Nov. 9, 2025: Making The Most of Critiques

Critique: The detailed analysis and assessment of something, especially a literary work.

That is the official definition of the word critique.  But critiques are so much more.

You cannot grow as a writer if you do not have your writing critiqued.  If you never get feedback on your craft, you will never be able to improve. All writers know that. The problem is that it is uncomfortable, hard, and sometimes painful, to have our writing critiqued. 

All critiques though, are not the same.  There are different types of critiques, done by different types of people, at different stages in the writing process.  For example, we may have fellow writers critique our work while it is in progress, a beta reader may critique a finished manuscript, or an historical expert may critique our work for historical accuracy.  All are valuable.  All are necessary.  And all help us grow.  The feedback we receive from each one, also helps to strengthen the piece of writing or the manuscript.

There is also the gold standard of critiques- professionals. These are agents, editors, publishers.  These are the professionals within the field of publishing and a critique of this sort is extremely valuable. These sorts of critiques happen through writing conferences, writing contests, and reputable professional writing organizations.  There is usually a cost associated with these, but it is well worth it. This type of critique is only for pieces of writing that you feel, at this point, are the best you can make them. You have revised and edited and polished already. The insight these professionals can give you at this point can be instrumental in helping you to know if this piece of writing is ready for publication. They share their impressions of the story, their observations of the writing itself, and some advice for next steps.

I had the good fortune yesterday of participating in a critique fest that was recently held through SCBWI and had one of my current manuscripts critiqued.

It is a middle grades novel, and it won the 2023 Royal Palm Literary Gold Award for Middle Grades Novels and was second runner up for unpublished book of the year.  Therefore in 2024, I felt it was ready and started to submit to agents and publishers.

I got rejections. Many of them. A few were the generic no thank you rejections, but many complimented the work, said they enjoyed reading it, that the writing was good, but that it didn’t rock their world, or they didn’t connect with the work.

Clearly, I still had some work to do. So, I went into this critique opportunity with an open mind.  Critiques are only as powerful as the way we use the information. Some critiquers are gentle with our feelings and some may not be, but we need to not take the assessments of our writing personal. As hard as it is to hear that your story “is boring”, if we realize that the critique really means we need more conflict, it then gives us a place to start revising to make the story better.

My critiquer was a reputable agent with a reputable firm, and I knew how lucky I was to get her eye and her time.  She was also kind, insightful, thorough, and brutally honest.  She shared her assessment of what I was doing well, and she pointed out some specific areas that needed work. Exactly what a critique is designed to do.

So, as I start a new round of revisions, I have a new focus and direction.