On this blog, we Scrivas love to talk about effective group process and good critique, but I fear we may gloss over the hardest part of critique groups: FINDING ONE! I know I had several botched attempts before finding the Scrivas. It’s very difficult to assess compatibility of potential critique partners. You’ve got to get into the process a little before you have any sense of whether it will work or not.
And that’s kind of like jumping into the sack with someone you’ve just met. Could be fun. Or it could be an epic disaster. Is there a way to streamline the process?
Well, I’ve been tossing around the idea of critique group speed dating for a while.
In looking for a critique partner, you want to find someone whose writing you respect. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, but it’s got potential that you can get behind. You also want someone that you get along with on a personal level. Ideally, this is also someone who offers productive critique.
Here’s one idea for how it could work:
- Each participant brings in one page of their writing with enough copies for all participants.
- Two people sit down at a table and talk about their writing goals, creative process, and projects (NOT about the first pages).
- If you like the person, set their writing aside to check out later.
- After five minutes, switch partners.
- By the end of the evening, you’ll have identified a handful of people that you think are pretty cool.
- Go home and read the first pages.
- Select the people that you think would be a good match based on personality AND/OR writing.
- Pass your selections onto the event organizer and see if you’ve made any matches.
Voila! A critique group is born!
What do you think? Could it work? Would you be interested in trying?
