Questions tagged [criticism]
Questions dealing with writing criticism, and with receiving criticism from others. Please do not use this tag for critique questions.
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Why can I not self-reflect on my own writing critically? How can I self-edit?
When an editor goes over my writing, even if most of their feedback is Writing 101 advice, it's still super helpful because my writing has a lot of flaws.
But I never notice these flaws (big picture ...
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How harsh is too harsh when beta reviewing?
I was recently sent a document to beta review, so I transferred it to Google Docs and started making suggestions. Once I'm through the four pages, there's about thirty miscellaneous spelling/minor ...
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Where and how to look for people who can review and critic my book properly?
I just finished a short story, and I wanted someone to review it. I wanted someone to answer "How is my book?" with accurate critics and suggestions, not someone who only said the good ...
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Suggesting changes in cowriting
I am about to cowrite a song with a friend, who already drafted something. I want to suggest edits. I find some changes in the form necessary because we want the song to be in a different style than ...
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How to find a good writing partner
I find I write much better, more often, etc. when I have someone else who is also writing, and we can share ideas, bits of writing, even larger parts of manuscripts. What's the best place to go to ...
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How to stick to your vision when you’re highly suggestible?
As a person, I'm a bit of a people-pleaser. I tend to bend over backward to avoid conflict and make people happy. I've reached the point in my writing process where I've started to send out drafts of ...
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Does objective criticism exist, and if yes, does it matter?
So, the rather controversial concepts of objective criticism and objectively bad art are a fairly hot topic, even more so nowadays.
Leaping past the massive flame wars around certain movies, this is ...
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Where can I find a beta reader for grammatical issues?
I’m looking forward to finding a beta reader to help getting me past my grammatical inaccuracies during my attempts at writing short stories.
I’m not a native English speaker, so I found myself ...
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Sci-fi change: Too much or Not enough
I am in the process of editing a short story. It is science fiction of the "if this goes on" kind: I take a social trend I see, and paint its event horizon - a troubling future. 1984 and Fahrenheit ...
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When to ask for constructive criticism?
I have 40,000 words of a novel and I am not sure at what point to ask for constructive criticism.
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How do I indicate a superfan review vs a social-criticism essay?
I occasionally write short essays about classic films, and have been thinking about converting them into video essay for YouTube.
What I observe are 2 very different types of essay – I'm not sure ...
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What weight should be given to writers groups critiques?
I joined a writers group that meets every three weeks. I submitted the first eighteen pages of my work and also sent the same file to a publisher at AuthorHouse.
The writers group had varied ...
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How do you cope with rejection?
I know that Bradbury was rejected about 800 times. I know the famous JK Rowling story. Yet the question is lurking in my mind, becoming stronger and clearer with each rejection: what if?
What if I am ...
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Critique strategies to help improve someone's writing
How can I smooth the transitions in this text? I feel like the POVs are changed quite a lot which makes it fairly confusing for readers to understand.
To elucidate your points, please feel free to ...
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Is there a crowd-sourced site for reviews and critique?
Do you know of a crowdsourced site dedicated to critique and review for beginners?
This question is a result of my discovery that critique is not provided on writing.SE; which completely ...
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Criticizing long fiction. How is it different from short?
I recently asked about criticism regarding short pieces of fiction. What about longer works like novels? Surely no one can sit down and agonize over individual word choices in a larger work the way ...
- 4,451
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Approaches to criticizing short fiction
What is a reasonable scholarly approach to breaking down short pieces of prose? Is it word choice? Is it structure? Is it themes, and how well they are used? Use of symbolism and its efficacy? Meter, ...
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What is in scope for criticizing technical writing
I'm not well versed in technical writing. I'm probably not going to be in a position to give anyone feedback for some time, but I would like to know how to approach it when I get there. I would also ...
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What to look for when criticizing poetry?
A recent question got me thinking about how to criticize poetry well and I realized I am not very good at it. I can do themes, and that's about it. And I'm not even sure that should be covered unless ...
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Methods for writing a code review
I currently spend a good deal of time over at Code Review and I would love to improve the quality of the reviews I write. Can you give me any insight into the structure or approach you use when ...
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Critique vs nitpicking
During an in-class activity for my AP Lang class, each student did a cold read of a piece they chose, then all the students provided critique out loud and written on their own copy of the author's ...
user34214
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Am I using too much exposition here? [closed]
Lillia usually arrived to school on her own. The other girls from her
hometown got a later train more often than not. She purposefully
arrived early to be able to complete homework she had ...
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Are "non-readers" useful beta readers?
In my opinion, the best beta readers are fellow writers, partly because they may have insight others don't, but partly also because you can agree to trade beta-reading responsibilities. (This is far ...
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Where to go to get my story critiqued?
I have recently completed a short story work of mine. I have published it on Wattpad, and I've sent the Google Docs link of it to several friends.
I am kind of new to writing in general, and Wattpad ...
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How to get past the cringe factor of reviewing my earliest writing attempts?
I’m currently working on a novel that I’m remodelling from an old fanfiction novel I wrote around 6 years ago. That was the first thing I’ve ever fully planned, written, edited, and completed. I’ve ...
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How do I judge the quality of a translation?
I'm advising a translation project, translating some short stories from a foreign language to English. What I'm advising about isn't the translations themselves -- but seeing the translated stories, I'...
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Is there a YouTube for writers? Basically a way to share manuscripts on social media
The title explains it.
I'm looking for a place to post my writing and easily share it onto Facebook or Twitter. I know there are A LOT of websites, but it seems like there are too many.
I'm looking ...
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Interactive feedback - is it a good idea?
I am writing an adventure story, adding one chapter weekly. This is the third story posted on that specific site, and I have followers, some of which post comments after each update.
I was very proud ...
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Has self-publishing killed the critique group?
I belonged to an excellent critique group for many years. More than one member of that group went on to commercial publication of the works that they refined in that group. But since we moved a couple ...
user16226
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What things should one highlight as good in beta reading feedback?
When I read people's manuscripts to provide feedback, I can easily identify areas worth improving. However, feedback isn't all that helpful if it makes the writer give up, so good news needs to be ...
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Is my book interesting and my writing eloquent enough? [closed]
I'm young and this is my first attempt at a book. Comment here or on the document itself, it doesn't matter to me.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16MXV41o324ZYMPjvRQqjQ5XsuK_0IT7qJypJFf-8_8A/edit?...
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Approaches to finding critique group for creative nonfiction
How does one go about finding and joining a critique group for nonfiction?
I'm writing two different non-fiction books:
A collection of pieces written by a relative, collected and edited by me. ...
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How do I find somebody to review my CV?
I've written a CV, and I want to get feedback on it. I want to know I haven't made any mistakes, and that it's as good as I can make it.
But I don't know where to find such a service; what to expect ...
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I want some critique on my writing [closed]
Laying in a pool of vomit at one o clock on a tuesday morning in the room of a lousy hotel room was not a situation peter ever thought hed find himself in. But as fate would have it he lay there ...
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what are some specific criteria for evaluating a piece of fiction that can be used repeatedly?
Can you provide list of specific items you use to evaluate whether or not a piece of fiction is good or bad?
For example, if you really had to explain why a piece of fiction were terrible what ...
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Websites for free feedback on stories?
Are there any websites or anything similar where we can get feedback from online readers (without paying for a membership or anything of the sort) for stories and other writings that are not quite ...
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What does it mean when someone says "it doesn't sound very natural"?
I hear this pretty often when I say/write something, be it in text messages or emails or on any social media/forums. What does this mean actually? I am thankfully able to convey my thoughts but I do ...
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Difference between Analytical Writing and Critical Writing
I have been spending time online since yesterday trying to understand the difference between analytical summary writing and critical writing.
I intend to write an analytical summary essay on the ...
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How can I learn to think and interpret things more critically?
As a freelance journalist, I spend a lot of time reading the media. Often I'll come across an article that I admire, and feel is leaps and bounds above my own work. Naturally, I want to learn from ...
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Quoting lyrics in a book of film criticism
I'm writing a book of film criticism, in which I refer to lyrics from the soundtrack as a way to empathise the narrative.
Am I required to obtain permission for use of these lyrics? Or, because this ...
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How does one avoid imposing one's own voice and preferences in critiques?
When critiquing another's writing I find myself making suggestions that are clearly biased toward how I would write the work. This effect seems particularly prevent for poetry, where suggestions are ...
user5232
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On offering feedback to stories/novels/poetry
Very often, I happen to have to offer my feedback on friends' short stories or novels or poetry. However, I find it very difficult to give a throughout feedback on this kind of writing which is not "...
user10974
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Literary criticism handbook
Can you point out some reference books on literary criticism – from a theoretical as well as practical point of view – to hone and systematize my skills, acquired through first-hand reading of lots of ...
user10974
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Is there an online critique community for stories written in german?
I am writing fiction in german. I am looking for a place to share my work, where I can get constructive criticism.
The site should provide some mechanism that encouraged constructive feedback and ...
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How do I evaluate an unwritten plot/story?
I'm working on a full, detailed outline of my planned book series before I have much of it written down. I'm not a pantser, I must have a clear idea where I'm going before I can get far.
In the ...
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Does a character have to define himself to be engaging?
I have a short story named Cured (which asks the question "What if you could take a pill to increase your empathy?"), in which the main character (Tony) doesn't talk or show much about himself until ...
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Combatting Excessive Familiarity Of Writing
Since writing my last question, I've been able to write a handful more items and have tried to nail down some more specific items I can ask about improving my writing. This issue became readily ...
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Is it more advantageous to have an excerpt or a plot summary critiqued?
I'm considering opening up my current work in progress to critique. In the past I haven't had very much luck with the local writer's group, but I'm willing to try again. Maybe not with them, but ...
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How to get feedback about the quality of one's fictional writing from friends unbiased by the friendship?
It is a little strange to ask, but are there ways to get feedback from friends about the quality of fictional writing (whether they liked it, not more objective aspects like spelling/grammar/etc.) ...
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Does this convey that I recommend the anthology I'm reviewing?
Here's a snipped-up version of a review of an anthology I wrote a while back (full original review here). Most of the stories were pretty good, a few were superb, and there were a few poor ones. For ...
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