Why You Need to Find Your Critique Partner

Gina Kammer Author

You need a critique partner—sometimes called an alpha reader. You need someone in the trenches, learning and growing alongside you.

Why You Need to Find Your Critique Partner

My number one tip to know if your story is worth publishing is to get outside eyes on it.

Readers aren’t in your head with you. They don’t know what you intended or how awesome everything plays out in your imagination. They only know what’s on the page.

So get someone else to read your work. However, this person or role is going to be different during each stage of your journey.

For example, you wouldn’t give an avid reader of your genre with little-to-no craft knowledge your unedited pages while you’re still working things out in your story.

That reader is going to tear it apart for every little typo and sentence with whacky grammar. Likely, that reader won’t be able to see past the lack of polish to even focus on your story content.

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Psst! That’s a ***beta reader*** for a later stage. Learn more about the different readers and their roles/definitions in a quick cheat sheet! Sign up for a free student account in the Inky Bookwyrm Conservatory HERE to get access.

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So what does that mean? It means you want someone with a solid foundation in story craft to be your first reader.

Now, that might sound like a professional editor or book coach. And it can be, but it doesn’t have to be.

While I do highly recommend working with a book coach from the idea and planning stages to gain a solid foundation or level up your own craft, you also need someone basically at the same level as you.

You need someone in the trenches, learning and growing alongside you so you don’t have to be in that place alone. Now, a book coach does this too, but it’s still a different—professional—kind of relationship.

So what you need is a critique partner—sometimes called an alpha reader. However, I prefer the term critique partner because it alludes to the reciprocal nature of the relationship.

On the other hand, alpha reader implies that this is the first reader of your work—and that’s true too. Maybe I’d distinguish this term by saying it is the first reader, and one with solid craft knowledge that otherwise fits the critique partner bill, but isn’t actually exchanging pages with you. The alpha reader is simply reading and critiquing your early-stage story.

So really, a book coach or editor could be your alpha reader by that definition if one is the very first reader of your work outside of yourself. And this is true for most of my clients.

That can work too, but I’m a huge proponent of learning through teaching. You’ll level up your craft much faster if you can return the favor and learn to critique another author’s work in a peer relationship and level.

As a happy side effect, you’ll get better at editing your own work. So it’s a win-win, and it’s definitely not to be seen as a dreaded obligation.

Whether you’re being critiqued or you’re doing the critiquing, you’re gaining valuable craft insight. But do also supplement your craft knowledge by learning from professionals through books, courses, coaches, and editors.

This learning will enhance your critique partnership, and in turn, your critique partnership will enhance your craft education. But your critique partner should be doing the same. Your partner should also be knowledgeable in story craft and working to level up in craft.

This is important because of those very early stages that a critique partner wades through with you. So you need someone who can ignore the surface-level text polishing stuff and focus on encouraging you and pushing you further in your story.

Get free resources to use with a critique partner! Sign up for a free student account in the Inky Bookwyrm Conservatory HERE.

Why You Should Have a Critique Partner

Critique partners can offer a fresh perspective on your story and help you improve it in at least five crucial ways:

1. Providing feedback: Critique partners can offer ideas and suggestions for improving the plot, characters, dialogue, pacing, and overall structure of your story. They can also point out areas that may be unclear or confusing to someone who is not you.
   
   

1. Offering constructive criticism: Good critique partners will provide honest feedback, even if it is not always positive. But it won’t be delivered condescendingly—think of it more as an observation.
   
   This can help you identify areas that need improvement and give you a better understanding of what works and what doesn't in your writing.
   
   However, note that if you need only positive encouragement on a particularly rough day so you can keep going, a good critique partner would respect that.
   
   
2. Identifying strengths: Critique partners can also identify your writing strengths and help you build on them. This can give you confidence in your writing abilities and help you refine your craft.
   
   
3. Fresh perspective, of course: An outside reader can bring a new perspective to your story and help you see it in a new light. This can be especially helpful when you have been working on the same story for a long time and are too close to it to see its flaws.
   
   
4. Improved writing: Ultimately, with the help of a critique partner, you can revise and improve your story to make it the best it can be. This can help you achieve your goals as a writer and push you that much farther ahead before seeking editing or an agent.

But getting such results from your critique partner relationship takes some preparation and a mutual understanding of expectations going in.

10 Questions to Ask Your Critique Partner

So when working with a critique partner, you can ask specific questions to help guide their feedback. Your partner’s answers to these questions can help you get a better sense of how your story is working and what areas, specifically, may need improvement.

To get you started, I have compiled in my resource library a checklist of 10 questions (plus the 3 questions you might boil them down to when you need to streamline or simply want to prioritize) to use while critique partnering. Download the PDF on my site while logged in to your account. 

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Psst! If you haven't registered your free subscriber account, you can create your account here. Then click “LIBRARY” in the site navigation menu, and follow the links to the resources you’re looking for.

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These questions focus on core story elements. But keep in mind that a critique partner's feedback is not necessarily a professional editor's or book coach’s feedback. In other words, your partner may not always know exactly what it is that isn’t working or how, precisely to fix it. 

However, knowing the parts that aren’t working as well as you’d hoped can at least pinpoint areas to look into further with the help of craft resources. Or, you can flag those items for an editor or book coach who, from her experience, can help you get to the bottom of what’s really going off track in your story. 

However, if your critique partner has minimal craft knowledge and has a hard time knowing what, precisely, was or wasn’t working for him or her, you can simply ask...

• What did you get excited about?
• Where did you want to stop reading or had a hard time pushing through?
• Where did you get confused?
• What else would you love to see in the story?

This kind of feedback is still incredibly valuable and keeps things simple. In fact, if that works better for you and your partner rather than keeping a long list in mind, I highly recommend just simplifying to those few items. Especially if you’re both newer to writing and story craft. They’ll go a long way and cover a lot more than their deceptive simplicity implies.

So yes, it’s great to find someone with extensive craft knowledge, but ideally, you’ll find someone who’s at a similar place in his or her writing journey to yourself.

How to Find a Critique Partner

OK, but where do you find such a unicorn to critique partner with you? It’s definitely not an exact science, but matching services do exist.

However, for finding critique partners for story, here are a few other options to try:

1. Join online writing communities: Look for online writing communities where writers can connect with each other and exchange feedback on their works.
   
   There are many websites and forums dedicated to helping writers find critique partners and beta readers. A simple Google search for the words “critique partner” can get you started.
   
   
2. Use social media: Join writing-focused social media groups and ask if anyone is interested in exchanging critiques with you.
   
   Facebook groups exist for nearly every genre writer, or, of course, there’s Bookstagram, Book Twitter, and the bookish communities of other platforms.
   
   
3. Attend writing workshops and events: Writing workshops and events are great opportunities to connect with other writers and find potential critique partners.
   
   You can also attend local writing groups or join writing organizations in your area. Check your library for such groups, especially.
   
   
4. Ask fellow writers for recommendations: Reach out to other writers you know and ask if they have any recommendations for critique partners.
   
   
5. Simply offer to exchange critiques: Reach out to other writers even if you don’t know them that well and offer to exchange critiques with them. (I know. This is terrifying. But stay with me—plus, how else do we make new friends? Gotta start somewhere!)

You can propose that you exchange a test chapter or two with someone to check for fit and compatibility before fully committing. You can decide together if it’s working for you both.

When you receive feedback from a potential critique partner, be open to constructive criticism. Check the tone to make sure it’s truly constructive and not demeaning or condescending.

In other words, don’t get bristly simply because you receive critiques. Try to check the true tone and nature of the critique before you decide the person isn’t a good fit.

However, do be honest with yourself. If the person’s style of critiquing simply doesn’t mesh well with you and your personality, thank them and move on.

But set yourself up for success by establishing the boundaries and expectations of the critique partner relationship first. Make sure you’re on the same page. This can help build trust and establish a productive working relationship.

Remember, finding a good critique partner can take time and effort (and likely going out of your comfort zone), but it's worth it to find someone who can help you improve your writing and just be in it with you. Be patient and persistent in your search.

I know I just threw a lot at you. So it might be a lot to take in and remember. But I think finding and working with a critique partner is so crucial and so important for your success, that I want to make it easier for you.

So check out the resources I’ve put together to make your critique partnering the most productive it can be. You can access them in the Enchanted Library: Maps & Charts section of my website as a registered student.

If you want the lists of questions I mentioned, a cheat sheet breakdown of reader types and definitions, and a list of ideas for finding critique partners, sign up with a free student account at the Inky Bookwyrm Conservatory.

Courage, dear heart. And keep creating!

Categories: editing, manuscript stages, novel drafting, novel planning, writer mindset