“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” - Jack Handey


Working online unfortunately provides an easy venue to criticize from miles away with virtually no repercussion. It is easy to tear someone down without providing encouragement or justification.

Fortunately, Review Fuse members tend to give detailed critiques that point out weaknesses in the writing while also providing encouragement. Thank you.

I hope everyone who critiques on Review Fuse can use the brief critique sessions to leave positive impressions. None of us will truly understand the extent of our influence as we interact. Every critique we write exerts influence that can either lift and inspire or depress and destroy an author.

We receive messages every week from authors thanking us for the positive and educational experiences they have using Review Fuse. These thank you notes really belong to the members who give critiques that both build up and show how to improve.

We also, unfortunately, receive occasional emails from members telling us we helped them discover that they have no business trying to write. Every one of these authors has been the unfortunate recipient of critiques that tear down without building up.

I am not saying you should shower someone with endless praise during a critique. That would be a useless critique. I am asking that you please start each critique by telling the author what they did well and then point out ways they can improve. Starting with something positive helps builds rapport and trust. Trust enables your peers to learn from your critiques. If this sounds like too much work take a moment to think about what you expect from the critiques receive. Do you really want someone to run away with your shoes?

Jacob

On this blog, we talk a lot about what constitutes a good critique and how to give one (well, what do you expect? We’re a site that facilitates critiques ). This week there was a great article over at Writer’s Digest titled “How To Choose a Critique Club.” The article brings up some great points we’ve touched on here at the Fuse Blog, but the author also brings up some great new thoughts about how to give a good critique and how to choose a positive and productive critique group.

Here’s a brief excerpt from my favorite part:

When the tables turn and I’m critiquing another writer’s work, especially a first draft, I ask myself: Where do I sense the most energy? If something stops me in my tracks, I note where I feel most engaged. I aim to give the writer my subjective experience of being in the world he created on the page. Where is this world unnecessarily blurry or bewildering? Where do I feel this world fully alive? When I’m bored, I foster my curious self and ask questions, assuming my boredom is where the writer may have been hiding.

Talking to others about their work can teach you the valuable skill of being able to talk to yourself about your own material.

I recommend giving the full version a read. If you do, come back and tell us how you think Review Fuse is doing as a Critique Club. Would you say our community provides a productive and positive experience as described in the article? If not, how we can improve? Many of our current features are a direct result of customer feedback emails, blog comments, or things we’ve read in the suggestion box.

- Clark

Last week I was explaining Review Fuse to a friend. At the end of our conversation she asked me what made Review Fuse different. I replied “there are a lot of online writing groups that praise everyone’s work as literary genius. Review Fuse is different because our mission is to get members to tell each other how to improve their writing.”

I felt pretty good about my mission statement until spoke with a creative writing professor after demonstrating Review Fuse in one of his creative writing courses. While the students were busy critiquing each other’s essays I asked the professor how he helped students improve as authors. His reply made me question my mission statement. He said “there are enough people out there to tear you down. I build my students up by focusing on telling them what they do well. When my students try to publish their writing they will find out how good and determined they really are.”

In order to understand what you really expect from a critique I reviewed some of the critiques given on Review Fuse this weekend. I found that

• Critiques that told the authors what they did well and pointed out how to improve received great feedback scores.
• Critiques that only pointed out how to improve generally received average critique feedback scores.
• Critiques that simply praised the literary genius of the author tended to receive low feedback scores.

My new critique mission statement includes both building up and pointing out how to improve. What do you expect from the critiques you receive?


Jacob

We are considering making two changes to the review framework and would like to know your thoughts before we decide whether or not to make these changes. You can see an example of a review framework below.

Change 1
Get rid of the star ratings. This would leave the comment boxes as the only feedback mechanism. I like the stars because they provide additional feedback. Others hate the stars because they seem so arbitrary. Do you think we should keep, remove, or make the star ratings optional? Is there something you think we should replace the star rating system with?

Change 2
Provide a “not applicable” checkbox to allow reviewers to skip a section of the critique framework. For example, if a story doesn’t have dialogue the reviewer would not be forced make up feedback for the dialog section. Should we continue to require everything to be filled out in the review framework or should we provide a way to skip sections?

Sample Review Framework

Thanks for your help,

Jacob

by Lu Ann Staheli

Here on Review Fuse, learning to review others’ work is just as important as learning how to write well yourself. Here are eight suggestions to help improve your skills as an editor and reviewer.

1. Be a voracious reader. The more you read, the more you will recognize what works and what doesn’t work in your genre. Read the best—and read a few of the worst. Learn to recognize the difference between the two.

2. Know that good writing is more than good grammar. As you read, consider how the author uses ideas, organization, sentence fluency, voice, and word choice to hook the reader. Read your writing aloud and mark spots where you notice word repetition or awkward construction.

3. Know your grammar basics. For many writers it may have been a long time since they studied the rules. I’m not suggesting you bring back bad memories of parsing sentences, but do locate a good handbook that covers punctuation and grammar rules. I use Writers Inc. (Great Source Publishers). This book not only has easy-to-follow instructions about the rules, but it also includes maps, conversion charts, and other supplementary materials that can be an asset to writers as they research.

4. Read books about writing. It seems as if everyone from Stephen King to Janet Evanovich has written about themselves as writers, and many of them have great tips to share with you. Keep a log of weaknesses you know you personally need to work on improving. Make a list of words you sometimes overuse. (See The Ten Percent Solution by Ken Rand. http://www.sfwa.org/members/Rand/Solution.html)

5. Read magazines such as Writer’s Digest. For a long time, this magazine included a feature where aspiring authors sent in their first page for an edit by a professional. Carefully reading articles such as these and others in each issue show you exactly what an editor wants.

6. Understand genres. Although it is important that your ideas be unique to you, it is also important that the writing you do will actually fit into a niche in the market. Novels can often include two genres if one of those genres is either romance or adventure. For instance, a historical romance works, as does a science fiction adventure. But historical science fiction is a little hard to fathom.

7. Talk about books. Be knowledgeable about what is being published. Follow the trades, local bookstores, or online marketplaces such as Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com. Use books as a place to gather new ideas, but also use them as a textbook for becoming a better writer. Study those opening paragraphs. Listen to the character’s voice. Know why you love—or hate—the main character.

8. Believe that your editing skills will grow, as will your writing skills. I’ve been a member of a critique group now for nearly ten years, and I can promise you that I catch many more spots that need edits now than I did back then, and it’s not because the members of my group are untalented writers. That would be far from the truth. Learning to edit has a rhythm of its own, and like any task we undertake, we tend to become more proficient as we practice that skill.

Know that the time it takes to improve your editing skills will be well worth it once you see those magazine articles and books being accepted for publication.

Lu Ann Staheli, the 2008 Best of State Educator K-12 in Utah, is a newspaper columnist, editor, and freelance writer. She blogs at Lu Ann’s Library.

Critiquing can evoke the dark side of a reviewer. Some misled reviewers use these dark and loathsome feelings instead of logic, wisdom, and common sense to guide their critiques. These unfortunate souls have not yet learned the valuable lesson Kurt Vonnegut taught when he said “any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a story is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.”

When you are critiquing don’t waste your time mutilating the sundae. Spend your time telling the author how to improve it; after all, a good critique provides specific ideas about how to improve. Praising or degrading without thorough explanation is a complete waste of your time and the author’s. As writers shouldn’t we be able to constructively present creative ways to help each other improve our works?

Do you enjoy eating a nice chocolaty sundae? If so please join our writing group and satisfy that lingering hunger for help.

Jacob

When you are critiquing someone’s writing please remember the following guidelines.

1. Start the critique by telling the author what they did right, and then follow up by telling the author what they did wrong in their writing.
2. Critique the writing. When recommending ways to improve another’s work say “The story should…” or “This writing is…”
3. Do not critique the writer. Never say, “You are…” or “You should…”
4. Give a fair and useful critique even if you don’t like the topic.
5. Never say anything remotely close to “This is awful”, “That is stupid”, or “You’re an awful writer.”

Would you like a chance to sharpen your critiquing skills? If so, then join Review Fuse or enter our free Holiday writing contest.

Jacob

When reviewing a story, you can add inline comments by clicking on any of the story’s text. When you click on a word or paragraph, a text box will appear below the paragraph you clicked on. Then, you can type in the box to add inline comments, as shown in the screen shot below. To quote text from the paragraph, simply highlight the text you wish to quote, and the highlighted text will automatically be pasted into the text box for you. You can add an unlimited number of inline comments to a review. We recommend being generous by providing numerous inline comments to your peers. Note, this screen shot is from our newly designed website that will be released mid-October.

Tell us what you think: How do inline comments compare to the structured review? The structured review has the star ratings and comment boxes?

Jacob

Our primary goal is to provide you with timely peer reviews of your stories. To ensure your stories do not get stuck in review purgatory, we have set a four twelve-hour limit for performing a review. This means once you have been assigned a review, you will have four twelve hours to complete and submit the review. For example, if Luke does not complete his review of Ben’s story within the four twelve-hour time limit the story will be assigned to another reviewer, and Luke will not be credited for completing a review.

Tell us what you think: Is the four tewlve-hour time limit too short, too long, or just about right?

Jacob

A Review Fuse member recently asked me, “What should I do when I get a bad review?” I have thought of three steps you should take if this happens.

1. Ask yourself why you consider the review to be “bad.” Is it because the review does not contain any comments, or do the comments included simply praise or berate your work without offering suggestions for improvement? Alternatively, is the reason you don’t like the review because the reviewer did not abundantly praise your work, but instead offered suggestions for improvements throughout.  Before you make the decision about whether your review is actually “bad,” carefully read through it again to ensure that it does not, in fact, offer insights about how to improve your work. A good review is one which thoughtfully evaluates your work, pointing out both areas you wrote well in addition to areas that could use improvement, with suggestions for improvement.
2. Respond to the reviewer by rating his or her review, just like you would with a good review. Critique the review the way you wish they would have critiqued your work—by offering examples of comments that were helpful and suggestions for how to improve unhelpful comments.
3. Report the bad review to the Review Fuse Team using the contact us page, so that we can take action. Every bad review report is inspected by our team. If we find the review lacks insights about how to improve your work we will revoke the review. This will remove the bad review from the story while simultaneously qualifying the story for another review. It also assigns the person who gave the bad review another review assignment. If a review you perform is revoked the Review Fuse Team will email you and explain why. Our system matches people with their peers, members who consistently give good reviews will be matched with other members who give good reviews.

Review Fuse is building a community of members who are committed to improving their work by giving and receiving high-quality reviews.  As members of this community, we urge all of you to assist us in enforcing these high standards to ensure that those who are truly interested in improving their writing have the opportunity to do so.