Comments on: Revision: Understanding critiques

By: Darcy Pattison

Darcy Pattison — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:53:31 +0000

Novels are so complex! Often, readers know something is wrong — as you said — but can’t identify what. If you’re able to get to the heart of the matter, then you’re a superb critiquer!

Darcy

By: dirtywhitecandy

dirtywhitecandy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:20:31 +0000

I really like this suggestion of getting to the heart of what the editor is saying. I’ve just been critiquing a novel for a writer who had had conflicting advice on her opening chapter. One critic said, add more tension by telling us about the death of the son early on. She did that, and a subsequent critic said, you dissipate the tension too soon by including this information and could keep us guessing far longer.

I read her novel and worked out what the problem really was; her writing style was not inviting the reader to engage with the characters. The two opposing critics had identified this partly – they knew they weren’t as engrossed as they should have been, and so they tried making suggestions to change the content. But they weren’t writers, and they couldn’t see the real problem, which was the style.

By: Kara Parlin

Kara Parlin — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:07:01 +0000

One thing that I find difficult as a beginning book writer is knowing which suggestions/questions to address and which to disregard. I’ve been looking for a resource on revising following critiques, but have come up short.