I’ve been thinking about manuscript critique and revision a lot lately.

A LOT, a lot.

I’ve been working on a young adult thriller that feels like it has taken forever to pound into shape. As one of my critique partners mentioned more than once, “You don’t have to write 95,000-word manuscripts with 4 point-of-view characters. There are easier stories to write.”

True enough. And I’m extremely lucky to have wonderful critique partners (CPs) who will read my 95,000-word monstrosity and help me make it better.

As I revised on my own and then with notes from CPs, I spent a lot of time thinking about manuscript critiques and the tremendous insights my brilliant critique partners have had on my stories.

With these thoughts top-of-mind, I decided today’s post should be:

8 Tips on Getting Great Manuscript Critiques

1. Find Great Critique Partners

The most important step in getting a great critique is having brilliant critique partners.

Finding a great critique partner isn’t easy. People are distracted by so many things these days. . . texts, YouTube, Netflix, life. It takes a chunk of time to read a manuscript and more to provide detailed chapter- and/or line-level feedback.

But quality critique partners are worth their weight in gold because they can help you take your manuscript to the next level.

Great critique partners are:

• Writers themselves or at least well-read. You need someone who can dig deeper than “This is great!” or “Zzzzzzz.” In my experience, the best critique partners are other writers who are at the same stage of the writing journey as you and seriously pursuing publication. You can exchange critiques of each other’s manuscripts. This allows you to have great discussions about what is working well and what’s not working in both your manuscripts and to “level up” your writing together.
• Not related to you. Sure, plenty of author acknowledgements thank spouses for being their trusted first reader. But an effective first reader needs to be ready to hurt your feelings as part of the process of making your book as good as it can be. Will your spouse or child do that? You need the reader who will point out all the warts.
• Found at places like: the SCBWI forums, WriteOnCon critique partner meet-up, the Pitch Wars hashtag, Facebook writing groups like 88 Cups of Tea, or author-sponsored forums.

2. Decide How Many Critique Partners to Send Your Manuscript to at Once.

You don’t want to send a manuscript to every literary agent at once. You send to a few and see what kind of feedback you get in case you need to revise more.

The same holds true for critique partners. Don’t send your manuscript to every critique partner at once. You’ll fix things after your first revision and want someone to make sure your fixes worked or to find the next-level issues once the first round of fixes is complete.

3. Get Your Manuscript as Polished as Possible Before You Send it to Critique Partners.

But aren’t your critique partners supposed to help you make it better?

Yes, but the more your critique partners are distracted by issues you could identify and clean up yourself – spelling and grammar mistakes, passive voice, where is this scene taking place? – the less focus they’ll have on the big-picture issues which are the ones you really need an outside perspective to identify.

I expected to do one intense, 5-month, chapter-by-chapter revision of my manuscript, then a quick read-through, and then send the manuscript to my CPs. I found that after my first revision there were still a lot of issues that I knew how to fix but which I hadn’t been able to see until I’d moved from the ugly-first draft to a book-shaped second draft. My “quick read-through” took another 6 months but that got my manuscript to the point where critique partners could see what I was trying to achieve with the story and help me get it there.

4. Start with a New Critique Partner by Exchanging Your Query Letter or First Chapter or 2.

Not every other writer is a great match for you. Someone who likes your story concept and voice will be a better match than someone who is rushing to get to the end of your manuscript because it’s not their thing. A query exchange will illuminate whether you like each other’s concepts. Exchanging first chapters will clarify whether you like each other’s narrative voice.

If after reading someone’s query and/or first chapter you find it’s not a good match, you can decide not to exchange more and wish them well on their project. We all have subjective preferences for different types of stories.

5. Pick an Exchange Schedule that Works for Both You and Your Critique Partner.

How much time do you have to commit to critiquing? What type of feedback do you need? In-depth, chapter-by-chapter feedback or sweeping feedback about how your plot and character arc are working across the project?

When I first started exchanging with critique partners (I’m looking at you Halli and Eva!), we exchanged a chapter a week. This kept us on task for writing or polishing about 10 pages a week and critiquing as many pages for each of 2 manuscripts. This takes a chunk of time. But it also got us through our middle-grade manuscripts in about 9 months.

Later, after I had more experience writing and being critiqued, I sent entire manuscripts to critique partners. The tough part of this was getting hundreds of pages in my inbox at once, either to critique or to revise! The great part was getting insight into the problems across an entire story.

With my current manuscript, I’ve had a combination of both. One critique partner read my manuscript chapter-by-chapter, providing in-depth comments, and helping me cut my word count. Three others read the manuscript and provided helpful in-line comments but more helpful comments on the overarching structure of the book:

• Where is the pace good and where is it slow?
• Are the characters’ goals clear and their arcs working?
• Where are the plot holes?

The reasons for having one CP read chapter-by-chapter and others read the whole manuscript were schedule-driven. However, I’d say that the combination of both types of critiques gave me the best of both worlds.

When deciding how to swap manuscripts, I’d consider whether you need help on chapter-level problems or manuscript-level problems. Also, think about whether you might find giving and receiving notes on an entire manuscript overwhelming.

6. Tell Your Critique Partners What Kind of Feedback You’re Looking For.

In the past, I’ve trusted my critique partners to see what’s going wrong with my story and tell me. I was open to whatever they thought they should note.

With this manuscript, I had a strong sense of what was working in the story from a synopsis critique I’d gotten before I started my second revision and a query + first pages critique I received mid-revision. I asked my critique partners to help me make the book live up to the strengths that had been identified in the concept, plot, and character goals.

Because I did this, no one questioned whether the story should be a thriller, with the violence and high stakes that come with that genre. Instead, they focused on making it work as a thriller.

7. Thanks Your Critique Partners Profusely.

The best thanks is a thorough and thoughtful critique of your critique partner’s novel.

Critiquing a full novel takes tons of time. As mentioned above, someone who will go through your early, imperfect draft of a story is worth their weight in gold. Thank them by providing excellent suggestions on their own story.

8. Cheer Your Critique Partners on in the Next Stages of Their Publishing Journey.

Critiquing is an ongoing relationship. You’re going to write another story, right? And your manuscript exchanges don’t need to end when one of you gets a publishing deal.

If you read last week’s post, you saw my interview and cover reveal for Halli’s List of Ten, which will be published by Sterling Children’s Books in February 2021. Halli and I have been critiquing each other’s manuscripts for over 8 years. After Halli’s family, I’m the most excited about the launch of her debut novel and will be cheering for her all along the way.

That’s it. 8 tips for getting great manuscript critiques.

What have I missed?

I’m happy to chat more about manuscript critiques. If you have questions on how to get great manuscript critiques or tips that I’ve missed, add them in the comments below!

And if you’re in the middle of a tough revision with or without critique partners, these articles might help:

How to Survive Your Toughest Draft

Master Your Craft: Take Your Kidlit Writing Skills to the Next Level

Thanks for stopping by The Winged Pen. Be sure to subscribe to the blog or follow us on Twitter if you want to know when our next post launches!