Perhaps this has happened to you: All around you, critique group members shuffle their papers and shift their gazes. Who will go first? You clear your throat and begin your critique. You smile and point to lines you liked, praise the pace of the submission, basically tell the author how well she's done and how you can't wait to see what comes next. Then, out of the silence, the second critic speaks. "I wish I had something positive to say," she confesses, and the table launches into an honest, helpful, but critical evaluation of the piece. You begin to realize how much better the submission could have been, and where exactly it was lacking and how. You feel like you deserve a big fat F.
Last night, I read a submission I really liked and was actually the last person to speak about it. I had written so many positive things about the piece but critic after critic brought up problem areas that hadn't even occurred to me. I had a positive reaction to the second submission too; again, there was the general reaction that something was lacking in the overall plot. I admitted that I felt like I had a lot to learn, and came home feeling like crap. I hadn't submitted anything, I haven't been writing very much, and now my readings are not picking up on things that I should be catching.
I am going to look for some books on how to be a good critique artist. Really, I had fancied myself to be an efficient and perceptive reader, but clearly I need some help. Any suggestions out there for books on critiquing fiction?
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