Tips for Being a Good Critique Recipient

Of course there’s another side to it. If you want people to help you, there are rules you need to follow, too.

1. Be polite.

            This is part of the golden rule of be kind to others and treat them as you would like yourself to be treated. You want readers to be attentive to your work and responsive, right? Well, it’s a lot harder to ignore a polite inquiry than it is a note attacking them for not getting your characters.

2. Don’t overload.

            They’re busy with their own lives just like you’re busy with yours. You don’t want to send them your whole book and wonder why they haven’t responded. Pick a schedule that they can keep up with and you can work with. This might be something like thirty pages per day or a hundred a week or even just thirty a week. Their own work has to come first, and I’ve heard some people have these “children” they have to take care of.

3. Be patient.

            Again, they’re busy. It’s not just readers who should stick to schedules. You might be anxious to hear what they thought of your chapters, but don’t give them a nudge unless the deadline has passed.

4. Reciprocate.

            If your beta readers ever ask for your help, the considerate thing to do is to give it. They took the time to read your work and you should carve out time in your schedule to do the same. Critiquing is a two way street.

5. And follow the same guidelines when you do.

            It’s no good to agree to beta read and then ask for three times as much time or to refuse to give the detailed responses you asked for. Basically, when it’s your turn to beta read, you follow the guidelines I gave last week, too.

And those are my tips for being a good critiquee. Anything to add?

Well, Not Exactly A Website

Like many of you, I write my novel using Word, so today, I'm going to emphasize some of the features you can utilize to help you with writing, editing, and all that.

First of all, there are comments, notes you can make in the side of the document. Very useful for editing. In older versions of Word, go to View, Toolbars and then Reviewing to bring up the toolbar with both the comment button and the track changes, which displays changes you've made to the document. If you're undecided about deleting a paragraph, use track changes and it will keep the paragraph until you specifically tel it to get rid of it. Note that in post 2007 versions of Word, these functions appear under the Review tab.

Another neat function is the split screen function. Older versions: Go to the Window tab. Newer: go to the View tab. Either way, you click on the Split function and select a spot in the middle of the document to "divide" it. Now you can scroll up and down separately in the two areas and on chapter 1 while looking at chapter 9. A useful tool if you're moving information.

Next, you should know about section breaks because they help with page numbering--if you didn't already know, the first page of a chapter is NOT supposed to be numbered. But even though you start each chapter on a new page--a page break--that doesn't separate the sections in the document. And do to the way page numbering works, you can't selectively delete them. Considering how many chapters you may have, I don't know why you'd want to. But! This is where section breaks come in. At the end of the chapter, don't hit control-enter or "insert page break." You go to the Insert tab and hit "insert break," then select "section break" and "Next Page." Viola! New section, which means if you go to Format Page Number and select "different first page." The annoying part is, you have to select that in each section. I know. Stupid. It's Microsoft. What do you expect?

That's all for now. Any Word tips to add? Did I get something wrong? I may have in the page numbering section. Microsoft directions make no sense.

Point, Counter Point

I collect helpful information when I'm writing, either research or just tips on writing that I know I'll need. One of those tips I wrote down was on Point Of View. I am notoriously bad about switching in the middle of a chapter. Or a paragraph. Bad, right?

First of all, I like third person. I've written two books in first person, although one (still one of my favorites) was actually a constantly shifting perspective that was more akin to third person anyway. In particular, I like third person subjective (or limited) which is the most commonly used mode of narration today. It focuses on one character's thoughts and observations to describe what is going on, and the connection the reader with for the character helps draw the reader in.



I was editing my book the other day when I realized how blatantly I kept switching from one to the other. I was striving for a third person omniscient point of view and failing. It's a hard thing to achieve without detracting from the narrative. See, omniscient is when every character's mind is open to the reader and usually, the narrator is some outer voice a bit distant from the characters and situations. You'd think this would be easy to do, but it isn't. My problem is that most of the time, I stick with one character, but I occasionally bring in someone else's mind to fill in some information the main POV character doesn't have. I can't write in that "other" voice. I have to be part of whomever is telling the story at that moment.

And that just doesn't work. in omniscient It's disruptive to the flow of the story to jump somewhere else, no matter how much I like it. There will be some character switching, no doubt about that, but it will be greatly reduced and always come after a break. Which means once again, I have to go through my book , this time in search of the dreaded POV jump, which I fear will be all to easy to find. A lot will have to go. Other things will have to be added. I'm sure the same thing will happen with my next book, and I say let it. What are second drafts for if not corrections?