Critique Partners – Writing Together

Writing can sometimes feel like you are shouting into the void, especially when you are unpublished and need feedback, cheerleading, and deadlines. One of the best ways to give you this structure is find yourself a critique partner.

Finding a critique partner can be a bit like dating. You can try also sorts of ways to meet them but how or why you meet them becomes irrelevant if you don’t find the right chemistry. It could be that you make that connection at first sight or you are friends that eventually become something more. Your relationship could be geographically close or it could be long distance. As in any partnership you need certain key attributes such as kindness, empathy, generosity (it is a big time commitment) and honesty.

I met my critique partner, Liz Fenwick, through the Romantic Novelist’ Association and we are poster children for friends who became something more. I’m not sure when Liz and I morphed from friends to critique partners. It obviously was one of those seamless transitions or maybe it was just after a very boozy night. It could’ve been after she felt comfortable enough for me to look after her kids that she felt able to let me look after her other baby, her writing. Or it could’ve been the other way round. Either way the critiquing is now so tightly woven into the rest of our friendship I’m not sure we could unpick it and I wouldn’t want to.

We went on Robert McKee’s ‘Story’ course last year and because we know each other’s work so intimately, we were having revelations for each other as well as ourselves.

But I have also heard of horror stories where critique partnering has gone wrong. Seeing someone’s work in progress is very intimate and needs to be treated with respect; I have put together things you should think about when choosing to work with a critique partner.

Know what you want/need from a critique partner:

I need help on a ‘micro’ scale. I’m not the best judge of my writing and, being a bit on the lazy side, would quite happily allow ‘almost right’ out the door. Liz keeps me on the straight and narrow pointing out sentences that don’t make sense, words that have been repeated.

But we both need someone to brainstorm with, someone who has the imagination to follow the story and bounce around ideas. A reader of the genre who understands if the story sweeps the reader in and if it doesn’t then why not…is it character, plot, pace, setting? I think Liz and I give this to each other.

Partnership:

This is a partnership and each person brings something different to the table. I need help on the micro scale but I give Liz help on the macro scale. You also have to remember that your partner has a life and career. If she is travelling halfway round the world three times in a week, you’re probably going to have to wait for her comments. Be patient. Be supportive.

Unlike real estate, location of critique partners isn’t essential. We are at various points in time in London, Dubai, Cornwall or Breckenridge. Skype and email can work wonders. Saying that, nothing beats brainstorming with a glass of wine in hand in person but you take what you can get.

Grow a tough skin:

When you get your work back and it is more red lines and comments than actual words in the original manuscript it can be daunting. But someone you aren’t paying has taken the time and love to help you make your work better. You owe it to them and yourself to look at those comments and do what’s necessary.

When there are parts in the story that I know aren’t working (even if it’s the best prose I’ve written), but haven’t a clue of how to begin to fix it. Talking the problems through can help solve the issues.

Currently I’m in the middle of my second book and I need a detailed synopsis done by the end of the month. I am panicking. This is when I need Liz. She’ll read what I’ve written, then the brainstorming begins, ideas start flying. Most will never see the light of day but a few will and without it this the story would sink.

Jealousy:

Everyone’s career works at different speeds. Just because your critique partner is suddenly in the grand world of publishing and you aren’t doesn’t make you a failure. You’ll be learning right along side them and will be even more ready when it is your turn. And you can take pride in knowing that you helped.

I was published about four years after Liz but I watched and took notes. I look at her as my mentor as much as my critique partner.

Go forth and forge partnerships that will sustain you in the darkest time. Be generous, be brave but above all be kind.

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Brigid was born in the UK but raised round the world and spent most of her childhood with her nose in a book. When she was seven she wrote her first proper story about a magic puddle that flipped up to reveal a secret world underground.

She’s now a non-practicing engineer who works in project management and writes romance and young adult stories.

 

 

Tags: critique partners, featured, feedback, women writers

Category: How To and Tips