Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

FAQs, Guidelines and other general disucssions concerning writing-open to all board membership.
User avatar
Kat Lady
OBOD Druid
Posts: 6819
Joined: 07 Jul 2004, 02:00
Gender: Female
Contact:

Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Kat Lady »

Below is a list of policies put together as suggestions for those who wish to participate in the portion of the forum set aside for more private suggestions. If you wish to gain access to the forum, please request access on this thread acknowledging you have read the general guidelines and send an email to administrators@druidry.org requesting access. These guidelines, as well as the FAQS, are brought to you by Leaflady, Duellist, Raveighen, Pworrell, Corvin and Wyeuro. Many thanks for their hard work!

CRITIQUING POLICY

This is not meant to be a "checklist". These are just points to keep in mind in case you wonder "have I mentioned everything?" or "I don't know where to start".

Giving and Receiving Helpful Critiques
Use the “sandwich method”. Say something the critiquer likes about the piece, then progress to points that may be weaknesses or may be improved. Finish with another positive comment. This kind of critique tends to be hopeful, helpful, and friendly and almost always well received.

Offer both positive and negative comments. Good critiques point a writer in directions for improvement. The “sandwich” critique prevents a writer feeling that the critiquer had nothing good to say. Also, being told what is very good is just as valuable as being told what is less so. You don’t want the writer to scrap something you thought was great just because you failed to mention it! We grow when we can identify our strengths as well as our weaknesses.

Read the manuscript through once entirely without making any comment.

Identify what “works” for you and what doesn’t in each of the three broad areas – plot, character, and writing.

Refrain from reading other critiques until you have completed your own. The writer wants your reaction and having knowledge of other critiques may alter your perception.

Be precise rather than fuzzy. If something “doesn’t work” for you, say why; offer suggestions.

Don’t nitpick.

Don’t critique a genre you hate.

Do not point out numerous individual grammar errors. If there are many, just let the author know that this weakness exists.

The Three Broad Areas - Plot, Character, and Writing
1) Plot
Is the story interesting? Do you want to read more, or do you feel impatient because the story seems to drag?

Is the problem clearly delineated; do the scenes carry the story forward?

Do scenes connect in a logical way, or are you thinking, “this makes no sense”?

Are there slow passages, too much repetition, too much explaining, too many flashbacks, big information dumps?

Are the facts consistent?

2) Character
Are the characters’ names “right” or too stereotypical, too hard to keep track of, too similar, unpronounceable?

Do the characters seem believable? Are they too perfect? Are they “generic” or do they have real personality? Is there a good sense of their emotions, attitudes, values, appearance? Are there enough or too many details; are the details spread out or “dumped”?

Do you care about the characters?

Refrain from making moral judgements on a writer’s characters.

Is the character growing/changing/learning?

Do they talk in a believable way? Do they all sound alike? Is there too much/not enough dialogue?

Do you suddenly feel that a character is doing something totally inconsistent with what you have come to know of them?

Is there emotional conflict - within and between characters? Are there too many conflicts, or not enough?

Is the behavior convincing for the time/place/society?

Note well-written dialogue and places where character is conveyed well.

3) Writing
Is the story compelling enough that the writing “carries you along”? Do you stop to think, “that’s an awkward sentence” or “this is getting boring”? Where did the writing itself pull you out of the story? Too-often-repeated words, faulty grammar, punctuation and spelling, monotonously similar sentence lengths, clichés can all do this.

Is there too much passive writing? Too much background information? Where does it drag?

Did you have to re-read anything before you understood it?

Is the research sloppy, facts inaccurate?

Is the setting well described? Can you visualise what’s happening, where you are? or would you like a few more details?

Would another point of view improve the story?

Does humour unintentionally slide into sarcasm; does emotion and tragedy descend to melodrama?

Does the writer show or tell?

Note well-written images and scenes.

What parts did you love? what’s great about this?

How to Receive a Critique
Phrase any responses as a question: ask for clarification of what you don’t understand. If your critiquer said a scene was “unclear” or confusing, but said no more, you probably want to know the reason.

Which suggestions to take and which to ignore? You will get better at deciding as you go along.
If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.--Mark Twain

Image
User avatar
raveighen
OBOD Bard
Posts: 239
Joined: 11 Jan 2009, 08:33
Gender: Female
Location: Idaho, USA
Contact:

Re: Guidelines and requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by raveighen »

I agree to the guidelines proposed.
Blessings,
Raveighen Blackwing


"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." - Edgar Allan Poe


ImageImage ImageImage Image
Please love upon my beautiful dragons occassionally to keep them healthy.
User avatar
pworrell
OBOD Bard
Posts: 165
Joined: 11 Jan 2009, 08:25
Gender: Male
Location: Along the Portneuf River, Southeast Idaho, USA
Contact:

Re: Guidelines and requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by pworrell »

/agree
Mneme
Posts: 113
Joined: 04 May 2008, 11:44
Gender: Female
Contact:

Re: Guidelines and requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Mneme »

I agree to these guidelines.

Mneme

PS - Thanks guys for putting them together!
User avatar
Duellist
OBOD Bard
Posts: 233
Joined: 01 Feb 2008, 17:47
Gender: Male
Location: Milton Keynes, UK
Contact:

Re: Guidelines and requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Duellist »

I agree to these guidelines, but then I probably should...
Sanity is overrated...
Corvin
Posts: 959
Joined: 29 Oct 2008, 02:53
Gender: Male

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Corvin »

Agree.

Also think not nitpicking can be defined something like concise respectful criticism of key issues.

Not that i'm nitpicking nitpicking :)
User avatar
wyeuro
OBOD Druid
Posts: 1447
Joined: 20 May 2003, 08:36
Gender: Female
Location: oz
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by wyeuro »

I agree,

wyverne /|\
User avatar
Unna
OBOD Bard
Posts: 303
Joined: 08 Feb 2004, 04:20
Gender: Female
Location: Utopia
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Unna »

I agree!
Image

You should do things because they're right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time. (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
User avatar
Fox
OBOD Ovate
Posts: 2115
Joined: 18 Jan 2006, 10:11
Gender: Male
Location: Alba
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Fox »

I've read the guidelines and agree to them. I'd like access to the writing forum, please.
User avatar
wyeuro
OBOD Druid
Posts: 1447
Joined: 20 May 2003, 08:36
Gender: Female
Location: oz
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by wyeuro »

Good on ya! Nice to have you along! :shake:

wyverne /|\
User avatar
HinduDruid
OBOD Ovate
Posts: 155
Joined: 03 Dec 2008, 06:18
Gender: Female
Location: New York
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by HinduDruid »

Hi -- may I have access? I agree to the guidelines :)
ImageImageImage Image

I enjoy defying description.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." --Soren Kierkegaard

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream. Wandering by lone sea breakers, and sitting by desolate streams. World losers and world forsakers, for whom the pale moon gleams. Yet we are movers and the shakers of the world forever it seems.” -- Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy
User avatar
wyeuro
OBOD Druid
Posts: 1447
Joined: 20 May 2003, 08:36
Gender: Female
Location: oz
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by wyeuro »

Hallo, HinduDruid, I look forward to working with you :shake:
wyverne /|\
JSheets443
OBOD Bard
Posts: 66
Joined: 30 Mar 2009, 14:29
Gender: Male
Location: South Carolina
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by JSheets443 »

I agree to the guidelines and would like to have access, I am just about to start the Bardic portion of the course, just waiting on the mail its so slow from over there to here.
Image
Image Image Image Image Image
User avatar
Duellist
OBOD Bard
Posts: 233
Joined: 01 Feb 2008, 17:47
Gender: Male
Location: Milton Keynes, UK
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Duellist »

Welcome to the group, JSheets; I have added you to the group, so please feel free to read and contribute.
Sanity is overrated...
User avatar
LadyCelt
Posts: 961
Joined: 20 Sep 2005, 18:38
Gender: Female
Location: NW Ohio
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by LadyCelt »

I agree. :)
Image
"I wasn't born to live someone else's idea of my life." ~ Carolan Ivey
Ord Brighideach: Image Image Image
User avatar
Duellist
OBOD Bard
Posts: 233
Joined: 01 Feb 2008, 17:47
Gender: Male
Location: Milton Keynes, UK
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Duellist »

And another member added. Welcome Lady Celt.

For the sake of new members joining us, I would point out that it is possible to apply to the group from the User Control Panel. You should still post here to agree to the rules, but you are likely to get approved faster because it doesn't rely on us noticing that there is a new post here :wink:.
Sanity is overrated...
User avatar
LadyCelt
Posts: 961
Joined: 20 Sep 2005, 18:38
Gender: Female
Location: NW Ohio
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by LadyCelt »

Thank you, Duellist! I wasn't in any hurry to gain access, as I've only now just returned from holiday. :)
Image
"I wasn't born to live someone else's idea of my life." ~ Carolan Ivey
Ord Brighideach: Image Image Image
User avatar
Astrid
OBOD Druid
Posts: 290
Joined: 22 Apr 2009, 11:30
Gender: Female
Location: Denmark
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Astrid »

I agree to these guidelines.
:shake:
Where there is tea there is hope :sunfl:
Image
User avatar
wyeuro
OBOD Druid
Posts: 1447
Joined: 20 May 2003, 08:36
Gender: Female
Location: oz
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by wyeuro »

:shake:welcome aboard, Astrid!
wyverne /|\
Caerlyn
Posts: 9
Joined: 15 Sep 2008, 17:51
Gender: Female
Contact:

Re: Critiquing Policies & requests to access the Writers' Grove

Post by Caerlyn »

I agree to the guidelines, and would love to have access to the group.

Beltaine blessings to all,
Caerlyn
Post Reply