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How to Give Useful Criticism

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The great thing about Writer Unboxed is the sense of community it gives to writers. There’s the twitter account to follow, the Facebook group to connect with others, and, of course, the unconference where you can really engage in all things writery. All of this is so important in the otherwise solitary task of writing.

Beyond WU are the many writers’ groups, often online these days to help writers connect with others working in their specific genres or interest areas. And then there are beta reader groups and review sites, all of which can provide essential constructive feedback as you progress on your writing journey.

Constructive feedback is the important phrase there. In a previous article, I described how to respond to criticism, but it’s also important for anyone in any writing community to know how to give that all important constructive criticism.

I have to do this all time in my story analysis work, and over the years I’ve gathered a few basic rules to follow. [Read more…]

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Dissecting An American Marriage

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As author Tayari Jones has herself pointed out, An American Marriage, winner of the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction and an Oprah Book Club 2.0 selection, was a "breakthrough" nearly two decades in the making, reaching an audience many times over that of three previous well-regarded novels. For that reason, as well as the tale's topical backdrop, the dissection crew was eager to explore how a devoted novelist remained true to her voice while still managing to capture the zeitgeist of the … [Read more...]

First Look: WU UnConference Session Descriptions

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If you've been eager to learn more about the sessions and workshops we'll have at this year's Writer Unboxed UnConference (in Salem, MA, 11/4-11/8), this is the post for you. Read on for a more detailed look at our program, and visit our page at Eventbrite for more specifics and to sign up. Hope to see you in Salem! THE ARCHITECTURE OF WU-NDER: Build a Transporting Story Your Readers Won't Want to Leave (Capstone 4-hour workshop) Fiction that sweeps us away is the goal, but what … [Read more...]

Critiquing for Shades of Gray

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When Erin Bartels and I agreed to be critique partners, we knew we had similar writing sensibilities and a commitment to telling emotionally resonant stories. Interestingly, both of our debut novels explore race in America. However, as much as we are alike, we approach the world and our characters from vastly different perspectives: She’s white. I’m black. Erin’s novel, We Hope for Better Things, which releases in January, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. It takes a … [Read more...]

Dissecting The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, though far from being a mystery novel, still managed to perplex the WU Breakthrough Novel Dissection Group more than nearly any of our prior reads. While the concept of the story, which explores England's emergence from the harsh shadow of WWII, holds a natural appeal, we were confused at how a novel so highly regarded, both within our group and with readers around the globe, could break so many rules we've come to expect of our reads. Given its … [Read more...]

Dissecting A Gentleman in Moscow

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If the ability to get people talking is the measure of success of a novel, then A Gentleman in Moscow was clearly a hit with the WU's Breakout Novelist Book Dissection Group, generating more comments than any of our previous reads. Then again, given the authorial machinations hidden beneath the surface of a blithe and bubbling narrative, perhaps it isn't all that surprising. Our crew of writerly explorers gobbled up the breadcrumbs author Amor Towles left behind, intent on understanding how the … [Read more...]

MFA + DIY: An Entrepreneurial Take on the MFA Debate

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Please welcome Gabriela Pereira, author of DIY MFA: Write with Focus, Read with Purpose, Build Your Community, to Writer Unboxed today! Gabriela is a writer, speaker, and entrepreneur who wants to challenge the status quo of higher education. As the founder of DIYMFA.com, her mission is to empower writers, artists and other creatives to take an entrepreneurial approach to their professional growth. Gabriela earned her MFA in creative writing from The New School and teaches at national … [Read more...]

Dissecting The Goldfinch

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While it might be more apt to describe Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch as anchored by time, place and character, rather than constricted as the word "tether" implies, I couldn't resist a reference to the enigmatic painting at the center of this epic tale that recently swept the literary world. Not only did The Goldfinch win the Pulitzer Prize in 2014, it won readers over as well, enough to entice the WU Breakout Novel Book Dissection group to take on the novel as our second read of 2017. As … [Read more...]

What a Sensitivity Reader Is (and Isn’t) and How to Hire One

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An interesting thing has been happening to me with increased frequency: I’ve been asked to read friends’ and acquaintances’ manuscripts as a sensitivity reader for stories that deal with immigration. Because I am a Latina and an immigrant, and the authors who’ve requested I read their work are writing outside of their own experience, I’ve been asked to evaluate their work for authenticity. So far, I’ve had to turn down these kinds of requests because I’ve been busy with my own writing and … [Read more...]

The Dreaded Editorial Letter

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Please welcome back guest Densie Webb whose first novel is You’ll Be Thinking of Me. Densie is currently working on novels two and three, and she's also a nonfiction writer/editor, mainly about health and nutrition. She has written for The New York Times, Parade, been a columnist for Prevention, Family Circle and now writes for industry and trade organizations. She added fiction to the mix about six years ago and never looked back. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, … [Read more...]

Truth Be Told? Truth Is on Thin Ice

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'Your Capacity for Change' Go slowly. Makes it easier if you take this one line at a time: Authenticity is equal to your unique voice, multiplied by truthfulness, plus your capacity for change, multiplied by range of emotional impact, raised to the power of imagination. This is the "Authenticity Formula." It opens designer and author Marc Eckō's book Unlabel: Selling You Without Selling Out. I'm looking forward to Eckō's keynote at the HOW Live event in May. HOW is a … [Read more...]

Writing is Hard

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It doesn’t seem that hard at first.  When you’re caught up in the thrill of creating people and telling their story, writing feels like the easiest thing in the world. You just go on doing it until you get to the end.  Then you put that first work in a drawer for a month and look at it again.  It doesn’t look at all like the brilliant story you remember.  In fact, it sucks. But you bear down, start reading about the craft of writing, and join a writer’s group, either online or in person (or … [Read more...]

One-Starred: The Importance of Criticism and Why You Should Take It

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As some of those of you who attended the fabulous Un-conference last year know, I read all my Amazon reviews, positive and negative. And while this might sound like a bad idea—in fact, I’ve had many people tell me not to do it—there’s a method to my madness. I admit, I began to do it because my scattergun approach to review reading wasn’t working. For instance, when my first novel, Spin, came out and I learned that my first major review was going to appear in The Globe and Mail, I had someone … [Read more...]

Feeding Your Readers Information: A Look at a Master

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    As so often happens, the comments on last month’s piece (What Do Your Readers Know and When Do They Know It) showed that there was a lot more to the topic than I could cover in a single column.  So I thought it would help to look in some detail at how a master of the craft created tension by how he fed his readers information. If you’re not already familiar with John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, the quickest, easiest way to get to know the story is to stream the movie.   … [Read more...]