6 Questions to Ask Before You Join a “Crit-as-You-Go” Critique Group

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy
Some critiques can cause more harm than good.

Lisa Cooper Ellison did a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog warning writers about chapter-by-chapter critiques. It’s worth reading, but she essentially said that getting feedback on a few chapters of the novel at a time as you write it instead of the critiquer reading the entire novel at once was more detriment than benefit (there’s more of course, but this is the part that I’m referring to in this post).

I agree 100%. I also disagree 100%.

Yes, I know, that’s impossible, but this isn’t a yes or no issue. I’ve been in a “crit as you go” group for a couple of years now, and I love it. It’s been incredibly useful for me and has increased my productivity. But I also understand that I’m at stage in my writing where I can do this successfully, while someone just starting out, or someone with a different process, might fail in a group like this. Even a pro can struggle in this type of group if they write to satisfy the group and let it sway how the novel develops.
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com