Benjamin Boyd asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

How do you tell other writers that ask for your advice what is wrong with their work with out hurting their feelings?

Lois McMaster Bujold Hm. Are you asking how I do it, or how you should do it?

If the latter, there are a number of good posts going back on Pat Wrede's blog that address the art of critique, both giving and receiving it:

http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

It may take a while to find them, but it will be time well spent.

Ah, better. When I typed "critique" into the blog's search box, I got all these, which might speed things up.

https://www.pcwrede.com/?s=critique

Narrowing further with "giving critique" winnows it down to this:

https://www.pcwrede.com/?s=giving+cri...

Apart from pointing out basic errors such as spelling, grammar, typos, confusing syntax, word echoes, or floating antecedents, which should be utterly routine and feeling-free, framing remarks in the mode of, "This bit did this for me. Did you really mean it to work that way?" can be helpful. Saying "you are wrong" can be argued with; saying "I had this response" really can't. Including positive remarks along with the negative also helps keep the recipient's ears open and less defensive.

As for myself, I have a very tiny circle of other writers with whom I exchange crit, all of us going back for years. Tact is still required, but we all know that for all of us, making the work as good as it can be comes before feelings. Though, granted, possibly not by much; I still sometimes have to take a day or three to digest negative crit sent my way. (It probably also helps that they all write at a high professional level already, which cuts out need for the bulk of lower-level -- but also more objective -- corrections.)

Ta, L.

flag