Valuable critique

lizshine74by lizshine74

In Critique.

At first Ms. Puglisi’s ideas here at The Bookshelf Muse seemed brilliant. I had already pulled out a pad of paper to start making my list, when this voice in the back of my head finally caught my attention. Don’t ruin an already good thing, the voice urged me.

I love my weekly critique group. How would me making a list of questions to use when I’m stuck for something to say add value to my group?

It wouldn’t.

The problem with making a list like this is that the intention behind it seems to be more about having something smart to say in critique than an honest sharing of what worked and didn’t work for you (the reader) in a piece. Lots of great books suffer from the “problems” on Puglisi’s list. What really matters, I think, is getting people’s responses as readers, our intended audience. If an aspect of craft occurs to you in the reading of a work, then, by all means share that, but why force it? The writer needs to figure most of that out on her own anyway and we are not trying to write perfect books, we are trying to writer books that move people toward some human response.

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Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

lizshine74

lizshine74

Liz Shine teaches high school English, writes, edits, and coaches other writers from her home in Olympia, WA. When she begins to feel overwhelmed by it all, she simply looks up at Mount Rainier in the distance and gets back to work. If that fails, she heads to the ocean. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press. Her Substack Make Time is her gift to writers, like her, trying to magic time in this crazy, busy world. All of those posts are cross-posted on the blog here. You can see more of her writing at lizshine.com and find her on Instagram {@lizshine.writer} cooking, traveling, and in other ways seeking moments of awe. She has been an active participant in communities of writers since the early 1990s. She’s learned that two things feel truly purpose-driven in life: writing and coaching other writers. In the in between (because one cannot be driving for a purpose every moment), she enjoys looking for wonder and connection. She is a lifelong yoga student, an enthusiastic walker along streets and trails, and an amateur gardener and vegetarian cook. She lives in Olympia, WA. She believes in the power of practice and has been practicing writing since some time in the early 90s when she became an adult in the rain-soaked city of Aberdeen. Writing began with journaling, as a way to understand a confusing, sometimes violent coming-of-age. She writes mostly fiction, some nonfiction, and poetry, and holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press.

2 comments

  1. lizshine74 says:

    I love reading your reviews! I’m glad this resonated with you. It helped me get clear on what I’m looking for in critique group to write this. When we emerge from writing with a clearer sense of who we are–that’s a sweet spot in writing.

  2. Holly says:

    Well said! And your final words – “to move people toward some human response” – brought to mind my experiences with Goodreads. Sometimes I see others’ reviews that are so trenchant and well-written that I am humbled by doubt that I could/would ever write something that good myself (not to mention think so critically and broadly). Then, I remind myself that what I write on the site – what I have time to do; what it is my inclination to do – is write my “responses” to books I read. Sometimes I write a lot; sometimes very little. I might not hit all the bases of craft, but I have recorded my readerly response.

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