How my critiques can help take your manuscript to the next level:

I designed my critique format with two goals in mind:

1. Help the author bring his or her manuscript up to publishable standards, and

2. Use the manuscript as a teaching tool to help the author improve his or her writing skills.

No writing class or book about writing is as valuable to a newer writer as a manuscript critique that provides honest feedback, thorough analysis, practical suggestions, and detailed guidance.

What will you get in a critique?

Thorough Analysis

My first step in the critique process will be to read your manuscript from first page to last in order to get an overview of the story and to begin forming my ideas about issues that need to be addressed. Then I’ll read it again, and this time, I’ll take copious notes. Depending on the nature of the story and the kinds of problems I’m seeing, I may read it a third time.

Why do I feel the need to read through your manuscript so many times before I even start putting together the critique? Because I don’t want to begin writing the critique until I have an understanding of how all of the story elements fit together. If I’m going to make substantive suggestions about your novel’s plot, I want to know how incorporating those suggestions will affect the entire story. If I’m going to suggest major structural changes to your nonfiction book, I’ll need to be intimately familiar with how all the pieces fit together.

Practical Suggestions

I’ll be making lots of suggestions about things you can do to bring your novel or nonfiction book up to publishable standards. This will include substantive guidance in clear, to-the-point text targeting every part of your writing effort. It will also include guidance about manuscript mechanics and format.

Practicality extends to the post-critique as well. I won’t just send you the critique and then abandon you. I’ll be available via email or phone to answer questions as you incorporate the critique into your rewrite. If you want me to take a look at a scene or chapter to give you feedback on how you’re doing, I’ll be glad to do that. If you’re struggling with a particular element in the rewrite, I’ll work further with you on that element until you’ve got it. When you’ve finished all the revisions, I’ll take another look at the manuscript. There’s no charge for the work-in-progress consultation or follow-up review.

Detailed Guidance

The critique of your manuscript will consist of two parts: a big-picture examination and a detailed analysis.

The first part will be laid out in a question-and-answer format. If you’ve written a novel, I’ll use this space to discuss plot, characters, scene development, background, viewpoint, and other major elements of the story. If you’ve written a nonfiction book, this section will cover elements such as introductory material, organization, effectiveness of anecdotes, narrative style, and reader engagement. I’ll devote as much page space as needed to thoroughly cover each element.

I’ll also cover the types of mechanical errors (punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, paragraph structure, etc.) that can have such a harmful effect on readability. This section will include a series of before-and-after examples to show you how to correct the errors and improve narrative flow.

The second part of the critique, which I refer to as the Detailed Analysis, will consist of dozens of numbered comments throughout the manuscript. This is where I’ll talk about specific scenes or passages that need work, and I’ll offer examples to illustrate points I’ve made in the big-picture examination. Here, too, you will find some before-and-after examples to help illustrate how the text could be improved.

The End Result

You will receive a critique that runs somewhere between thirty and sixty pages, depending on the nature, length, and needs of your manuscript. This incredible amount of information will serve as a guide for you during the rewrite of your novel or nonfiction book.

I also should point out that I’m not a literary autocrat. You may agree with me that a particular scene or story element needs to be strengthened, but you may have a different idea about how to do it. I’ll be glad to give you my thoughts about that. If I still feel strongly that my idea will work best, I’ll explain why. If I think your idea will work better than the one I had, I’ll say so. The only goal is to provide a guide that will help take your manuscript to the next level.