A reader has asked me about critique groups again. Since 1978, I have belonged to a writer’s critique group. The first one included Dr. Sherwood (Woody) Wirt, the founder of our San Diego Christian Writer’s Guild. Woody was the editor of Decision magazine for Billy Graham for 17 years. Author of over 30 books and an amazing person. I was so green and new to writing. I thought I had to write “Christian” stories and articles with plenty of Scripture. What Woody gently pointed out was, “The world doesn’t need more Christian writers, it needs more Christians who write!” It took me a while to understand what he was saying. It is our Christian world viewpoint that comes through in our writing whether we write for a Christian or Secular publication.
Many new writers feel like they are banging their head against the wall hoping to catch an editor’s attention. So why a critique group? We need the opinions of like-minded people. Even in a Christian group there are diverse ideas and opinions, yet if you think of it, they represent a small cross-section of your readers. If they note errors, will your readers not also pick up on those errors?
How many of you have read a book and say, found a lot of quotes by the protagonist in French without the interpretation? Do you have to take a French class to be able to read the book? No, just showing off a command of French does not help your reader.
Have you ever tried to keep track of so many character names that you lose the story? What about punctuation? Are there glaring errors? Speaking for myself, punctuation is my nemesis! I sprinkle commas liberally. That is why I need my critique group and also have someone go through my manuscript before sending it to my editor. They love “clean” manuscripts!
If you are mostly writing Christian material, do not seek out a secular critique group. They will not give you the feedback you need in this particular field. If your church is larger, put up a notice that you are starting a critique group for fellow writers. If you are in a neighborhood that has an on-line feed for notices and other information, post it there.
Some rules to go by:
1. Take the first 15 minutes for refreshments, have coffee and cookies or ? ready. Keep it simple! Members can take turns bringing something.
2. Open with prayer.
3. Limit the number to 6 or 7 due to the time taken to critique each person’s offering.
4. 15 minutes to read that person’s offering, and 15 minutes to critique, with each person allowed 3 minutes. If someone has already mentioned an item, just say you agree with so and so and keep to the things you want to mention that have not been mentioned, to save time. Keep a timer handy and hold people to their time (we do get carried away talking!) At 1/2 hour each, for six people, that is 3 hours! It would depend on your host or hostess, how much time they wish to set aside on your critique group day.
5. Be kind, but be constructive in your criticism. Find the “good” parts and comment on those first.
6. Close in prayer.
