4 Considerations When Evaluating a Critique Group - article

Writers, like all creative people, need help to create. We need others to bounce ideas off of, get feedback from, and interact with as a break from the solitary act of writing. We need honesty, insights, and guidance that often doesn’t come from our own brains when we are too close to our own work. Critique groups can fill all of these needs. But picking the right group for you can be tricky. Check out some of these tips to help you zero in on the best group for you.

1. A good critique group, quite frankly, contains more than one person. It's a group. Writers need more than one opinion to bounce ideas off of because every writer hopefully will get more than one reader. So when you evaluate potential groups, make sure there is a sufficient group of people to ensure a good amount of feedback and perspectives.
2. A range of experience in your critics, from the average reader to that genius previously-published author, will better help you judge the merit of your work and its performance on the market. Different readers have different areas of expertise: every group has its Strunk &White incarnate, its consummate thematic muse, and its easily-bored, plot-hungry teenager. You can also (vaguely) judge your work's ability to draw in readers outside your genre by mixing up critiques from people with wildly different interests. Sound difficult? So maybe you can't get twelve different people to look at your book. Try two or three experienced readers instead. When you choose a group, you should check the likelihood of getting readers within your genre; the frequency of experienced authors, editors, and publishers in the group; and whether or not the work you put in will equal the work you get out. 
3. Groups with healthy discussion have the added benefit of allowing more rigorous competition between ideas. You need people to debate and comment on each other's comments, so if you can't get a group together face to face or on a forum, try bouncing ideas from one online critique source to another. "So-and-so told me this. What do you think?" Good critique groups involve real critiquing--not just criticism, not just praise, but critique in which fellow group-members strive to improve your writing professionally while honing their own abilities to weed out junk from their own work. Your group-members realize that improving your writing means learning how to improve their own. Your star critic points out specific errors instead of just declaring pass or fail on your book because recognizing those errors helps her avoid them herself. 
4. Your group may also provide helpful connections. Whether you are a new writer or an experienced writer picking up a new project, starting out on a new genre, or looking for a different perspective… we all need contacts within the industry. For an author interested in traditional publishing, this means you need an editor and agent. For the growing number of indie authors, you might need a freelance copy editor, book designer, cover designer, or illustrator. In any of these cases it helps to have group members who have connections that they can share with you. Therefore, one consideration in choosing a group is how much they can help with this. Do they network outside the group? Are they a group of authors with a stated goal of publication (rather than writing for other reasons)? In a group like this you can you help each other with marketing and promotions; you can inspire each other to improve just by the osmosis of brilliant writers in close contact. You can recommend freelance help or point people to inside connections or online resources.

Pick the right group and you’ll find a set of writers who are each other's professional admirers and aids, silly fans, and real friends. And your writing will become more enjoyable.