One thing I haven’t touched on about critiques is the fact that different critiques are needed depending on the phase the manuscript is in. I’m not talking about the moon cycle or whether the story before you is YA or not (ha! YA, teenagers, phases….er, yeah, I’ll shut up now). What I mean is at which stage in the process the writing is at. We all want the feedback to be as helpful and useful as possible. It makes sense that a first draft has different needs from something that has gone through a few rounds of edits already. You also don’t want to slavishly circle every single comma splice and apostrophe error if there is a real possibility that entire scenes may be rewritten from scratch. Communication between submitter and critiquer are key to this.
In the Cat Vacuuming Society Writers Group, we use Critique Levels to help get across what is needed. It isn’t a perfect system, nor is it meant to be. It doesn’t trump what’s actually needed either — the submitter may think they only need a final polish but in reality there are flaws in structure that must be addressed. It also isn’t an exhaustive list–just because something isn’t spelled out below, it doesn’t mean it isn’t looked at, because all the parts of a story are to be examined.
Level One (aka “Does this make sense to people who don’t live in my head?”)
The Level One critique is primarily for first drafts. This can be first draft of a scene in an otherwise polished work, or for the rough cut of an entire story. The point of focus here is on the bigger picture: does this work? Key areas to look at are whether the pieces, when put together, make a whole. This can sometimes be as simple as identifying missing elements (“who is supposed to be the protagonist?”) or as complex as breaking down the structure or narrative choices (“The first-person point of view you’re using clashes with the epic scope you seem to be going for.”).
Things to look for in a Level One critique:
- Can you identify the narrative structure? Is is meant to be in acts (three, four, or five act structures are common in fiction)? If it is an unusual structure, what does that bring to a story? Is it working?
- Can you clearly identify the protagonist, the antagonist, and the conflicts of the story?
- Is the setting defined? Does it have a sense of place?
- Were there any major areas that were missing? Think about characters (primary, secondary, even spear-carriers), plot, pacing, description, dialogue — what stood out as particularly well done or absent?
- Can you state what you think the theme was?
- Was there a distinct beginning, middle, and end? Do these all happen at the right points? Could the story start earlier or later? Is the ending satisfying and inevitable?
The important thing is to not get bogged down in details–note the important ones (“I can’t picture your main character at all!”) without worrying into the nitty-gritty (“I can’t imagine what size shoe she wears!”). Those details are crucial later (well, maybe not her shoe size) but in a first draft those things may not be set. And nagging the author on those comes later.
Level Two (aka “I’ve got the bones right, now let’s start digging into the flesh!”)
Once the bigger elements are present and arranged, it is time to get into the meat of the story. You can’t properly help bring a character to life or build the tension into a plot if neither existed in the first place. This is where the Level Two has its fun. The scaffolding is there, now let’s build. (Yes, I am trying to see how many versions of this metaphor I can use, why do you ask?) However you look at it, Level Two is where the magic tricks are really taken apart and examined, so that the author can really cast the illusion at the end. Level Two assumes that there has been at least one thorough revision done (not just a quick editing pass to clean up), or the draft is from a detailed outline that addressed the kind of issues Level One deals with.
What we look at now are things like pacing, voice, description, and tension. These elements work together to bring out the story as it was intended, getting it closer to the perfect version inside the author’s head. At Level Two it should be a lot clearer what kind of story the author was aiming for. You should know from this read whether it was meant as a mystery or a romance, if the spec fic elements are necessary to the story or are set dressing, if there’s a big theme driving it all, etc.
Things to look for in a Level Two critique:
- Everything from a Level One critique. Seriously, really examine the big picture again. You can’t really assess Level Two if there are major Level One issues still hanging around.
- If you’ve seen the story before, compare the two versions. Does this one fix the problems from before?
- Voice and point of view: are they clear? Do they serve the story? Do they enrich the story?
- Character: are the motivations coming across (primary and secondary characters)?
- Descriptions: Do they enrich the story?
- Pacing: where does it drag? Where does it flow?
- Dialogue: do the characters speak differently? Does it serve the story? Does it aid in tension, character development, and plot movement?
- Any other element that isn’t pulling its weight?
- Should sections of the story be in different places entirely? Should some scenes/characters/plot points be merged, deleted, or changed to strengthen the story?
Many stories could use multiple passes through on Level Two as each revision may strengthen some elements only to reveal where others are lacking. While again, the focus is less about the details than the overall picture, the Level Two pass is aimed at how those details affect the big picture. You may tackle things like filtering, anachronisms, vague phrasing, and the like here but sometimes they are just the surface symptoms of the larger problems. Filtering may be an author’s tendency to step away from the tight POV when the author is uncertain of the character’s motivations, for example. Vague phrasing that leads to blank scenery can only be fixed when we realize that the author had avoided nailing down what the architecture of the building–because the author hadn’t decided on a culture background for the characters.
Level Three (aka “The Devil in the Details”)
This is where we get to go all red-pen kamikaze ninja on the manuscript. This is the time for helping catch all those sneaky typos, those narrative tics, the vague grasp on why semicolons exist–at the same time looking critically at word choices. Level Three is the ruthless level, where you must defend every darling–because if they don’t hold up here, they are just dragging your story down. Some authors think of this sort of critique as a polishing pass, and in many ways it is. It isn’t just a spray with Pledge and swipe the rag kind of pass, however. This is sometimes the hardest critique, to do or to receive. This where you go through and examine every stylistic choice.
Level Three checklist:
- Details, details: anything that’s vague, non-specific, or lacking in detail should be flagged.
- Any POV and voice violations?
- Stylistic tics: These are words or phrases used too often by an author. (For me, it’s the words “only” and “that.”)
- Dialogue: mark unnecessary tags, excess dialogue filler, etc.
- Clunky phrasing, awkward sentences, and the like.
- Be wary of places where structure of sentences and paragraphs is too similar.
I’m sure you can come up with more things to watch for as well. Level Three is tricky, and it can be hard to pin down all the many things to look for, but you know them when you stumble on them in the manuscript.
Go forth and critique well!
