Critiquing: Or, how to tell someone their baby is ugly politely

We will have a list of suggestions in how to conduct the meetings in order to make sure things run smoothly and cultivate an environment that is conducive for developing work. One particular subject that has been discussed recently is the critiques themselves.

How the critiques are conducted will depend a great deal on how the moderator directs the discussions and what kind of feedback the writer wants. The first few meetings will be moderated by me, Arvin Donner. This is so as to get the ball rolling and provide a consistent tone for the group. Critiques will focus on the writing and not the writer so as to keep comments depersonalized. This will allow the discussion to be framed in such a way as to avoid having the writer feel a need to be defensive. Also, it will be suggested that the critiques not focus on what individuals like and dislike but instead on what works and what does not work and why.

One idea is that during the critiques we will probably encourage the writer to not respond to the initial critique. After the initial critique, the writer will ask questions to the group about the piece. Before the reading beginnings, the group will probably allow the writer to ask the group to focus on certain aspects of the work. (i.e., what is your sense of character A's obstacles in the scene? Does it work? How does this event in the scene work to propel the plot?)

Some of this will be brought up in the first meeting. A discussion will take place where we will ask participants about what type of etiquette and structure they would like to see in the group.

More later...