Benefits of a Fiction Critique Group

by Sonali T. Sikchi

The first critique group I encountered was within the safe confines of my fiction class through UW Extension's Writers' Programs. On the first day, everyone in the group was nervous about reading their piece out loud to the group, very cautious in making remarks to others, and uptight about the comments received.

As the quarter wore on, some of us learned to take the negative comments in stride and to look deeper into them to see if they had any merit. I even looked forward to the negative comments sometimes, because I noticed a marked improvement in my writing when I acted upon what my peers were hearing in my work that I was deaf to. Some students, however, continued to be defensive and upset about any comment that was remotely unfavorable. I learned to handle these people with kid gloves, playing out the positive praise and severely downplaying the negative. Though I did this because it was what the person seemed to expect, it always made me uncomfortable—I felt I was cheating the person out of an honest critique that would be far more beneficial, as opposed to candy-coated half-truths. However, I slowly realized that I wasn't cheating the person but was being the exact sounding board that the person was seeking. It is not only with the negative comments that a writer improves; positive comments also help the writer along by revealing what works very well and what the writer should continue doing.

People of all personalities, backgrounds, and writing abilities come together to form a writing group, and this variety that represents your imagined reading audience is especially helpful in providing good feedback. What these writers all have in common is a desire to write a great, saleable story. They come to the critique group hoping it will help them find out if their writing expresses what they hoped it would and also what they hoped it wouldn't. The critique group is a safe haven where they can comfortably bare their writing fears and failures, without reprisal or personal criticism. A group that meets regularly can keep the motivation to finish a project high, as each writer is expected to have something new for every meeting. Even popular writers, such as local author Bharti Kirchner, believe deeply in writing groups and their benefits for all their writing projects.

Every time I find myself struggling with a problem in my plot, my sense of place, or one of my characters, I always turn to my critique group. I bring in the piece, read it aloud to the group, and every time I leave with at least one or two directions in which to proceed that had not occurred to me. Sometimes the solution just pops out as the group discusses the scene. Sometimes some other author has solved the same problem that I am dealing with. Sometimes just the act of reading it aloud resolves the problem in my head while the rest of the group is unaware that there was a problem in the first place. It would be impossible for me to get any piece of writing finessed without the aid and support of the writing group.

Sonali T. Sikchi is an ex-Microsoft engineer at the beginning stages of her second career as a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader.