Critiquing or Editing? That is the Question.

How do you feel when you've finally come to the end of your story? Like little Eliza here, it's really hard to let go.

I have to admit I don't belong to a critique group, but I think I'd be unlikely to hand it over to so many varied ideas and suggestions. Some authors do find this a great way to go as it seems to fire them up in a fresh way. You know "steel against steel" sharpens the mind.

Francine Rivers admitted she wouldn't join a critique group as it would be too much like a committee...too many ideas. And she also commented that the great authors of the past didn't work that way. They wrote alone and unaided. However, getting your work edited by a professional is an entirely different matter. Apart from grammatical errors, they pick up on the flaws in writing style, pacing and scene structure that novices aren't aware of. Of course they can charge big time as it's their time and skill involved.

I just love the way Debbie Ridpath captures what most of us authors struggle through! It's good to have a special reader whom you trust willing to read through your manuscript with helpful comments and willing to talk over any weaknesses. It really does help to understand a reader's point of view. Something you think think you've explained so well might be as clear as mud to someone just as intelligent as you are! And it comes as a shock to discover there might be another perfectly acceptable way of writing it.

I'd love to know how all you other authors out there think about this. Go it alone or work with a critique group?


Besides contributing to several US anthologies, Rita Stella Galieh has authored two novels, Fire in the Rock and Signed Sealed Delivered, Book I of a trilogy. She blogs weekly about true stories of women & occasionally men at http://inspirationalromance.blogspot.com . While waiting for her 2nd and 3rd books to find a publisher she scripts and is co-speaker for a Christian radio program, Communication, broadcast throughout Australia and HCJB, Missionary Radio.