It happened again this morning at my critique group. After listening to a critique, the writer shakes her head in frustration. “Okay, I’ll take that part of the chapter out. Even though just last week, you told me to put it in.”
But wait a sec!
Don’t let your critique group blow you around like a bit of fluff on the breeze. Although they mean well, they can forget from week to week critical facts about your story line, and their guidance can be unintentionally wrong-headed.
To prevent this, you must know your objective for the piece, whether it be a short story or a chapter.
How does that paragraph – you know, the one they’re ripping to shreds at the moment – serve the story? (Because if it doesn’t, it shouldn’t be there.) If you can state your objective (“I wanted to show that Janet is evil”), your group might be able to suggest alternate ways to accomplish that.
These suggestions might be better, or not. You are the author; you must decide. Don’t let anybody push you around, but don’t just hang on out of stubbornness. Take your material home, give it a day to refresh your brain, look at it again, consider their comments, and then decide.
Finally, I never bring the same chapter back the next week. I move on. Otherwise, I’ll never finish. Also, I don’t want to give them a chance to reverse their positions yet again! Humans are fallible, and creativity is rife with subjectivity. Move on.
For the last in this three-part series, click here.
Good to hear from you, Pamela. We’ve all been there!
Being new to the field, I often find myself looking to others on how to play my position. Some of the best advice I’ve rec’d has come from Lynne. Her personal experience with crtique groups and seminars she has attended, she has graciously passed along. The one holding the most value for me is this. Don’t be intimidated, it’s your story. I could have been the one that would rush home and put the chapt. through the shredder. Instead I tear it apart, evaluate the ear burning critique against where the story is going.
The suggestion on only taking each chapter in once, is certainly understood by me. Using her advice I’ve shaved the three to four visits with the same chapter down to one, two when I’ve changed the chapter’s content. I want to finish my writing as well. Thanks so much, Lynne, for the great advice!
Pamela
Critique groups all have one thing in common. They find problems with your work. Why? Because that is what they think they are supposed to do! That does not necessarily mean your work has problems.
You are the author. Decide what you want to say, and say it. I only pay real attention when a few people, independantly, come to the same conslusion.
Michael
Thanks for your comment, Mike. I think you are right that hearing the same critique from several people carries more weight. Critique groups sometimes feel entitled to weigh in when they don’t necessarily have anything of value to offer, just because they’re there. My last (I think!) blog entry on critique groups will address that in a few days.