stumbled onto a group called Critique Circle and fell in love.
I believe that this site might be more beneficial than an actual in-person critique group. I live in the South, so there is a culture here just like there is a culture in any geographical location. When you go online for critiques, however, you are able to widen the diversity of your critique partners. I have a guy in his fifties from Germany reading my MS, and a young adult in UK as well. Some are published, some are brand new writers. With this wide range of views, the insight is limitless.
Critiqueing other people’s work has also been incredibly useful. It helps me identify potential problems in my own work before it ever gets to Critique Circle. Then we can dispense with the obvious (you’re showing, not telling; you’re head hopping; too many exclamation points) and get to the meat of the narrative.
After finding Critique Circle, my writing has improved ten-fold. It was a gut check at first, because my writing was not nearly as good as I though it was. But I have learned a lot, and applied my learning consistently across my writing. I love my writing buddies and owe them more than I can tell. Hopefully I have been as big of a help to them as they have to me.