Friday, December 10, 2010

My Critiquing Stages a la Taylor Lautner's Body

Remember that time I talked about how Robert Pattinson's hair reminds me of writing? Or how Kristen Stewart's face nails my brainstorming process perfectly? Well, this week I had another totally useless epiphany--the feedback I give my crit partners is a lot like Taylor Lautner's body.

I know what you're thinking: "Amparo, stop looking for excuses to put up half-naked pictures of Taylor Lautner!" Believe me when I say this is not the case. There is a VERY VALID REASON, as you will see in a minute. *blushes*

All right. Let's get to it. Here are my critiquing stages a la Taylor Lautner's body:


Step One: My crit partners are very productive people. I am impressed by them. I am also jealous, but that revelation does little for this post. Anyway, my crit partners write their glorious manuscripts and send their latest babies to me. Once I am able to pry my face from Alexander Skarsgard's abs, I download their babies and read. In this first read, I simply focus on giving my uber-positive comments. Basically, I gush my brains out. Or make jokes. Sometimes both. The point is, I only highlight what makes the manuscript fun to read and easy to understand. My critique starts off a little on the light side, and sort of looks like this:






Step Two: I am a sucker for dialogue. Specifically, how it shows me who the character is. Voice is really important to me, and I'm super lucky to have crit partners with kickass voice. First, I focus on everything dialogue-related: whether what is said by Character A makes sense, does it clash with a previous action and/or interior monologue, is the scene dragging because the convos don't increase tension or give relevant info, etc. Then I dive in to the more style-related stuff, like whether there's too much passive voice, how well the words are flowing, the clarity of the setting/emotions/conflict. Little by little, my critique gets juiced up into something more meaningful. And, you know, a little thicker:






Step Three: After I read their pages, I give my overall impression at the end of the sample. I talk about what I loved best first, then I highlight the parts I think could be improved. By doing this, I feel like I'm giving my crit partners a more detailed version of what I scribbled on the Track Changes along the manuscript. But that's not the most important part, though. I find this Big Picture necessary because it gives me the chance to explain the Why better. Why I think some parts can be improved. Why I think the voice is awesome. Why I think the pacing should be tighter. Believe it or not, critiques are all about the Why. Without it, your partners will simply think you're a snob with no heart. The Why is what makes any manuscript better, folks. Use it. And when you do, you'll see that your critique bulks up to a point where it's fully fleshed out and uber-tight:






See? VERY VALID REASON for writing this post, right? Right???


Quick reminder: The results are in for Operation Awesome's December Mystery Agent Contest!! If you entered, believe me when I say you will NOT be disappointed!! Woot!


Now fess up: what's your critiquing style?

15 comments:

  1. Of COURSE you had a valid reason for this post...I COMPLETELY see the comparison! And I must say...

    Thank you for that last photo. yum.

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  2. Oh wow, even as a young kid, Taylor had killer abs.

    I, um, had to read your post several times. That last photo kept distracting me. Wow, you're an amazing critter. :)

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  3. I'm sorry - did you write anything in this post? I was distracted by the pictures...

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  4. Wait ... were there words between those eye-popping pics? *goes back and checks* hmm...I can't see any words, only abs. ;-)

    ~JD

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  5. LOL! You're awesome, Amparo! And as always, brilliant insights. I think I could stand to give more why's in my critiques. Sometimes I get in a rush to keep reading the awesome and forget to explain my last suggestion.

    Oh, and Woot for the contest results!! Mystery Agent was VERY generous this time around.

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  6. Three gorgeous and perfect stages of critiquing. Perfect, well-toned and crikey so young I really must look away now!!! LOL! Take care
    x

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  7. Uber valid reason for this awesome post. :)

    As for my critting, I always try to give the why.

    Now I need to go look at the pictures again. Oops, I mean read the post. ;)

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  8. That's a great way to go into analysis and depth of a body, I mean a critique. ;)

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  9. Late to this post, but man. Now I'm a follower. You're a genius.

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  10. *wipes drool* i agree entirely. with everything.
    christy

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  11. LOL, you guys are AWESOME!! Thanks for the Taylor body love!

    Uh... I mean... The critiquing style love... *blushes*

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