MANUSCRIPTS

Critiques are critical to a writer’s growth. Below, we look at your manuscript’s journey into the hands of our faculty and peers.

NUTS & BOLTS

To be considered for a manuscript critique, email a sample of your novel (up to 15 double-spaced pages, plus up to 250-word synopsis) with your e-application. Manuscripts may be revised before hard copies are due for faculty. In general, the novel must be the same as that submitted in the application.

Our workshop manual offers craft-of-writing materials (articles and personalized worksheets) to enhance your submission to faculty. The manual also provides standard manuscript formatting and submission guidelines.

In June, you’ll mail hard copies of your manuscript for faculty. Starting in early July, all enrollees may download Group 1 manuscripts from our e-anthology; at the workshop, everyone observes the authors’ faculty critiques in masterclass clinics.

Cover Sheet For Critiques

Instead of a standard cover sheet (author’s name, manuscript title, etc.), you’ll use our workshop’s Tips-and-Guidelines Cover Sheet. We’ve designed this page to make faculty and peer feedback as useful as possible to you.

The Cover Sheet suggests what to look for in a manuscript, and how to offer criticism. It lists three categories in which critiquers may write comments: Strengths, Areas Needing Improvement, and Other (impromptu feedback). Critiquers are also asked to make notes within the manuscript. Space is allotted for authors to pose questions for faculty and peer critiquers—e.g., “On page three, does this behavior [or character] seem credible?”

PEER CRITIQUES

Writing peer critiques can help you as well as the manuscripts’ authors—especially with our instructional-clinic format. Read as many manuscripts as you wish, but commit to critiquing the first 15 pages of four or five Group 1 manuscripts. Selections are mainly your choice.

Then, bring these Group 1 critiques to our congenial open clinics, where you may compare your reviews with those of the pros. This format can develop your self-editing skills, and indicate how to apply them—invaluable in improving your own novel.

For example, in our clinic’s master class you might conclude, “Both editor and agent considered Writer A’s flashback intrusive. I totally glossed over that passage. Now I know why—it threw me out of the current story with more info than I needed. Hmmm, I’d better revisit my own flashbacks!

It’s always fortunate when a critique hits the mark, and/or ricochets to help multiple writers. Our workshop takes steps to increase that likelihood. Peers are asked to provide sensitive, conscientious feedback, giving each manuscript the same consideration they’d want—not only as a courtesy to colleagues, but to maximize their own learning. The more carefully you critique manuscripts, the more you benefit from our faculty reviews and discussions.

For more information about master classes, click here.
To read more about peer critiques, click here.

From the first fleeting notion through multiple revisions, novelists knead words.

Our workshop can sprinkle professional “yeast” to help you rise to the occasion!

FACULTY CRITIQUES

We’ll also take care to match you with faculty who are most interested in your type of story. This is possible (and practical) because we limit enrollment to a relatively small number of writers. Thus, we can serve each one—including you.

Like peer critiquers, the faculty fills in our Tips-and-Guidelines Cover Sheet for each manuscript submitted. Faculty are also asked to make brief notes within the manuscript. As a convenience to writers, our editor and agent check a box to indicate whether they’d like to see more of the manuscript (possibly pending revisions).

Length of Critiques

Faculty will mainly critique the first 10 pages—but if you’ve hooked these readers by then, they will review up to 15 manuscript pages.

Group 1 is face-to-face, masterclass critiques on 10 to 15 manuscript pages (plus up to 250-word synopsis) by editor, agent and faculty author. Faculty provide a checklist or bullet-point evaluation on the writer’s Cover Sheet, but may not add much additional written critique.

Group 2 is written critiques by editor, agent or faculty author on 10 to 15 manuscript pages (plus up to 250-word synopsis). These critiques include a checklist or bullet-point evaluation on the writer’s Cover Sheet, plus up to one page of typed feedback.

Group 3 is written critiques by our faculty author on five manuscript pages, plus brief synopsis or plot outline. These critiques include a checklist or bullet-point evaluation on the writer’s Cover Sheet, plus up to one page of typed feedback.

ALUMNI TIPS

• Pace yourself. You may not want to critique more than one manuscript per day. One or two per week may be ideal. Allow 60 minutes per manuscript, then review each critique a second time, on a different day. Cramming may result in a blur and poor critiquing.
  
  
• If you’re scheduled for a masterclass (in-person) critique, come prepared with questions about your manuscript. Be proactive—maximize your time with faculty!