Everyone’s a critic

Miss Conduct

Responding to a friend’s unpublished novel, plus a wedding where spouses aren’t allowed.

August 28, 2011|By Robin Abrahams

A teacher friend of mine has written the first draft of a novel and asked me to give him notes. I want it to be my best effort – he’s a decent writer, and with some polishing, this could be a good young adult novel. What advice can you give me about approaching it as a project, as opposed to something I’d read for pleasure? I spend my days reading the tortured prose and florid poetry of the newly pubescent. What he has given me is a little beyond what I’m used to!

K.B. / Fort Worth, Texas

It sounds as though you’ve gotten the most important prep work done – figuring out what the project is and the kind of feedback your friend is looking for. Critiquing a friend’s writing is a dicey matter, and you can damage a relationship over a miscommunication. (Or at least I can. Here’s a tip: Do not praise a friend’s short story as “really clever satire” unless you have ascertained, indisputably, that the author intended it to be satire. You’re sure your friend means for this to be a YA novel, right?)

What is most valuable to a decent writer at the first-draft stage is an intelligent response. Your friend wants to know what goes on in the reader’s mind, to listen in on the conversation his reader has with his book. Here is my method for giving this kind of feedback, which you can tailor to your own reading, writing, and software preference: First, ask him for both a printout and an electronic copy in Microsoft Word. Then read straight through the paper version, using “track changes” to make comments throughout on the computer file. (Most of your comments, I assume, will be content-oriented, but this way you can also fix any typographical or grammatical errors that snag your attention.)

Your friend is not looking for a scholarly analysis – he just needs to know how an ordinary, intelligent editor, reader, bookseller would respond. What’s clear? What isn’t? Who are you rooting for? What images do different scenes bring to mind? Think of it as having a dialogue with the text or giving direction to an actor. And enjoy yourself! I’ve found this kind of conversational editing to be really fun and liberating after grading papers or helping students through the nitty-gritty of rewrites. I bet you will, too.