Eagle Bay Critiquing.

We’ve had some enquiries about how we Egobooers went about critiquing for the retreat so to answer your questions…

It can be difficult for the inexperienced critiquer to realise what is involved. There’s no doubt in my mind that critiquing is an art. Anyone can read a piece of writing, look at a painting or listen to a musical performance and say ‘I didn’t like it’ or ‘I loved it’. They are both quite valid comments in the context of personal reactions – but they are emotional responses, not a critique. A critique is a critical assessment of what you have experienced as a reader and that includes the good and the bad. By all means, if you didn’t enjoy a story you can say so but you must be able to say why – and this is when it becomes hard.

As far as the Egobooers go in terms of critiquing experience we're a mixed group. Two of us have attended Clarions (a great source of honed critiquing skills), one is an editor while the other two are less experienced. It didn’t matter. The range of experience in fact brought fresh approaches and different perspectives which added to the experience.

Some focussed more on the technicalities of language like grammar, structure and language usage; others on plot structure and coherency of ideas or characterisation. While we each brought something unique to our critiques, though, we all also brought a commonality of ideas. While I was sitting there, condemned to silent listening as my fellow Egobooers went through their comments, I was struck by how often the same issues came up. I had fifteen repeated points by the end of my session.

Despite our differences our critiques all followed a similar pattern – a short comment of what we liked most about the story followed first by what worked for the reader and then any areas that didn’t work with suggestions to be considered as to how this could be improved.

We found that while we hadn’t set out any specific criteria (although some of us did ask for particular aspects to be looked at) we all tended to comment on the usual important areas, those that make up the framework of a story of any kind - things like the opening, plot, point of view, writing style, character and characterisation, dialogue, setting and repetition and so on. If you go to any of the many excellent articles online or in books on writing you will find lists of what to look for when you are tackling a critique. They are a great source of detailed reminders of what you need to think about.

But that is the technical side. Beyond that there were certain basic precepts we all followed.

1. We were honest. This is not always easy to do when you are eviscerating someone’s darling in front of them but it is essential.

2. We were gentle. It is possible not to be brutal even if what you are saying is harsh.

3. We aimed at helping but not rewriting. The suggestions we made were just that – suggestions.

4. We made it clear that we respected the work we were critiquing. In every novel there were original ideas and great writing. Our aim was to help the writer improve on that.

5. We never criticised the person only the writing in its many aspects.


While these were not spelled out but came from our respect for each other I think they were an essential part of the success of the Eagle Bay retreat.

There is more to critiquing, of course, and I will look at some of those skills in another post.

How We Started

The house turned out to be an added incentive...

Perched in bushland on a hillside at Eagle Bay with a panoramic view of the Indian Ocean, it gave us a perfect vantage point to view migrating whales. We could hear the surf pounding below and watch native birds feed within touching distance. We were far enough away to escape everyday distractions and close enough for the drive to be an easy one. In all, a beautiful place to visit…

We were led there by a common interest – a need for space enough to talk about our novels without having to rein ourselves in out of fear of boring the pants off our friends.

We are members of the active and well attended Katharine Susannah Prichard Speculative Fiction Writers’ group, which still provides us with fantastic online opportunities for critiquing short stories and novel chapters. However, each of us has completed at least one novel and needed longer and more comprehensive critting sessions than the group could provide. We wanted to critique our novels in their entirety rather than as fragmented chapters over a matter of weeks. We also saw we had mutual compatibilities in terms of genres and interests, and a need for more intensive training. Furthermore, we were prepared to devote a great deal of time and effort to each other’s work – a grand total of 610,000 words – which we read closely and critiqued over four weeks prior the retreat.

After valuable feedback from the masters of retreat critiquing, Ripping Ozzie Reads we decided to give ourselves three days away. We wrote up our critiques beforehand and allocated three hours of critting time per novel. This enabled each critter to have a maximum of half an hour to have their say, while the author remained silent until the end. We finished each session with an hour-long discussion, which mostly became a brainstorming exercise where we mooted alternative plot trajectories and outcomes. Sometimes suggestions turned out to be not quite what the writer had in mind but, after consideration, became catalysts for the discovery of new ways of improving aspects of plotting and characterisation they had not thought about.

Our expertise is varied, which turned out to be a bonus rather than a problem. The more experienced critters helped train the less experienced ones, while the less experienced critters provided useful comments, not only as readers, but also as students practising their newly acquired skills. Even when differences of opinion did occur, we reminded ourselves that every critter’s comment is a valid reader response deserving, in the very least, to be listened to. This made for a friendly and supportive environment that enabled us to improve our writing and to critique thoroughly with respect and trust. Not once did we reach for the box of strategically placed tissues on the critting table.


With the day's critting over, we finished up with food, drink and movies. One would think that three vegetarians and two omnivores would complicate things, but our menus were unplanned. Kudos for the sushi, gourmet salads, beetroot chips, cheese selections and guinea figs. Kudos again for the valuable plotting lessons gleaned from the movies, made even more enjoyable with a good dash of Baileys.