Call for Critters--Fiction, Poetry and Non-Fiction

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The Writers' Block is constantly busy. We've got a great core team right now of editors along with moderators and hosts who also edit, but we're growing and the larger we get the more we realize that you can never have enough eyes and hands. The changes to the queues--splitting into three editing levels--has helped tremendously to streamline things. But we want to do even better.

Many of you know about Write Club--the sixteen week intensive boot camp for writers going on right now on our server. Well, when our new Editor-in-Chief, @bex-dk, started talking about the queue revamp, they let her in on one of the secrets that's helped Write Club turn around developmental edits so quickly. They use a simple questionnaire that each member fills out to provide feedback on each participant's stories. The answers there help guide the author's edits.

After checking it out, we're certain something similar will help in our queues. This won't replace the process our more experienced editors use, but we hope it will make it easier for our newer members to take the step over to the other side of the process and start doing critiques. The questionnaires also provide support and guidance when some of us branch into new genres (like when some fiction folks stepped into poetry the other day to help with an editor's poem).

If you're trying to edit your own work or give useful feedback to a friend who is a writer, you might find these questions useful to keep in mind.

First, we'll give you an introduction to how we intend for the questionnaires to be used. Then
we'll look at the specific questionnaires for each genre and review level (see Changes to Our Workshops.

Using the Questionnaires

Who can use the questionnaires?

As @bex-dk said in Critiquing Basics for Writers and Readers:

If you can read and you can think, you can crit productively.

So this means pretty much anyone able to understand this article is going to be able to help provide useful feedback to other authors. By the way, you might want to read over that linked article if you haven't yet. Although the questionnaires modify what you do bit, as do the review levels, it still contains a lot of great advice.

Although being able to read and use your brain is enough for providing useful feedback, we prefer for our members to have at least two critiques of their own work in the relevant workshop and at the relevant review level before they start providing feedback. This makes sure that you have a little idea of how we work and how it feels to get feedback before you start offering any. Even if you have past experience with a peer review workshop, our methods might be different.

We ask that new critters not branch beyond the questionnaires until you've run multiple pieces of your own work through the workshop completely. We want you to have more experience with our system before you start branching out.

For example, say you've submitted your first piece for a developmental review in #fiction-workshop, gotten a lot of great feedback, and pulled your piece to edit it. At this point, we'd encourage you to go look at some of the pieces in the queue so you can start learning from the feedback others give but to refrain from providing feedback of your own yet. Reading and looking is great for both training your future skills for giving feedback and improving your own writing. It's so much easier to see the areas you will want to improve in your own writing when you recognize the impact they have on someone else's work.

Once your second piece has had a full round of developmental edits and is ready to graduate to a Nitpick, now's the time to start taking a more active role. While you wait for the time-out to expire before you can look it over again and submit it, grab that Developmental Questionnaire for Fiction and take a look at one or two other pieces in the queue that are marked for Developmental reviews. Because you haven't workshopped anything yet in Non-Fiction or Poetry, we'd prefer you hold off on critting there, but we encourage you to go ahead and look at the feedback others are giving in the meantime.

Developmental reviews will always be easiest for new users to get involved with, because this relies most heavily on pure reader reaction. So please get involved there for a while before you start trying your hand at nitpick or even polish, where available.

As you get into more workshops, you can start providing feedback in more of them. Remember to start out using the questionnaires we provide for your feedback.

How do I use the questionnaires?

The questions are pinned in the relevant workshop, so you can look them up there as well as coming back to this article. The questions themselves vary a good bit depending on the review level and the type of writing involved.

For most of them, you want to read and study the questions then go through and read the entire submission. When you get to the end, highlight a small piece of the story (like the last word) and add a comment. Or reply if someone else has made one at the end. Then paste in the questions from the list and go through and edit the comment to add answers.

If the questions tell you to mark certain things, you may do so as you go or go back after you've gotten to the end. But when you are first beginning in the questionnaire phase, we want you to stick close to the listed questions. Later, when you've done this a bunch and had more of your own pieces workshopped, you can start branching out to other things you notice relevant to the current review level. But in the beginning, stick to the directions, please!

If you have trouble with some of the questions, it's okay initially to skip them. Except for one thing: every questionnaire has one question relating to positive feedback. You may not skip that question. It is always mandatory. It is very important that we all build the habit as soon as we can of mentioning at least one thing we liked or that the author is good at. Some of us come from critique backgrounds where you mostly ignored what wasn't broken. But doing this for a while and working with a lot of different writers who don't come from that background has taught us how important that part is.

For one thing, telling someone what they did do especially well allows them to use that strength to best effect. If you point out a problem, but fail to tell them what you liked best, the best bit might get sacrificed in an attempt to fix the problem. The other thing is that negative feedback hurts. Not that we're trying to baby our writers, but making an effort to balance pointing out weakness with praising strength is essential for developing writers without breaking them along the way and building confidence.

Can we talk about it?

Yes! Talking about each other's work is encouraged. However, you should always ask if the author is comfortable with public discussion before you start. Also remember that an author has the right to change his or her mind at any time. If you are discussing something publicly and the author asks you to stop, we expect you to do so immediately. We also expect you to stop if you're having a private discussion and the other party has indicated to you that they have had enough.

If someone else starts discussing your work in public and you don't want them to, remind them to stop. Some of us are so used to the public discussion that it's easy to forget not everyone is ready for it. Or that while it was fine with another piece, you might not be so happy with it with this one. If anyone doesn't respect your requests to stop, please contact an active moderator or editor immediately. Miscommunications happen sometimes, and we want to know about them to help keep things running smoothly. We don't want anyone leaving hurt or upset for something that can be fixed easily.

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Fiction Questionnaires

The following questionnaires apply to the queues in #fiction-workshop and #writers-workout. However, not all questions may apply in #writers-workout, depending on the nature of the exercise involved.

Developmental

The developmental edit for fiction focuses on the foundation of the story. Ignore things like grammatical errors and awkward bits of writing. Focus instead on the main content, structure, point of view, characters, and worldbuilding.

Add a comment at the end and answer these questions. Mark specific pieces in the story only if it helps clarify your answers, such as marking where you'd stop reading.

• Summarize the story in one sentence or short paragraph. This lets the author compare their vision with the reader impact.
• Would you have finished the story if reading it for fun? If not, when would you have stopped and why?
• Is the ending of the story satisfying and does it offer sufficient resolution of the plot line and character arc? If not, what parts need more attention?
• Are the character, events, and setting believable? Where do you need more information or what "breaks" it for you?
• What did you like best about the story?

Nitpick

Please mark places where you experience the following:

• Something is inconsistent in POV, characterization, or setting.
• Something jolts you out of the story. Please explain why as best you can.
• Something is especially effective or impactful in some fashion.
• You get confused or lost in any way, be it through content or the writing itself, such as a sentence where you don't understand the meaning.

Finally, comment and tell the author what you liked best about the story.

Polish

There is no questionnaire at this time for polish reviews on Fiction. We hope for everything except minor grammar corrections and any editing remnants to be resolved for before this round.

Poetry Questionnaires

These questionnaires apply in #poetry-workshop. If we later add more rooms related to poetry, they will apply there also. If you are working on songwriting, these points might also be useful.

Developmental

Add a comment at the end and answer the following questions:

• Is there a clearly expressed theme in this poem? Describe it briefly in your own words.
• Does the logical progression of the poem make sense?
• Is the form of the poem working at its best to express the theme and meaning?
• What did you like best about this poem?
• What do you think is the most important thing to change?

Nitpick

Add a comment at the end to answer these questions. Only highlight specifics sparingly as they help clarify your answers here.

• Are tropes and poetic devices being employed and are they effective?
• Is the rhythm consistent?
• If the poem is rhymed, is the rhyming exact?
• Are there any abstractions in the work which need to be unpacked?
• Is there any antique language being used?
• What do you like best about this poem?

Polish

Add a comment at the end to answer these questions. Only highlight specifics sparingly as they help clarify your answers here.

• Is the shape of the poem (in terms of stanzas and line breaks) as good as it can be?
• Are there any extraneous or unnecessary words which can be cut?
• Are there any weak words in place which could find a more powerful replacement?
• Are the grammar, punctuation and spelling perfect?
• What are your favourite parts of the poem?

Non-Fiction Questionnaires

These questionnaires apply in #non-fiction-workshop. If more rooms relating to non-fiction, articles, or technical writing, they will apply there as well unless otherwise specified.

Developmental

The developmental edit for fiction focuses on the foundation of the article. Ignore things like grammatical errors and awkward bits of writing. Add a comment at the end and answer these questions. Mark specific pieces in the text only if it helps clarify your answers.

Your feedback helps the writer know if the work has the desired impact on the reader.

• Aim/Question. Is the question or main point of the piece dealt with sufficiently? Is there information contained that doesn't align with this goal? Does your understanding of the point when reading it match the author's intentions?
• Audience. Is the tone, style, and vocabulary of the piece appropriate to the intended audience? If not, what would you change and why?
• Structure. Is the structure and order of the piece effective for conveying the point? What is missing (arguments, information, perspectives) and what is superfluous?
• Order. Is there an inherent logic to the whole? Can you easily follow that logic? What would you change and why?
• Strength. What is the strength of this piece? Can that be used even more? Does the question need to change to focus more on that strength?

Nitpick

Add a comment at the end to answer these questions. Only highlight specifics sparingly as they help clarify your answers here.

Your feedback helps determine if the message is conveyed effectively.

• Wording: Is the question clearly worded? Are the transitions clearly indicated and is the reader accompanied enough to make his way through the piece?
• Style: Is the style and voice consistent throughout? Does it match the intended audience? Mark any breaks.
• Introduction: Does it hook the reader effectively? Does the reader now know what to expect?
• Body: Does the body meet the expectations set up in the introduction? Mark anything you feel strays too far from the question and those expectations.
• Conclusion: Does it answer the main question? Is there a satisfying end?
• What do you like best about this piece?

Polish

Add a comment at the end to answer these questions. Only highlight specifics sparingly as they help clarify your answers here.

• Formatting. Are visuals and formatting used appropriately? Is more or less needed at any point?
• References. Does it tell the audience the information sources? Consistency in citation form. Appropriate formatting for quotes.
• Visuals: Do the subtitles match the content? Visuals always need to make a point.
• Are headers consistent in wording, style and capitalization?

Conclusion

Using these questionnaires should ease more of our writers into the other the side of the review process. Joining in reviewing does take time, but you often learn at least as much from critiquing others as you learn from the critiques you receive on your own work.

Reviewing--the act of taking apart a piece of writing to study what is and isn't effective and looking at it from the perspective of the reader instead of that of an author--is a very valuable step in our growth as a writer. It is often easier to see what impact something has when we read it done well or done poorly in someone else's work. That better enables us to see what is and isn't working in our own writing.

Do not, however, waste your energy comparing yourself to everyone else. Instead compare yourself to what you did yesterday, last week, or last year. The goal is to improve in your own skills, not be like someone else. Everyone is a different.

There is no shame in being new or in being insecure. Just take it one step at a time, learn what you can, and ask questions when needed.

If these ideas intrigue you but you haven't checked things out yet, click our logo image to find your way to our server. Our hosts or mods will ask you some questions in #welcome-center when you join. We just want to make sure that people understand what The Writers' Block is, how we work, and how you can get the most out being a part of it with us.

@bex-dk