This month, our Plotter and Pantser will discuss critiquing and critique groups. What do they gain from critiques? When does critiquing help them the most? When does it hurt the most?

Plotter: Let’s start off with talking about where you found your critique partners and how you critique.

Pantser: Okay. You were actually my very first critique partner. We were matched up through AOL’s critique coordinator (HODRW’s very own Debra Kastner).

Plotter: That was my first contact too.

Pantser: We learned together.

Plotter: It seems like light years ago. <g> We had a lot to learn.

Pantser: Boy did we, but we helped each other. I now critique online with three people. Two Plotters and one other Pantser. We exchange a chapter every week. I also have a handful of other writers online that I trade work with on an "as needed" basis.

Plotter: That’s interesting. What do you mean by "as needed"?

Pantser: For example, I have a sequel book I'm working on and I needed someone to read the first few chapters and let me know if I was giving enough info about the backstory that happened in book one. And because my regular cp's were in the same position I was -- we all already knew the first story very well -- I wanted to get a totally objective opinion from people who didn't know anything about these characters or what had gone before. What about you? How many critique partners/groups do you have?

Plotter: I’d say I’m semi-addicted to critiquing. LOL. I’ve got the online group with you and then I critique with three other ladies face to face. We meet once a week and all bring about ten pages. I’m a big fan of going to HODRW’s open critique every month too. I like getting new ideas and approaches to my writing.

Pantser: All this feedback doesn’t overwhelm you?

Plotter: Feedback works well for me and doesn’t seem to throw me off track during the writing process. Maybe it’s because I’ve got my plot and characters pretty set by the time I sit down to write. I also like the fact that in one group my work is being "read" and in the other I’m reading it out loud. I get different feedback from both groups. If I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t continue with both. How about you? Does feedback help you or hurt your writing sometimes?

Pantser: Having a work in progress critiqued is sometimes difficult for me. Even though I enjoy getting some basic feedback as I write, critiquing is probably the most helpful to me AFTER I've finished the book. For example, because I'm a Pantser, I often don't have my characters' conflicts down pat until I'm well into the story, or sometimes not until I'm almost done with the story. So it's hard to critique my work as I'm writing it because all the pieces may not be there yet.

Plotter: So, you have to go back and revise as you learn more about your characters.

Pantser: Right, I'm constantly revising as I go, going back to add in hints or lay the groundwork for things that come up as I write.

Plotter: And a critique of your WIP may zero in on issues that you haven’t even figured out yet.

Pantser: Yes, exactly, and that used to be frustrating. I ended up spending way too much time saying, "But you don’t understand! Of course the conflict's not clear! I haven’t finished the book yet, and all these things will get worked out eventually!"

Plotter: I remember those conversations <g>. For me, it doesn’t matter when I get the critique. In fact, I like it if someone says, "this motivation isn’t believable" WHILE I’m working on the book. Once I finish a book, it’s hard for me to get back into it emotionally. In my head, I’ve already moved on to my next project and I don’t really want to spend a lot of time revising. So, I’d rather get the feedback when I’m knee deep in the characters and fix it then. Does that make sense?

Pantser: For a Plotter.

Plotter: LOL. Do you have critiquers look at your whole manuscript when you're done?

Pantser: Always. That's when I get the best feedback on the story overall. That's the feedback that I value the most. What about you?

Plotter: Yes, I think it’s important to have someone read the whole thing. It’s very different than reading a chapter here or 10 pages there. But I’m reluctant to change big chunks of the manuscript at that time. I will, if in my heart I agree with something, but I don’t like it. It makes me grumpy.

Pantser: Oh, no. <g>

Plotter: Stop. <g> It’s just that I’ve spent so much time designing the story and then writing it, I don’t really want to spend more time rebuilding the whole thing.

Pantser: Interesting that you should use that analogy. Being a Pantser, the writing process is very much like using building blocks. I start off with something basic, then I build free-style from there.

Plotter: I’m more of an architect, you’re more of an artist.

Pantser: Well, some artists are painstaking in their planning too. I guess I’m more of the "throw the paint on the canvas" kind of artist.

Plotter: And I like to have all my lines connect before I start painting.

Pantser: Yeah, that’s right. The thing is, as I’m building my story, at level one or level two, I have absolutely no idea what level five or eight or ten is going to look like.

Plotter: Gee, I’ve already picked out the color of the carpet for level twelve.

Pantser: LOL. When I get to level twelve, I’ll use level one and two and so on to shape it, give it form. I also might discover that I need to broaden and strengthen my foundation, and I’ll go back and insert an extra block here and there in level one and two. So while it’s a somewhat linear process (I write from beginning to end) it’s really all about the big picture. Kind of 3-D actually. I tend to look at the big picture at every stage of the process, seeing what I can do to make the whole structure more solid and appealing. Which probably drives my critique partners nuts, since they have no idea what my "inner vision" is creating.

Plotter: Your method would give me a headache <g>. That’s just too much information for my brain to handle at once. I want the architecture of the structure to be sound before I start decorating. That way I can focus on only one thing at a time. First, I make sure that the goals and conflicts are strong enough to carry my story and these characters. That the plot isn’t cliché or boring. And I use my critique partners during this process. They help me brainstorm and plug in holes in my plot.

Pantser: It’s always nice to have different approaches to a story.

Plotter: Then when I start the actual writing, I can focus on the emotion of a scene and the little details that bring the story alive. But it took me awhile to figure this out. And I think critique partners helped me enormously in this journey.

Pantser: How so?

Plotter: Reading other people’s work and listening to them when they are struggling, and finding out that not everyone writes like I do… well, all of that helped me accept myself and the way I write. Beyond just getting/giving feedback, critique partners can be your moral support.

Pantser: My critique partners are my buffer between me and the outside world. They’re my spit and polish, the ones I can bounce ideas off of and brainstorm with.

Plotter: Exactly.

Pantser: I think that in the beginning of a writing career nearly everyone can benefit from a good critique partner or group. There’s so much to learn, so many details about the craft of writing that are important to know. Not that there aren’t good writers out there that have never been critiqued, but for most of us there’s a definite learning curve, and I think you probably learn it faster when you're working with others.

Plotter: I’d finished my first book before I ever knew about critiques and it was a revelation to me when I started getting feedback on that material. Here I thought I’d written the Great American Novel. LOL. Critiquing was painful at first, but if you’re ever going to be published, you’re going to have to put your "baby" out there at some point. For me, I’m glad that I gave it to critique partners first before getting a sure rejection from an editor.

Pantser: Me too. I absolutely would not be able to write the way I write today without having had such great critiquing feedback. I think, though, that eventually things level out. You’ve learned all the "rules" (both the technical rules of writing, and the perceived genre rules) and you realize you know what you’re doing - more or less.

Plotter: Yeah. It took me about 18 months to get to that point. By that time, I’d written three books. I think being in a critique group made me accountable and pushed me to keep writing through the agony of learning what I needed to know.

Pantser: There’s something about having to send new stuff every week that keeps you in your chair in front of the computer.

Plotter: It would have been very easy to quit if I’d been alone. But I persevered. And I started to know what I was doing.

Pantser: Sure, at that point you've usually gained confidence in your own ability, learned your strengths and your weaknesses, discovered your "niche", if you have one, and have a good grasp of your own natural writing voice and style. And with that confidence comes a sense of freedom. You discover you're no longer bound by the "rules" as much. You discover that writing is fun again, and it's not this overwhelming, 'I'm never going to get this all figured out' ordeal any more.

Plotter: When that happened to me, I found I was very sure about what I took from critiques. I took only what I needed and changed only the things that felt right to me.

Pantser: In the beginning you tend to hang on every word your critique partners tell you, you change your writing more easily than a chameleon changes colors, and you're constantly trying to fix, fix, fix. But eventually, you get a strong enough sense of self that you can read the critiques and know with a certainty that while your cp's may make some good comments, you only have to take the ones that apply to your vision of the story.

Plotter: I hated that early stage. Revise, revise, edit, edit. I edited the voice right out of my first book. It died a long, painful death.

Pantser: LOL. In that vulnerable period of learning, it’s VERY easy to have your work critiqued to death. It happened to me. I had a period of several months where I was voiceless.

Plotter: Ouch. Do you think as a Pantser you were more vulnerable to this than a Plotter would be? I remember going through a period of adjustment, but I don’t think I struggled with this as much as you did.

Pantser: Hmm... good question. It's possible that a Pantser could be more vulnerable to this, just because of the writing process itself. Because we do create as we go. So it would be very easy to have our work influenced early on and have it take a turn in a direction that we wouldn't naturally have let it go.

Plotter: What would be your advice to a new writer about critiquing?

Pantser: Listen to everything that’s said to you, BUT guard your voice as if your life depended on it. Your unique voice is what sets your writing apart for all the thousands of people who write. It’s yours and only yours, so protect it, cherish it and don’t let anyone take it away. And when you're critiquing someone else's work, respect their voice as well. How about you?

Plotter: Be honest with yourself. What do you need to keep writing? Does being accountable to critique partners keep you writing? Or do critiques derail you because they are too painful? Find out what mix of feedback helps you the most. And that’s different for everybody. Don’t be ashamed of what (you are.) SAYING WHAT YOU NEED??

Carolyn studied political science in college and backpacked through Europe and the Orient. She's been a ski bum, a waitress, a bookkeeper, a loan processor and an accounting software trainer. Finally deciding that she couldn't ignore her dream anymore, Carolyn started to write. A life-long reader of romance, she's written five books - fiction and non-fiction, one which finaled in the prestigious Orange Rose contest, and another in the Emily contest.