Communication is the Key to Critique Partner Success

Author Accelerator Certified Coach Julie Artz shares great ways to get the most out of critiques.

Here on Writers Helping Writers, you’ll find a lot of folks extolling the virtues of getting feedback on your writing through either a critique partner or a critique group. Joining a critique group is, in my opinion, second only to reading widely in the list of free ways to improve your writing. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been writing for decades, critique groups can help you process feedback from agents, editors, and other readers. They can provide great support and perspective. And they can gently, kindly, offer feedback on how you can improve. Still not convinced? Check out this post on Building Your Writing Support Triangle.

Most writers have been through the dreaded critique group break-up. It’s both a right of passage in the writing world and an incredibly difficult situation to find yourself in. You’ve invested the time in getting to know other writers, to critique their work, and to receive feedback on your own work, and still, something’s not quite working. It can feel like such a setback to go back to the beginning and get to know a whole new group. I know. I’ve been there. Like I said, most writers have.

As with most types of interpersonal relationships, good communication is at the heart of critique group / critique partner success. Today, I’d like to share an Author Accelerator tool I typically use with my clients and students to help gauge the type of feedback I give them. I recently realized it could be helpful for critique partner communication too and this blog post was born.

Introducing the Hierarchy of Editorial Concerns

The Hierarchy of Editorial Concerns is a self-assessment tool to help you identify where in the revision process you are so that you understand what type of revisions you need to complete to progress to the next level. Doing so will help you get the kind of feedback you need, allow your critique partners to understand what they should comment on, and help everyone get the most out of their critique group experience.

Most writers come to a new critique group thinking they’re going to get feedback on the top two levels of the Hierarchy of Editorial Concerns—the grammar, style, and sentence rhythm, with a dash of pacing/tightening thrown in. And to be honest, many writers are most comfortable giving that level of feedback because let’s face it, it’s easier to make one sentence pretty than it is to write a whole book that compels readers to turn pages.

And yet, getting this type of feedback when you’re writing your initial draft can not only be frustrating, but it can keep you stuck working on sentence level concerns when you’ve got big-picture story level issues to address first. So for the same reason I recommend against getting a copy editor when you’re still doing structural edits, I recommend against critique partners giving feedback in those top two levels of the hierarchy when the focus should be on the bottom two levels.

Where Does Your Story Fit in the Hierarchy

If it was easy to self-assess, to figure out what your story weaknesses are and fix them yourself, you wouldn’t need a critique partner, beta readers, a book coach, or an editor. So I won’t pretend this type of self-assessment is easy. But I will say having the Hierarchy of Editorial Concerns can help.

Here are a few things to think about as you try to figure out where you fit in the hierarchy. First, let go of judgement. A story that still needs foundational work on the narrative drive, the cause-and-effect trajectory, the main character, her story goal, and the obstacles standing in her way is not less than a story that’s working on polishing the grammar and style. It’s just earlier in the process. Getting the right kind of feedback at the right time will help you move through the process.

There are no short cuts. If this is your first novel (or even if it’s your tenth), it may take you one revision pass (or more) to move through each level of the hierarchy. That is OK. If you are:

• writing a first draft, you’re probably working on that foundational level of the Hierarchy. Getting it right is crucial because this is the story scaffolding upon which the rest of your story will be built. Take your time to get it right!
• writing multiple points of view, especially for the first time, spend an extra round of revision focused on the bottom two levels of the Hierarchy. You’ll thank me later, I promise!
• getting feedback about your character’s actions or motivations being unclear, have a sense that the middle is saggy, or are using a lot of telling, your story probably still needs work at those foundational levels.
• getting feedback that something’s wrong, but the reader is not sure what, that often means your scene-level writing is strong (congratulations!) but you have a structural problem that can be fixed by looking at those foundational levels.
• revising to add or change a POV, you may be in the middle of the Hierarchy. Focusing on dialogue, voice, writing emotion, and showing can help bring those characters to life.
• writing an nth draft, it’s possible you’re stuck in the endless polishing loop. While many writers send their work out too soon, a few special ones hang on too tight, afraid to send their words into the world. If your critique partners only have feedback on that top-level of the Hierarchy, it may mean you’re ready. (Again, congratulations!)

Where Does Your Feedback Fit in the Hierarchy

If you try this out in your critique group, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. But I’d also like you to keep the following things in mind:

• Correcting misplaced commas and typos is low-hanging fruit and it’s hard for those of us with editorial minds not to mark those types of issues. But if you want your critique partner to really absorb your big-picture feedback on story structure, character motivation, and cause-and-effect story logic, let those missing commas slide until you’re giving feedback higher up in the Hierarchy.
• Getting a chapter back with so many comments and corrections that it looks bloody can be overwhelming. What are the most important things you think your critique partner needs to address in order to progress to the next level? Are they mainly in the lower levels of the Hierarchy or more toward the top? Can you gear your feedback toward those levels of the Hierarchy and let the upper levels go for now?
• It’s OK to frame your feedback as questions when you know something’s wrong, but aren’t sure what. In fact, that can be more helpful than prescriptive feedback because you’re leaving room for your critique partner to come up with the solutions that work best for their vision for the story.

This post has a great checklist of the types of things to look for as you critique pages. Consider using it alongside the Hierarchy of Editorial Concerns to really make some critique partner magic.

Remember: All Relationships Require Communication

All relationships, including critique partner relationships, require communication. And clear communication is even more important when we’re talking about our precious story babies. No one wants to hear their baby is ugly and go away crushed and discouraged. On the flip side, no one wants to fix the three commas their critique partners pointed out, think they’re ready to query, and miss their chance with their dream agent or editor due to a giant plot hole no one pointed out.

Use the Hierarchy of Editorial concerns to get really honest about where you are in your story’s revision process. Let it guide your revisions, the type of feedback you ask for, and the type of feedback you give in your critique group. And watch as each of you makes real progress toward a reader-ready story!

Meg LaTorre has a great post on the difference between critique partners and beta readers that has lots of suggestions for how to find people to critique your work.

I have one more suggestion to add to the list: my free critique partner matching service, CP Meet Cute. I run this service a few times each year and have, over the history of the program, made hundreds of successful matches. It’s open now if you’d like to join the fun at https://tinyurl.com/Writers-Helping-Writers.

Julie Artz is an Author Accelerator Certified Founding Coach. The Hierarchy of Editorial Concerns is an Author Accelerator tool used with permission.

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Julie Artz has spent the past decade helping writers like you slay their doubt demons and get their novels and memoirs reader-ready. She’s worked with both award-winning and newer authors across the publishing spectrum from Big Five to small and university presses to indie and hybrid. She is an Author Accelerator-certified Founding Book Coach, a sought-after speaker and writing instructor, and a regular contributor to Jane Friedman and Writers Helping Writers, and a regular instructor for AuthorsPublish, IWWG, and more. Her work as a Pitch Wars and Teen Pit mentor, a former SCBWI Regional Advisor (WWA), and her memberships in The EFA, the WFWA, AWP, and the Authors Guild keep her industry knowledge sharp. A consummate social and environmental justice minded story geek, Julie lives in by an enchanted stream in Fort Collins, Colorado with her husband, two strong-willed teenagers (when they’re not off at university!), and two naughty furry familiars. She’s built a thriving book coaching business based on her values, her editing chops, and her knowledge of story. 

Julie’s stories have been published in Crow Toes Weekly, the Sirens Benefit Anthology Villains & Vengeance, and the speculative anthology Beyond the Latch and Lever. Subscribe to Julie’s weekly newsletter, Wyrd Words Weekly, or connect with her below:

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