Does Competitive Critiquing Work?
By Guest | March 26, 2008 |
Today’s guest blogger is Gavin Cramblet (aka Chro) from a blogsite we like called Journey of the Scribe. When he recently talked up a service called YouWriteOn, we thought, “Hmm, wonder if he’d be willing to jump in our sandbox for a while and tell us more about it?” Happily for us, he agreed, though he did demand that he bring his own dump truck. We negotiated successfully.
Our sincere thanks to Gavin for taking the time out to write this informative post for us. Enjoy!
Does Competitive Critiquing Work?
Many of us have experienced critique groups, and know that not every group is created equal. Some of the worst are those where one or more members think they must prove they’re better than everyone else. They critique with a harsh pen (blood-red, of course) and refuse to admit that any faults exist in their own writing. They line-edit to the point where they’re forcing their style on other authors. They dominate.
How could a critique group that involves competitive rankings and a prize for the ‘best’ works possibly succeed?
YouWriteOn somehow manages it. The site is hosted by the British Arts Council (which means it’s free everyone except the British) and functions much like a critique group. Stories are exchanged, critiques are given, and everyone’s writing improves.
However, the site has a few additional rules and regulations.
First of all, you receive one critique for every critique you give. Sounds fair enough. Critiques are assigned randomly, meaning that ‘popular’ entries don’t get all the reviews. Finally, all works come with 5 multiple-choice questions (provided by the author) that must be answered correctly along with the critique. This ensures that all works are sufficiently read and understood before they are reviewed.
I could go into more detail with the rules, but the bottom line is that you get out of the site what you put into it. Most critique sites are glorified forums, where you post your work and wait for reviews on it. These critiques tend to come in one huge rush at the beginning, but peter off rather quickly. On YouWriteOn, as long as you keep submitting critiques, you’ll keep getting critiques.
There’s a metaphor there involving the differences between and men and women, but I won’t go into it.
It is also easy to upgrade your submission (so that reviewers are always looking at the most recent version), and you can put up multiple works at once (deciding how you want to assign your reviewers between each.) Because reviewers must read through your entire submission to answer the multiple choice questions, they’ve invested enough time in it to warrant giving you a detailed review.
They must also rank 8 different aspects of your work such as plot, characters, tense, and theme.
In other words, it actually takes EXTRA WORK to give someone a vague, unhelpful review. As such, I have been pleasantly surprised with the level of critiquing expertise on the site. Almost every review has been helpful and improved my own work. And because reviews are assigned randomly, I don’t have to worry about being ‘nice’ in fear of getting a bad review later from my victi…fellow writers!
If this were the end of it, YouWriteOn would function as a typical critique group (with a few extra rules). However, once you’ve received 4-5 reviews, your book gets placed on the ranking boards along with every other work on the site – as if you weren’t already insecure enough about your place in the world already.
If you get a lot of high rankings from your fellow reviewers, you might find your work in the much-praised top ten. This gets you massive bragging rights, and more people will read your story just for the heck of it. But the best rewards come from reaching the top five.
At the end of the month, the top five are each given a free, professional critique by agents and editors at Curtis Brown, Orion, Bloomsbury, and others. Imagine getting a rejection letter back that was three pages long and detailed everything the agent liked and didn’t like about your story.
Okay, now stop frothing.
In addition, these ‘bestsellers’ are permanently placed on a page for their genre, and at the end of the year are considered for the ‘best of the year’ awards. Either way, the book will get a good amount of publicity, and writers may even be able to mention their success in their queries.
One would think that in such a competitive environment, malicious reviews would run rampant, but this isn’t the case. The writers on the site genuinely want to help each other succeed. The random review process ensures that you can’t target your rivals, and the ability to remove bad reviews (on a very limited basis) or report problem users does a good job of keeping everyone honest. Besides, the detailed professional critiques are posted publicly, so everyone can learn from them even if their work wasn’t chosen.
The site isn’t without its drawbacks, however. Although you are guaranteed one review for each one you give, these reviews tend to trickle in. The average seems to be about one review per 3-4 days, but if you write in an unpopular genre, it’s feasible that you’ll wait a week or two for a review. This isn’t a site you want to use if you’re in a hurry to get your book out there.
Also, because reviews are randomly assigned, you’ll often have to read books outside your preferred genre, and your book won’t necessarily be reviewed by people that would enjoy it. On the bright side, this expands your horizons and gives you a broader sense of how good (or bad) your writing is. You can refuse to review a work (perhaps because you really don’t want to read something with more cuss words than a Howard Stern show), but only once a day.
Finally, to be in the top ten, novel excerpts must start at the beginning of the book, so anything you post from the middle probably won’t receive reviews (and if any reviews are received, they won’t count.) Entries also must be between 6000-10000 words long. (Short stories have different requirements.) This means your reading assignments will typically be around three chapters long, which is more than most critiquers are used to. But hey, writers are always told to read more, right?
Overall, YouWriteOn is a great site if you’re looking for critiques, and is pretty reliable at providing you with valuable feedback. The chance at having your work reviewed by professionals makes it an opportunity not available to most authors. I would highly recommend the site to all aspiring authors, unless they are vehemently opposed to reading genres outside their own or in a huge hurry to get their critiques done.
Oh, did I mention it was customary to give your referrer 5 stars should you be randomly assigned his work? It is, honest…
Thanks again, Gavin, for a great post. And readers, don’t forget to check out Journey of the Scribe for lots of useful gems.
Photo courtesy Flickr’s Tucker Lee Phillips.
Many thanks to today’s guest.
You can read more WU guest posts by visiting this link.
sounds like an opportunity to get some unbiased feedback. and maybe that is the ultimate problem with crit groups – how does the writer know that their critique group buddies are really working in their best interests? even when people don’t mean to undermine someone else, they do for all sorts of conscious and unconscious reasons. YOUWRITEON can be a solid, safe alternative to the lingering questions of crit group imbalances. thanks, WU, for the info.
“At the end of the month, the top five are each given a free, professional critique by agents and editors at Curtis Brown, Orion, Bloomsbury, and others. Imagine getting a rejection letter back that was three pages long and detailed everything the agent liked and didn’t like about your story.”
I think this is a terrific opportunity. If nothing else, you’ve learned more about your writing by critiquing someone else’s.
Great post, Gavin. Thanks for sharing this with our readers.
Wow, this is fantastic. A really great idea, especially for those of us who live out in the boonies. I will have to add a link about this to my blog. My readers will love it!