How to Critique Fiction
by Victory Crayne
A. opening
B. Conflict
C. Plot
D. Setting
E. Characterization
F. Dialogue
G. Point of View
H. Show versus tell
I. Format of the text
J. Grammar and spelling
K. Style
A. Write down your impressions as a reader.
Was the story captivating from the very first few paragraphs? Did
you enjoy reading it? What type of person would this book appeal to? Do you
think that the story or book has sales potential?
B. Try to give feedback on what could be changed.
Remember, the purpose of writing a critique is twofold: (1)
identify the weaknesses in the piece and (2) offer some constructive advice to
the author that might lead to improvement in the story. To just bash the story
without providing something useful to the author is not really being
professional.
2. The checklist (things to look for)
A. Opening
Do the first few sentences or paragraphs of the story grab your
attention? Do they present the protagonist's main problem? Remember how you
judge a book or story when you first see it in a bookstore. Don't we often base
our decision to buy or not buy upon those first few sentences? Did this author
grab your attention fast enough?
B. Conflict
1. By conflict, I do not mean lots of slam-bam action. Conflict is
"The mental or moral struggle caused by incompatible desires and aims.
That is the kind of conflict that makes stories vitally alive." - Ben Bova
in "The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells".
2. Is there emotional conflict WITHIN the main character? Between
the main characters? Emotional conflict is part of what gets readers
interested. For example: love vs. loyalty; greed vs. duty; fear vs. desire;
revenge vs. self-doubt.
3. Are there too many or not enough conflicts?
"The writer's job is to be a troublemaker! Stir up as many
levels of conflict and problems for your protagonist (hero) as you can. Let one
set of problems grow out of another. And never, never, never solve a problem
until you've raised at least two more. It is the unsolved problems that form
the chain of promises that keeps the reader interested." - Ben Bova.
Until the end, of course, when all the conflicts should be
resolved.
4. Is there enough conflict between the characters? Is it
expressed through action, dialogue, attitudes, or values? Were the characters
sufficiently contrasted? Or did they seem to be totally satisfied with their
roles? Did they have the potential to transform each other?
C. Plot
1. Was the main plot clear and believable?
2. Did the main character have a clearly defined problem to solve?
Did you feel by the end of the piece that this problem was solved or did the
character become resolved to live with it?
3. Were you able to determine the time and place of the story
quickly enough?
4. Did the story start at the right place? Did it end at the right
place in the plot?
5. Are there scenes which do not seem to further the plot?
6. Were there too many flashbacks, which broke your attention?
7. If the piece was a short story, were there too many subplots?
If the piece was a novel, could it be improved by more attention to the
subplots or have more subplots? Conversely, does it have too many subplots and
you got confused about what was happening?
8. Was every subplot useful? Did it add to the overall story or
did the author seem to stick it in just for complexity?
9. Pacing: Did the plot/subplots move fast enough to keep the
reader's attention?
10. Resolution of conflict: Did the conflict and tension in the
plots and subplots come to some reasonable ending? Or did the author leave us
hanging, wondering what happened? When you finished, were there things that you
still felt needed to be explained?
If the author did leave some conflict unresolved, did they
indicate somewhere that future stories are pending?
D. Setting
1. Is there enough description of the background in the story to
paint a picture that seems real enough for the reader? Did you feel that you
were transported to 'that time or place'?
2. Was there too much description so modern readers might tend to
become bored? Was the description written with cliches?
3. Did the author use good enough names for people, places, and
things? Names help set the tone for a story. Where some names of people hard to
keep track of? Did some names seem inconsistent with the character? Were the
names too stereotypical?
"The reader would have a tough time imagining a two-fisted
hero named Elmer Small, but James Retief comes across just fine as a hero in
Keith Laumer's stories. Similarly, Bubbles La Toure is hardly the name of a
saintly nun, whereas Modesty Blaise is a sexy and intriguing name for a female
counterpart of James Bond." - Ben Bova.
4. Did the author convince you that people in that time or place
would behave that way?
5. Is the timing and order of events in the story consistent? For
example, did John drive his new car on his vacation in chapter six but it
wasn't until chapter ten that he bought it?
E. Characterization
1. Did the people seem real? Or were the main characters
stereotypes or one-dimensional cardboard characters?
2. Were the facts about the characters accurate and consistent?
"It's very important in building characters to make sure your
'facts' are accurate and consistent. If you mention in chapter two that your
sister's birth sign is Leo, and then in chapter twelve, you have her
celebrating her birthday during a snowfall (unless she lives at the north pole
[or in the southern hemisphere]), credibility will be lost. Even if the reader
doesn't key in on exactly 'what' is wrong with the picture, he/she will have a
disquieting sense that 'something' is." - Debra Littlejohn Shinder
3. People do not exist in a vacuum. They have family, friends, a
job, worries, ambitions, etc. Did you get a sense of enough of these, but not
too much, for the main characters?
4. Did you get a good picture of the culture, historical period,
location, and occupation of the main character?
5. Did you get enough of a sense of paradoxes within the
character? Enough of their emotions, attitudes, values?
6. Backstory: where you distracted by too much background
information of a character at one time? Did the author seem to dump a lot of
information on the background of a character in one or two long speeches, or
did we learn about that character here and there in smaller pieces?
7. Did the protagonist undergo some change in the story?
8. Could the story have been improved by adding more details of
the protagonist's or another character's reputation; stereotyped beliefs; their
network of relations to other people; habits and patterns; talents and
abilities; tastes and preferences; or physical description of their body?
9. Does each chapter/page have enough sensory description? Can the
reader easily sense what is happening physically to the main character? Were
there enough words of sight, sound, touch, smell, or taste?
10. If the story used a person as the antagonist (villain), did
they seem real too? Or did they seem so evil or one-sided that they were more
like ideal villains? Did they have some redeeming qualities too? Did the
villain seem to be a hero in their own mind?
11. Every reader has their own taste in how much characterization
they like. Did this story have too little or too much characterization for you?
F. Dialogue
1. Did the words from the mouths of the people in the story seem
consistent with their personalities?
2. Was there too much or not enough dialogue, in your opinion?
Usually writers err on the side of not enough dialogue.
3. Did any character tend to talk in long monologues?
4. Were you able to sense the conflict, attitudes, and intentions
of each character in their dialogue without the author telling you of these
directly?
5. Were you able to detect any exchange of power that is sexual,
physical, political, or social?
6. Did the dialogue seem easy to speak? Can you 'hear' it? If it
sounds unusual, you might suggest that the writer try reading it aloud.
7. Does the dialogue seem TOO MUCH like normal speech, with too
many incomplete sentences, pauses, restarts, profanity, cliches, etc. that it
was distracting?
8. Did the author use dialect that was too heavy, making it
difficult to read?
9. Does each character have their own speech rhythm, accent (if
necessary), vocabulary, and even length of sentences?
10. In an exchange of conversation, can you easily tell who is
speaking if you didn't have their names or gender attached to their sentences?
G. Point of View
1. Was a given chapter or section written from one person's point
of view? Are there too many points of view in the story?
2. Did the story skip around between the first person or third
person point of view (POV)? Were the changes in POV signaled clearly? There is
nothing inherently wrong in changing POV, as long as it is not done too often.
3. If the story was written in the third person POV, as most
stories are, did the story stick with the omniscient (all knowing) POV, use a
limited POV (where we don't know everyone's motives except by clues from their
words or actions), or did the author mix the two? Did the author's choice seem
right to you?
"The key point is to get the reader to engage in a contract
in which the writer offers: 'I'm not going to show you everything in the
character's head because that would spoil the story for you. Instead, I will
reveal things as we go along but I promise that I won't cheat.'" - Trevor
Lawrence
4. When the POV changed, were you able to quickly sense who the
new viewpoint was from?
H. Show versus tell
1. When in the POV of a character, did the author describe what
his/her senses showed, e.g., sight, sound, smell, touch, taste? Or did the
author just tell you the dinner was very good?
2. Did the author describe exactly how the people acted?
3. Was there too much abstract language where specific details
would have made a greater impact on the reader?
4. Was there too many instances of words like "very",
"much", "really", "great", or "nice"
when a more detailed description would have been more colorful?
5. Did we get the chance to interpret what the characters were
feeling or did the author just tell us directly? For example, I once wrote:
"Two weeks later, after more hours than he cared to remember, Jet felt
very, very tired" and let it go at that and missed the opportunity to
describe his fatigue instead.
I. Format of the text
Was it easy to read or were the paragraphs too long or the lines
too long (not enough margin)?
Would it help to put blank lines between paragraphs? If the piece
is to be read on a computer monitor, adding a blank line between paragraphs
will make it much easier for your critics to read. Note: when you submit the
final version to print publishers, it is best to adhere to their manuscript
format (no blank lines between paragraphs).
J. Grammar and spelling
1. Was the English readable? Were there too many grammatical
errors, misuse of punctuation, run-on sentences, etc.?
2. Did you point out any typos or misspelling? How many times have
you missed that in your writing because you passed over it without seeing it?
Were there so many such errors that they made reading the piece difficult for
you?
3. Did the author use too many exclamation points (one of my
weaknesses)?
4. Where there any cliches in the narrative? For example, I once
wrote "fruits of mother nature" and "thoughts burning in his
mind", both of which are cliches. In dialogue cliches are okay if the
character would speak that way.
5. Did the author use melodrama? For instance, I once wrote:
"With tears in her eyes and barely able to speak, the head nurse dialed
the Chief of Staff. There would be a lot of crying tonight." Can't you
just hear the violins in the background?
K. Style
You may wish to comment on the style the story was written in,
e.g., humorous, wordy, sparse, literary, homespun, technical, etc.