I’m actually not looking for an assessment of your critique partners’ weaknesses and strengths 😉 . I’m wondering about the mechanics of critique groups. I recently joined a second online critique group, a brand new one just getting off the ground. We’ve kind of struggled to figure out how our new group was going to work.
The other group I’m a part of is well-established. Their mechanics were in place long before I joined. In fact, I didn’t join—I was admitted. You had to submit a sample chapter, a sample critique and a bio. If two or more members wanted to exchange critiques with you, you were in. Then, you exchanged critiques with the members who’d 
voted for your admittance, and any prospective members you voted for (if they got enough votes). So while we have some 20+ members (I think?), most people have only 2-4 others they’re actively critiquing.
That’s a good number—we’re never overwhelmed by how much work we have to do (even with four partners, I went weeks or months without having to crit or post anything), but we also get several sets of eyes to look at our work—but not so many that we get a lot of conflicting opinions. We also have access to lots of other writers for good advice, congratulations, and commiserating.
However, this established group, with its high entry requirements, requires that members have a certain level of expertise/experience/know-how. The new group is welcome to all comers (well, it was; we’re full now with around 10 active members). And as such, we were posting 30 pages each on the 5th and the 20th of each month (not everyone has posted every time).
That was kind of a lot—especially considering we’re all at different experience levels, and all needed different levels of critiques. So we’ve been searching for another method. We’ve settled on cutting back to 20 pages (or so) each, twice a month. On the one hand, that’s a little frustrating for me, because a 300-page book is going to take probably six months or more to critique. On the other hand, with so many people in the group, I don’t know that I could handle any more than that (especially since I’m still in the other group and behind there, too).
So I’ve been wondering—how does your critique group work? How often do you meet? How much do you critique at a time? How many members do you have?
And would you be interested in a series on critiquing? (At some point.)
On an unrelated note, if you’d like to win a free Kindle, you can check out this contest. But, um, don’t enter, so I can win, mmkay?
Picture by Nic McPhee
Your first critique group sounds fascinating. I can’t imagine having to submit a chapter to get accepted! I think I’d be nervous!
And thanks for the shout out!
I’ve been in a number of critique groups and found some of them to be hard work and time consuming. In one group, everyone had to post one chapter per week and everyone had to critique all eight chapters. Some were Y/A and others MG. I write MG so my chapters were much smaller than the others and I had to work harder. When I asked if I could submit two chapters, they refused, so I dropped out of that one.
The group I’m in now is fantastic. It works on a credit system. You receive credits for a critique and get more for a larger word count, then you can and use your credits to post your own stories. This system is great because you’re not obligated to critique certain chapters and can pick and choose. Everybody wins. You can also form your own private group. This works great as you can also chat on a private forum or go on the public one.
I’ve met some wonderful supportive writers and we’ve been sharing critiques for years now. You can also swap and change who you want in your group. The software they use is fantastic. It makes it easier to critique and in much less time. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to mention the name so I won’t, but anyone can join.
Oh, I guess I should clarify, too, that at this point we haven’t gotten stringent about compelling everyone to critique everything. Not everyone submits, not everyone critiques each time, and it’s worked pretty well so far.
You already know how one of my groups works. I’m in another local group that meets once a month. Pages need to be submitted a week before the meeting. I don’t exactly recall if there’s a limit, but I’m thinking there probably is. The group is quite large – 30-40 people or so, although not that many come. I haven’t submitted there yet because they are focused on SFF, and right now my attention is elsewhere.
I was also in a different local group that fell apart when the economy caused our meeting place to close. We met twice a month and just brought pages and went around the room reading them. There wasn’t any work outside of meeting time, but I don’t think the critiques were as thorough as they could be.
I’ve also traded beta reads with people, but not on a formal group basis.
Trisha, What software are you referring to that your group uses?
Jordan, I haven’t done a critique *group*. I just have a critique partner. We email chapters back and forth as we have them available. We usually each get 1 or 2 chapters in a week. Anything longer and it would take me forever to get my 120K, 21 chapter WIP done. 🙂 We also help each other with query letters, synopsis, contest entries, etc. Pretty much whatever we want help with. 🙂
I would never do an in-person critique group because it would seem to be a much more superficial critique. My CP and I do a line-by-line edit. It takes me about 3-4 hours to do one of her chapters. You just couldn’t get that in-depth without the ability to dig in. We do everything from grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. on up to overall story arc, character motivations, etc.
On the other hand, Jordan, your original group sounds interesting. That’s a good way to run a group with diverse genre interests and backgrounds. I haven’t heard of that before, but I have heard of many horror stories with incompatible people. Your group’s structure bypasses all those problems. Is that local to you? Or are they online? I don’t think there’s a local group like that around me.
Interesting post, Thanks!
Jami G.
@Jami—they’re online. They’re actually all romance writers, so it is pretty genre-specific.
In-person critique groups don’t have to be “superficial,” I know some in-person critique groups email chapters in advance, so people come with notes prepared. They may read the chapters aloud there and take further notes, or just exchange hard or soft copies of the critiques and socialize. (Ooh, actually, that sounds wonderful!)
Jordan,
Ohhh, the critique ahead of time, then get together and socialize. I get it. 🙂
So, how did you hear/find out about your online group? Did you have to be invited to even send a chapter in?
Jami G.
Some groups do just read in the meeting. I came across the first one searching Yahoo Groups, actually. The second one, I met someone through a writing conference attendee mailing list who was starting a new critique group.
I joined my first group in 1994 and stayed for several years. I switched to another group that gain a good reputation fast. I’m one of those types who sticks it out for the long haul. Sometimes that’s not a good idea. Suffice to say, if the dynamics of the group are such that the “owner” calls the shots and you end up feeling as if you have to adapt to flourish, then you should stick it out until that little voice inside says, “Time to go.”
Today, I belong to 2 groups, a mixture of new and experienced, and a small intimate group of established writers. The first reminds me how far I’ve come and that helping new writers is a good feeling. While I like working with new writers, I feel most comfortable with the smaller group. I trust them. They’re not interested in rewriting my work or changing my voice to echo theirs. And there are no strict rules. We each sub a chapter and the others crit it when they can, as honestly and helpful as they can. It seems to be working well.
I’ve been involved in two online groups that critiqued short stories or novel chapters. In both cases the requirements meant I spent more time critiquing others’ work than I did writing my own. I finally found an “in person” writer’s group and have been a member for six years. The members have varying levels of expertise and it is a very compatible group. Some meetings are instructional, and others are set aside for critiquing. The problem is that there are now too many members to be able to do effective critiquing of larger mss. Each reading is limited to no more than 500 words which is no help with a novel ms.
The most effective group I’ve seen is one I attended while visiting out of town. There are 5-6 members. They are all novelists and they each email one chapter (or portion, as they wish) to the other members at least a week before the meeting. Then the actual meeting time isn’t wasted on reading but is spent in profitable discussion of the critiques (and yes, lots of tea and visiting). I would dearly like to find or create a local group like that!