Zestful Blog Post #126
When I was coming up as a writer I was wary of critique
groups, and still am, even though I’m occasionally paid to lead them. (This
post is on the heels of doing a day-long one at a conference last week, which makes all this fresh in my mind.)
For the uninitiated, a writing critique group is where
everybody submits an agreed-upon amount of writing in advance, and everybody
comments on everybody else’s work. Some groups don’t read in advance, but read
silently or aloud on the spot.
Such groups, a.k.a. other people’s opinions (OPO), are
fraught with peril. Some of your fellow writers may:
- be kind of dumb and thus don’t get your stuff;
- have different tastes from you, and thus don’t get your
stuff;
- be needy, argumentative, not nice, ‘and exetera,’ as the
kids in my neighborhood used to say.
All that may be. But there is gold for the mining in such
groups:
- Any reading-aloud that is done (especially by someone not
the author) instantly and pretty much empirically reveals awkward wording;
- Patterns of opinion generally emerge, which if you’re
open, can help you make decisions about anything from content to theme to
style;
- If one or more accomplished, or particularly astute,
writers are present, you can improve how you think about literature: how to
evaluate it, perceive strengths and weaknesses, and figure out solutions to
problems;
- You’re forced to separate yourself from your work
emotionally if not intellectually. Writers who can’t do this are doomed. Some
writers find critique groups too upsetting, so they self-select out of them. I’m
not saying if you don’t like crit groups you’re doomed; just that well-adjusted
writers learn to deal with criticism calmly and rationally.
[This writer showed up way
overdressed for critique group day.]
Crit groups are not for everyone, and not everyone comes
away with the exact same gains or lack of. But that’s life: it ain’t always
fair, but if you stay open come hell or high water, trust the process, extend
yourself to others, and persist, you’ll be all right.
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