Critique Guidelines

 The 3rd Tuesday of each month we will discuss writing that has been submitted by two members for critique

• Submission word count should not exceed 8 pages, at least not by very much.
• The submissions should be emailed to Crazy Buffet Critique mailing list by the 1st Tuesday meeting.
  
• The writers submitting should include something about what they hope to get from the critique comments.
• Any member can provide comments. They can email them to the writer, or wait until the critique meeting to give comments.
• The writers will read their submissions on the 3rd Tuesday, and then the work will be discussed.
• Before the end of the meeting, the next writers to submit for the next month will be identified.
• Writers that have submitted the least recently will be considered first.

 

More thoughts on critiques:

I want to add something about critiquing. (Actually a couple of things)

• PAGE FORMATTING: Typically when doing page counts, the industry used this format: Double spaced, 12 point font (courier new), one inch margins all around.  This is not set in stone, but it does mean that 8 pages from one person is the same amount as 8 from another.  I'd suggest perhaps instead of a hard page limit, a scene would be a good thing to submit for critique
• Please ask for what you want from the review.   Do you want to know if the flow is good? Grammar and formatting? Narrative? Dialogue?  The more you tell the readers what you need from the critique, the better the feedback you get will be.  It is OK if you don't know or want a general "give me your impression" type of review. But asking for what you need helps you get what you need.
• When someone is reading your work they are doing you a favor. Most writers love critiquing. BUT. When I get a sample to read that is riddled with grammar, spelling, and simple mistakes (such as a total lack of formatting--no paragraph breaks at all, for example) it puts me in a bad mood.  Do you really want your critiquers spending their time fixing simple stuff when you could be getting so much more from their input? 
• When working on a longer work, I like to suggest you not get too many readers on the first pass. You'll want to have someone in reserve to read your edited versions. Preferably someone with fresh eyes.
• FOR THOSE GIVING THE CRITIQUE: 
• don't nit pick unless you have been asked to. 
•  If a persistent issue is causing a reaction in you. feel free to mention it but in a helpful way. I often will say "you keep using xxx and it pulls me out of the story each time. Is there another way to accomplish your writing goal?" 
• Talk about things you enjoy as well as things that don't work for for you. 
• If the submitter asks for something and wants you to avoid something else, try to honor their wishes. Your job as a critiquer is to help the writer make the submission the best it can be. But "best" is subjective depending on genre, intent of the author and a host of other things. 
• If you feel you cannot be fair to the submitter, decline to critique.

I hope this addition is beneficial to the group. Finding a lifelong critique partner is a lot like dating--some combinations work, others don't.  Once you find what and who works, that is gold. 

Kelle Z. Riley