today, critique time, and I always go in thinking, “Yowzer! I have nailed this.” And. I come out thinking, “Whoa! I have so much more work to do.” Good times. 🙂 Now that is a good critique group. Here are three things I think a good critique group does:
1. A good critique group talks about your work. Not you. They identify [or not] with the characters and they work with you to make sure your characters are honest.
2. A good critique group encourages the work you are writing. They look for the good stuff, and help you to focus on keeping the good and getting rid of the not-so-good.
3. A good critique group wants you to be successful, they provide information, support and a little bit of therapy.
The best critiques I have EVER had were the ones where the person critiquing asked questions. Why does your character want to go into the basement? If your character gets in this mess, how are planning on getting him/her out?
Done now. Off to critique and to find out. Sigh. At some point in time, they are going to say, send!