INTRODUCTION:
Hello campers and leaders and anyone viewing this! Welcome to the critique workshop of 2021 SWC of March! Before we begin, the information I transfer is how I personally critique. Since there are multiple ways to do one thing, do whatever works best for you. However, I suggest you consider my tips.

ABOUT A CRITIQUE:
So what is a critique? According to Merriam Webster, the word critique means an act of criticizing, or to critically examine. For this workshop, we will mostly talk about critiquing writing.

We want critiques, because they help us improve our writing. You don't really have to be a skilled writer to critique (though it's great if you are). Receiving a critique should make you feel good, even when there's lots of criticism directed toward your work.

Now, onto the actual critique!

There are three parts to a critique, essentially the before, during, and after. However, I will categorize them as “Asking for a Critique”, “Critiquing Writing” and “After you Receive the Critique”. You can skip sections, but it's recommended for you to learn the entire process.

PART 1: Asking for a Critique!

As a general rule of thumb, trust your gut. Pick people you want to review your work. This is basically people who you look up to, your friends, random people, anyone. However, I would advise to choose based on your purpose, whether being given an opinion of the work overall, improve the writing and polish it, or to focus on a certain aspect. If you're trying to work on something specific and check something, pick someone that is specialized in that area, or just writing in general. You can also pick people with great writing or highly respected writers. They'll most likely be able to point out your weak points, and your strengths.

When you're asking for a critique, be polite. Tell them why you chose them and also vary the language depending on your relationship. You also want to tell them what to focus on. If you have time constraints, tell them, and also tell them when you would like to have it done. Here's an example of what you could do:

Do: Hi there, Writer! I've read your story, Scratch Writing Camp, especially the unique characters. I've also seen your tutorial on how to apply different writing techniques! I'm currently working on this story, and it's named Adventure Cabin I'd love for you to critique my writing, and especially look for inconsistency in my characters, and how they could be improved There's no specific time period I need this back, take your time, but I'd love it if you could get it to me by April 1st ^^ Thank you so much! Here's the link link

This is polite; it shows respect and professionalism. It's also specific and directs the critique to a specific direction.

If another person recommends someone else to critique, mention that someone else recommended them! It makes them feel better about themselves.

Keep in mind, people may refuse your request. They may just say no upfront, or just not respond to your comment.
If there's no response, ask them politely again, under your previous comment, maybe something like: ‘Hey there, are you interested in critiquing my story?" I suggest waiting for a period of time of 3 days (if urgent) through two weeks.

Make sure you give them a comfortable amount of time, so you would have enough time to find another person, but also to allow them to give a quality critique. If someone says yes to you initially, but doesn’t reply, it could mean they aren't really interested in your story, or they just forgot. Give them a reminder. If you’re sure they’re busy and you don’t want to disturb them, find another person.

If you've been unsatisfied with your critique, or the reviewer is only vaguely critiquing it, I suggest finding new people. Maybe give it to a different audience group and also check the way you present yourself. You shouldn't pester people to check it again, if they give critiques you aren't satisfied with. You could resend it to them, if you’ve changed your writing to their suggestions.

I may have failed to mention this before, but you should polish your work the most you can before you send it to someone! People you send critiques to aren't there to go through your messy draft and magically fix it for you, they're supposed to help improve the story. Check if you are proud of it, or if you think you've fixed everything. If you feel something isn't working, but can't pinpoint it, then send your story over That was a long section, so I'll recap and summarize the key points.

-Pick people based on your purpose
-Be polite and professional, and be specific
-Remind people politely, if they don't respond when they've initially agreed
-Polish it before you send your work
-You can definitely send it to different people

PART 2: Critiquing!

There are a few things you should look for when you’re critiquing. Based on your time period, you should either do a vague critique, or a specific critique.

Look for:

-Grammar
-The aspect your writer told you to watch for
-Writing areas you’re familiar with
-Parts that are clear (or not)
-Your overall impression

Checking for CUPS is important. It can help with comprehension! Pointing out the specific places where CUPS is inaccurate will help a lot.

If you're going to be specific, do it here. The aspect your writer told you to watch out for can be vaguely critiqued, but I recommend digging down to the specifics.

The writing areas you look for can be anywhere from general places of writing, like plot, style, worldbuilding, character development. It can also include specific writing techniques, for example, show-not tell, echo words, weak words, voice, and so much more. I recommend being specific here because you’re telling the writer what could be improved and why. I'd also recommend giving suggestions on how to fix it (if you're familiar with their writing style).

It’s important to look at things from a reader’s perspective. Give your honest opinion here, but don't be overly destructing. Make sure you word the critique in a way that allows the author to feel more motivated, by telling them that their weaknesses can be improved through their strengths. This adds encouragement and also tells the author which parts to keep. For example, when you mention that by doing x, you improve y, this changes the writer's mindset in ‘ultra-motivation’ mode. In my opinion, the best critiques are ones that efficiently deliver feedback, but they help the writer feel a sense of encouragement and motivation to keep going.

Your overall impression matters too. Tell the author if you would read the story and if you're immersed. If you like it though, tell the writer why, and if you don't, also do the same.

You shouldn’t give feedback like: “Oh, change the protagonist into a male because I don’t like female protagonists.” (I don’t think anyone would say that here.) Or, “Oh, change the protagonist’s hair into blue, make sure they look like xxx, and they should have a completely different personality!” Be careful on how you might alter the writing style, because that's not the point. You could say: “I noticed xxx, was this a stylistic choice?”

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, but you should definitely explain parts that are unclear.

Now, it's perfectly fine to critique based off what will strengthen the story (in their writing style). For example, you could say something like: “Your character seems like a Mary Sue to me, and that's fine, however, to me a Mary Sue is slightly boring character and if the plot is character-driven, then these flaws will prevent a story from shining. I would suggest making morally grey characters. ” The difference between the two is that the ones that help usually have explanations on why, or how this will benefit them.

When you’re critiquing, try to be specific and concrete, and answer the writer’s follow-up questions about your critique. If possible, teach them writing techniques that could be relevant. You might also want to ask for details of where they're at in their draft.

There are also different ways to critique. I usually do line by line, because that’s what I think works the best, but you can also critique with a paragraph at the end. Line-by-line is more specific, but the paragraph one at the end can save time.

I’m getting a little rambly so here’s a video that does a great job giving tips to critique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuVjVP60xBo

There are plenty of examples of critique that will be linked under resources

Here's an example of a line-edit: https://blog.reedsy.com/line-editing/

PART 3: How to incorporate a critique

A few important notes:
-Listen to yourself first, I’m not saying, completely ignore the other critiquer’s critique, but if they suggest something and you don’t agree, because it doesn’t make your story better, then don’t change it. They might actually be inadvertently giving bad advice and they might unintentionally change the fundamental story you’re presenting, unless you absolutely dislike your storyline.
-Not every critiquer is perfect and always right. You should take their feedback and critically examine it. I also want to mention that you can’t really expect this from anyone because art is subjective.
-People might just give you negative critique because they don’t like the genre. I would advise against listening to them (don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying people intentionally send you hate or that you shouldn’t listen to others giving you solid advice), because you’ll probably feel insecure about your writing, which is like a no-no, please don’t quit writing and feel insecure to write, and you might change the fundamental idea in order to please everyone, which might not be the best for your story

To implement, examine their feedback and determine if it’s something you want to use and if you don’t, that’s fine too, but don’t be afraid to change a lot of your draft. I am guilty of this, and I know some writers don’t like changing too much (for example the storyline), but sometimes, take a risk and change something. If you don’t feel comfortable, place all your changes all in another doc, so they’re not lost forever

Make sure you look for possible edits too! Don’t be afraid to change the substance of your words or your entire idea! When you receive critique, don’t get defensive, and also, try not to take it personally. Sometimes, we might phrase words poorly, and this could have an unwanted effect.

Also, try not to explain the context to the critique when they say something was not clear. It may inhibit the critiquer from critically evaluating your text.

Finally, critiques are supposed to make you feel empowered! If you don’t feel empowered, take a break from them.

Tips from other writers:

“this first one won't be helpful but it gets better (i swear lol). so when i'm looking at something to critique, i often just go by intuition as i look through sentence by sentence. unless i absolutely need context, i never skim the rest.
if something doesn't sound right, or something doesn't sound like it would belong in a published novel, i highlight it and examine it more closely. often, i consider what the writer was trying to achieve. were they trying to build suspense, emulate the thought process of a child, or maybe trying to create a peaceful moment?
then i consider my own feeling reading it - did i feel peaceful, tense, sad, etc. when i was reading it? the worst scenario is feeling straight up bored. basically, consider whether the author succeeded in eliciting a certain emotion from the reader (you), and consider whether the writing actually contributes to establishing a certain atmosphere or advancing the plot.
things that feel ‘wrong’ can include:
- clumsy or choppy sentence structure
- sentence takes way too long to get to the point
- unnecessarily long phrases (unless for dramatic impact)
- an attempt at building suspense that i don't personally feel is actually creating tension
- sentence lengths that don't at all represent the protagonist's state of mind (for example, put-together sentences when they're distraught)
- just straight up: bad or confusing phrases, excessively simple wording, grammar, etc.
another unsatisfactory thing i encounter quite often in writing is ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’, which is why almost every single one of my critiques includes an emphasis on ‘show not tell’.If it sounds too much like a summary or like there's excessive writing, then there's definitely a way to condense it.” - Sunshine_the_rainbow

“Your critique to someone should be kind, constructive, and helpful. It shouldn't be bland with one sentence saying “Good job,” it should be something that the writer/author could improve on in their future writings." - Solarsea

Resources:

Examples of good critiques: https://www.gvsu.edu/cms4/asset/CC3BFEEB-C364-E1A1-A5390F221AC0FD2D/creative_writing_sample_workshop_critiques.pdf

More critique tips: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/tips-for-an-effective-creative-writing-critique-1277065

Video that talks about the topic in depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuVjVP60xBo

I believe Brandon Sanderson has also talked about this, this is uploaded from another user from his lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgqImX4RHE4

Activity: Write a detailed critique for one of your cabinmate’s stories, poems, or essays, whatever it may be. You can do this by asking a cabin member to critique your story. Make sure the critique is at least one hundred words long, mentioning what was great about the piece, as well as what could be improved. After this, make sure you revise your work. Proof of the critique is required 250 points!

And that’s basically it! Thanks for (hopefully) not falling asleep!

Credits: The internet for most of my information (mostly from those resources), sini and fin for the advice section), and me for doing this workshop.

Woah Zura amazing this really helped

ZURA WOAH ITS SO HELPFUL <33

Thanks!

aaaa zura good job!! this was all really useful information!!!

ty everyone for your kind words