It often feels dangerous to offer our work up to others for critique and feedback. It requires a lot of vulnerability, but is a crucial part of the writing process as it is required to improve our work. In this episode, Gina, Melody, and KimBoo talk about letting go at a lot of levels: letting go of attachments to what we write, letting go of words, letting go of expectations, letting go of the creation process, and more. Sometimes that means “kill your darlings,” sometimes (if you are KimBoo!) it is about adding and embellishing the story and letting go of impatience. The important part of critiquing is knowing where you are at as a writer, knowing how to take a break, and finding the balance of what works for you.

This episode goes in depth on how to find a supportive critique group, what an alpha reader is, and how to find the right people to help you critique your writing. It is the first part of a series of episodes focused on editing and critiquing, and we start with a look at the early stage of editing, either when a draft is freshly done (or not even quite done yet!).

Resources:

• The Internet Writing Workshop: https://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/
• Critique Circle: https://www.critiquecircle.com
• Beta Readers and Critique Partners Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1782619931753141/
• Scribophile: https://www.scribophile.com/

Ep.12: The Three Cs: Critique, Compassion, and Craft! (Part 1) – TRANSCRIPT

Dave Hogan, Gina’s Pop
0:02
Welcome to Around the Writer’s Table, a podcast focusing on the crossroads of creativity, craft, and conscious living for writers of all ages and backgrounds. Your hosts are Gina, Melody, and KimBoo, three close friends and women of a certain age, who bring to the table their eclectic backgrounds and unique perspectives on the trials, tribulations, and the joys of writing. So pull up a chair and get comfortable here around the writer’s table.

Gina Hogan Edwards
0:43
Hello, everybody, welcome to Around the Writer’s Table. This is Gina Hogan Edwards and I am here with my buddies Melody, A Scout, and KimBoo York. We’re here for another episode of Around the Writer’s Table. And today we will be talking about critiquing. But first let me introduce you to my buddies. We have KimBoo York. Say hello. 

KimBoo York
Hey, hello, y’all. 

Gina
KimBoo is a romance novelist and a former project manager and she helps writers and solopreneurs find time, mojo, and motivation to create. And my other buddy here with us is Melody, A Scout. 

Melody, A Scout
Good morning, listeners. 

Gina
Melody helps her clients find their sense of home by restoring balance and harmony to their lives through plant spirit medicine and her book Soul of the Seasons. 

As I said, I am Gina Hogan Edwards and I am passionate about supporting women in finding their voices, whether that’s on the page or from a stage. So let’s dive into a topic that was the birthing point of this podcast.

KimBoo
At last! Yes. 

Gina
KimBoo, Melody, and I have had so many conversations about the process of critiquing. But before we get fully into that, I am going to pass this off to Melody so that she can tell us a little bit about our previous episode and how we’re going to transition into talking about critiquing.

Melody
2:17
Yeah, so our last episodes, last two episodes [#10 and #11], were on the season of Fall. And the season of Fall is all about letting go. We’ve gathered to harvest. We’ve completed a work or a certain stage of our work. And we have this abundance of stuff as writers, we have an abundance of words, and probably ideas, and probably more words, and…

KimBoo
2:45
lots of lots and lots of words

Melody
2:47
Many, many, many words. And if you’re like me, I used to have a T-shirt that said “Help I’m writing and I can’t shut up.” Anyway, the season of Fall in the natural world is all about letting go and keeping only what’s essential and precious to us. And this is how the subject of critiquing fits in because critiquing and editing which is a part of this, about specifically critiquing, is about identifying those things that need to be released, that don’t serve our storyline, that don’t serve the core of what we’re trying to put forward in our work. So it’s not about getting rid of everything. It’s having an eye, with precision, to let things go in a way that is very direct, but also kind.

Gina
3:45
One of the words that comes up for me in this process is discernment. And looking at our work with discernment. Is this piece, first of all, following the intention that I originally had for it? And being able to methodically take a look at what serves that purpose and what might not, what needs to come out, what needs to stay in or be embellished, what needs to be focused on and what needs to just be completely washed away.

KimBoo
4:21
It’s interesting to me–I’m gonna jump in real quick–it’s like discernment, I think, is a better word for me, because I’m what my mother used to call the radio school of writing, which is that I would just be very bare bones. And so when I go back and I do editing, I generally add a lot, but it’s because I’m trying to let go of just getting from one scene to another. Like, I’m trying to add feeling and emotion. So yeah, so discernment for me: like, oh, I need to explain why that character is doing this. Oh, okay.

Gina
4:54
Well, and I think that you’ve struck on something that is important for us to remember, is that when we’re talking about letting go, it’s not only about what needs to come out of the work. Sometimes it can be letting go of a certain perception that we have of our own work. Or letting go of a certain attitude that we have about what we’re working on. So this is not only a phase or a process where we’re letting go of words, but it also has to do with the writing process as a whole in the way that we view ourselves as a writer.

Melody
5:31
Absolutely. The inner and outer critique, you know, not only of the work but who we are as writers, and we have certain attachments to things we write, and the emotional connections to that. And that may make it challenging. We’re going to talk about all that fun stuff later.

Gina
5:51
Yeah, so attachment. That’s a good segue into what I want us to talk about first. So when do you really know that you are ready to take your work to that next stage? When do you know that you’re finished with your draft, whether it’s your first draft or your 50th, and take it to that next stage? So we’re going to talk a little bit today about critique groups. I think we’re probably going to have a little bit difference of opinion. And I want those listeners out there to know that that’s okay. It’s good for you to hear kind of different writers’ perspectives and experiences in that regard so that as you’re working through your writing process, and figuring out your writing practice, you can determine what is really right for you. So the first thing I want to talk about is looking at our own work and doing some self assessment. This is…

KimBoo
6:54
Yuck, I don’t want to do that.

Gina
6:58
So what I was gonna say was this can be a very uncomfortable process, KimBoo. You know, it’s hard for us to be objective about our own work, because we do oftentimes view our words as precious and we don’t want to let them go. We love–so many of us–love the creation process that doing that mental switch into evaluation or assessment can be a challenge, and sometimes not as fun. 

So I want to preface all of what we’re going to talk about today by saying that when you go through this process, one of the things I want to encourage everyone to embrace is self-compassion. Be kind to yourself as you do this. Because it is an uncomfortable phase, I think it’s a good idea to consider yourself. As you go through your work, and as you look at your process, look at yourself just as you would a writer friend. You know, try to take that step back and look from the outside. So treat yourself as you would any other writer friend as you go through this evaluation process. 

So self assessment, what does that mean? That means sometimes taking time away from your writing, and writers often don’t want to do that. It’s like I want to get this project done. You know, I’m finished with the draft. I want to finish it. But taking time away from your writing is a very important process, and I would love to hear–or a very important aspect of the process. I would love to hear from you KimBoo, and then Melody about taking time away from your writing and what that means to you and how that feels.

KimBoo
8:57
Ah, wow. So like just digging deep right off the mark. Taking time away from my writing. I think one of the things that I deal with, especially as a genre writer, is that I have a lot of ideas. I know both you and Melody tend to work on one big project at a time. You might be doing smaller things as you go along. But that book or that novel is what you’re working on. Whereas I have like 13 at a time. So…

Gina
9:26
That scares the daylights out of me.

KimBoo
9:31
So for me, I think a lot of people think, oh, taking a break from writing means stopping writing, which to me doesn’t necessarily mean that to me. Taking a break might mean stepping away from that story and working on another new idea or reworking an older idea that wasn’t working out. So for me–and that’s an important part for me in the process–to keep a connection with the spirit with the Muse if you will, of keeping in touch with creativity. Because if I stop writing–and it has happened to me, occasionally through the years where I just don’t write; I’ve been dealing with writer’s block, actually, for the last year–it’s unhealthy, it doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel good. 

And so even though it might be good for that story itself, not to be worked on, for me, I need the creative juice of working on other things. So I do stop working on a story, usually when I hit a block, or hit a wall, or finish the first draft, but I don’t stop writing. And, I think, that’s, obviously, I might be an outlier, but that’s just how my brain works. If I stop writing completely, it’s not a good day. 

Gina
10:30
I love that perspective. And also the ability for us to clarify, when I say take some time away, I don’t necessarily mean from your writing practice as a whole, but just time away from that project.

So taking time away might mean that instead of working on that project, you’re journaling. So I’m glad that you brought that up, KimBoo, so that we could clarify that taking time away doesn’t mean stop writing. Please, don’t stop writing.

KimBoo
11:13
How about you, Melody?

Melody
11:15
Well, this is a really good subject because when we talk about the five seasons and the Five Elements, it’s all about balance. And so if it does not feel balanced to you to completely quit writing, then that’s not your jam. The internal assessment, the internal discernment is about finding what works for you. And for myself, I can take a complete break from writing, but that’s kind of how I roll with a lot of things.  I go in what I’d call a binging or whatever. But even with reading and other things, I’ll just like, go 100%, 110%, read everything in sight. And then I can go months without reading anything at all. 

And I can do the same thing with writing, although I find it harder to stay away from the actual writing. But I also have a lot of writing-adjacent activities I like to do: putting down story ideas..

Gina
And those are all part of the process. 

Melody
Absolutely. And it’s good to remember that just because you’re not putting actual words on the page does not mean you’re not actually doing writing work. And it’s all essential.

KimBoo
12:41
I’m going to, a story that my friend Kim talks about a lot, and–she’s a good friend of mine and both Gina and Melody know her; she’s local here to Tallahassee–where she was actually being a copywriter for business. And one day, somebody walked in, and she was sitting at her desk, and they just said very snarkily to her, “Oh, I see you’re busy writing,” because she was just sitting at her desk, like looking off. And she and I laugh about it because she was busy writing. She was thinking about the topic she was supposed to be writing about and just trying to corral her thoughts. And, but of course, it just looks like she was sitting there facing a blank wall. But she was writing.

Gina
13:21
Yeah, yeah, we need to be–again, going back to that self-compassion–be kind to ourselves about every single stage of the process. And even though other folks might look at us and think that we’re sitting there daydreaming or wasting time or whatever, the ideation stage, oh, it’s so juicy. And I just I love it. And so don’t let anybody convince you that that’s not part of the writing process, even though like Melody said, you may not be putting alphabet on the page. 

I want us to sort of loop around here. We’re gonna come back to this idea of assessing because we’re going to talk a little bit about a worksheet that we’ve got to help you through that process. But I don’t want us to ignore two other aspects of the very early stages of moving from having your draft ready to that sort of in-between stage before you’re actually ready to publish. And those are critique groups, which, as I said, was sort of the birthplace of this podcast, and then also alpha readers, which KimBoo is going to fill us in some about. But I would love to talk about critique groups, your experience with critique groups, what you think of that process of actually sharing your work either as you’re writing or once you’ve got a draft completed. So Melody, I’m gonna throw it to you first this time, and then we’ll go to KimBoo.

Melody
14:47
So, I actually love critique groups, and I joined my first writer group, oh my gosh, a couple of decades ago here in Tallahassee. And I was just fortunate enough to land in a group where people offered kind, supportive, encouraging advice. Even though I was just a baby writer.

KimBoo
That’s awesome. 

Melody
And I personally enjoy critiquing. Some people, they’re just not their favorite thing. But I enjoy it as long as it’s given with compassion and balanced feedback, because any critique that is harsh, in lacking kindness and compassion and empathy for the person receiving the critique is an imbalanced critique. And so I learned a lot and my writing really improved in the few years when I attended that group. And I understand, and I’ve been to other writing groups where this is not always the case. 

And knowing when you need a critique is, I think, an essential part of the assessment phase. And knowing if it’s really a critique that you want or not. Or is it something else? Do you need encouragement? Do you need support? Do you need somebody to say, “That’s great. Keep going, maybe, you know, head it in this direction a little bit? What do you think about that?” It’s really important, because, you know, I’ve had the experience of offering something in the early stages–wasn’t a first draft–but the feedback I got, even though it wasn’t meant to be, felt really harsh. And what I realized later on was I didn’t really want a critique right then. I wanted a cheerleader, somebody to say, “You’re doing some amazing stuff. Keep going. I may not get it right now. But keep going.”

Gina
17:03
Yes, that is so important: knowing what your expectations are of the group, and making sure that the others in the group know what your expectations are. Be clear about what you’re asking for when you’re participating in a critique group.

Melody
17:20
And I might recommend, actually, if you’re interested in a group, go sit in for a few times before you offer any of your work. See what happens there.

KimBoo
17:31
Yeah, definitely.

Melody
17:32
Is this a group? I mean, our work is very personal and intimate, no matter what we’re writing. It comes from our heart. It’s got our blood, sweat, and tears in it. So is the group that you’re going to trustworthy, going to be holding your work in a generous light? Yes. And you as well as the writer? 

Gina
17:56
Yeah, that’s excellent advice to sit in on the group a couple of times before you actually share your work or participate, commit to participating in the group. Great advice. KimBoo, how about you,

KimBoo
18:08
I haven’t participated in a critique group in a very long time. I, kind of like Melody, have both positive and negative experiences with it. So I really don’t know if I’m someone to advise people on how to decide about whether a critique group is going to be beneficial for them. I think–I don’t know, Gina, see maybe your experience with other writers–I think there is a period, you know, kind of getting back to Melody’s idea of the cycle, right? The cycles, the seasons. I think there’s a season of a young writer’s life where a critique group can be very helpful, because you’re getting a lot of different perspectives back on what you’re writing outside of your own little zone. 

For me, that’s a double shot of: I’ve been writing a very long time and I also write in genre categories, and critique groups for genre categories do exist. Usually they’re not local. I think there was one science fiction critique group that was here local in Tallahassee for a little while. But, of course, that all collapsed with the pandemic. There are certainly a lot of online critique group organizations where you join the organization or join the website, and then you can find smaller critique groups within that website. I’ll try to find a couple I know about and we’ll link them in the show notes. 

But I haven’t done much of that lately. I will say that for me, ironically, writing fanfiction kind of served that purpose in a way because I would write chapter fic, which is, obviously stories that are long enough to have chapters, as opposed to one shots, which are short stories. A lot of different lingo for the same thing, I think is funny. But when I write chapter fic, I would post a chapter and then get feedback on that chapter from people who are reading it, wide variety people, anybody who was like an open critique group. Just come in and tell me how you feel about this, which can be bad sometimes. If you’re writing something challenging or depressing, or, you know, in a worst-case world, if you’re writing something that’s filled with stereotypes and negative images of people, then people are really going to slam you. And so that’s the negative part of that. I don’t want to encourage everybody to go out and do what I did. But it kind of did serve as a critique group, because it really made me realize what people liked in stories, what they didn’t like in stories, and because as a genre writer, I’m trying to–I’m not going to say write entirely to market–but I want to write to people’s expectations of what that genre is supposed to contain, that was very helpful for me. So this kind of sort of critique-ish type of thing that I did for years. And I think it really helped my writing in particular. So that’s my experience.

Gina
21:01
Well, I have a love-hate relationship with critique groups. Like Melody, I have participated in some fabulous groups and, frankly, it was out of sheer luck that I ended up with some other writers who were really skilled at being able to offer suggestions without hijacking the story. And the reason that I have a love-hate relationship with critique groups is because in my editing work, as I’ve worked with clients, I have had writers fairly early on in their writing practice, in their projects, participate in critique groups and come away so absolutely devastated that they have stopped writing.

KimBoo
21:59
And man, that’s just, uck. That’s the worst.

Gina
22:02
It’s heartbreaking. And, you know, what happened was a couple of things. One, the individual not really knowing what they wanted out of a critique group but feeling like it was something that they should participate in, because that’s what they had been told by some other writers; you know, “Get some feedback.” And so they joined this group, and they didn’t know the people and they didn’t know what their expectations were. They were unclear about their own expectations about whether they were really wanting a cheerleader as Melody talked about earlier, or really wanting meaningful feedback on their writing, and these people didn’t know how to give feedback. So they ended up hijacking her story, and saying, “You should do this, and you should do that.” And it got her so disconnected with what it was that she wanted to do and her story that she just shut down. She couldn’t write anymore for a very long time. And so that’s why I have a love-hate relationship with critique groups. 

And my words of caution, if a critique group is something that you want to participate in: #1) know what your own expectations are, #2) when you find a group, especially if you don’t know the group, encourage them to have a set of ground rules so that everybody’s expectations are similar in terms of how the group should be conducted. There’s a very, to me, it’s a–you know, this is words we’re talking about here–so it’s a very fine line, but there’s a difference between ‘feedback’ and ‘critique.’ Feedback offers suggestions and encouragement. Critique offers, sometimes, harsh criticism that, again, can shut us down, can take us into a place where we no longer are connected with whatever our heart was telling us that that piece needed to be. So setting ground rules. In any critique group that I participate in, or feedback situation, the words “you should” are prohibited, because that is when someone is imposing their ideas upon yours. So knowing what your expectations are, knowing what the rules are for the group, encouraging the group to be on the same page about how the critique is to be delivered. 

And, you know, you can participate in a critique group when you’re still in the writing phase. And I think that that is the most… that is when the opportunity to be steered away from your intentions is the highest. If you’ve already got a full draft, then you’re less likely to have that happen. So just keep that in mind if you do decide that you’re going to participate in a critique group. So, you know, in a nutshell there’s other aspects, but that’s kind of why I have that love-hate relationship with critique groups.

KimBoo
25:09
Gina, for listeners, do you have any resources on how to establish rules for critique group? Like examples or anything like that, that maybe we can link to them?

Gina
25:21
I can certainly look those up and we can put those in the show notes. Or from some of the work that I’ve done, I can put together a tip sheet or something that we can include.

KimBoo
25:31
I think that will be very helpful, at least so people know what–because like, what kind of rules would be good? Like the word, not including the word should. That’s a good one. You’re not allowed to use that word. But I think a lot of people who might be newer writers might not even know what kind of rules would be beneficial for a critique group. Because I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. I’d be like, I’ve been writing for years. I’m like, “Oh, rules for a critique group? What would that even look like?” I don’t know.

Melody
25:58
Well, and that brings up a good point, too, because if you don’t have a critique group that suits you start one.

KimBoo
26:04
Yeah, Yeah.

Melody
26:08
With people you know, and love and trust. And so those, you know, guidelines will be a great starting place. And I wanted to circle back around and say how important it is to know yourself, and know how you are in your writing process. Because honestly, some people stand up to critiquing much better than others. Some people have a very sensitive spirit. And any sort of, I guess, well, critiquing it is… and which could go, I want to say, can be the spectrum, to be gentle feedback to harsh, as Gina would say. But that if you notice in your daily life that you have a hard time accepting others’ criticism of anything you do, then critiquing is going to be really challenging to you. And how do you want to handle that? Because I’ve gotten the most amazing advice from critique groups and people who have turned a critical eye to my work. And you know, not all of it was pleasant to hear because I just love everything I write, just fabulous. But knowing yourself, and if you have a hard time taking criticism, then maybe dive a little deeper and see what that’s about for you, because it’s essential in getting your book completed. At some point, you are going to need to take some critiquing, to make it the best, to make it the vision that you want it to be.

Gina
28:02
Excellent advice. Excellent advice, Melody. I want to take us to a discussion about something that I’ve… I have not introduced this aspect to my writing process. And I’m really curious. I’m going to, I’m going to let KimBoo lead us into a little bit of discussion about alpha readers: what they are, how you use them, how they can benefit your writing.

KimBoo
28:28
Melody has been talking earlier about knowing what you need and talking about, at one point, she needed a cheerleader and not, you know, ruthless critique of the prose. And alpha readers kind of bridge the gap between a full-blown editor and somebody who’s going to be looking at something, a beta reader, which we’ll be talking about in our next episode, where somebody who’s giving feedback on story development and some editing and things like that and like how you could improve it. An alpha reader, and this is the way I’ve described it in the past, an alpha reader is there for the writer. Beta readers, editors, critique groups, they’re there for the story. 

So an alpha reader is there to help the writer bring their vision to light. They might give some advice if asked by the author, like, “Is this plot point happening too soon? Was this confusing?” And that’s not uncommon questions for an alpha reader to get. But an alpha reader really is going in there with the idea of looking at everything that’s good in the story, everything they want out of the story. Like yes, this is… I’ve done some alpha reading for romance novels. And you know, it’s like, “Oh, yes, I can just see the connection between these characters, that chemistry is jumping off the page. What are you going to do next? Where are you taking the story? I just, I want to know where it goes.” It can’t be fake. You need somebody who loves to read romance novels. I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t be an alpha reader for somebody who’s writing a horror story. I would be like, “Oh, this is terrible. Let me out.”, I might give them good feedback in the sense of, “Oh, this is really scary. I’m not going to read any more of it.” But, you know, you have to sort of, again, know yourself, know what you’re looking for. And if you’re feeling insecure, if you’re feeling like a story is kind of listing a little bit, but you’re not really ready to go to a story developer, a developmental editor, as Gina would correct me. If you’re not ready to go to that point, or even a critique group, ask for an alpha [reader]. Ask for somebody to come in and support you, as a writer for writing the story, not necessarily to come in and try to make the story better. And that’s really how I describe alpha [readers]. And they’ve been critical to my success so much. Sometimes I’ll just throw a story that’s not really working, and I’m just like, “What do you like about this? What is it that works for you?” And that will give me the impetus, the motivation to keep going and finishing it and figuring out what I need to do.

Gina
31:03
When you’ve used alpha readers in the past? Where have you found them?

KimBoo
31:08
Ah, the genre fiction market, community, is actually smaller than a lot of people think. You look at it, you know, the hundreds of 1000s of romance novels out there, but you’d be surprised at the communities of romance novelists, aside from Romance Writers of America. You pull them from your community is the answer I’m getting at. You pull them from somebody who’s familiar with the type of story that you want to write. Melody, you were talking about the person who gave you feedback you weren’t really ready for. You’ve told that story before and my impression is that that person wasn’t somebody who really reads a lot of the type of thing that you were writing. Like, they didn’t really know what you were going for. 

Melody
31:49
Well, actually, they do. However, they were not a writer. And I think that is essential. You won’t need somebody who understands the writing process if you’re gonna ask for feedback early on. That’s my opinion.

KimBoo
32:05
No, agree with you. Alpha readers are that definitely.

Melody
32:09
Yeah, they really understand that this is early in the process. And the other thing I wanted to offer, which you mentioned, KimBoo, I think is essential in any phase is: is this person should be asking questions? It should be a balance instead of just telling you what’s wrong, or this has to be fixed, or whatever. Are they asking you questions? And questions open up portals. The person who is asked a question will offer so much more in the way of interaction than somebody who is being told.

KimBoo
32:53
One of the best alpha readers, I remember this vividly, that I had it. This was for a fan fiction story, was years ago. But I was really stuck on it. And I’d reached a stumbling block. I’d reached a wall. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the story or the characters. And so I had somebody I trusted as an alpha reader. And I was like, “Just give me, give me your feedback. I’m feeling stalled. I need some motivation.” And they did. They asked me a question. They asked me a question about one of the characters and they were like, “Why is he not a part of this particular scene? Like, where did he go? Like, why isn’t he in the scene?” And I suddenly like windows, vistas, opened up before me. And I realized that the whole problem that I had with the plot was with where that character was. And I didn’t even think about it. I hadn’t even realized it. And so introducing him back in explained, solved everything. But they asked a question. They were just like, “Man, I really love this. This is great. But where is he? Where did he go?” I was like, oh!

Melody
Excellent

Gina
33:54
Thank you, Melody, for bringing up that point about questions. I think that is an excellent piece of advice, and that would certainly be something that I would include in that list of ground rules is: ask quality questions. You know, make sure that when you’re reading somebody else’s work, that if something comes up for you, rather than saying “you should…” or even you know, “why don’t you…”, ask them a question about it that may open up some opportunities and some perspective for them that they couldn’t have gotten to on their own without you asking that question. 

KimBoo
Yeah, so very good. 

Gina
That’s gonna be on the tip list for sure.

Melody
34:39
Yeah, because these are really important qualities. If somebody asks you to read their work and give feedback, keep this in mind about how you offer, because I think oftentimes we don’t think about how our words will be landing with the person. And the kindness and compassion and gentleness. And still be direct. You can still be direct and be all those things. Yes, it does not have to be harsh.

Gina
35:09
Exactly. So I want us to circle back to the assessing of your own work, you know, the things that we’ve talked about: assessing your work, being involved in a critique or feedback group, using alpha readers, all of these things… there’s not a linear process in using any of these aspects, introducing these into your writing process at certain phases. You know, you can be involved in a critique group while you’re writing, after you’ve got a draft written, after you feel like you’ve hit the final final final draft stage. So you can use these resources at any given time. The alpha readers as KimBoo said, you know, that would be somebody early on while you’re writing. But the assessment of your own writing is something that I want to touch on a little bit more before we wrap up here. One aspect of that is really understanding what your strengths and weaknesses are. Also, knowing what the expectations might be if you’re writing in a particular genre. You know, what does the reader expect? And then comparing your strengths and weaknesses to that list of the readers’ expectations, and seeing where there might be gaps and seeing what you need to work on. And that’s something that can serve you for the long-term of your writing. You know, for future work that you may be working on. Comparing those lists of your strengths and your weaknesses to what the expectations are, and then going back through your work in a methodical fashion to see where those gaps are, and to start filling those in and seeing how you need to improve your writing. 

So we’re going to have a worksheet that we’re going to offer along with the show notes for this episode that takes you through 10 steps of assessing your own work. And that’s something that you’ll be able to download from our website. If you’re listening to this on one of the podcasting platforms, you can go to AroundTheWritersTable.com. To find this worksheet. And that’s also a place where you can listen to to previous episodes as well.

Melody
37:15
So this is only part one in our fabulous podcasts on critiquing.

KimBoo
37:23
Oh, no, so much more to go.

Melody
37:27
We could do 10 podcasts on this subject alone and not exhaust it. So be sure to tune in. Our next one’s going to drop not too long after this one does. Tune in and we have these great resources on there and links to all of our websites. Please leave your comments and feedback or any questions you have. We’d love to hear from you about what your experience has been with critiquing. 

Gina
Definitely.

KimBoo
37:56
Yeah, stay tuned. All right. Thanks, y’all.

Gina
37:59
Thank you. Bye, everybody.

Dave
38:03
Thanks for joining us around the writer’s table. Please feel free to suggest a topic or a guest by emailing info@aroundthewriterstable.com. Music provided with gracious permission by Langtry. A link to their music is on our homepage at AroundTheWritersTable.com. Everyone here around the writer’s table wishes you joy in your writing and everyday grace in your living. Take care, until next time.

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