Guest author L.N. Hunter provides his observations about the value of critiques, and supplies several helpful links. See also his recent commentary: What Do Americans Have Against the Letter “U” Anyway?

L.N. hails from the UK; therefore his grammar and spelling is based on UK English.

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Why do you write?

Some people write for the fun of it, with no intention of ever letting anyone else see the fruits of their labours. If that describes you, stop reading now! This article ain’t for your eyes.

The rest of us want readers, and if you intend to publish your work anywhere, before you send your writing out into the world, you really ought to have someone else take a close, critical look at it. Even the best of us don’t spot silly mistakes in our own writing [1]: we tend to read what’s in our head, not what’s on the page.

Sure, there are ways to trick your writer-y mind into acting like a reader-y one, such as reviewing your writing in a different guise — on paper or in audio form. Nonetheless, other people are better still at finding ‘areas for improvement.’ And it’s not just the little things: we all get locked into our own cycle of thinking, and it takes an external reader to show us different ways of interpreting what we’ve written or to propose directions to take the story.

Many people get their critical feedback within a tightly knit writing group, typically in-person or via video meetings. But what if you haven’t got an easily accessible writing group, or you just don’t like the pressure of live meetings? (Let’s face it, some of us are introverts who’d sooner throw a bit of writing in a drawer, never to be seen again, than actually talk to someone else about it!)

Is there an alternative?

Well, yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this …

Critique sites [2] are places where you can get people to look at your work. You upload a piece of work and other site members can make structured comments on it — if you’ve used collaborative editing in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, the principles are similar. It typically costs ‘points’ to post work, and you accumulate those points by performing critiques. Some of the sites are free, some require a subscription, and some offer both, such as Scribophile [3], the one I spend most of my time on.

A warning, though … You can post your work on a number of public sites (Wattpad’s one example) and get feedback there. However, because your work is publicly accessible, you might have difficulties in then getting it published elsewhere. Critique sites are ‘private’ (in that only members can see your work) which should avoid this, though that seems a fairly small distinction given how easy it is to become a member. Neil Clarke (of Clarkesworld) has fairly strong views on this, and says he won’t accept material that has appeared on critique sites [4]. I’m not sure how much he actually applies his own rule, as there’s a discussion on Scribophile in which people mention Clarkesworld acceptances for works that have been critiqued there. Still, Neil’s not the only one who holds this view, so if you’re worried about such things, you probably ought to steer clear of any website for pre-publication work!

So, what do these critique sites offer?

First, you get to expose your writing to a bunch of mainly sympathetic folk — they know what it’s like to receive a critique and will aim to give constructive feedback in the manner they’d like to receive. Letting someone else see your work, let alone critique it, for the very first time can be daunting, but I would suggest that because of this, these sites make it less traumatic. It can also help with general stress levels that your critiquers are usually strangers, and that your primary interaction with them is within this narrow domain.

Next, if the site’s large enough (and the good ones are), you can pretty easily find writers of genres and styles compatible with your own, making the swap process more enjoyable and productive.

Third, there are often other site features, such as discussion boards or contests, which can help build community or provide learning resources.

And finally, something not to be sniffed at: you get validation by others, always a pleasant confidence boost.

It’s not unconditionally positive: there can be some issues to deal with.

• The majority of people on these sites are enthusiastic amateurs, so you won’t necessarily get the ‘right’ editing advice (if there is such a thing) — if you want more, you probably have to pay for professional services [5].
• You need to develop a thick skin — people don’t deliberately to go out of their way to be rude, but can sometimes be a little too direct when giving feedback. I actually think this is a good thing, and much prefer clear feedback over something wrapped in a layer of politeness! Just remember they’re critiquing the writing, not the writer. (In any case, you’ll need a thick skin for when rejections come in, but that’s a topic for another time.)
• Unfortunately, sometimes there are just plain bad critiques. I’ve had to deal with a couple of different types: first, the ones that amount to ‘this is <fertiliser> and I don’t like it’ — after a few of these from the same person, I’ve resorted to ‘blocking’ them; and the low-effort, negligible-content ones, either the ‘horoscope,’ so inanely bland that it could apply to anything, or obvious results of feeding your precious work through an online grammar checker — there’s not much you can do about those other than report them to the site admins (which at least costs the lazy ‘critiquer’ the ‘points’ they would otherwise have gained, and could lead to them being banned if they keep doing this).
• While most critique sites have a free option, it can cost money to get the most out of them. For example, Scribophile’s free tier allows you to post at most two pieces at a time — if you’re more into short stories than novels, that could be just fine, but it doesn’t really work for longer material. Nonetheless, free tiers or trials are an excellent way to try a few sites before committing yourself. If you hunt, you can find some totally free ones, such as Critique.org, which looks great — alas, I can’t try it from this side of the Atlantic due to the site owners being (IMO) too cautious about GDPR risks [6].
• These sites tend to orient towards processing short chunks of writing (up to a few thousand words). That means that when used for novel swaps, the critiques tend to focus on a chapter at a time, so it can be tricky to get big picture feedback. I’m not sure what a good solution to that is, but still, even this level of critique is better than nothing at all.

One thing I haven’t dwelt on is the other side of the coin: giving critiques.

Yes, this can be hard work, but besides accumulating credit for return critiques, giving critiques exposes you to different writing styles and can improve your own writing. There isn’t space here to expand on this, but others have already done so [7].

Wrapping up, critique sites can be easier to find than a local writing group and will suit some personalities better than such a group anyway. They’re not perfect, but I can say, hand on heart, that they’ve immensely improved my writing.

Your turn.

I’d love to hear from any readers who’ve used such sites — which one(s) and how are they working out for you?

© L.N. Hunter

References

[1] https://www.wired.com/2014/08/wuwt-typos/

[2] https://www.christopherfielden.com/short-story-tips-and-writing-advice/free-writing-critiques.php

[3] https://www.scribophile.com/

[4] http://neil-clarke.com/first-rights/

[5] https://writershelpingwriters.net/2019/10/story-feedback-free-and-paid-options-for-writers/

[6] https://critters.org/c/privacy.ht#privacy

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About L.N. Hunter

L.N. Hunter’s comic fantasy novel, The Feather and the Lamp, sits alongside works in anthologies War and Trickster’s Treats 3 as well as Short Édition’s Short Circuit and the Horrifying Tales of Wonder podcast. There have also been papers in the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, which are probably somewhat less relevant and definitely less fun.

When not writing, L.N. unwinds in a disorganised home in rural Carlisle, UK, along with two cats and a soulmate.

Find out more or get in touch via Facebook, Goodreads or L.N.’s Amazon page.

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