Tag: Zoom critiques

illustration of woman on a computer screen with conversation dots
Posted in Business Side of Writing, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing, Tools, Writing Life

Critiquing Via Zoom Refresher

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Our long-established critique group has been critiquing via Zoom since the beginning of the pandemic, and created some guidelines along the way. (We meet weekly on Fridays except for holidays or occasional days when too many people need to miss. Since there are eight of us, only three can share each week, so we have a schedule of who is presenting and who is moderating on Google Drive.) Occasionally, we need reminders of our process* and I thought a summary might be helpful for other critique groups as well.  

“Supporting each other in creating art takes so much trust.” – Kendra Levin, editor
(Guidelines help us trust each other.)

Before Friday:

  1. Manuscripts are due on Wednesday at the latest. (We email them out.)
  2. Respond to the manuscript sender with a simple “got it” type message when you receive it. Try not to reply all.
  3. Look at the schedule if you can’t remember who is presenting. If you don’t find a manuscript, contact the person whose manuscript is missing.
  4. If one of us can’t send the manuscript, offer up the spot early in the week in our message thread. (Our critique partners are really good at this!)

Zoom morning:

  1. While someone is critiquing, stay silent, especially the one being critiqued. No explanations, no excusing, no arguing. 
  2. After everyone has critiqued a piece, the critiquee may ask questions or make comments.
  3. Additional comments or questions are welcome from everyone—other comments often inspire new thoughts. Remember to raise your hand and wait for the moderator to call on you.
  4. Side stories of what this reminded you of should be shared after all critique work is done.

Moderator duties include:

  1. How the meeting is run—I love how some in our group are good at asking how everyone is doing first.
  2. Deciding which manuscript goes first, and the order of critiquers. 
  3. Keep us on task. 
  4. Remind us that it is not our time to talk when appropriate. One member said in our recent discussion, “I think the hardest part of being the ‘boss’ for me is to cut people off if they are jumping in and not waiting to talk by raising their hand.” 
  5. Before concluding meeting, discuss schedule for following week.

Critiquer duties:

  1. Honor others’ turns to talk.
  2. Share specific positives about a piece.
  3. Only make a suggestion once—don’t dwell on the topic—it is not our duty to convince the writer.
  4. Try to only share what you have that hasn’t been said—no need to offer the caveat that you’re doing this. (We know.)
  5. Consider making reaction comments on your copy of the manuscript during critique, such as I agree/disagree with so and so about this/that specific issues.
  6. Let the writer see the minor grammar and mechanical corrections on their copy—no need to share verbally. (We use track changes and Word’s commenting option on manuscripts and send them back once our Zoom meeting is over.)

None of us are perfect, so we still make mistakes, and fortunately are forgiving of each other. But it definitely helps when we remind ourselves of the process.

I couldn’t do without my critique partners. They make my work so much better with their suggestions. Kai Strand said, “I love how a story, or a character expands with the help of critique partners.” That is so true!

*I first wrote about this method here.

illustration of Zoom meeting
Posted in Craft, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing, Tools, You Are Not Alone

Critiquing Via Zoom

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

The Covid pandemic forced us to look at other ways of communicating. Now we commonly use Zoom for webinars, meetings, family get-togethers, and, yes, critique groups. (Kinda wish I’d owned Zoom stock before Covid…)

My critique group started Zooming in March of 2020. And we are still meeting that way–partially as several of us are not within close driving distance.

Here’s what we learned along the way:

First, sending manuscripts ahead of time saves time. In face-to-face meetings we brought manuscripts to the meeting and read aloud. Critiquers physically wrote on the paper. Now each manuscript is sent via email two-three days ahead of our Zoom meeting. Each person reads the manuscripts at their leisure and uses a combination of commenting, and track changes on their copy. We often type in global comments at the beginning as well. E.g. “Loved this chapter. Could add more sensory details.” The file is saved with a new name identifying who critiqued it, e.g. Beauty Chap 8 – Sue.

Second, not everyone can share a manuscript every week. There are seven of us in our group and we want to have time to discuss each manuscript in depth. We’ve found three to be a good number for everyone to have time to comment. That means we schedule who “presents” each week so everyone usually gets to share several times a month. We meet from 9 am to 12 pm.* Sometimes we end early. Often, we take a bit of time to talk about our lives or share ups and downs in the publishing world.

Third, someone moderates each meeting. We rotate who moderates and that person keeps everyone on track. E.g. “We’ll start with C’s manuscript, and we’ll go in this order of commenting: S, G, J, B, K, and myself.” The moderator also reminds the one being critiqued not to explain or tell what’s going to happen next. The writing needs to stand alone. Having a moderator has reduced frustrations.

Fourth, verbal comments at our Zoom meeting, may prompt other thoughts. We add these to our own electronic copy of the manuscript. E.g. “E had a great suggestion on…” or “This didn’t bother me.” or “What if you did…here?”

Fifth, don’t verbally repeat what someone else has already said, nor go over every typo. The writer gets all the manuscripts with comments returned and can see punctuation suggestions and where critiquers agreed about an issue.

Sixth, after everyone has commented, there’s a short time for questions or additional comments. This is where the writer can ask for clarification. Or a critiquer can add a last minute thought.

The finished manuscript copies are emailed back to the writer.

I like that we don’t spend time stuck in traffic going to and from meetings. But I love how much regular time I get to spend with my critique group, even if it isn’t in person.

*Several of us have paid Zoom accounts so can host meetings of any length.