Critiquing Short Stories (Sci-Fi/Fantasy Focus)

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Currently I'm taking a class via UCLA Online Extension, where we are knee-deep in the middle of critiquing our classmates stories. I've been in an very helpful, welcoming environment where I am receiving such in-depth critiquing, as well as making my own in-depth critiques in return. We are going by the "Clarion rules," and for those interested in what that means, please check out this link here: kentbrewster.com/code-review-u…

I know my weakness as a writer is being unable to articulate what I think about a person's story without hurting the author's feelings. I will read something and automatically will think, "This story is lacking from the get-go." But why? I can't say, "This story sucks," and on the same token, I can't lie and say, "This is really good." The worst thing you can do to a writer is comment with empty emoticons and lines of "that was good, more please!" It does nothing to help the writer improve.

I understand that not all writers want to improve. Some take writing as a hobby. If you are one of those people, disregard this news article. But for those who take writing as a craft seriously, read on.

Personally, I don't know any writer friend of mine who doesn't want to improve. And to improve, we need helpful critiques. But where do we start? How does one who has never critiqued before give an honest review of a piece of work in a way that does not hurt an author's feelings, but accurately describes what is missing with the story and how to improve?

From my class, my professor gave us a wonderful lecture on how to workshop our short stories. It's geared to science fiction/fantasy writers, but it's also applicable to any genre.

Here are areas to address when evaluating a story:


:bulletred: Structure: Can you identify the story's great strength and its most critical flaw? Do you understand everything that is happening in the piece? What is the author trying to say, and is the attempt successful?

:bulletred: Addressing The Fantastic: Is the science or magic in the story believably presented? Is it an integral part of the piece? Is the supernatural or futuristic element fully comprehensible to the reader? How do the characters interact with the fantastic? Is the world so fully realized? Would you would like to read more stories set in the same milieu? What authors are you reminded of when you read the piece?

:bulletgreen: Outside of science fiction/fantasy: is the backstory, the romance between the two characters, the action, the violence, the worldbuilding and/or setting believable? Does it work with the piece? Is there conflict? How do the characters interact with the conflict? How well thought out is the conflict? Is the conflict fully resolved, whether or not it has a happy ending? Does the character deal with the conflict? Is there too much conflict and does the story then border on the melodramatic?


:bulletred: Emotional reaction: Critical judgments aside, what do you like and dislike about the piece? Be sure to tell the author what made you laugh, how you felt about the characters, when you were and weren't engaged with the story emotionally.
How can the writer improve the emotion? Look at the characters and see if you can relate to them. If not, ask why, and then tell the author. Maybe the character needs a stronger want/goal to strive for. Maybe the goal is lost somewhere in the writing.

:bulletred: Prose: Is the story well-written on a sentence-by-sentence level? Is there a pace, a flow, a tone? Does the author have a tendency to overwrite or underwrite? How's the dialogue? You don't necessarily need to line-edit the entire piece, nor does it have to be pure poetry in every line with a bunch of metaphors and similes, but are there suggestions you could make to tighten the writer's overall style? Also, question the author in terms of who the story's audience is.



And to wrap this up, here are some Do's and Don't as you critique people's writing:


:bulletblue: Do consider the author's feelings. Some are fragile, some have thick skin. But when you are critiquing online the tone of the words you type on a computer screen can be skewed, and thus drama occurs. The best way to avoid this is to write your critique the way you want to write it. Then stop, leave it alone, and come back later. If you are critiquing someone's writing live, say in chat, the best way to avoid drama is to leave the assumptions at him.

:bulletblue: Do not assume the author is dumb or stupid or immature. Do not question their intelligence. Read the story once, get a feel, and then read it again. Then ask questions, such as, "I don't really understand this part here, what you are describing. Can you explain to me what you were aiming for?" When writing the critique, try to avoid putting your subjective thoughts in there. It's hard, I know! But critiquing takes practice.

:bulletblue: Do describe story strengths and weaknesses in strong language: "Your prose style is evocative and draws me right in," "I love the moment where your protagonist stands up for herself," "Your shift of point of view does not work," "This character's action makes me lose sympathy for her," "The flow of the piece is choppy in some places; perhaps you should rearrange the paragraphs." All of those can help a writer improve.

:bulletblue: Do suggest concrete ways to change the story. Recognize, though, that the author will rarely follow this sort of advice. In saying "Do something like having Chris be the one who discovers the secret formula instead of Pat," what you are doing is offering the author more illumination on the difficulty you are having with their piece. There is a fine line between offering a suggestion and rewriting an author's story for them.

:bulletblue: Do make specific suggestions for cutting and/or expanding specific elements of the story.

:bulletblue: Do not give an author blanket critiques. Both "this is great" and "this is a crap story" are not critical analyses at all. It means that you as a reader did not examine the story closely at all, or lack the skills to critically analyze in the first place.

:bulletblue: Do not attack the author under any circumstances. It's childish, pointless, and do you really want drama? (Unless you're a troll. Then nevermind, you fail on principle.)



This applies to the writers who have created stories that are not "two-minute, five-minute writing" splurges For information on what I'm talking about, please check out raspil's sermon from ScreamPrompts here: screamprompts.deviantart.com/b… Critiquing is hard work, as you can tell here. Members of Critique-It work very hard to provide quality critiques. If you ask for a critique, please don't waste a critiquer's time by saying, "Well I only wrote it in two minutes, so it's not my best writing." Don't ask for critiques for stories that either are not your best. If you have a first draft and you want some feedback, by all means, go for it! Critique then revision is the key to improving.

I hope this has helped you and any writers of the dA community who are like me and want to critique, but don't know where to start. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments, give me some feedback, and hey, critique this news article as well. ;)
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NRS97's avatar
Wow, it really sounds like you know what your doing. It would be great if I could find someone like you to read my stuff. What were you going to school for?