You know you're in for a rough critique when...

[jongibbs]

Much as I’m looking forward to Saturday’s GSHW meeting with John Joseph Adams, I’m a little nervous about the get together with my critique group, which takes place on the same day, after the after-meeting nosh at the local diner.

I’ll be receiving feedback on Waking up Jack Thunder from my beta readers. I’ve seen enough critiques over the last

Comments

[sandy_williams]

lol That's a great list.

[jongibbs]

Thanks, though I'm sure you'll never need to worry about anything on it :)

[snapes_angel]

I wouldn't know about the signs warning you that you're in for rough critique, but when I submit, I actually welcome them. For one thing, they liked you (and the story) enough to read and critique it. Also, there was apparently something done well enough in the writing that it managed to hold their attention long enough to formulate said critique unless, of course, they're offering a critique on your flash fictio0n, which is meant to be succinct. Critique is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad: however, it is needed, to point out things in your story which you;d probably be kicking yourself over, several months from the proverbial "now". And yea, I did paraphrase Spock.

[jongibbs]

Hehe, well that told me :P

[snapes_angel]

Told you what? XD

[vaughan_stanger]

At the Milford Conference (aka critiquing workshop), which is held each year in North Wales, there's a rather charming tradition of handing out chocolates (or other sweets) to the person you're about to deliver a (shall we say "challenging"?) critique to. The three times I've attended, I've received a lot of chocolates.

There was one year when the self-styled Suicide Twins, who had both just received tough-love critiques, jumped in the lake that is conveniently situated close to the farmhouse. Needless to say, we both survived. Indeed, my fellow twin thrived!

[jongibbs]

That chocolate-giving thing wouldn't work for me.

I'd start digging out my early work by the truckload if I thought there'd be some chocs in it :)

[asakiyume]

That was great :-)

I can tell I'm in for a bad critique by the layers of concessive phrases that precede the critique, things like "Well, everybody has different types of things they like," or "You know, I'm not so big on XX [some thing that features prominently in the story]," and so on. That, and small, small complimentary remarks ("I love that you made sure to use Courier font!" or "I didn't spot any spelling errors at all!")

In honesty, though, the people who've critiqued my stuff have been really thoughtful in how they expressed stuff, and yet still honest, and I've always appreciated it. My first reaction (in my head; I don't say it out loud) is "no-no-no-no iz perfect as it izzzz!" ... but then I think about it some more and realize the virtue of what the people are saying. --Most times, anyway. Every now and then I've had some comments that I thought were off base, or where I could see what they were saying, but I didn't want to alter what I had done, even understanding their point.

[jongibbs]

"I love that you made sure to use Courier font!"

Lol, I'll have to remember that one :)

[dlgarfinkle]

LOL!

11. You're asked if everything's okay with your day job, and when you say it is, everyone breathes a big sigh of relief.

12. If you don't have a day job, people give you copies of the newspaper want ads.

13. John Houseman comes back from the dead, hands you a cell phone, and tells you to call your mother and tell her you'll never be a writer. (That's a reference to an old movie called The Paper Chase.)

[jongibbs]

Ooh, the day job question, now that's a mean one :)