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Collecting Criticism: Writing Groups vs Critique Partners
by Charlie N. Holmberg
Writing groups aren’t for everyone.
What? BLASPHEMY!
But hear me out.
When I say writing groups aren’t for everyone, I don’t mean
that some writers don’t need criticism. Every writer needs criticism. Rowling
and Brown and Martin and Patterson all need a second, third, and/or fourth pair
of eyes on their work. But over the years I’ve noticed two models for critique:
the writing group model and the critique-partners model. I personally started
out with the first and have moved to the second with grand success.
So which model is right for you? Allow me to deconstruct
them:
The Writing Group
The Writing Group is a very sociable setting, great for
making friends and sharing cookies and just generally being loud. It’s like an
in-depth book club.
Pros
·
Getting to hear group discussion on your work as
though spying on a book club.
·
Acquiring a more social aspect to writing, which
can be very isolating work.
·
Eliminating a lot of wait time. Everyone reads
your manuscript at the same time and gives you feedback at the same time, so
there are no gaps between critiques.
·
Real-time feedback. If you have a question, you
can ask it and get an answer right away. No waiting on emails.
·
Keeping structure. At least, a writing group should have ground rules. Otherwise it’s
chaos.
Cons
·
Disappearing into the crowd. If you tend toward
introversion, it’s easy to get your voice swallowed up.
·
Defensive authors. A writer who won’t take
criticism and defends their every word makes for an awkward meeting.
·
Lazy readers. Sometimes group members don’t stay
on the ball, and you end up with only a portion of the feedback you were hoping
for.
·
Possible embarrassment. Not everyone is tactful
in a writing group. I once sat in on a writing group where a guy actually
printed out a speech about why another member’s writing was terrible. Made her
cry. It was awkward.
·
Scheduling problems. Finding fellow writers who
can all meet at the same time and the same place can be a headache, especially
if your group is online and you have to deal with time zones.
Critique Partners
Critique partners are fantastic if you don’t have fellow
writers in your area. A few of mine I met online; others are friends from
previous writing groups or from high school/college. It’s a great way to get
feedback without changing out of your pajamas.
Pros
·
Having a wider range of people critiquing your
work (since they don’t have to be local).
·
Receiving all your critiques pre-written for
you. No note-taking; it’s all in the document. This also makes organizing the
criticism a lot easier.
·
No scheduling required.
·
Picking and choosing your readers is a lot
easier. If you use a critique partner you end up not liking, it’s simple to cut
them out of the loop and use someone else; in a writing-group setting, if you
don’t like someone’s critiques, you either have to deal with it or leave the
group as a whole.
Cons
·
No community desserts.
·
There’s a lot more wait time. Some critique
partners are really quick to get back to you, others aren’t. And sometimes
you’re not sure if that email actually went through…
·
No group discussion. Someone may point out a
problem, and if you want a second opinion on that opinion, you have more emails
to write and more waiting to do.
·
You have to actually find each critique partner.
Joining a writing group is a two-step process: find the group and join it.
Finding the same number of readers you’d have in a writing group to use as
critique partners is much more time-consuming because you have to seek out each
one personally.
·
It’s less sociable.
So how do I do it?
I have about fifteen critique partners, which I suppose I
could split into two “writing groups”—my alpha readers (fellow writers) and my
beta readers (non-writing readers). My rough draft goes out to the first set of
readers, and I make changes to my manuscript based on their comments as they
filter through my email. That modified manuscript then goes out to my beta
readers, and I incorporate their changes as well.
If you go the route of the critique-partners-model, I highly
recommend using several of them. That way you get the varied feedback of a
writing group, and if someone is too busy to read your stuff, you have others
to fall back on.
Side note: If you’re one of those writers who won’t share
your work for fear of others stealing it, you can always do a poor man’s
copyright and email the manuscript to yourself. Don’t open the package when it
arrives. The post office stamp will more or less keep your creative works
yours.
Homegrown in Salt Lake City,
Charlie was raised a Trekkie with three sisters who also have boy names. She
writes fantasy novels and does freelance editing on the side. She’s a proud BYU
alumna, plays the ukulele, and owns too many pairs of glasses.
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