What Do You Need From Your Critique Group?

By San Francisco Writers Conference | November 12, 2021 |

by B. Lynn Goodwin

Renee, the newest member of the critique group, listened carefully. She heard solid, specific ideas for other people’s pieces.When her turn came, she said, “Tell me what you think, okay? I’m open to your feedback.”

Two men—one an entrepreneur and one retired– plus three women—a housewife, an attorney, and an IT expert, all nodded. The six of them were gathered around a table inside one of the few Barnes & Nobles still open in the San Francisco Bay Area.

After she finished, the attorney smiled and said, “Good job.” It wasn’t much, considering the copious opinions she’d shared about the retiree’s piece, which he read right before hers.

The entrepreneur said, “Nice description,” and the housewife said, “It’s interesting.” Why did she get so little feedback when she’d said she was open to anything?”

General requests get general responses. Rich the retiree, had asked the group three specific questions:

“Does the action move the plot forward?”
“Does the relationship between Donald and the old man seem believable?”
“What do you think might happen in the next chapter?”

His questions helped them focus in on exactly what he needed.

Even if you are nervous, new to a group, or uncertain about some aspect of your writing, ask what you need to know. How else are you going to find out what’s working and what trips readers up? Here are some sample questions that are easy to adjust for whatever you’re sharing in any particular meeting:

“Is the fifth paragraph too specific?”
“Which paragraphs are too general?”
“How does the narrator’s dialogue make you feel?”
What do you, the reader, realize that the antagonist doesn’t?”
“Which scenes need more description?”
“Where have I overwritten the description?”
“Do you care about my narrator? Why?”
“Is there a good balance between narration and dialogue?”
“What else do you want to know (about the narrator, the antagonist, the setting, the conflict, the interior dialogue, a character’s emotions)?
“Can you see and hear the action?”
“Can you see and hear the description?
“Which phrases and sentences trip you up?”
“What message do you get from this story?”
“Are the character’s actions clearly motivated?”
“What questions come up for you as you read or listen?”

What haven’t I covered? Add 5 specific questions related to the manuscript you’re working on right now. If you want to tailor my questions to your manuscript, do it.

Now, what’s the question you’re afraid to ask? If ‘afraid’ is too strong a word, what’s the question you are uncomfortable asking? Write it down. That’s a first step towards putting it out into the world.

Here’s Renee’s process as she writes the question that makes her uncomfortable: “How do I write this story so the narrator doesn’t sound so … so she’s less … so there’s, I don’t know … so she’s not doing a data dump? How do I put emotion in and still leave room for the reader to react?”

Notice how long it takes her get to her question? That’s a normal problem. She’s afraid to ask that question because she thinks it will show she doesn’t know enough and should be in a writing class instead of joining a critique group. She thinks if it’s her story she should be able to figure it out. She’s afraid if she asks for such specific help and gets it, it won’t be her story anymore.

Does her reasoning sound silly? She’ll get past it, and I hope you think that way. She fought her way through several attempts before she could articulate the question. In other words she edited her request for help. Sounds appropriate for a writer.

Take time to formulate questions that will help you grow as a writer. Listen to the answers. If they’re good, use them. If the group still isn’t clear what you want, they’ll ask for clarification as long as you make the effort to say what you really need.

If the group’s responses are still general, maybe you need to find a critique group that’s less general. Not every group is right for every writer. There are lots of writing groups in the Bay Area and around the country—some in person and some on Zoom. Look around and find a critique partner or writing guru who can give you what you need.

B. Lynn Goodwin owns Writer Advice, www.writeradvice.com. Her YA, Talent, (Koehler Books) won some awards, and some of the same characters appear in her new YA Ground Rules. Her memoir, Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife at 62 also won awards. Visit https://writeradvice.com/books-by-lynn/. Her flash fiction has been published in Flashquake, Nebo, Cabinet of Heed, Murmur of Words,100-Word Stories, and Ariel’s Dream. Other works have appeared in Hip Mama, The Sun, GoodHousekeeping.com, PurpleClover.com, and elsewhere. She is an editor as well as a writer. She lives her energizer-bunny husband and their exceptional terrier.