by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan

I’ve seen a lot about accepting critiques, but not a lot about being a good critiquer. There was an old TV show called Truth or Consequences. If the contestant couldn’t guess the truth about the guest, he had to suffer the consequences and some of those consequences were hysterical.

But what about our writing? If we submit a manuscript without any critique or editing, what consequences do we face? Most obvious would be the manuscript would be rejected. If an author chooses to Indy publish, it’s vital to sales to have your manuscript professionally edited.

Since there’s been a lot of talk in writing blogs about critique groups or partners, I thought I’d add some fodder. I have two critique partners now who have been with me for several years. I wouldn’t think of submitting my manuscript to my publisher without them first critiquing it. They know my voice and filter their critiques through it.

How do you find a good critique partner or group?

My first venture into critique groups was a Christian online one. I soon gravitated to a few people whose writing I liked. They were kind in their critiques but adamant about me learning the basics of good writing. I was a raw newbie but smart enough to know I knew nothing (the best advice I got at my first writing conference was:  develop rhino skin. I look at critiques as advice to make my writing better not an attack on me.

Later, a dozen of us split off from the first group and formed our own private, online critique group. We made a covenant to always be honest and tough. That doesn’t mean unkind—quite the opposite, really. It means speaking truth in love.

“If I could speak all the languages of the earth and angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” 1 Corinthians 13:1 NLT

What does that have to do with critiques? Let me paraphrase it: “If I could speak all the writing rules and quote the Chicago Manual of Style, but don’t correct my critique partners, I would only be an unhelpful know-it-all.”

When we don’t offer a truthful critique—if we only tell our critique partners (CPs) their work is wonderful, when in reality, it needs work, we aren’t helping them. God has charged us to “As iron sharpens iron, so a CP shapens a CP.” Prov 27:17, NLT paraphrased. If I don’t tell my CPs when something jumps out at me as wrong or uncharacteristic, I’m not helping her. I’m letting her submit something less that her best. And that is not what God expects of me.

As a Christian and a writer, I’m also called to critique as “unto the Lord,” which means putting on an editor’s hat and digging deep to help my CPs be their best. And I expect the same from them.

Your critique partners can become your best friends, ones you know care enough to tell you the truth. I never want a pat on the head and told, “You’re a good writer.” I want to be pushed and prodded to become a better writer and always do my very best…as unto the Lord.

Are YOU a critiquer of consequence? Are your critiques offered to make your CP better? Have they become so good you now have to read their chapters three times to find anything to suggest?

Ane Mulligan lives life from a director’s chair, both in theatre and at her desk, creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five, she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.