Happy Friday (almost Saturday), everyone! The countdown to my dissertation due date has begun; only twelve more days to work on my creative writing portfolio and hope that all my hard work from the past three years won’t go to waste. Of course, that’s not all that I’ve been up to. With Fiverr’s addition of a beta reading category for gigs, I have gotten a drastic influx in orders the past few weeks, so I’ve been keeping busy reading and critiquing other aspiring writers’ work. It might sound tedious, but performing such a critique can actually be invigorating. I get to read potential new works, give my feedback on them, and become a better writer in the process. That brings me to today’s Friday Fun-Day writing prompt: critiquing a classic.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “How can critiquing someone else’s work in progress help you become a better writer?” It’s simple, really. By reading and providing a critique for someone else’s work, you practice identifying what works and what doesn’t work for you as a reader. You also learn better how to identify grammatical and spelling errors, plot holes, inconsistencies, etc. Of course, critiquing someone else’s work isn’t quite like critiquing your own, but the more you do it for other writers, the better you’ll be able to apply it to your writing.
For this reason, today’s writing prompt does not actually involve writing–creative writing, anyway. Instead, you will pick a classic piece of literature–preferably one you’ve enjoyed in the past–and go through and critique it as though you are that writer’s beta reader. For example, let’s assume that you chose to critique “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. You would read through the story with a pen and a notebook, making notes as you go. If you have a copy of it on which you can write, you would leave line-by-line notes as well, commentary in the margins discussing what is working, what isn’t, and what doesn’t make sense. After reading the story, you would then go and write at least one page of feedback to Poe as though you are speaking directly to him, letting him know in which ways the story is doing well and how it can be improved.
I know that this sounds quite similar to writing a paper for an English class. In fact, it is very much like that but with several differences. It’s not graded, you’re not restricted to some rubric, and you don’t even need to make profound insights. The whole purpose of this exercise is to fine-tune your critiquing skills, not to craft a well-written essay. Don’t feel the need to be deep or perfect. Whatever strikes you, either positively or negatively, comment on it. This is all to train your eye to find the strengths and weaknesses in other people’s works so that you might be able to find them in your own.
The ideal approach to this prompt would be to critique a work which you wish to emulate, i.e. the same genre, target audience, and/or writing style as you wish to work with. For example, if you’re writing poetry, choose a poem to critique. If you’re an essayist, choose an essay. For time’s sake, you will probably want to choose something shorter. So, if you’re a fiction writer, you should probably read and critique either a short story or a few chapters from a novel rather than a novella or novel in its entirety.
Now, it’s very possible that you are working in a genre which is never considered among the “classics”. Speculative fiction, for instance, is not often grouped into “classics” despite the fact that there are highly popular and critically-acclaimed writing in that genre. If you are working in genres not usually considered classics–science fiction, fantasy, romance fiction, etc.–then ignore the “classics” part of this exercise. Instead, critique a work which is popular or held in high esteem in that genre. In science fiction, that might be stories and books by the likes of H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Anne McCaffrey; in horror and Gothic horror, that would be H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, and Stephen King; for children’s fantasy, Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, and Rick Riordan would be prime examples. The point is to critique what is considered the best of the best in the area of writing in which you want to work. If you can identify the strengths and weaknesses in those–especially if they are works that you like to read–then you will have a much easier time at critiquing your own writing.
Don’t just do this exercise once and be done with it. There’s really no point in that. Instead, repeat it as often as you can. This would even make a great excuse to break from writing or editing your WIP long enough to keep you from going insane. That’s why I suggested a shorter work; it will be easier and quicker to get through, and so you’ll be able to do it during your breaks from writing and everyday life. Who knows? You might just find yourself reinvigorated and anxious to get back to your WIP by the time you’re finished.
What has been your experience with beta reading and critiquing other writers’ works? Has it helped you identify issues with your manuscript? Share your stories in the comments below!
Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011