This is the value of critique. Writers are the best evaluators of other writers. Why? They have spent much of their lives reading books, opinion columns, newspapers, magazine pieces. They know the “map” of good writing like the back of their hand.
As our first critique session of the Women’s Writing Circle unfolded, the authors’ comments ranged from: “I am so excited,” to “Thank you. I feel energized to go home and incorporate these suggestions.”
You can read and reread your pages, but it is the objective reader who “sees” gaps, the need for more description or dialogue . . . the author's voice missing from the piece.
Where is it going? What does it say? Does it hold the reader's interest?
Coffee, vanilla-scented candles, a bookshop brimming with bookcases reaching to the ceiling all add to the creative process at Wellington Square, an independent bookstore in Exton, Pennsylvania that hosts the Women's Writing Circle. Our critique group differs from the monthly read-arounds in that we work on polishing pieces, with an eye toward publication.
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